Barbeque Season is Here!

Cookouts have been typically meat-laden, but you can easily change that. Putting together a Vegan barbeque can be simple and delicious. If you’re not sure where to start, try some of these tasty cruelty-free recipes – ENJOY!

These recipes serve 6 but you can easily change them up to whatever you need.

Grilled Corn with Chili and Lime

6 ears of corn
1 Lime cut into wedges – one per ear of corn
2 Tbsp. Chili powder
2 tsp. Cayenne powder
2 tsp Sea Salt

Directions:
- Preheat grill to medium high and lightly brush grill with oil.
- Peel corn and place on grill, turning occasionally for about 20 minutes. Corn should have charred spots.
- Mix together the chili powder, cayenne and salt.
- Transfer corn to serving platter, squeeze lime juice over corn and sprinkle with spices.

photo by One Green Planet

Portobello Mushroom Burgers

6 Portobello mushrooms
½ C of balsamic vinegar
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp Olive oil
2 tsp each: garlic flakes (or minced fresh garlic), dried basil, oregano
Salt and pepper
Whole Wheat Buns

TOPPINGS: Sliced tomato, sliced avocado, sliced onion, Vegan cheese (Follow Your heart is delicious)

Directions:
-  Clean mushrooms and remove stems. Place in a shallow bowl smooth side up
-  Mix vinegar, soy, oil and spices together and pour over mushrooms. Let sit for 15-30 minutes.
-  Preheat grill to medium high and lightly brush grill with oil.
- Grill for 5-8 minutes per side. Top with cheese if using for the last 2 minutes.
- Serve on a bun and top with condiments and veggies.

Vegan Potato Salad

1.5 pounds of baby potatoes – red and purple work best but you can use any type
3 cups of cut raw veggies: red and green peppers, celery, onions, carrots, frozen corn and green onions
1/3 C of vegan mayo
3 Tbsp of pickle juice plus 3 Tbsp of chopped dill pickles
3 Tbsp of dried dill
Salt and pepper

Directions:
-  In a large pot, cover the cleaned potatoes with cold water and 1 tsp of salt. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook for about 10 minutes.
-  Mix mayo, pickle juice, chopped pickles, dill and salt and pepper.
-  Drain potatoes and add dressing while potatoes are hot.
- Once potatoes have cooled slightly place in fridge until they come to about room temperature.
-  Add all of the cut fresh veggies and refrigerate until using (at least one hour before serving).

photo by The Food Channel

Mint Watermelon Lemonade

10 cups of watermelon
4 lemons, squeezed
2 tsp of lemon zest
6 sprigs of fresh mint
Ice Cubes

Directions:
-  Place the watermelon, lemon juice and zest into a blender or food processor.
-  Pour over ice and add mint sprigs.

These are just a few ideas, the possibilities are endless. For convenience and variety, there are loads of great vegan hotdogs, sausages, chicken burgers and beef burgers available at most grocery stores. If they don’t carry them, ask.

Vegan Soups Made Easy

photo by peasinablog.com

ROASTED CARROT SOUP – Can Freeze

-   3 cups of carrots, peeled and cut into ½  pieces
-   2 cups of parsnips, peeled and cut into ½ pieces
-   1 medium onion, cut into big pieces
-   1 Tbsp. Olive oil
-   Salt and pepper
-   2 cups of veggie broth
-   1 tsp each: turmeric, cumin, chili powder

DIRECTIONS:
-   Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
-   Toss veggies in olive oil and add spices and salt and pepper.
-    Spread onto baking sheet lined with tin foil and bake for 35 minutes (stir once in a while).
-   Let cool a little and add veggies to blender. Add veggie broth ¼ cup at a time until it is the consistency you like. Reheat for about 3-4 minutes.

OPTIONS:
-   Add one large chopped Sweet Potato and reduce the carrots and parsnips to 1 C each.
-   Use an immersion blender instead of a blender.
-   Add a tsp of curry powder to veggies before cooking and remove chili powder.
-   Add a sliced/peeled apple to veggies last 10 minutes of cooking time.

photo by veglibrary.com

MUSHROOM SOUP

-   2 Tbsp of Vegan butter or Olive oil
-   1 onion, chopped
-   5 cups of mushrooms – any kind, a mix is good
-   4 cups of mushroom or veggie broth
-   ½  cup of white wine or sherry
-   1 tsp each: thyme and tarragon and mustard
-   Salt & pepper

DIRECTIONS:
-   Heat up butter/oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes. Add spices and mustard and cook for a minute or two.
-   Add stock and wine, salt & pepper.
-   Bring to a boil and the lower heat to medium low and cook for about 25 minutes.
-   Let cool slightly. Take a bit of the onion/mushrooms out of the pan. Use an immersion blender and blend the rest. Add broth or water if it gets too thick. Add back in the mushroom/onions that you took out. Serve with Vegan sour cream.

Easy Vegan Tacos

photo by cookeatdelicious.com

TOFU TACOS

-   5 whole wheat tortillas
-    8 ounces of extra firm tofu
-   1 Tbsp each: smoked paprika, thyme
-   1 tsp each: cumin, garlic powder, pepper
-    ½ tsp cayenne
-   1 Tbsp Olive Oil

CABBAGE SLAW:
-   1 cup each: red and green cabbage, sliced thin
-   ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar
-   Salt & pepper

AVOCADO CREMA:
-   2 avocados
-   2 garlic cloves, mined
-   1/3 cup of lime juice, fresh or bottled
-   1 ½ Tbsp olive oil
-   Salt & pepper
- Cilantro or parsley, chopped (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
-   Drain and rinse tofu and press it between kitchen towels and weight it down.
-   Preheat oven to 400 and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
-   Combine cabbage, vinegar and salt/pepper.
-   Mix spices: paprika, thyme, cumin, garlic powder, cayenne and pepper.
-   Cut tofu into 1 inch pieces and lightly coat with olive oil. Bake in oven for 10 minutes.
-   Remove tofu from oven and sprinkle with spices.
-   Heat 1 Tbsp olive oi in large pan on medium heat and add tofu. Cook for about 5 minutes per side.
-   Place all ingredients for Crema in blender and blend until smooth.
-  Warm tortillas and add tofu, slaw and crema. Top with cilantro if using.

OPTIONS:
-   Add chopped tomatoes, rinsed and drained black beans, and chopped jalapenos.
-   Replace tofu with black beans, chopped mango and jalapeños.
-   Buy packaged coleslaw.

Vegan Valentine's Day Dinner for Two

A special Valentine's Day Dinner made for two.

TOMATO ONION FLAXSEED BREAD

·  5 ripe Roma tomatoes
-   1 small red onion
-  3 cloves garlic
-  ¼ cup sundried tomatoes in olive oil and Italian herbs
-  ½ cup golden flaxseed meal
-  2 tablespoons brown rice flour
-  1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
-  1 tablespoon tapioca starch
-  1 teaspoon onion powder
-  1 teaspoon garlic powder
-  1 teaspoon dried basil
-  1 teaspoon smoked paprika
-  ½ teaspoon Himalayan/sea salt

BABY SPINACH SALAD

-  2 cups baby spinach
-  1 tablespoon pine nuts
-  1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
-  1 tablespoon lemon juice
-  A few sprinkles Himalayan/sea salt
-  A few sprinkles freshly ground pepper

GRILLED BREADED TOFU STEAKS

-  ½ block firm or extra firm tofu
-  1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
-  1 teaspoon tomato paste
-  1 teaspoon miso paste
-  1 teaspoon sesame oil/extra light olive oil
-  ½ teaspoon pure maple syrup
-  ¼ cup high quality breadcrumbs

INSTRUCTIONS

TOMATO ONION FLAXSEED BREAD

1.  Preheat oven to 320°F (160°C).

2.  Chop the Roma tomatoes, red onion and garlic in relatively small pieces. They don’t have to be tiny but it will help with the chopping process.

3.  Put all the chopped vegetables and sundried tomatoes in the blender (or food processor) and pulse it briefly to chop it up. DO NOT PUREE IT! It’s important that if you’re using something like Vitamix, you pulse it for a second quickly, then stir, and pulse until most of the stuff is chopped but not a complete mush.

4.  Pour the mixture into a fine mesh sieve and squeeze out about a cup of juice. You can keep the juice in a container to use as broth for other things! (It will be a total waste to throw it out.)

5.  Pour the chunky mashed vegetables in a large bowl and add the flaxseed meal, brown rice flour, olive oil, onion powder, garlic powder, basil, paprika and salt. Stir until everything is well mixed.

6.  Align baking parchment paper on an 9×13 inch oven tray and grease the baking paper with non-stick cooking oil.

7.  Pour the mixture on the baking tray with parchment paper underneath, and spread it out across the entire tray, so the layer is nice and thin, and even.

8.  If you want the bread to be thin and crunchy, you will need to use a larger oven tray so the layer can be thinner. It will take shorter time to bake so you MUST check every 10 minutes or so after it’s been baking for 25 minutes, because the bottom may burn easily.

9.  Bake in the oven for 50 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes (depending on the thickness). Allow it to cool before cutting it up. Be careful though, some thinner parts may burn, so every 5 minutes or so after it’s been baking for 40 minutes.

BABY SPINACH SALAD

1. Add all the ingredients in a bowl and toss and turn it around until the spinach leaves is coated by everything pretty evenly.

GRILLED BREADED TOFU STEAKS

1. Cut half of a regular block of tofu out and squeeze out as much water as you can without breaking the tofu. Once water is squeezed, use some paper towels to get more water out from all sides.

2. Carefully cut the tofu block in three layers, then slice across to make 6 small rectangles. (But you can really cut them in any sized pieces you want). You will see that more water will emerge from the middle, so once again, get more paper towels to squeeze out even more water.

3. You may even want to leave it out for a little while to dry off. The more water you squeeze out, the better the outcome.

4. In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, tomato paste, miso paste, sesame or olive oil and maple syrup and stir until the sauce is even.

5. In a separate shallow dish, pour the breadcrumbs on it. I used Trader Joe’s.

6. Dip the tofu steaks in the sauce, then quickly coat them with breadcrumbs. Do this to each of the tofu steaks.

7. Spray some non-stick cooking oil on a ribbed grill pan and lay the tofu steaks neatly on the pan.

8. Turn the heat on medium high (between 5-6) and cook the tofu on one side for about 10-13 minutes until you see it brown, then flip it over as carefully as you can, and cook the other side for another 6-10 minutes until the other side has browned as well.

 Recipes and photos courtesy of Vegan Lifestyle Magazine

Vegan Cauliflower Bites - Yum!

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER BITES with NACHO CHEESE

- 1 head of cauliflower, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 tsp each: chili powder, cumin, garlic powder
- ½ tsp of each: salt, pepper, smoked paprika

SAUCE:
- ½ cup non-dairy milk
- 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- Large pinch of each: salt, dry mustard, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin
- ½ cup of salsa

DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or tin foil.
- Rinse cauliflower and shake off water.
- Combine all spices and sprinkle over cauliflower.
- Bake for 15 minutes, then stir and cook for another 15 minutes.
- While cauliflower is cooking, make sauce.
- Put all ingredients in a blender except salsa, and blend until smooth.
- Pour into pan - cook over medium high heat until it boils. Turn down, stir and cook until thick.
- Remove from heat and stir in salsa.