If you already can cook a bit, then transitioning dishes over to plant based is easy. Here are some tips to get you going.
Protein isn't hard to get from plants, but not everyone is aware of exactly how. This article is the notes for a talk I gave on plant based protein sources.
Recipes
A decent and quick scrambled tofu recipe is essential for every cook. This one ups the creaminess, healthiness and protein by adding blended cannellini beans. Beautiful and filling, serve alongside some toasted bread, baked cherry tomatoes and mushrooms. Some sliced veggie sausages or toasted pine nuts wouldn't go astray either. You'll note there are a lot of substitutions and optionals here. That's because once you have the basics of the scrambled tofu and give it a little flavour, whatever else you add is up to you.
What's the healthiest kind of soup you can make? This recipe is a result of asking that question, looking to add a new regular dish to my roster of regulars. This recipe focuses on being high in plant-based calcium. Broccoli is high in calcium. White beans have more calcium than other beans. Unhulled tahini is a source of calcium as well. Lots of other good things in the soup as well. Note there is no additional oil or salt in this recipe. Unhulled tahini has oil in it, and the stock powder I used has salt in it. That said, if you really need more salt and oil feel free to use them, or on the other side use a salt free stock.
Tempeh (or Tempe) is an Indonesian food, made from soy beans that we should all probably be eating more of. Cooked in a satay sauce, this dish is as tasty as it is healthy.
It's easy to make delicious things using oil, sugar, refined grains, and by frying everything. Eating that all the time though, isn't good for us. I once went to a pizza party where a person who worked in a restaurant specialising in pizza brought dough for everyone. It was delicious, but I was shocked that the dough was swimming in oil. If you want to eat more homemade pizza, then it's a good idea to make it healthier. This recipe tries to balance healthiness and the pleasures of the palate by blending white and wholemeal flour and minimising the less healthy stuff. This recipe assumes you are making two medium/large-sized pizzas, depending on how thin you roll them.
This is a lovely soup that requires minimal preparation and is one of our favourite things to pair with nice bread and have on a cooler night. This actually started out as a pumpkin and red lentil soup recipe one of the staff at the University of Queensland staff gym kindly wrote down for me. I've been modifying it over the years, but I think the roasting is what kicked it up a notch. So don't worry too much about how much of things are going in or even what things, because if I had stuck to the original recipe, you wouldn't have this recipe to try! Add whatever you have to use up, whether that's cauliflower, pumpkin or other kinds of sweet potato. Also with the pulses, you can experiment - I first used to make it with just red lentils, then I found the yellow split peas added a lovely additional flavour, and the mung-beans I've recently introduced to make it healthier and more substantial.
This is the simplest pasta sauce to make ever, yes the preparation time really is 5 minutes and it is pretty incredible. Roasting everything gives it a natural sweetness that means you don't miss the sugar which is in almost all classic pasta sauce recipes. This version also avoids the oil as well. I love it over gnocchi, or some polenta and mushrooms. Rich and versatile, with plenty of garlic.
I love mushrooms, and pair it with pasta and happiness ensues. This recipe can be used just as a pasta, and it's even better as a base for a pasta bake. If it's a pasta bake, use a shorter pasta such as fusili/pasta spirals, and cover it with some panko breadcrumbs before baking.
Firstly, you can use any mushroom for this, even a flat mushroom if you want to balance the polenta precariously on top of it. This recipe looks very impressive on the plate, and the roasted mushrooms go delicious and juicy. I've put instructions for cooking polenta, but you should probably follow the ones on the packet you bought. I make this without oil, if you want to add oil, I don't see anyway I can stop you, without you at least.
If you eat as many bananas as I do, banana emergencies are bound to happen. You forget you just bought some and buy some more, you are overrun with ripe bananas and you need solutions. Well here is a delicious one, which are great cold or warm, on their own or with icecream/custard/yoghurt etc.
I was showing the Blues Brothers to some friends, so I wanted to think about some classical soul food to go with it. Collard Greens looked healthy and easy to make oil-free. A quick search online said to use kale as a substitute for collard greens, so here you are. I used Tuscan kale but any kale or leaf with a bit of chew in it should work.
Books
This was the first cookbook that I really got into after I became vegan. It doesn't rely on mockmeats, the recipes are not too easy (ie aimed at someone who doesn't know how to make toast), but not too hard (someone who wants to spend all day in the kitchen)...