Vegan Wild Rice Corn Chowder

My husband makes this really amazing Wild Rice Chowder that

used to have meat in it and we were talking one night about how we could make it Vegan and I'm proud to say that we found a way. This incredibly delicious recipe comes to you from our house to yours. 

To make it creamy we add coconut cream. You would think this would make it taste coconutty, but it really doesn't. You can't even taste the coconut and it does a great job of making it seem just as creamy as if you added regular cream. Also, to add a bit of a meaty texture we add Shitake mushrooms chopped up into small bits. The end result is a creamy and flavorful soup that is great any time of year. The recipe serves about 6 people or you have plenty for leftovers so cut in half or smaller if you just want enough for one meal. 

Ingredients:

1 Head of Cauliflower chopped into bite size pieces

4 Medium to Large Sized Carrots

1 Can of corn or a small bag of frozen corn

1 4 oz package of shiitake mushrooms

1 can of coconut cream

1 bushel of Kale

1-2 cups wild rice

4-6 cups vegetable broth

1 large yellow onion

Salt, Pepper, Thyme, Garlic, Smoked Paprika, Onion Powder, Chili Powder and any Other Spices to taste. 
Coconut Aminos or Gluten Free Tamari
Liquid Smoke
1/2 cup Wine (Optional)
1-2 Yukon Potatoes chopped (optional)
1 Red Pepper Chopped (Optional)

Directions:

Cook wild rice to specifications on the package

Pour vegetable broth into a large soup pan or crockpot

Chop onions and saute until soft in a large frying pan add to broth

Chop carrots and saute until soft in frying pan, add to broth

Chop shiitake mushrooms into small pieces, saute in 1 Tbsp coconut aminos or tamari, add a few drops of liquid smoke, and saute until soft and add to broth

Chop cauliflower into small bite size pieces, saute until soft, add to broth

Rip kale into small pieces removing the stems and add to broth

Add can of corn to broth

Add wild rice and coconut cream to broth. 

Add spices to broth to taste

Let simmer for 30 minutes

Serve Hot. We sometimes serve this with toast or Schar brand french loaf toasted in the oven. 

If using optional ingredients: Saute peppers until soft and add to broth, cook the potatoes before adding to the soup, if you decide to use wine, you will want to add it to the mushrooms or one of the other vegetables while sauteing to cook off the alcohol before adding it to the soup. This just adds a different flavor profile. 

Vegan Broccoli Salad

Have you ever tried that broccoli salad that they have at holiday

gatherings or potlucks? It usually has a mayonnaise based creamy dressing and if I remember correctly, it also has bacon in it. I thought it would be interesting when I saw a vegan recipe for this kind of salad online, so I tried it out. It was really easy to make. the most complicated part of it was that in order to make the dressing you had to soak cashews for 2 hours and then blend them with the remainder of the dressing ingredients. I had heard of using cashews before for sauces, but this was the first time I had tried it. I had purchased raw cashews for this purpose a while back and figured why not try it out. 

The dressing turned out really creamy and did have a nutty flavor, but that almost made it taste even more like the original salad. I would suggest this Vegan Broccoli Salad for holiday gatherings and potlucks with friends and family. My husband, who is not a vegan enjoyed this salad and felt that it had a good amount of flavor and he's the kind of person that tries to add spice to everything. 

You could also add apples to this salad to make it more of a waldorf type salad. It was very tasty and easy and totally worth making again sometime. 

Hope you enjoyed reading! See ya next time. 

Vegan Quinoa Stuffed Squash

This is a wonderfully flavorful Thanksgiving and fall treat. This Vegan Quinoa Stuffed Squash wasn't difficult to make, but it did take about an hour to cook everything. The recipe called for walnuts, but we didn't have any so we used cashews which I think tasted just as good. My husband and I have been enjoying trying these new vegan recipes, and I have been educating my husband on why I chose to be vegan and why I think it's important for the world to eventually trend this way. If you are curious about some of the health benefits or benefits to the environment to go vegan, check out the documentary called "What the Health?" and Vegucated on Netflix. They do a great job of explaining the health benefits and showing scientific evidence to prove what they are talking about. I can't think of a better way to spread the word.

I would suggest this acorn squash is a delicious main dish for any holiday meal or just as a weeknight dish. Please enjoy and I hope that these blogs have given you some ideas to eat a plant-based diet. 

3 Brands of Vegan Mac and Cheese

Who doesn't love Mac and Cheese? I know I do. It's such a wonderful comfort food that delights our senses and is great for a quick and easy meal when you are either on your own or don't feel like making a big messy cooking circus. I recently discovered some delicious Mac and Cheese brands found at varying grocery stores that are actually pretty good. 

Vegan Mac and Cheese Brand #1 

(Found on Amazon.com or Whole Foods)

Annie's Organic Vegan Shell Pasta and Creamy Sauce. The sauce is made out of pumpkin and sweet potato so the sauce is on the sweeter side, but if you add some veggie dogs, or some peas, carrots, or corn, I don't think you'd be able to really tell the difference between this stuff and the famous and popular kraft brand. I always add ketchup and pepper to my mac and cheese and have enjoyed this on all the brands I have tried thus far. The shells take a little longer to cook than most pastas for some reason, but the texture is worth the wait. This is a very flavorful vegan option. Annie's also does a gluten free version with macaroni noodles, but it uses the same sauce, and it is just as good as the gluten version in my opinion and takes a shorter time to cook. Similar to it's Kraft brother, this brand uses a packet of dry powder for their cheese sauce that you add vegan butter and dairy free milk to. 

Vegan Mac and Cheese Brand #2. 

(Found online at Amazon.com, at Byerlys,  and at Whole Foods)

Daiya brand Cheezy Mac is probably my favorite of the three. This one comes with the sauce already made in the packet so it's already saucy and just needs to go on the pasta once it's done and it also has a surprisingly cheese like flavor and it would be very hard to tell if serving to a family, that it is dairy free and gluten free. It's a spectacular find and can be found at multiple grocery stores as well as online. 

Vegan Mac and Cheese Brand #3. 
(Found online at Amazon.com and Kowalski's)

This brand, although I don't have a photo of it is Namaste's Macoroni and Cheez Dinner. I do enjoy this brand as well, however my husband and I find that you really need to add something to it because it doesn't have a lot of it's own flavor. So adding some veggies or veggie dogs to this one is a must. I added my usual ketchup and pepper and that was enough for me, but I know the whole world won't share my love for ketchup and pepper on mac and cheese. :)

I hope you enjoyed my review of these 3 brands of Mac and Cheese and I hope they helped you decide whether you want to try them as well. A few more bucks than kraft, but worth it for a comforting vegan treat for the whole family to enjoy! 

Vegan Cauliflower Tacos with Chipotle Cream

I feel like the title of this recipe sounds all fancy and people will be intimidated by the fancy name, but it was really quite simple. The hardest part was finding the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and that was only because we started at Trader Joes which has a more limited selection of items. 

These Vegan Cauliflower Tacos were seriously mouth watering. I am not a "burn my mouth" spice lover, but I gobbled up every last spicy bite because the flavor was just to die for. 

My husband loves spice so he added some extra spicy habanero sauce at the end. But, here is what we did differently, and I woudn't recommend it if you can't handle a good amount of spice. When making the Chipotle Cream Sauce, I added 3-4 peppers from the can, but the suggestion was only to use 1. I think this is why the dish was a bit spicier than it was supposed to be. Also, to make it vegan, the suggestion was to use vegan mayonnaise instead of yogurt, so that is what I did, and the sauce was not only easy to make as long as you have a blender or a food processor, but it was seriously delicious. 

Normally, my husband feels the need to add meat to the vegan dishes that I prepare, but he felt there was enough flavor in this meal that he didn't need to. 

So, I just want to touch on how simple and easy this meal was. First you cut up the cauliflower into pieces and then you throw them on a baking sheet with parchment paper, drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and then cut up 2 of the peppers from the can along with some of the sauce and then stir up the cauliflower until it's covered and cook it for 25 minutes. Then you throw together the sauce which takes 5 minutes or less and you throw everything else on the table and voila you have a meal! So don't be intimidated by the fancy name, these are easy and delicious!