Vegan Recipes from Cassie Howard

Vegan Insanity >> Vegan recipes that are delicious and easy to make. Plus, kitchen, cooking & shopping tips!

Vegan Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons

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I have never met a Caesar salad I didn’t like, but this recipe – this recipe is the best. BEST Caesar salad recipe ever, ever, ever.

That is no lie. It’s the absolute best vegan Caesar salad I have made, and every Caesar lover that has tried it agrees.

Vegan-Caesar-Salad

The dressing is smooth and creamy, perfectly coating every piece of romaine lettuce. With just a hint of liquid smoke, the dressing gets that bacon taste that traditional Caesar salad has – without using bacon. Yippie!

Liquid smoke, where have you been all my life?

Caesar-Dressing

I like to keep my Caesar pretty simple, with dressing and homemade croutons, but you can definitely add other things, such as meat substitutes, sprouts, chickpeas, or lentils.

Vegan-Caesar-Dressing

If you’re a big Caesar salad lover like me – you MUST try this recipe! Then report back and tell me what you thought!

Also, some big news ’round these parts: this is my 100th post on the site! 100 posts since I first started blogging about delicious vegan food in March of this year. YAY!

Thank you so much for reading. I love sharing my passion for vegan food, and I appreciate you for reading these words that I write, scoping out the photos that I take (that are nowhere near as awesome as my favourite food bloggers photos are), and trying out the recipes that I create. I’m honoured that you visit me each week!

Vegan Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons
Recipe Type: Salad
Author: Vegan Insanity
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 2-4
Ingredients
  • Dressing
  • 1 3/4 cup cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours, then drained
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp tamari
  • 1 tsp liquid smoke
  • Salt & pepper, to taste
  • Salad
  • 3 cups chopped romaine lettuce
  • 1/2 serving Caesar dressing
  • [url href=”http://www.veganinsanity.com/how-to/homemade-croutons/”]Homemade croutons[/url]
Instructions
Dressing
  1. Add all ingredients into a high-powered blender or food processor and blend/process until smooth and creamy. Set aside.
Salad
  1. Add lettuce to a large bowl and add 1/2 of the vegan Caesar dressing. Mix very well.
  2. Divide salad among bowls and top with croutons. Enjoy!

Caesar-Dressing-Vegan

2 Minute Vegan Parmesan Cheese

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Vegan-Parmesan-Cheese Have you ever stumbled across one of those recipes where, after you read it and make it yourself, you think: “why have I not made this before?!”? I have – and this is that recipe. Vegan-Parmesan You see, before going vegan, parmesan cheese was my bestie. We did everything together. Sometimes I would grate parmesan directly into my mouth, I loved it that much. So imagine how heartbroken I was when it was time to go our separate ways. But than – THEN I found vegan parmesan cheese. A friend shared this recipe with me, and if you can believe it – it’s just as good as the dairy-based stuff. Except it’s free of animal products. And I can make it myself. Because you certainly would never have caught me making cheese out of cow’s milk. No way, no how. Homemade-Vegan-Parmesan This vegan parmesan takes just 2 minutes to make. That’s it. I’m not kidding. 2 minutes. Set a timer if you don’t believe me. All it is, is nuts (I use almonds, but many others would work, such as cashew or walnut), nutritional yeast and salt. Put it in your food processor, process and them BAM. You’re done. Sprinkle it on everything. For a nut-free version of this cheese, combine 1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds with 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Homemade-Vegan-Parmesan-Cheese

2 Minute Vegan Parmesan Cheese
Recipe Type: Vegan Cheese
Author: Vegan Insanity
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 cup
Ingredients
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
  • 1 cup raw almonds, unsalted
  • 1 tsp salt
Instructions
  1. Add all ingredients to a food processor and process until powdery (I like mine with just a bit of texture and not super smooth of a powder).
  2. Store in the refrigerator in an air-tight jar for up to 2 weeks.

 

Our Menu Plan This Week

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Fladbread Pizza PicFlatbread Taco Pizzas!

Every week, I create a menu plan for the week ahead. I’ve always found menu planning to be helpful, but especially when eating a vegan diet. Sometimes I forget to make one, and those weeks are just awful. I stare into the fridge and whine that there’s “nothing to eat”, even though the fridge is packed full of deliciousness. It’s bad.

So – I menu plan every week (usually) to make things easier on myself. And it works. I promise.

Here is the menu plan for my family this week:

Breakfast:

  • Mini Cinnamon Buns, Fruit Smoothie
  • Blueberry Crepes, Fruit Smoothie
  • Bagel with Almond Cream Cheese, Fruit Smoothie
  • Homemade Pop Tarts, Fruit Smoothie
  • Breakfast Burritos, Fruit Smoothie
  • Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal, Fruit Smoothie
  • Homemade Hemp Granola with Fresh Fruit and Almond Milk

Lunch:

  • Mega Salad with Smoked Tofu
  • Homemade Hot Pockets
  • Tofu Egg Salad Sandwich
  • Pesto, Almond Cream Cheese & Baba Ganoush Grilled Cheese
  • Baked Potato with Steamed Broccoli & Nacho Cheese
  • Quinoa Bowl with Roasted Broccoli & Chickpeas with Lemon-Dijon Dressing
  • Picnic Lunch (various fruits, veggies and snack-y items)

Dinner:

  • Homemade Gnocchi
  • Fried with Lemon Salad, Shredded Kale Salad with Parmesan & Cranberries
  • Flatbread Taco Pizza
  • Falafel Salad, Tater Tots
  • Mediterranean Wheat Berry Salad
  • Eggplant, Chickpea & Freekeh Salad
  • Lemon Pasta with Zucchini & Vegan Parmesan & Almond Feta

Snacks/Dessert:

  • Fruit
  • Raw Nuts
  • Banana Ice Cream
  • Chocolate Beet Doughnuts
  • Baba Ganoush with Veggies & Pita Chips
  • Popcorn
  • Chilled Chocolate Torte with Hazelnut Crust

What’s on your menu this week?

Loaded Vegan Strawberry Spelt Muffins

7 Comments

Vegan-Strawberry-Muffins
 The best way to wake up in the morning? With muffins in your face. Duh. Strawberry muffins were on the menu for me last week, since we had just scored a huge lot of strawberries from a local farm for next to nothing. We threw a ton in the freezer for smoothies, and I also whipped up a batch of these delicious vegan strawberry muffins. Strawberry-Muffins-Vegan I used spelt flour for these muffins because I love the mild nutty, sweet flavour that it gives to my baked goods. It’s also much better for you than many other flours on the market! These muffins were just begging for strawberries so I loaded them up, even adding a bunch more on top, right before baking. This ensured that you got a taste of strawberry with every bite you took. Deeeelish! If you’re looking for a yummy breakfast to wake up to, try these strawberry muffins. Make them the night before and store them at room temperature, and when morning comes – dig in! Strawberry-Muffins

Loaded Vegan Strawberry Spelt Muffins
Recipe Type: Breakfast
Author: Vegan Insanity
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 2 flax eggs (2 tbsp ground flax seeds + 6 tbsp water, mixed together)
  • 1 1/2 cups spelt flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup coconut sugar
  • 1 cup non-dairy milk (I used almond milk)
  • 1/2 cup vegan butter (I used Earth Balance)
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups strawberries, diced
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400F and grease a muffin pan, or line with paper or silicone cups.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and coconut sugar.
  3. In a medium bowl, mix together the milk, butter, vanilla and 2 flax eggs.
  4. Add your liquid ingredients to your dry ingredients and stir until everything is combined well. Do not over mix.
  5. Fold in 1 1/2 cups strawberries.
  6. Scoop muffin mix into your muffin pan, filling about 3/4 of the way full. Add more diced strawberries to the top (the 1/2 cup you have remaining).
  7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  8. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing muffins from pan.
Notes
*Use soy-free vegan butter to make this dish soy-free.[br]*Use soy, rice or hemp milk to make this dish nut-free.

Strawberry-Vegan-Muffins

Tofu Teriyaki Bowl with Broccoli & Peppers

12 Comments

Vegan-Broccoli-Rice-Tofu If you were to to ask me a year ago if I liked tofu, I would have responded with one of the following things: EWWWWWWWW TOFU, YUCK YUCK YUCKY YUCK. GROSS, NO! ARE YOU CRAZY?! Today, tofu is one of my favourite things to eat. Love it. Any excuse to eat tofu now and I’m all YES PLEASE, GIVE IT TO ME NOW! Vegan-Broccoli-Tofu-Rice My favourite way to eat tofu is with a big pile of rice. Rice, tofu, veggies, sauce. Awesomeness in a bowl. This dish is filled with yummy things: Crispy baked tofu Flavourful rice Steamed veggies The most delicious teriyaki sauce ever Eat it up, then eat some more. A satisfying bowl of delicious food. Time to eat!

Broccoli-Tofu-Rice

Tofu Teriyaki Bowl with Broccoli & Peppers
Recipe Type: Entree
Author: Vegan Insanity
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2-4
Ingredients
  • Rice
  • 1 cup rice (I used basmati rice)*
  • 2 cups water*
  • Baked Tofu
  • 1 block extra firm tofu
  • 1 tbsp oil (I used avocado oil)
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch
  • Veggies
  • 1 small head broccoli, chopped small
  • 1 small bell pepper, thinly sliced (I used yellow)
  • Teriyaki Sauce
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp sweet rice wine vinegar
  • 2 tbsp coconut sugar
  • 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1/2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tbsp cornstarch + 2 tbsp water (mixed well)
  • Putting it all together
  • Sesame seeds
  • Green onions, chopped
Instructions
Rice
  1. Cook rice according to package directions (usually 1 cup rice to 2 cups water*). Set aside.
Tofu
  1. Preheat oven to 425F. Wrap tofu in a clean towel, add something heavy (I usually use a few heavy cookbooks), and set aside for about 15 minutes to press out some of the water in the tofu. Slice your tofu into cubes or thin squares (like I did).
  2. Mix together cornstarch and oil. Add the tofu and coat each piece evenly. Spread tofu on a large baking sheet, lined with parchment paper or a Silplat baking mat. Bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, then flip and bake for another 20 minutes until browned (a nice deep brown is ideal, but not black!).
Teriyaki Sauce
  1. Whisk together the soy sauce, sweet rice wine vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, ginger, and fresh garlic. Then add the cornstarch/water mixture. Bring to a simmer in a small pot. Simmer for 3-5 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and set aside.
Broccoli
  1. Steam broccoli & sliced peppers until fork-tender. Set aside.
Putting it all together
  1. Add rice to your bowls, and top with tofu, broccoli and peppers. Drizzle the teriyaki sauce on top, then sprinkle some sesame seeds and green onions on top.

Broccoli-Rice-Tofu

Homemade Croutons in 20 Minutes

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Vegan-Croutons

Do you ever wander the aisles in the grocery store and come across items where you think – “people actually buy this?”. I do. A lot. But that’s probably because I make pretty much everything from scratch and it’s weird to me when I realize other people don’t do that too.

Cause’ homemade is the way to go, people. There’s nothing better!

Homemade-Croutons

If there’s one item in the grocery store that is absolutely and utterly pointless, it’s croutons. Actually, bread crumbs too. These are the EASIEST things to make yourself. So, so easy. Even a 5 year old can make these croutons (and mine has – supervised, of course!).

In just 20 minutes (or less!), you can have your own batch of homemade croutons to serve with salads. Or you can be like me and just eat them on their own, as a snack. Only cool people eat croutons as a snack.

Homemade Croutons in 20 Minutes
Recipe Type: How-To Guide
Author: Vegan Insanity
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 loaf day-old French bread
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp basil (optional)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375F.
  2. Chop bread into cubes. Make sure they’re bite-sized!
  3. Add bread cubes, olive oil, garlic powder and basil into a large bowl. Mix well, so that all bread cubes are coated nicely.
  4. Arrange bread cubes on a baking tray, lined with non-stick spray or a [url href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00629K4YK/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00629K4YK&linkCode=as2&tag=mrsjan-20″ target=”_blank” title=”Baking Mat”]Silplat baking mat[/url]. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until firm to the touch and lightly browned.
  5. Allow to cool completely, then stick them in a freezer bag and pop in the freezer until needed. Thaw for 5 minutes before use.

 

Our Menu Plan This Week

2 Comments

Blender as GlassThat moment when your blender becomes your glass.

Every week, I create a menu plan for the week ahead. I’ve always found menu planning to be helpful, but especially when eating a vegan diet. Sometimes I forget to make one, and those weeks are just awful. I stare into the fridge and whine that there’s “nothing to eat”, even though the fridge is packed full of deliciousness. It’s bad.

So – I menu plan every week (usually) to make things easier on myself. And it works. I promise.

Here is the menu plan for my family this week:

Breakfast:

  • Fresh Juice (Cucumber, Lemon, Green Apple, Red Cabbage), Fruit Smoothie
  • Fruit Smoothie, Roasted Potatoes with Nacho Cheese Sauce
  • Fruit Smoothie x5 (trying to stick to smoothie-only breakfasts this week)

Lunch:

  • Huge Salad with Beets, Carrots, Spinach, Cucumber & Tahini Dressing
  • Vegan Caesar Salad, Fruit
  • Raw Berry Crisp x2
  • Shaved Fennel Salad with Raspberry Dressing
  • Strawberry Spinach Salad
  • Sliced Bananas & Apples with Cinnamon & Almond Butter, Raw Veggie Sticks, Berries & Fresh Juice (Apples, Kale, Lemon, Celery)

Dinner:

  • Raw Broccoli, Mango, Avocado and Date Salad
  • Veggie Stir-Fry with Smoked Tofu
  • Quinoa Bowl with Smoked Tofu, Beets, Carrots, Avocado, Spinach & Tomato
  • Cauliflower Fried “Rice”
  • Vegan Eggplant Parmesan
  • 3-Bean Chili with Pesto & Homemade Flat Bread
  • Baked Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Snacks/Dessert:

  • Fruit
  • Raw Nuts
  • Banana Ice Cream
  • Lemon Blueberry Crepes
  • Lemon Blueberry Muffins

What’s on your menu this week?

Beer-Battered Cauliflower Tacos with Lime-Infused Cashew Cream

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What’s this? Two cauliflower recipes in a row?

Yes, yes, that’s right. Because I can’t get enough of the dang stuff. CAULIFLOWER FOR THE WIN!

Last week I bought 2 heads of cauliflower because I was off in cauliflower land, dreaming of all the cauliflower meals I wanted to make. This was one of them. Cauliflower tacos. With a beer batter. Because, duh. Everything is better with beer. That’s what my husband tells me, anyway.

Cauliflower-Tacos-Ingredients

Cauliflower-Taco-Bites

These vegan tacos are both soft and crunchy at the same time, and when they’re served with the lime-infused cashew cream – well, watch out! They are crazy good.

Vegan-Cauliflower-Tacos

Who needs fish when you’ve got cauliflower?

Vegan-Cauliflower-Beer-Tacos

Beer-Battered Cauliflower Tacos with Lime-Infused Cashew Cream
Recipe Type: Entree
Author: Vegan Insanity
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • Lime-Infused Cashew Cream
  • 1/3 cup raw cashews
  • 2 tbsp lime juice
  • zest of 1 lime
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/2 tbsp chia seeds
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • Beer Batter
  • 1/2 cup kamut flour
  • 1/3 cup cornstarch
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 tbsp water)
  • 1/3 cup beer
  • 1 tsp cooking oil (I used avocado oil)
  • 1 tsp lime juice
  • Putting it all together
  • 1/2 large cauliflower, cut into “steaks” or bite-sized pieces
  • corn or flour tortillas (I used flour)
  • lettuce of choice
  • 2 large roasted red peppers, thinly sliced
  • 2 green onions, chopped
  • 1/2 cup cooking oil (I used avocado oil)
Instructions
Lime-Infused Cashew Cream
  1. Add all ingredients to a high-powered blender or food processor and blend/process until smooth. Set aside.
Beer Batter
  1. Combine flour, cornstarch, garlic powder, chili powder and smoked paprika in a large bowl. Add in the flax egg, beer, oil and lime juice. Mix together very well, making sure everything is combined.
  2. Add about 1/2 cup oil to a medium pan over medium heat.
  3. Once the oil is nice and hot, dip each piece of cauliflower into your batter and then place on the pan (you will need to do this in batches to prevent over-crowding the pan). Fry for about 3 minutes on each side, or until browned.
  4. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels and sprinkle with a bit of salt.
Putting it all together
  1. Add one cauliflower steak (or a few bit-sized pieces) to each tortilla, top with lime-infused cashew cream, the lettuce of your choice, some roasted red peppers and a few green onion pieces. Repeat with remaining cauliflower. Eat and enjoy!
Notes
[i]*Adapted from [url href=”http://www.forkandbeans.com/2013/04/08/beer-battered-cauliflower-tacos/” target=”_blank”]Fork and Beans[/url].[/i]

Cauliflower-Tacos-Vegan