Making An Easy Vegan DinnerBeing vegan means that you have to be a little more prepared in the kitchen, especially if you are making things like milk, bread, stock, sauces, cakes and other things around your house from scratch. So sometimes, it is just good to have an easy and carefree dinner which is still healthy, nutritious and which tastes good.
To help you with this, we present here our 3 simple steps to great food which will always help you to produce a great range of delicious and varied dinners every time. There are probably around 30 - 50 different variations that you can choose from by following this simple approach and this helps to ensure that you are always getting great new tastes, a variety of nutrients and more variety in your cooking and in your life. |
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Step 1 - Choosing Your Base
Choosing a base is both very important and super simple. Here are some quick ideas for you to help you choose your base. Please keep in mind that you can choose from a variety of different products within each item e.g. basmati rice, long grain rice, fettuccine, spiral pasta etc. Please choose one or more from the following list for your dinner tonight:
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White Rice
Brown Rice Red Rice Black Rice Wild Rice White Quinoa Red Quinoa Black Quinoa |
Rice Noodles
Pasta Spaghetti Fried Potatoes Boiled Potatoes Mashed Potatoes Cauliflower Rice Barley |
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When choosing your base, you might like to combine a few things so for example, you might choose brown rice, white rice and red quinoa and just drop all this in the rice cooker together so that it comes out wonderfully colourful and varied. And this is all part of the fun! To present something that looks amazing and has a variety of nutrients, flavours and colours ... ok step 1 done - 5 minutes.
Step 2 - Choosing Your Fillings
There is so much variety to choose from here that it is just amazing how many incredible combinations you can create in this section. We often love to combine a wide variety of colours, tastes and foods so for example, we might combine the more traditional tastes of garden vegetables with some root vegetables with a small amount of wild foods in our dishes. We also like to create some nice tofu side dishes as well to help us bring some further variety to our eating.
By choosing to cook in this way, we feel that we are giving our bodies a wide variety of different nutrients from a wide variety of different food categories. Plus its all going to be super delicious when we combine it with the right sauce (in step 3).
By choosing to cook in this way, we feel that we are giving our bodies a wide variety of different nutrients from a wide variety of different food categories. Plus its all going to be super delicious when we combine it with the right sauce (in step 3).
Some Basic Examples To Help You Get Started ...
Step 3 - Choosing Your Sauce
Now comes the best part of all, the part where we transform our dish from just 'vegetables and something' to an amazing satay dish or delicious miso based noodles or a tomato tofu dish. Everything is delivered beautifully with a well prepared and deliciously tasting sauce. Choose from a soy based sauce, tomato based sauce, Indian curry paste, sweet n sour sauce, smoky bbq sauce or a satay sauce to have with your dinner.
Bringing It All Together
Here are some suggested steps for cooking a variety of different dishes in the kitchen using this 3 step approach.
We hope this helps you to prepare simple and easy meals which are delicious, nutritious and creatively inspiring for you.
We hope this helps you to prepare simple and easy meals which are delicious, nutritious and creatively inspiring for you.
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For Rice Based Dishes ...
1. Chop all your veggies 2. Put on your rice (rice cooker) 3. Cook celery, capsicum and/or ginger for a few minutes 4. Add other veggies and cook for around 10 - 15 minutes 5. Make your sauce now as the veggies cook 6. Add the sauce to your veggies and let simmer 7. Prepare a salad if you wish during this time 8. Serve all together For Dishes With a Side of Tofu ... 1. Chop up your tofu into small cubes & fry until brown on all sides 2. Whilst your tofu is on - chop all your veggies 3. Get your rice or pasta ready to start cooking 4. Once the tofu is ready, either: a) add the tofu sauce and let sit - if you are have a side dish; or b) don't add sauce and let sit - to add later into your dish 5. Now cook celery, capsicum and/or ginger for a few minutes 6. Add other veggies and cook for around 10 - 15 minutes 7. Make your sauce as the veggies cook 8. Add the sauce to your veggies and let simmer 9. Either reheat your tofu dish or add tofu to veggies and gently stir 8. Serve all together |
For Pasta Based Dishes ...
1. Chop all your veggies 2. Get your pasta ready to cook 3. Cook celery, capsicum and/or ginger for a few minutes 4. Add other veggies and cook for around 10 - 15 minutes 5. Start cooking your pasta now 5. Make your sauce as the pasta & veggies cook 6. Add the sauce to your veggies and let simmer 7. Prepare a salad if you wish during this time 8. Serve all together For Curry & Rice ... 1. Chop all your veggies 2. Steam the appropriate veggies that are going in your curry 3. Start cooking your rice combination (rice cooker) 4. Start preparing your curry paste / sauce e.g. Thai, Indian, Sri Lankan etc 5. Cook sauce for 1/2 min adding celery, capsicum and/or ginger 6. Add steamed vegetables and cook for 3 - 5 mins 7. Prepare a salad if you wish 8. Serve all together |
