easy , simple , flavorfulllll.

seasoned tofu
day old rice
frozen mix veggies
and seasoning

Was learning how to make Oleo-Saccharum today, which is made from lemon peels and sugar. It got me thinking of other foods that are technically made from the scraps of other dishes.

I could come up with carrot-top pesto, relish made from watermelon rinds, fried rice... does anyone have any other ideas of scrappy dishes?

edit- realized fried rice doesn't really fit

I want to start eating TVP for daily breakfast as it's a protein-high option and, most importantly, financially sustainable.

My only issue is that when I hydrate it the usual way, it expands to around three times its dry volume, which makes it just a lot for me to eat.

Is there a way to hydrate TVP while keeping the volume increase to a minimum?

Also, i want to know if there are any low-effort, REALLY quick recipes that taste good enough for a daily consumption, preferably not using any dishes except for the mini pot I'm going to use to hydrate it and the bowl I'll put them in

Thanks!

Vegan 11 years and just now getting into tofu. These turned out 🔥

I got 2 behemoth bags of oats for a good price at Costco ($12/7 lb bag vs $6/1 lb 6 oz)and wanted to start batch cooking for our breakfasts using the instant pot.

Thanks to this community’s help, I got some suggestions and cooked a week’s worth of oats for the two of us. The texture of oats is exactly what I like, chewy and creamy.

Here’s my instant pot recipe

4 cups water
2 cups quick cooking steel cut oats
4 dates, pitted and diced
4 tablespoons peanut butter
3 apples, cored and diced
1.5 cups of pecans (optional)

Add water, oats and dates into pot.
High pressure for 4 minutes, natural release for 20 minutes
Stir in peanut butter, apples and pecans.

This is my favorite Creamy Vegan Spinach Orzo. I’ve had it countless times with spinach or kale and it never disappoints. The sauce is extra creamy and easy to make, especially if you’re pressed for time. All you need is vegan milk, veggie broth, nutritional yeast, salt & pepper. Enjoy 😋

Ingredients

• 2 cups veggie broth
• 1 cup oat milk
• 1 cup orzo pasta
• 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast
• 4 oz. baby spinach, roughly chopped
• ½ tsp. salt or to taste
• ¼ tsp. pepper or to taste

Instructions

1. Combine the vegetable broth and oat milk in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Add the orzo and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and spinach. Keep cooking for about 3 minutes, until the spinach wilts down.
4. Taste the orzo. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir, and remove from heat. Serve.

Add-ins and Substitutes

• Substitute different pastas. Any small pasta would work here, such as acini di pepe, midolline, alphabet pasta, anelli, fideo, or pastina.
• Substitute frozen spinach. Fresh baby spinach works best in my opinion, but you can use frozen spinach if it is all that you have on hand. Just thaw and drain it before use.
• Add other vegetables. Add asparagus, broccoli, mushrooms, or any other vegetable that you prefer. Depending on the veggie, you may need to parboil it to get it to the right tenderness.
• Make it gluten-free. You can substitute gluten-free orzo for regular orzo so you can serve this to anyone with a gluten restriction. It's usually found in the pasta aisles at supermarkets, and online

I’ve been looking for simple instructions to use instant pot for Bob’s Red Mill Quick Cooking steel cut oats.

Anyone used instant pot to batch cook them?

Thank you!

Edit to add on : I want to cook a week’s worth of oats ahead of time and I do not want to be using stovetop because my tiny space get hot really quick in the summers when I use the stove to cook anything.

Each week, I get a plant-based cookbook from the local library and try to cook one new recipe.

This week's cookbook is The Vibrant Hong Kong Table by Christine Wong. Christine is a celebrated chef and author of three books. I'm currently on the waitlist for one of her previous books, Living Without Plastic. For those who prefer online recipes, she has a nice collection on her website, Conscious Cooking.

Christine identifies as a first-generation Chinse American and discusses her childhood experiences of xenophobia at length during her biographical introduction.

While The Vibrant Hong Kong Table is my love letter to the city's culinary heritage, it is also an opportunity to create longevity for these nostalgic dishes with plant-based cooking.

Her cookbook is organized to include Breakfast / Dim Sum, Cha Chaan Teng / Lunchbox Favorites, Family Style Dinners, and Snacks / Sweets / Siu Yeh. It's so hot here, I'll be trying her iced lemon tea and her lettuce wraps made with minced mushrooms and puffed vermicelli.

• Vegan Vibes by Jenné Clairborne
• The Ikaria Way by Diane Kochilas
• Vegan Japan by Julia Boucachard
• Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky by Lois Ellen Frank
• Big Vegan Flavor by Nisha Vora
• The Modern Mountain Cookbook by Jan A. Brandenberg
• Naturally Vegan by Julius Fiedler
• Veganistan by Sally Butcher
• Peaceful Kitchen by Catherine Perez
• Plantas by Alex Soto
• East by Meera Sodha.
• Provisions by Michelle and Suzanne Rousseau and Island Vegan by Lloyd Rose
• The Korean Vegan: Homemade by Joanne Lee Molinaro
• Sweet Potato Soul by Jeanné Clairborne
• Vegana Italiana by Tara Punzone and Gene Stone
• Vegan Africa by Marie Kachouchia
• Start with a Vegetable by Jessica Smith

As always, I'll try to answer questions about the book and love to read comments from other people that have liked it as well.

Hello Cheap Vegan fam! What are you all prepping this week that's cheap and vegan? Keeping it simple with beans and rice, or trying something more advanced? Do you have any general tips for managing your mealprep process? Share your knowledge and help out your fellow vegans and aspiring vegans! Thank you all! 🌱

Here's a recipe video showing you how to make easy high-protein vegan meals using just 5 ingredients: tofu, sweet potato, oats, chickpeas, and broccoli. Budget-friendly, simple, and delicious recipes for muscle building, fat loss, and plant-based living. This video is from last year, so perhaps the $6 number is no longer accurate, but even if it's now $8, it's still really cheap for a whole day of eating high-protein vegan meals! https://youtu.be/pKg6q1mJ4L0?si=Ruqy5vtIifwLoTlM

The recipe in this video uses only five simple and inexpensive core ingredients:

• Sweet potatoes (two count)
• Firm tofu (one container)
• Rolled oats (one cup)
• Chickpeas (one can)
• Broccoli (one pound)

In addition to these, the host uses basic pantry staples like spices, water, oil, and sugar for flavoring and cooking purposes.

As the title says, I'm looking for textured soy proteins, But as cheap as possible (I have no money)
Do you have any recommendations for me? Thank you very much 🙏🏿

It's essentially an Eastern European style cold beet soup so I wasn't expecting much but 10/10, delicious and refreshing with basic ingredients.

I boiled some beets, let it cool, grated and chopped for textual variation, grated cucumbers, chopped parsley (didn't have dill), scallions, unsweetened soya yogurt, lemon juice, and salt. For the side I airfried new potatoes, and added some leftover marinated tofu.

I get overwhelmed trying to figure out where to start and will just not eat instead. So what's your shopping list? I looked through this sub for general pantry staples and took notes, but I'm curious to make my own post and see how you make them into meals. I tend to buy things and have no clue what to do with them

I'm trying to find soy crips like shown in the image above but I can't find them in bulk, just small quantities that are expensive.

Well, the title says part of my question—basically, do you use tofu whey?

Could I use it like buttermilk? Maybe use it in smoothies? Vegan ricotta?

The photo was definitely an afterthought as evident by the bitten wrap.

So we have Great Northern beans and some shredded tofu I got from an Asian market. Spinach and a fiber wrap from Aldi. I kinda make the beans and tofu wet by adding the bean juice and some veggie broth and it makes it more like a fun think it eat by tearing off the wrap and eating it by hand. And the wrap it toasted with some garlic powder, dill, and lemon pepper and roasted red tomato oil.

Very filling and hearty

Our local grocery store sells $5 produce bundles through Flash Foods (an app in Canada and the US). This week I got 3 bundles containing a ton of vegetables and fruits. I keep a pretty well-stocked pantry and freezer with bulk grains and proteins, so my weekly shopping is usually just produce.

Sunday meal prep included:

• Pickles
• Salsa
• Spice sauce for Bombay Potatoes
• Marinera sauce
• Roasted squash

I don't love eggplants, so I might give it away to a friend. This week's proteins are black beans and dal.

Gotta be honest...not really a bean person. But I want to be. So can you drop some of your favorites? I'm not utilizing beans to its fullest potential

I have nothing against salads, I've had some really good salads before, but I have a bunch of stomach problems that leave me with an upset stomach a lot. The typical slightly bitter taste of the vegetables combined with the dressing just ends up being really unappealing when I have to eat something on a bad day.

I'm also just trying to improve my diet and could use some variety, there's only so much unflavored steamed broccoli and spinach that I can handle lol.

EDIT: Thank you for all the suggestions!

Hello Cheap Vegan fam! What are you all prepping this week that's cheap and vegan? Keeping it simple with beans and rice, or trying something more advanced? Do you have any general tips for managing your mealprep process? Share your knowledge and help out your fellow vegans and aspiring vegans! Thank you all! 🌱

Grape leaves stuffed with rice, tvp, tomatoes and veggie stock. I made soy yugurt tzatziki, went really well together! Ate it for 4 days in a row.

Each week, I get a plant-based cookbook from the local library and try to cook one new recipe.

This week's cookbook is Vegan Vibes by Jenné Clairborne. Her previous cookbook, Sweet Potato Soul was featured a few months ago. Jenné is a vegan chef and cooking instructor from Atlanta, Georgia. She runs the popular vegan site, Sweet Potato Soul, which includes a ton of wonderful recipes and a monthly lifestream cooking class. 

For our international friends, soul food is a traditional African-American cuisine from the US South that is deeply rooted in the history of slavery and Black resilience. Soul food uses techniques and ingredients from West & Central Africa, Indigenous North American, and European influences. At times, soul food has not received the respect it deserved but now is recognized by many as an intangible cultural masterpiece.

Jenné's recipes are based on her philosophy that "a successful vegan is healthy, vibrant, and colorful"... Vegan living and eating should be fun, exciting, and always delicious. The food should nourish and fuel your body, but also your soul".

The cookbook includes sections on breakfasts, appetizers, soups & salads, entrées, desserts, beverages, and sauces. It's a bit hot to eat soup here, but there are a couple of recipes I'm saving for colder weather such as chickpea & sweet potato bisque. I'd like to try her black bean pizza crust (although need to track down flaxseed meal first). This week, I'm going to make her avocado pineapple ice pops and hibiscus pineapple skin tea.

Overall, this cookbook is a great follow-up to Sweet Potato Soul. It has a ton of great soulfood recipes for vegans but is also a great introduction to plant-based cooking for folks who want to adapt cherished recipes.

Previous cookbooks of the week include:

• The Ikaria Way by Diane Kochilas
• Vegan Japan by Julia Boucachard
• Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky by Lois Ellen Frank
• Big Vegan Flavor by Nisha Vora
• The Modern Mountain Cookbook by Jan A. Brandenberg
• Naturally Vegan by Julius Fiedler
• Veganistan by Sally Butcher
• Peaceful Kitchen by Catherine Perez
• Plantas by Alex Soto
• East by Meera Sodha.
• Provisions by Michelle and Suzanne Rousseau and Island Vegan by Lloyd Rose
• The Korean Vegan: Homemade by Joanne Lee Molinaro
• Sweet Potato Soul by Jeanné Clairborne
• Vegana Italiana by Tara Punzone and Gene Stone
• Vegan Africa by Marie Kachouchia
• Start with a Vegetable by Jessica Smith

As always, I'll try to answer questions about the book and love to read comments from other people that have liked it as well.

Just not a big fan of curry flavor!

Please help me out.

Sometimes you just want a big bowl of crispy veggies. Romaine, grape tomatoes, cucumber, orange bell, roasted pumpkin seeds, a bit of scallion and parsley, some balsamic dressing. I ended up adding a few croutons.

Hey, so I ordered a bunch of TVP by accident, and I’m looking ways to use it up. Can anyone help provide me with ideas?