Today is Cinco de Mayo, which means Mexican food! I personally love Mexican food, but it is usually loaded with animal proteins and dairy. Even though there are a lot of vegan alternatives, they often lack the "meaty" texture and substance and this specific umami flavor, making the food taste more sweet than savory.
The four recipes that follow are delicious, satisfying and with a lot of substance, that will definitely not leave you hungry or missing that meat component. Let's just dig right in!
Raw Vegan Red Pepper Cream Cheese Endive Bites
Get the recipe here.
This is a great and easy to make appetizer for any occasion. Perfectly creamy and thick consistency makes this spread taste almost like the real cream cheese. You can put it in the endive leaves or just have it with crackers or crudites.
Raw Vegan Taco Salad
Get the recipe here.
The taco filling in this salad has the texture, flavor and substance of the ground beef used in regular tacos, and plenty of health benefits as well. This salad can be easily converted into taco lettuce wraps - just put the filling inside the whole heart of romaine leaves and top with salsa, avocado and vegan sour cream.
Best Vegan Chili
Get the recipe here.
There are many vegan chili recipes around, but this one is the best I found so far. Most of the vegan chilis lack flavor, texture and substance, which in a regular chili comes from meat. Adding ground walnuts and shiitake mushrooms helps achieve this taste, and coconut oil and tamari add smoothness and savoriness to this chili. Of course, I had to make some changes to the recipe to make it gluten-free, and I am not done with it yet, but overall I am very happy with the result. All of our testers, including non-vegans, absolutely loved this chili and were surprised by how close it tastes to the meat version of this dish. It does take some work, but it is worth it.
Better Vegan Mexican Brown Rice
Get the recipe here.
For this recipe we use short grain brown rice instead of traditional white rice. White rice is too processed and refined, and quickly converts into sugar once it is digested, so I prefer not to use it in my recipes. Brown rice is a complex carb and burns slowly when digested, keeping your blood sugar levels steady. Sometimes you just crave some hearty, flavorful carbs, and this rice is the answer. Baking it in the oven makes the rice cook evenly and really get saturated with flavor. You can typically find this sausage in natural food stores and some supermarkets, usually in the frozen food section.
Happy cooking!
Julia
What other kinds of recipes would you like to see? Let me know!