Robin Robertson

If this cold weather makes you want to cozy up to a curry, but you don’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen, this curry is for you. This fabulous looking curry is from a new book called Truly Healthy Vegan Cookbook by Dianne Wenz.

As a vegan lifestyle coach, Dianne is adept at showing how to prepare well-balanced meals that taste great. The opening chapter of the book is loaded with great tools and tips for eating a healthy vegan diet.  Enticing recipes such as Carrot Cake Oatmeal, Cauliflower Banh Mi, Chickpea Pot Pie, and Key Lime Bars, insure that your menus will be as flavorful and fun to eat as they are good for you.

Truly Healthy Vegan Cookbook is ideal for the new vegan trying to navigate their way through unfamiliar territory.  It’s also great for anyone looking to fine-tune their eating habits by eliminating processed ingredients and getting back to basics – including eating more vegetables. This cookbook features easy to find ingredients that are used to make simple and delicious recipes such as this Vegetable Curry.

About this recipe, Dianne says, “Vegetable curries are a favorite warming meal on cold days. I tend to make them with whatever stray bits of vegetables I have on hand to clean out the produce drawer of the fridge, but this combination of cauliflower, green beans, and carrots is my personal favorite. This is a Thai-style curry that uses red curry paste, but it can also be made with the green variety.”

Vegetable Curry

Serves 6 / Prep time: 10 minutes / Cook time: 20 minutes

1 teaspoon neutral-flavored oil (such as grapeseed or avocado), vegetable stock, or water

1 medium-sized yellow onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon grated or minced fresh ginger

1 (14-ounce) can light coconut milk

1 cup vegetable stock

3 tablespoons red curry paste

4 cups chopped cauliflower florets

1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

2 carrots, chopped

1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 cups spinach

Sea salt

Black pepper

Heat the oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, and ginger and cook until they begin to brown, about 5 minutes.

Add the light coconut milk, vegetable stock, and red curry paste to the pot and stir to combine. Add the cauliflower, green beans, carrots, and chickpeas. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover the pot and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the vegetables have softened.

Uncover the pot and stir in the spinach, continuing to simmer, while stirring frequently until the spinach wilts. Season with sea salt and black pepper to taste.

From Truly Healthy Vegan Cookbook, by Dianne Wenz, published by Rockridge Press. Copyright © 2019 by Callisto Media. All rights reserved.

‘Tis the season for holiday parties and brunches and I have just the thing to serve at your next get-together.  These Cheesy Mac Muffins from my cookbook Vegan Mac & Cheese are a fun way to enjoy everyone’s favorite comfort food.

They’re great as is, but the addition of chopped cooked veggies makes them even better.  And of course, this time of year, those veggies should be red and green!

Two of my favorite holiday combos to add to the mac and cheese mixture are: finely minced and sauteed red and green bell peppers OR chopped steamed broccoli and finely minced oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes. (Simply fold in your veggies of choice when you combine the cheese sauce and macaroni.)

These muffins can be made in full-size muffin tins or in those tiny muffin tins for one-bite wonders. Note: If using the tiny muffin tins, you can reduce the baking time by about 5 to 7 minutes so they don’t dry out.

Enjoy!

Cheesy Mac Muffins

From Vegan Mac & Cheese: More than 50 Delicious Plant-Based Recipes for the Ultimate Comfort Food by Robin Robertson © 2019, Harvard Common Press.

2 tablespoons vegan butter, plus more for preparing the muffin tin

2 tablespoons dried bread crumbs

2 cups elbow macaroni

3 scallions, white and green parts, minced

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/3 cup nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 1/4 cups plain unsweetened nondairy milk

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Coat a nonstick muffin pan with butter.
2. Divide the bread crumbs evenly among the bottoms of the cups. Shake and tilt the pan to coat the cups on the bottoms and sides. Discard any excess crumbs.
3. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook according to the package directions until al dente. Drain well and return to the pot. Set aside.
4. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter.
5. Add the scallions and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the flour, salt, and pepper and cook, whisking, for 1 minute.
6. Add the nutritional yeast and mustard and then whisk in the milk. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and cook, whisking constantly, for 2 minutes, or until smooth and thickened. Stir in the lemon juice. Taste and adjust the seasoning, as needed. Pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and stir to coat. Divide the pasta mixture evenly among the muffin cups and press it down into the cups. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes.
7. Remove the muffin pan and set aside for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the outer edge of each muffin and then pop them out of the cups.

Makes 8 to 12 muffins

It’s that time of year again when we decide what to make for Thanksgiving dinner.  Most of the dishes I make have been part of our vegan holiday traditions for more than 30 years.  So at the risk of repeating myself or trying to reinvent the wheel, I’m sharing some of my favorite Thanksgiving Recipe Round-up posts from over the years to give you lots of choices.

You can find some great recipes in my Vegan Holiday Hotline

Or check out some holiday favorites is the Thanksgiving Dinner Menu I developed for Vegan.com (has it been 10 years ago already?)

If you’re still looking for more ideas, how about this Tricked-Out Tofurky

There’s always my Butternut Mac and Cheese which is great as a main dish or a side:

And for dessert, lots of variations on my all-time favorite Thanksgiving dessert in this Pumpkin Cheesecake Round-Up

I hope you all have a wonderful and compassionate Thanksgiving!

To celebrate the release of Vegan Mac and Cheese, I’m having a blog tour! Over the next few weeks, you can visit some fantastic blogs to check out some sample recipes, photos, and reviews of Vegan Mac and Cheese. You’ll also be able to enter giveaways for a chance to win a copy of the book.

Here’s a list of dates and locations of the blog tour, beginning with Spabettie, where you’ll find my recipe for Mom’s Baked Mac & Cheese.

Check back here frequently for changes, updates, and direct links to the posts as they happen.  Thanks in advance to everyone participating in this blog tour to celebrate the publication of Vegan Mac and Cheese!

Vegan Mac and Cheese Blog Tour:

October 1 – Spabettie
October 4 – Vegan Atlas
October 4 – Vegan Street
October 7 – The Real Vegan Housewife
October 9 – V Nutrition
October 10 – StephanieDreyer.com
October 11 – My Pure Plants
October 14 – Lisa’s Project Vegan
October 15 – This Healthy Kitchen
October 16 – Vegan Mos
October 17  – Go Dairy Free
October 21 – Chic Vegan
October 22 – Two Flirty Girls and a Juicer
October 23 – FranCostigan.com
October 27 – JL Goes Vegan
October 28 – Bad to the Bowl
November 4 – Veggie Fun Kitchen
November 1 – Kelli’s Vegan Kitchen

By now, many of you have dug into your copy of Vegan Mac & Cheese and have begun making recipes from the book.  I hope you’ll share pics on social media so I can see what everyone is making!

Today I’d like to share a recipe from Vegan Mac & Cheese from the final chapter of the book called “Fun with Mac & Cheese.”  This chapter is loaded with recipes for using up leftover mac & cheese (or you can whip up a quick batch just to use in the recipes if you don’t have leftovers.)

Among the recipes in that chapter are: Cheesy Mac Mug, Mac UnCheese Omelet, Waffled Mac UnCheese, Mac UnCheese Balls (above), Cheesy Mac Muffins (below), Mac UnCheese Quesadillas, and Mac UnCheese Pizza.  There are even two dessert recipes: Sweet Noodle Kugel and Indian Vermicelli Pudding.

The recipe I want to share is for Cheesy Broccoli Mac Soup.  It’s ideal for the fall weather that is bound to be just around the corner!  I hope you enjoy it.

BTW… If you haven’t gotten your copy of Vegan Mac & Cheese, I hope you will.  And if you already have the book, I hope you’ll do me a HUGE favor and write a brief review of the book on Amazon.  It only takes a minute and will really help spread the word.  THANK YOU!!!

Cheesy Broccoli Mac Soup

Cheesy broccoli soup is a cold weather favorite in our house, so it was a no-brainer to try it made with leftover mac uncheese. The results were so good, this is now our go-to way to make it. We especially like that the broth isn’t too thick (which it often is in cheesy soups). If you prefer a thicker broth, simply use less vegetable broth. To make this recipe without leftovers, I suggest using the quick and easy recipe for One-Pot Cheesy Mac from Vegan Mac & Cheese.

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 3 cups (weight varies) leftover or homemade mac uncheese
• 11/2 cups Cheddary Sauce (recipe follows)
• 1/2 cup plain unsweetened nondairy milk
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• Salt, to taste
• Ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 cups steamed small broccoli florets
• 1/4 cup Nut Parm (recipe follows)

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, heat the olive oil.
2. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
3. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan, and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Stir in the mac uncheese and then add the Cheddary Sauce, stirring until thoroughly combined.
5. Add the milk and paprika and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until hot.
6. Stir in the broccoli and serve hot, sprinkled with the Nut Parm.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Cheddary Sauce

• 1 cup unsalted raw cashews
• 1 large russet potato, peeled and diced
• 1 small carrot, chopped
• 1/2 of a small yellow onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast, plus more as needed
• 2 tablespoons vegan butter
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 11/2 teaspoons white miso paste
• 1/2 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 cup plain unsweetened nondairy milk, or water

1. In a saucepan, combine the cashews, potato, carrot, onion, garlic, and salt with enough water to cover. Place the pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and cook until the vegetables are soft, 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cooked vegetables and cashews to a high-speed blender, reserving the cooking water.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth and creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides, as needed. Add as much of the reserved cooking water as needed to achieve the consistency you prefer for the sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning, as needed. The sauce is now ready to use.

Makes about 4 cups

Nut Parm

• 1 cup unsalted blanched almonds, or unsalted raw cashews
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the mixture has a fine crumbly texture, stopping to scrape down the sides, as needed. Transfer to a shaker jar or other container with a tight lid. Store in the refrigerator.

Makes about 11/3 cups