The possibilities are as unlimited as your imagination. There are a few basic rules of vegan cooking:

1. when frying or needing a source of fat, olive oil is a great bet.
2. always include generous amounts of a filling protein source of two (e.g. beans, lentils, nuts, TVP, tofu, gluten, tempeh)
3. cook beans (soaked overnight) and lentils well if dried, until soft. They act as a handy thickener if cooked/mashed beyond this. Same goes for tinned beans and pulses.
4. make it creamy and/or rich and tasty, with such things as: cheezy sauces, coconut, ground-up nuts, miso, tamari, spices, peanut butter, chestnut puree, apple juice.
5. include a distinctive ingredient or two such as: chestnuts, sun-dried tomatoes, leeks, artichoke hearts, fresh herbs, roasted nuts/seeds
6. have fun being inventive!

Anita's Sweet Potatoes and Beans

This dish sounds lovely and is the invention of cookery trainer and chef Anita de la Riviere of Veggie Lakeland Living in Cumbria, where you can stay and sample her delights.

• 750g sweet potato (2)
• 250g shallots
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 4 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 1 tin Cannellini beans
• 50g walnuts (or pecans or cashews, which are more popular with kids)
• 1 dsp red pepper paste or similar rich red sauce, such as tomato puree
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1-2 tsp dried mint
• Chop the shallots into fairly small pieces and start to fry in 1 tbsp sunflower oil.
• Add the crushed cloves of garlic when the onions are beginning to brown
• Add the sweet potato that’s been cut into inch squares
• Add the walnuts chopped
• Add the tin of beans
• In the stock from the beans and the chilli sauce loosen down the red pepper paste so it will mix in well.
• Add it to the pan, with the salt and pepper.
• Leave to simmer slowly with a lid on
• Stir. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking.

When you are ready to dish up sprinkle the top with mint, lightly stir and tip into the serving dish Garnish with a sprinkle of chopped walnuts and parsley.

This is very tasty with brown rice. Squeeze the juice of ½ lemon over steamed broccoli and cauliflower and a drizzle of olive oil too.

Yummmmie yums

PETA's macaroni cheese

Based on a PETA Compassionate Guide to Living recipe with a bit of jigging to get the quantities right by Sarah on the VegFamiliesSE list, resulting in a tried and tested version:

• ingredients:
  • 1 kg macaroni
  • 125g margarine
  • 100g flour
  • 400ml + water (keep adding until right consistency...I used\about 500ml)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp soy sauce / tamari
  • 1.5 tsp garlic powder
  • pinch tumeric
  • 50 ml oil
  • 75g nutritional yeast flakes
  • 125g broccoli florets steamed
  • 40g diced green chillies (omit for kids)
• method:
  • Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Cook pasta and set aside
  • In pan, melt marg, whisk in flour until smooth and starts to bubble
  • Stir in boiling water, salt, soya sauce, garlic & tumeric, beat well
  • Cook until sauce thickens & bubbles
  • Whip in the oil and yeast flakes
  • Mix in pasta, chilli & broccoli
  • Turn into a caserole dish and spinkle with paprika
  • Cook for 25mins
  • Grill for few mins until cheese becomes stretchy and crispy.

Enjoy! Serves 6

veggie mince

• ingredients: olive oil, chopped onions, tin of tomatoes in juice, garlic, veg stock or miso, chopped apple or apple juice, hot water, soya milk, herbs and pepper (no salt as some of other ingredients are salty), and your mince base, which consists of one or more of: veggie mince, dry green/puy/red lentils and a lesser amount of tinned other beans/pulses. My favourite is half mince half lentils.
• soften onions in olive oil, add garlic and spices for a few minutes before adding everything else. Add liquid ingredients slowly as required to get a slushy but not watery consistency - mince and lentils will slowly absorb about 1.5 times their volume in water. Do not allow to stick or dry out.

veggie chilli

• ingredients: as above but add as many as possible of: tinned kidney beans, chilli, coriander (powder & leaves), smoked paprika (or BBQ sauce), garam massala, cumin, ginger, lemon juice, soya cream, sweetcorn
• serve with salad, guacamole and tacos/tortillas/rice

moussaka

• ingredients: a cheesy sauce, veggie mince (above), sliced aubergines/courgettes
• bake mince in moderate oven in deep oven dish topped with aubergines (pre-cooked if thickly sliced) & courgettes with cheesy sauce on top

shepherd's pie


• ingredients: mashed potato (made creamy with any of: mashed avocado, oil, marg, soya cream, soya milk), veggie mince (above)
• bake potato on top of mince in deep oven dish in moderate oven until slightly browned and bubbling.

Alternative vegan Shepherd's pie recipes can be found all over the web, including at: Mercy for Animals, and VeganCooking.com, as well as in the excellent Easy Vegan Cooking book.

cannelloni/lasagna

• ingredients: relevant pasta (check no eggs - most dried pasta does not contain eggs), one of suggested fillings below, one of creamy/cheesy sauces listed in Recipes: Sides and Sauces.
• prepare pasta as directed on the packet
• prepare a filling such as:
  • spinach, garlic, coriander and cashew nuts
  • veggie mince (as above)
  • cooked pumpkin/squash, tinned kidney beans and fried red onions
• in large oven-proof dish, fill/layer pasta with sauce
• cover generously with the creamy or cheesy sauce (or just seasoned soya cream)

stew and dumplings

• stew ingredients: any vegetables, particularly root ones, generous quantity of cooked beans and dried lentils (latter will thicken it up), onions, garlic, herbs, spices, miso or veg stock.
• stew the stew, optionally frying the onions to start with.
• dumplings: self raising flower, an extra bit of baking powder if you feel like it, chopped vegan marg, water, herbs, yeast flakes if want
• rub marg into the flour until a crumb-like texture, mix with rest of ingredients into sticky but solid mixture, roll into balls, and drop in stew as it cooks when at least 20 mins to go, with a lid on.

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Recipe Listings

Recipes are listed under breakfast ideas, starters, mains, sides and sauces, desserts and cakes. However, ideas can be mixed around between courses. More recipes will be added to each section as time goes on.

• Vegetarian Breakfast Ideas
• Recipes: Cakes and Biscuits
• Recipes: Starters and Snacks
• Recipes: Main Dishes
• Recipes: Sides and Sauces
• Recipes: Desserts