My friend has cooked me several meals. I now have several dishes to return to him, and I’d like to make some food for him as well.
The dilemma: He’s vegan. I don’t have many vegan recipes. Can anyone help me out? Thanks!
Do you have something in mind? I make a very tasty Thai Green Curry that’s totally vegan. Also, FABULOUS!!
Recipe please. 
Pasta is easy to make vegan. You ought to be able to easily Google recipes for:
Marinara sauce
Olive oil & garlic sauce. Easy to add veggies to this one - bell pepper strips are especially good
Puttanesca (leave out the anchovies)
White wine/lemon sauce
Another idea - Polenta topped with Ratatouille. Again, easy enough to google a recipe for Ratatouille, and you can buy polenta in tubes if you don’t want to make it yourself (although it is very easy to make).
Pizza is another one that’s easy to do vegan. One of those pre-made crusts can be topped with just about anything. Leave off the cheese or use soy cheese.
I find that curries can be excellent vegan dishes. My girlfriend is observing Lent now, which for her means no butter, olive oil, dairy or meat of any kind. As I do most of the cooking, consequently I get competent at making different vegan dishes. Curries are pretty individual. My advice is to get a good Indian cookbook (I like anything by Madhur Jaffrey or Julie Sahni) and play around with their proportions for garam masala and curry powder.
The following recipe is from Cooks Illustrated, June issue, not sure which year. I’ve had great luck with it (as with all of their recipes), but it is very complicated and takes awhile. Basically, you’re browning the potatoes, cooking spices in an oily tomato paste, coating the veggies with the spiced tomato paste, and then stewing it all in coconut milk. Here goes:
Curry with Potatoes, Chickpeas, and Cauliflower.
(Recipe will follow as I posted by accident, and there’s no way I can type it all in 5 minutes)
Where was I? For amounts, play around with the ingredients, keeping in mind the goal is to coat the potatoes and cauliflower with the spiced paste.
Ingredients
2 TBSP, Sweet Curry Powder (any will do, or make your own)
1 1/2 TSP, Garam Masala (recipe will follow, or use your own)
1/4 Cup, Vegetable Oil (I like coconut or peanut, but canola works too)
2, medium yellow onions, fine chopped
12 ounces, red potatoes, scrubbed, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (works out to about two cups worth)
3, garlic cloves, minced
1, TBSP ginger, grated fine
1.5, Chiles, minced (use what you want, I use chinese tient tsin hot peppers. Wear gloves/be careful when mincing)
1, TBSP tomato paste
1/2, head of cauliflower, cut into 1 inch florets (works out to about 4 cups)
1, cup diced tomatoes. (pulsed into 1/4 inch pieces)
1 1/4, cup water
1, 15 ounce can chickpeas (drained/rinsed)
1/4 cup coconut milk or heavy cream (obviously, you’re using coconut milk)
Garam Masala
2, TSP Ground Coriander seed
1/2, TSP Ground Black Pepper
1/4, TSP Ground Black Cardamom
1/4, TSP Ground Cinnamon
Shake in container to combine. Seal tightly. Up to you whether you toast the whole spices in a dry skillet before you grind and combine.
Curry Recipe
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In a big skillet (I use a 5 quart skillet with 3 inch walls, but I’m a messy cook), brown potatoes and onions for 10 minutes or so over medium/high heat with oil. My notes of the recipe doesn’t say how much oil to add. You’re going to be using oil also to cook the spices, so split up the oil however you think will be sufficient to brown the potatoes/onions. You want the potatoes to be gold with brown edges and the onions to be caramel in color.
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Turn heat down to medium, and shove the potatoes and onions to the sides of the pan, forming a large empty space in the middle. In that space, combine the remainder of the oil, the garlic, ginger, chillies, and tomato paste. If you don’t think you have enough oil, use more. On the flip side, you don’t need to use all the oil if you don’t want to.
Fry that mixture until fragrant (~30 seconds or so) Then, add the garam masala and curry powder to the mixture and fry it for 60 seconds longer, enough to combine everything into a fragrant paste.
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Add the cauliflower to the center of the pan, and coat with the hot paste. Fry for around 2 minutes. Stir the potatoes and onions in so they get coated too. Once coated, shove everything to the sides of the pan.
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To the center, add the diced tomatoes, chickpeas, water, and salt to taste. Turn up heat to medium/high or high and “Deglaze” the pan.
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Once you’ve dissolved all the tasty bits from the pan, cover, reduce heat to medium and simmer until vegetables are tender, roughly 10-15 minutes.
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Add coconut milk. Stir, wait until coconut milk is warmed and infused with spices, 2 minutes or so.
Serve. I like naan with onion pickle and maybe raita.
Let me know how it turns out.
Choose veg of your liking - personally I’m a big fan of mushrooms so I’ll use a variety - portobello, shitaki, enocci, oyster, etc. Also broccoli, carrots, egg plant, onion or shallot, asparagus, etc. Add or subtract the things you like - I would avoid tomatoes.
Get some green curry paste - you can buy this at most large supermarkets or asian markets.
Saute the curry paste with some olive oil on medium heat - take care not to over heat the olive oil - it can flash, and also gets a funky taste/smell if cooked too hot. Add a can of coconut milk.
Begin to add the veg to this - start with the heavier things - broccoli, carrots, onion, asparagus. Simmer until almost done. Add the egg plant and mushrooms at the end to avoid sogginess.
Serve over quinoa with mango juice on the side.
For desert if you’re feeling crazy and digging the theme, you could go for something like Po’a - a vegan Tahitian style desert made with rice flour, coconut milk and fruit of your liking - it’s particularly good with papaya, mango, etc.
Another option is simmered pears - take 2 or 3 large pears and place in a deep pot with a small amount of water in the bottom (2 inches at most). Add a couple of cinnamon sticks. Simmer for a LOOOOONG time on very low heat - make sure to keep checking the water so your pot doesn’t go dry. An hour plus is fine.
When they’re done they melt in your mouth - very nice with some iced soy (like ice cream but obviously no milk products) if he enjoys that type of product. (Many vegans don’t actually care much for soy and choose to get their protein from other sources like the quinoa mentioned above).
Your recipe sounds yummy, but be careful with these last additions.
Naan is typically made with milk, eggs, yogurt, yeast and butter which are all vegan no-nos and raita is basically yogurt with additions which is also a no-go.
You could substitute pita bread for the naan if you like to have something to scoop with - vegan pitas are all over the place. For the raita…well you could try a soy based yogurt but they’re a bit gross. Maybe skip it and just dice up cucumber, carrot, etc to add to the curry. Nuts, dates and raisins are also a nice addition. Or craisens if you like that sort of thing.
You’re absolutely right of course. I did not remember that naan was made with milk and eggs, it’s been awhile since I’ve made dosas, and the main ingredient in raita just slipped my mind. I usually have curries and dals with pita bread from our local MidEastern market, but I wouldn’t have thought to check the bread ingredients for eggs. I’m not vegan and I’m not sure if my girlfriend’s dietary restrictions preclude bread made with eggs; I’ll have to ask.
The yeast comment is interesting. I don’t want to threadshi*, but I wasn’t aware that vegans avoided yeast as well. It makes perfect sense after thinking about it, but if that’s so, how do vegans drink alcohol? Or do they just abstain entirely? If fungi are included, would mushrooms count then?
Thanks for the information and I am looking forward to trying out your green curry recipe.
There are a number of vegan blogs that have really great recipes, and one of my favourites is Vegan Dad, from which I got the recipe for “Chicken” Pot Pie. I skip the crust ('cause I’m lazy) and make it as a stew, served with either dumplings or biscuits. Seitan is great in it, but chickpeas are really good, too, if you don’t want to have to find seitan. For what it’s worth, this is one of only three “10” ratings my son has given out in terms of supper.
Another option is African Pineapple Peanut Stew, from one of the Moosewood cookbooks. While the recipe calls for collards or kale, I substitute spinach, and it’s perfect served over brown rice.
One of my easiest, and yet surprisingly tasty, vegan meals is also really fast because I cheat. Take a tin of drained, rinsed black beans, and combine in a pot with a jar of good salsa. Heat and blend with a hand blender until relatively smooth. Serve topped with diced avocado, cilantro and vegan sour cream. Crushed tortilla chips sprinkled on top are also fantastic.
Website for authors of some great vegan cookbooks.
Honestly, it depends on the vegan. Some avoid yeast - some have no problem with it; however, if you’re hosting someone that you like I always figure it’s best to err on the side of caution. Honestly, if I were serving a vegan and I wasn’t totally sure of their restrictions I would probably just avoid most bread products - even pita. Some people are particular that they only consume items from a vegan facility and most bakeries don’t fit the bill.
Another thing that many people don’t think about is that margarine isn’t vegan as it contains whey (a milk solid). You can get olive oil based spreads instead, but they’re super expensive.
Finally, if you’re in a pinch for dessert, go for Oreos (but not those with double stuff) - they’re vegan.
Thanks guys!! I used your curry/coconut milk idea and ended up making a mango curry dish that I’m kind of sad to have to give away. But I may try some of those other recipes, too, if he makes me food again (and he’s done it three times in the last month, so he very well may). And alice_in_wonderland, I didn’t know Oreos were vegan! How come regular ones are but double stuff ones aren’t?