Vegetarian transitioning to Veganism: Recipe Ideas anyone?

Nerdphiliac

Hello MFP!

I have been a vegetarian for the past 5 years and currently, I have been contemplating transitioning to a full vegan diet. This is a 100% ethically-driven decision that I have come to after researching the food industry for the last year or so. I am aware of the nutritional needs that need to fulfilled to maintain a well-balanced, sustainable diet and prepared to change my lifestyle to suit that demand.

I had already cut out milk (frequent user of soy products), but I have yet to completely erase butter, eggs, honey and other dairy products (ie yoghurt, cheese etc...) from my diet.
Would anyone have any suggestions for healthy, high-protein vegan recipes?

Thank you!!

Nerdphiliac

B u m p

sch1994

Firstly Well done.. Just the will power is amazing! Congrats..

I only have a few tips, I am not vegan myself but my older brother is, He used to eat allot of nuts and berries as healthy snacks, we would buy vegan butter and make him things like mash potato, with sweet potato or normal its nice and he likes it.... He would eat allot of bread at home to fill him up more too, He would also eat porridge for breakfast with soy or almond milk.

When he was at home we would buy him allot of Linda McCartney kind of things and make our normal recipes but substitute meat for the meat free Vegan Aternative, ( we would make him a seperate bowl)

Overall that was the main thing we would do was just find the Vegan friendly alternative to what we would make at home from scratch

I think he would miss Cheese allot though and we could never find a great substitute.

I hope that helps, Like I said as I'm not Vegan its the best I can remember!

MinMin97

Sprouted Grain Dehydrator Bread
Have you sprouted buckwheat before?
Soak hulled buckwheat overnight, then drain and leave in strainer to sprout at room temp. Rinse a several times a day (it will rinse out a lot of soluble fiber, this is normal). It will take a day or two to sprout (very quick in warm weather, slow in cold weather). When little "tails' emerge, about 1/4 inch or more, it's time to use them! If you don't make the recipe immediately, refrigerate (rinse daily).
Use a food processor with blade attachment:
2.5 C buckwheat sprouts
1.5C chopped veggies (mix of zucchini, tomato)
1C raw pine nuts (or raw sunflower seeds, or a mix of both)
1/2C flax meal (golden flax, if you have it)
1tsp unrefined salt
1/2t mexican chili powder
2tsp cumin powder
1T raw honey
juice of a lime
pinch of cayenne
1/4t garlic powder
1T EVOO
1/4C raw pumpkin seeds
optional 1T black sesame seeds

Process buckwheat, veggies and pine nuts. Transfer to a large bowl, and mix in the remaining ingredients. Spread thinly onto oiled texflex sheets. Crush out an entire head of garlic into a small bowl, and mix with 2T EVOO. Spread garlic/oil over the top of the bread dough. Dehydrate 6 hours on the low setting (to preserve the enzymes), then see if you can bend down the corner of the teflex and flip out the bread onto a dehydrator screen below, so the moist side of the bread can dehydrate. You can serve warm and soft, or dehydrate until crispy. The garlic mellows to a chewy, mellow, roasted taste.

Spread this bread with your favorite things, like avo, or a nut/seed spread. I like this one:

Raw Vegan Cream Cheese
I got my ingredients at Trader Joes.
Scant 3/4 C raw pine nuts,
Scant 3/4 C raw sunflower seeds,
6T fresh lemon juice,
1-2 cloves garlic
freshly ground black pepper,
3/4 t unrefined salt.
(The nuts and seeds should be soaked overnight before you use them for the recipe. Soaking them activates the enzymes and makes processing them easier, as they are less dense.) Place all into a blender and process until smooth.


**You'll probably want to save these recipes, because I don't know if you will find them anywhere? I have an out-of-print recipe book.

curlygirl513

I got lots of ideas from the blogs thisrawsomeveganlife.com and I hear good things about ohsheglows

There are used books available from chanda isa moskowitz which are awesome. Also, you can't go wrong with Ten Talents by Frank Hurd. It's been in print since the 70's and it is amazing to this day.

I purchased a mini food processor for desserts but this can be done in a blender. I got this from "thisrawsomelife" blog, so my thanks to Emily Von Euw

Freeze bananas and slice frozen bananas and stick them in a blender or food processor. Add water, (1/4 to 1/3 cup for 2 frozen bananas), and keep blending and pushing the banana chunks down to the blades until you have a creamy consistency like soft serve. you can put this in the freezer if you want a more firm ice cream.

You can add a spoonful of unsweetened cocoa and a dash of salt and it makes a wonderful chocolate ice cream. For 2 bananas start with a tablespoon and see how that works for you. Add more or use less to your liking.

If you want a chocolate sauce,
2-4 Tablespoons cocoa
2-4 Tablespoons coconut oil
2-4 Tablespoons of liquid sweetener of your choice, (honey, maple syrup, agave syrup,)
dash salt

Mix together and enjoy. Use for anything you like, drizzle over "ice cream", drizzle over cakes and cookies, dip fruit in it. Mmm, frozen, or slightly thawed or chilled bananas or berries...
a teaspoon of vanilla

Sorbets
I have done this with sweet melon and with mixed berries or strawberries.
Freeze chunks of peeled seeded melon.
I purchased bags of frozen strawberries and frozen mixed berries with no added sugar.

I put some chunks of the melon straight from the freezer in either a fruit processor or blender and whiz away, pushing down the fruit chunks as needed. Add a little bit of water, just a bit to aid in blending if you need to. You won't need much at all for melon.

I sometimes mix the melon with strawberries and I find I need to microwave them for a few seconds just to slightly soften them as they come out of the freezer hard as rocks. You can also let them thaw for some time on the counter till they just slightly soften. You can also use just the strawberries or berries alone or in combination. Just let the strawberries soften a bit.You may find you need to let the berries soften just a bit out of the freezer too. Maybe not with the berries.

Put them in the blender, add a bit of water to aid in blending, 1/4 to 1/3 cup. You can always add more water so start with less.
Whiz away, and stop and push down the fruit and restart as many times as it takes to get a smooth mixture like sorbet. Enjoy.

RhineDHP

A great way to get fun ideas for vegan cuisine is from Laura Miller. If you type in Raw.Vegan.Not Gross **edit -- IN YOUTUBE**, she has a whole bunch of cooking videos. Enjoy!

She also has a blog: http://sidesaddlekitchen.com/