What's your best healthy vegan (or able to be veganised) recipe?

[stopeatingcake]

I've been piling on the pounds and would like to start eating a little more healthily... I am a vegan but have been indulging myself in cake (had some for breakfast today! ). Please hit me with your best recipes! Thanks!

Sweet or savoury?

Savoury really... Unless it's cake

How about low gluten, could be no gluten \ low sugar but delicious vegan brownie recipe? It's good ,all my family love this, even the people who aren't vegans

I do savoury too

Oooooooh! Yes please! Savoury and sweet is very welcome!

I make a lovely barley stew. Very straightforward - leeks, onions, garlic, white wine, veg stock (I use a Knorr stock pot), pearl barley, fresh dill at the end. Then cover in cheese

Oh, and sweetcorn!

Potato, leek and chickpea soup:
500g potato
3 medium leeks
1 tin chickpeas
0.5tbsp olive oil
2 veg stock cubes (or one if you prefer)
3 garlic cloves

Fry up thinly sliced leeks, then add peeled pots and sliced garlic. Add the stock cubes and 4 cups of water. Bring to boil. Add chickpeas. Simmer. Blend. Eat.

850 cal in total and you can easily get 3 or 4 servings out of it!

I had this today

There are some really nice veganisable recipes in the veggie 5:2 diet cookbook by Celia Brooks including one for grilled tofu Thai salad wraps which I actually eat when I have caved on the diet as they're so nice (and I am a very chubby, greedy vegan at the moment - will be watching this thread with interest!).

Also, a tin of chickpeas mixed with a tin of tomatoes, plus maybe an onion fried in v.little oil and.... I don't know. A couple of peppers fried up too perhaps? Add a dollop of harissa and it is yummy.

Also the lentils, spinach, potato recipe and potato, mushrooms, curry paste recipes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (must be online somewhere).

These ideas are all making me hungry!! I whipped up a ratatouille/goulash thing yesterday which was good and will definitely try these recipes out this week!
Glad to not be the only chubby, greedy vegan around, Miles!

I was a chubby vegan at Christmas (87kg) but have been trying to keep my calories below 1300 per day (when possible, 'cos parties happen) and have now got to 71kg

My top tip is to make stuff like the above, work out the calorie count of the whole dish and then split it into thirds/quarters. Then you've got home-made food that's appropriately portioned/calorie-controlled and you spend less on lunches at work too. However if you do need a lunch while out then M&S do a good nutty superfood salad at 385cal and a Moroccan one at 350cal (I think). They have other options too, all vegan. Check them out!

I find that I am starving in the morning, up until about lunch. However I can then go for the rest of the day without eating, so try and diet according to how your body operates. Don't try to starve at your hungriest time of day, it will only end in failure. Calorie-counter app really worked for me.

Ok. Vegan Brownies (This is a flexible recipe)

A handful of walnuts, pecans or almonds roughly chopped

large tsps of Ground ginger, cardamom, star anise, cloves and or whichever spices you like .

Dry fry gently on a very low heat in a large heavy saucepan (this is a one pot recipe). Then melt

2\3 cup of molasses

1\3 rice syrup (or maple or normal)

With 1\2 cup almond oil

2\3 cup of almond butter (or peanut butter as you wish)

100g best dark vegan chocolate (or not as you like)

When it's all melted nicely , don't stir too much. remove from the heat and leave for a couple of mins. to cool.

Then add I cup of Kamut, the other word for it is Khorasan, flour or spelt flour it could be GF or normal .

2 tsp. baking powder and 2tsp. bicarb. of soda

Stir with a metal spoon and fork

Almond or any other dairy free milk

If it's too stiff add the milk to loosen the mix. Bake in a tart tin in the middle of the oven (sitting on a baking tray) at no fan 170C. Look at it after 20 mins or so. If it's coming way from the sides and you like squidgy brownies take it out then. If not leave in for another 10 mins our so with a clean baking try on top of it. If a knife put into the centre comes out clean take out and let cool in the tin, cut it into squares or whatever then leave to get completely cold. I sometimes put pieces of candied ginger or walnuts on the top. straight after it comes out of the oven. Also you can brush some rice syrup on the top for a nice shiny finish.

This tastes even better if you eat it after a day or so . Wrap in greaseproof paper in a tin.

I find that the steamer is my friend for veg. , I try and cook about once a week and freeze dishes for the time I'm too busy (or lazy) to cook.

I wash the root veg, don't peel, and steam, everything. They're much easier to peel when cooked, I don't eat potatoes , too carby for my diet so I sometimes make a lovely mash with celeriac and carrots, on top a lentil or bean mix with onions , celery, garlic , soya sauce (instead of stock cubes). Like a vegan shepherds pie!

In the summer I make lovely raw veg. dips or juices and soups.

Jamie Oliver's butternut squash stew from save with Jamie. Served without the natural yoghurt, still very filling and yummy!

Well done lacontessa! Stopeatingcake , let me know how you get on, my weaknesses are booze, crisps and general portion control

My fam do slimming world and I'm vegan & we really like this. I add more stock to make it up to 400ml though, prefer it more 'saucy'.

MilesHunt If you need help with portion control have a look at Paul Mackenna's I Can Make You Thin (I hate the name ) but I have lost the nearly 3 stone I needed to with it. It majors on HOW we eat, and where etc. and of all the diets it makes the most sense to me. It's for life.

I don't count calories or weigh food or add extra exercise and it still works.

These sound delicious can I as a non vegan steal your yummy recipes? stealthily place marking to see if more yummy recipes follow

Well done Contessa!
Those brownies sound delicious ppeatfruit! Thanks!
I love butternut so I'll definitely be checking that out Flanders!
Thanks!
I think my weaknesses are pretty similar, Miles! I also often just want something so went up eating all kinds of rubbish!
The more the merrier, Brain!

Yes cake that "I must have something" is common I reckon!

I always have some thing chewy or crunchy also healthy to eat. Like macadamias or walnuts with an apple, I used to take them to work with a small bottle of filtered water or a mint green tea. If you eat them slowly (count to 23 chews or so) and enjoy them you fill up well.

The worst thing is throwing the food down your throat!!

Brainnotbrawn my husband is an omnivore and simply tops my vegan recipes with a 'nice lamb chop', so go ahead he reckons that being an omnivore living with a vegan is actually the best possible way to be, because he makes sure the meat is tasty and I'll make sure the veg are delicious too..... he much prefers this to the 'meat and 3 veg, any 3 veg, no-one really cares' approach.

*end up

Oh I love squashes too and you don't have worry about cutting and peeling them . I just make a few holes in mine .brush with olive oil and bake whole for half an hour at 170C.

Top tip ppeatfruit! Will give that a try.