plant based dinner

Nacho Cheeze Fries… with a secret ingredient | Vegan + GF

September 6, 2018 By julia

Cheezy Poutine? Potato Nachos? Secretly Nutritious Cheese Fries? I DID NOT KNOW what to call this masterpiece. But, I think Nacho Cheeze Fries says it all, ya?

It’s nachos, but with fries.

It’s cheezy, but it’s a special cheeze sauce.

It’s mega nutrient-dense with the hidden ingredient of… red lentils!!!!

Red lentils are nutritional powerhouses, plus they have the magic ability to morph into a creamy sauce. In other words, they deserve to be the star secret ingredient to most things, especially this super delish, comfort-food kinda meal.

If you’re looking for a sneaky way to pump more plant protein into your kids (and yourself), look no further.

This is a good one for a back to school week dinner in 30 minutes.

Serve it up with a side salad, or integrate the salad into the meal by wrapping each cheezy fry in a romaine leaf (my go-to lazy dinner).

You can get creative with your toppings too. I used smoked tofu (found at most grocery stores), for some smokiness and ‘meatiness’, and green onion to keep it fresh. Go for it though! Here’s some more ideas for toppers:

corn
beans
edamame
red pepper
artichokes
sautéed mushrooms
caramelized onions
veggie ground
cashew sour cream
pulled jackfruit

What ever you do, please show me by tagging @hookedonplants on instagram. I love seeing your recipes!

Nacho Cheeze Fries with a secret ingredient

Save Print

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

45 mins

Satisfying in flavour and comfort, with secretly hidden nutrition! These nacho cheeze fries are a fun switch up to the typical nacho platter, with red lentil cheese sauce stealing the show. (Prep time doesn't include the optional lentil soaking)

Author: Jules

Recipe type: dinner, lunch, snack

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Fries:
4 russet potatoes OR 2 large sweet potatoes, rinsed, scrubbed and dried, then sliced in ¼ inch thick fry shape
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp avocado or coconut oil
½ tsp sea salt or Himalayan salt
Toppings:
½ block smoked tofu, diced
2 green onions, diced
1 jalepeno pepper, sliced in thin rounds
Salsa of choice for the side
Red Lentil Cheese Sauce:
1 cup red lentils (soaked a few hours if possible, then rinsed, for best nutrition and digestion)
1½ cup water or veggie stalk
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
¼ tsp salt
½ cup nutritional yeast
¼ cup soy milk, unsweetened, unflavoured
**optional: ¼ cup vegan mayo for extra creaminess

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 425°F
Mix the chopped potatoes with the oil and spices (except the salt!) in a bowl until evenly coated. Spread them out on a parchment-covered (or reusable baking sheet-covered) baking pan so they aren't touching each other!
Bake for 30-40 minutes, on the middle rack, flipping the fries over half way through.
Season with salt when they're done.
Meanwhile, cook the lentils: Add the lentils to the pot with 1½ cups liquid, bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes (15 minutes if they weren't pre-soaked)
Make the Red Lentil Cheeze Sauce: add the cooked lentils, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, nutritional yeast, mayo (if using), and soy milk to your blender and blend until smooth. Once blended, mix in the smoked tofu chunks.
Layer it up to serve! Fries first, then cheeze sauce, then green onion and jalepeno. Enjoy!

Want more?

This week was a round up of must-see documentaries!

BBQ’d Cheesy Sweet Potato Pierogies | Vegan

August 17, 2018 By julia

Little packages of goodness! Yup, Cheesy Sweet Potato Pierogies in all their glory, and completely veganized.

Top it all off with some Tofutti or cashew sour cream and caramelized onions to impress any fantastic Polish grandma in your life.

This one’s fun to make with kids, because I’ll admit, it takes some steps. Easy steps, yes, but they just take a bit of love and time to go through. So, throw on that cute apron, crank up the tunes and call your little buddy up to join the pierogi party (thanks Ava!)

This recipe makes 40 incredibly satisfying pierogies (8 servings-worth), so you can boil & freeze them, and say goodbye to those last minute weeknight dinner freak outs in the near future.

Hello there you chewy, comforting, tasty parcels of love.

This is comfort food to the max, and pretty much making art in your kitchen. Have fun;)

Cheesy Sweet Potato Pierogies | Vegan

Save Print

Prep time

1 hour 15 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

1 hour 45 mins

A comforting, flavourful favourite, veganized! Filled with sweet potatoes and cashew cheese, and topped off with caramelized onions and cashew sour cream. *Prep time doesn't include the overnight soaking time for the cashews!

Author: Jules

Recipe type: pierogies, dinner, comfort food

Serves: 40 pierogies

Ingredients

Dough:
3 cups all purspose flour
½ tsp salt
⅓ cup coconut oil, melted
¾ cup - 1 cup water
Sweet Potato Filling:
1 large sweet potato, chopped
½ tsp smoked paprika
⅛ tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
Cashew Cheese:
1 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours (or overnight), drained and rinsed (**** If making cashew sour cream, soak 2 cups of cashews)
¼ cup nutritional yeast
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
⅛ cup water (more if needed for blending)
Extras:
½ cup chives, minced
1 large onion (red or sweet), sliced thinly
Cashew Sour Cream

Instructions

Make the dough: in your electric mixer, or a large bowl, stir together flour, salt and coconut oil. Then add in water a little bit at a time until a ball forms. If too dry, add more water, if too wet, add more flour.
Knead the dough for 4 minutes on a floured countertop, then wrap it in sarran wrap and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Now it's time to make the two fillings.
Make the sweet potato filling, steam the sweet potato for 8 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, then mash in the rest of the filling ingredients until they're evenly distributed and the sweet potato is smooth.
Make the cashew cheese, blend all cashew cheese ingredients together in your food processor until smooth.
Roll out the dough on a large floured counter until it's 2-3mm thick. Using a mason jar lid, press as many circles in the dough as possible to create the pierogi circles. Pull up the in between extra dough, roll it out again and make more circles. Repeat until all dough is used up.
Fill em' up! Use an ice cream scooper to place a ball with half sweet potato filling and half cheese filling onto each pierogi circle (just off center). Wet the edge of one half of the pierogi, and fold the other half over the filling to the wetted edge. Press the edges together with a fork to form a half crescent pierogi shape.
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Place about 10 pierogies in to the boiling water at a time (making sure they don't stick to the bottom) and let boil 7 minutes. Set aside in a strainer. Repeat until all are boiled.
Meanwhile, sauté onions: heat a pan to medium heat, add onions, let cook for 2 minutes, deglaze with balsamic vinegar. Let sauté for 8 minutes, adding more balsamic if they're sticking.
Option 1: BBQ! Set BBQ to 400° and bake pierogies on a cookie sheet with parchment or a reusable parchment sheet for 10 minutes, flipping once.
Option 2: Fry! Bring a pan to medium heat, use a tsp of coconut oil, then place the pierogies into the pan for 3 minutes a side.
Option 3: Freeze! Let pierogies cool in a single layer on a baking sheet in the fridge or freezer. Then place in a reusable ziplock and freeze for up to 6 months (if you don't eat them before that).
Serve them up with this Cashew Sour Cream, frech chives, and sautéed onions! With a side of greens (I steamed broccoli, and mixed it with tamari and nooch, YUM).

Want more?

This week is all about the incredible innovators in the vegan seafood realm!

Caramelized Onion Sage Cream BBQ Pasta

July 12, 2018 By julia

Lucky for you, you’ve found yourself on a page with the secret to my new favourite sauce…all mixed up with the pasta that tells me ‘summer is on, baby’! This creamy vegan pasta could easily become a staple for those summery patio days.

Serve it up family style. Picture this… an outdoor picnic with a big bowl o’ pasta, a salad bowl packed with greens drizzled with this flavourful oil-free dressing, and a bowl of smokey vegan parm…now all that’s missing is funky tunes and fruity popsicles.

Caramelized onions give anything a deeper, sultry taste. Double or triple the caramelized onions I call for in this recipe, just so your fridge can be a good friend by having it on hand for your next savoury meal.

The BBQ’d veggies give this pasta a smokey flavour, and keep the house a little cooler than the oven would on a hot summery day.

And fresh sage… the ingredient that makes any dish seem more professional that it really is. Take a simple meal, sage it up, and voila: Top Chef material. Sage is so easy to grow outside or on a window sill (unlike basil, which somehow likes to wither away anytime I try to give it a good life…)

Benefits:

Zucchini has a good dose of antioxidants to help prevent disease, vitamin C to boost your immunity and potassium to help balance electrolytes and blood pressure.
Sage is commonly used for digestive issues, like bloating, gas, diarrhea and stomach pain. Plus, it’s fantastic for depression, memory loss and the prevention of Alzheimers
Onions contain sulfur, which is needed for the synthesis of the antioxidant glutathione, plus it helps strengthen hair and nails.

Caramelized Onion Sage Cream BBQ Pasta

Save Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

40 mins

A simple dinner packed with nutrients. A go-to weeknight scramble recipe. Make lots of it, because the leftovers taste better by the day!

Author: Jules

Recipe type: pasta, dinner, bbq

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

1 package of brown rice pasta (or any other pasta with just 2 ingredients...like quinoa + water)
3-4 sweet onions, de-skinned, halved, then sliced in ⅛ inch pieces
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 zucchinis, halved lengthwise
2 red peppers, de-stemmed, halved lengthwise
3 portobello mushrooms (crimini or white work, too)
1 tbsp coconut oil
Salt + Pepper
Vegan sausage of choice (I used Gusta)
Sage Cream Sauce:
½ cup cashews, pre-soaked overnight or for 10 minutes in hot water
½ cup fresh sage
2 tbsp miso paste
¾ cup caramelized onions, with a few tablespoons of the liquid

Instructions

Caramelize onions: heat large pot to medium, then add onions. Let brown a few minutes, then add ¼ cup water. Turn down the heat, add the garlic and let simmer for 30 minutes, lid on. Stir every 10 minutes or so to make sure they're not burning. If they're sticking just add a bit more water.
Heat the BBQ to 400°F.
Prep the veggies by adding the coconut oil to your hands and massaging the oil all over each piece of veg and place on the grill. Twist some salt and pepper on them, and let cook for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add a dash of salt and pour in the pasta. Cook according to time on the package.
Flip the BBQ'd veggies, and salt + pepper the other side. Let cook another 10 minutes.
Throw the sausages on the BBQ. Cook for 8 minutes, rotating every couple of minutes.
Strain the pasta and pour the pasta back into the pot.
Make the sauce: add all sauce ingredients to your blender, and blend until smooth.

Want more?

This week was all about manipulating your genetics with diet!

15-Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta

May 3, 2018 By julia

The magic of Avo is at it again. Avocado pasta is the answer to your dinner woes.

Whether you’re vegan or not, this pasta is a super easy weekday dinner to fall back on and it’s packed with a ton of nutrients and flavour…all in under 10 minutes. Serve it up with a salad and you’ve got yourself a super satisfying, delicious dinner staple.

If you’re making the switch, it’s all about figuring out your new staples as a new vegan.

Think about it. How many different types of dinners do you make in a month? I’m guessing it’s probably just a handful of go-to recipes you have in your repertoire that you cycle through (nothin’ wrong with that!). Turning veg just means veganizing these go-to’s, or finding a handful of vegan dinner options you love, then creating a new recipe cycle. The longevity of this lifestyle relies on simplicity (and tastiness, of course), and that’s where recipes like this avocado pasta shine.

Not only is the past simple, but it’s such a crowd pleaser. It’s creaminess without the heaviness of your typical creamy pasta.

Kids will gobble this stuff up too, so if your tasters are little munchkins, then definitely give this one a try!

I get overly excited every time I use the spirilizer, like a kid in a candy shop. You get so much ‘spaghetti’ out of just one yam (or any other veggie you choose to spirilize, like yicama, carrot, beet, or zucchini).

Benefits:

Yams are packed with vitamin C to boost your immunity and aid in healing your wounds.
Avocados are packed with monounsaturated fats, minimizing joint pain and arthritis, hydrating your skin and strengthening your hair.
Garlic is an antibiotic and anti-fungal. The sulfur compounds will help keep your blood pressure in tact. Adding lemon to the crushed garlic enhances the sulfur compound allicin, so this sauce is a perfecto comination-o!

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave

10-Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta

Save Print

Prep time

3 mins

Cook time

12 mins

Total time

15 mins

This is a go-to staple dinner recipe! It takes 10 minutes and curbs that creamy, comfort-food craving.

Author: Jules

Recipe type: pasta, easy dinner, 15 minute dinner, lunch idea

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

1-2 yams, spiralized or 1 package spaghetti of choice (I like brown rice pasta)
2 ripe avocados
2-3 cloves garlic
¼ cup nutritional yeast
Lemon zest from 2 lemons (do this before you juice the lemons)
Juice of 2 lemons
1 red pepper, diced
½ cup black beans, rinsed

Instructions

If using pasta instead of yams, boil water in a large pot and cook pasta according to directions
Meanwhile make the sauce: add avocado, lemon juice, garlic, nutritional yeast to food processor and blend until smooth.
Strain pasta and pour it back into the large pot. Add the sauce and mix into pasta thouroughly
Top it off with beans, red pepper, lemon zest and this vegan parm!

Notes

-Use half spaghetti, half spiralized yam
-Use any other vegetable you like to spiralize

Want more?

Next Level Vegan Lasagna with Creamy Tofu Ricotta

January 11, 2018 By julia

Plant-based comfort food to the max. Vegan Lasagna. Or is it lasagne? We’ll stick with the first one.

Lasagna. This word usually means the cheesiest, most tomato-y pasta bake you’ll ever have.

Well, this lasagna still brings that, without the cheese.

Your taste buds and comfort-feels will be completely satisfied while the tofu ricotta and roasted garlic hummus come together to create the most decadent party-in-your-mouth lasagna experience ever.

This vegan lasagna is a good dish to serve up after the holiday indulgence. Your palate is probably still craving that comforting meal, but your brain and bod are begging for that lighter, get-back-to-the-greens kind of meal. Ya know what I mean?

Not to mention there’s just something special about diving your fork into the layered masterpiece we know and love as lasagna.

All that’s in between you and this yumminess is…

Mix

Sauté

Layer

Bake.

Easy it up by using store-bought hummus and tomato pasta sauce.

Or, go for it and make your own roasted garlic hummus from this recipe (double it so you have extra, because what’s a fridge without a tub of hummus anyway…)!

Benefits:

–Brown rice pasta is the pasta for you if you’re sensitive to gluten at all. Pasta isn’t something to be afraid of! YES, avoid white pasta (which is completely stripped of it’s nutrients, vitamins, and fibre), but the other options like quinoa pasta, sprouted whole grain pasta, spelt pasta etc… are all great options!

–Miso Paste is fermented soy that gives the dish a salty, umami taste. It also is packed with beneficial probiotics to help combat digestive issues by balancing out your gut micro flora. Plus it takes this vegan lasagna to the next level.

–Spinach (lots of it) is pop eye’s fave. I mean common’ what’s not to love. It’s packed with plant protein, chlorophyll, and when it’s cooked you’ll absorb higher levels of vitamins A and E, protein, fibre, zinc, thiamin, calcium, and iron!

Next Level Vegan Lasagna + Creamy Tofu Ricotta

Save Print

Prep time

25 mins

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

1 hour 5 mins

Cheezy and creamy tofu ricotta make this lasagne a plant-based comfort food staple, and one that won't bust your belt!

Author: Jules

Recipe type: lasagna, pasta, dinner, lunch

Cuisine: Italian

Serves: 10

Ingredients

1 package brown rice lasagna pasta
2 cups (one large jar) tomato basil marinara sauce
6 large cremini mushrooms, chopped
1 large sweet onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp vegetable bouillon powder
2 small or 1 large zucchini, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
2-3 cups packed spinach, chopped
½ cup nutritional yeast

Tofu Ricotta:

1 package firm tofu, pressed 15 minutes (or put in 110°F dehydrator for 1 hour)
¾ cup roasted garlic hummus (store bought, or make this recipe)
7 large leaves of basil, chopped
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp miso paste
¾ cup nutritional yeast

Instructions

Make the hummus (or used store-bought).
Pre-heat oven to 400°F. While you're at it, press your tofu if you haven't already (I use a plate, then wrap the tofu in a tea towel, then stack books or a heavy bread board on top for 10 minutes at least)
Heat a pan to medium. Add the onions and mushrooms until the pan browns, then de-caramelize the pan with a bit of water. Add the garlic, vegetable bouillon, and zucchini. Let sauté a few minutes (add a splash of water if it's sticking). Add the peas and spinach. Let sauté a few more minutes until the spinach is cooked down.
Bring a pot of water to a boil, and cook the pasta noodles 2 minutes less than recommended on the package (this helps them stay in tact for layering). Rinse immediately with cold water to prevent them from sticking.
Meanwhile, make the tofu ricotta! Crumble the pressed tofu into a bowl with all the other tofu ricotta ingredients. Mix well to combine. Steal a taste. It's delicious.
In a 12 x 8 inch baking dish, assemble the lasagna: First a thin layer of tomato sauce, Second a layer of ⅓ of the noodles, Third, a layer of ½ the ricotta, Fourth a layer of ½ the sautéed veggies, and again, tomato sauce, ⅓ of the noodles, the rest of the ricotta, the rest of the veggies. Finish it off with the last of the noodles, rest of the tomato sauce, and a generous sprinkle of nutritional yeast.
Cover with tin foil and bake for 40 minutes.
Take tinfoil off and bake for 5 more minutes.
Remove and serve. Will keep for up to 5 days in the fridge.