Plant Based U

Fat-Free and Low Fat Vegan Plant Based Recipes

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Lower Fat Vegan Chocolate Pudding (Stove Top)

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Although there are many ways to make your own vegan pudding such as blending avocados and cacao together (for a very high fat raw pudding) or combining silken tofu and melted chocolate (still high fat and has soy and oil) I wanted to make a less “sinful” way to make chocolate pudding. This vegan chocolate pudding recipe is a “better for you” version that I promise will fully satisfy your chocolate or pudding cravings! Anyone can make this recipe, you just need a handful of ingredients and you can also use whichever non dairy milk you like. I used unsweetened original almond milk as I prefer the taste of it versus soy milk, but it’s up to you.

Watch my instructional video below (it’s not very long) and the recipe follows.

Low Fat Vegan Chocolate Pudding Dairy Free Gluten Free

Lower Fat Vegan Chocolate Pudding Stove Top Recipe

Serves 4  (1/2 cup servings)

Ingredients:

2 cups unsweetened original almond milk, or other unsweetened non dairy milk
3 tbsp corn starch
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup plus 2 tbsp maple syrup or sweetener of choice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used my own homemade from fresh vanilla beans)

Directions:

1. Take 1/2 cup of the measured almond milk and combine it with the cornstarch and whisk together until there are no clumps.
2. add the maple syrup, cocoa and vanilla to a medium sauce pan over medium heat and gradually add the almond milk and whisk in.
3. Continue whisking and bring to a gentle boil. This will take up to 10 minutes.
4. Stir in the cornstarch slurry and mix well.
5. Reduce heat and continue cooking until thickened into a thin pudding.
6. Remove from heat and pour into serving dishes.
7. Cover bowls with saran wrap and refrigerate until chilled and set (at least 30 minutes).

Enjoy!

I bet you didn’t realize it was so easy to make vegan chocolate pudding did you? I was very impressed with this recipe. It has all of the decadence of a melted chocolate bar, but it much lower in fat. It’s also easy to adjust the flavoring to your liking by adding more or less cocoa and more or less maple syrup. You also can’t taste the maple syrup in this recipe either. I prefer to use maple syrup as my sweetener because it’s more natural. I don’t use agave syrup as it gives me headaches just like high fructose corn syrup does (some argue it’s even worse than HFCS for you as well.)

Oh P.S. You can also use this recipe for hot chocolate and just omit the corn starch! Heat until boiling and serve. Mmm. 🙂

So there you have it. Are you ready to make vegan chocolate pudding? Come to think of it I want some more right now…. 

20 Minutes To The Table: Mexican Black Bean Corn Tacos & Costa Rican Cabbage Salad Video

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20 Minutes To The Table: Mexican Black Bean Corn Tacos & Costa Rican Cabbage Salad

Hi everyone! I had an idea the other day of putting together quick delicious meals for those of you short on time. This recipe is a great midweek recipe, if you can open a can and use a knife you can make this recipe very easily! I’ll start off by showing you how to make the raw Costa Rican Cabbage Salad recipe, and then the Mexican Black Bean Corn Tacos (this is a variation on my recipe in Vegan Comfort Foods From Around The World.)

If you’d like order one of my cooking aprons or my cookbook my store is here: http://lowfatveganchef.storenvy.com

I’d like to point out that I used canned ingredients in my first video to show how anyone, no matter where you are, can make this recipe. You can also use home cooked beans and fresh corn (or frozen) if desired and using organic foods is your choice as well. This new series is going to show easy plant based recipes that absolutely everyone can make with ease, when pressed for time. That’s why I list the short cuts. Most of the time I cook from scratch, but I know this is not feasible for everyone, especially on a week night after work. Please of course feel free to use fresh cooked beans, organic fresh corn and your own homemade corn tortillas if you are a scratch cooker, but of course this will add to the prep time and take much longer than 20 minutes. Enjoy 🙂

Recipes follow below.

Raw Vegan Costa Rican Cabbage Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1/2 green cabbage shredded (or 5 cups bagged slaw mix)
1 medium (ripe) tomato, diced
1/2 white onion, chopped
1 glove garlic, pressed or minced
1 handful fresh cilantro/coriander roughly chopped (or to taste)
1 – 1 1/2 large limes juiced (use your discretion to balance with salt)
1/4-1/2 tsp Herbamare or salt (use your discretion to balance with the lime)
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper (or to taste)

Directions:

1. Toss ingredients into a large salad bowl (mine was a little small but I used it as it was clear to show you) and massage well for a minute or two, scrunching the cabbage to help soften it.

2. Adjust lime, salt and pepper to your tastes. If it’s perfectly seasoned it should taste neither of just salt or lime, but a nice mix between the two.

3. Place in refrigerate to marinate until needed.

To spice things up: Add a sliced fresh jalapeno or chili pepper.

Based on my recipe in Vegan Comfort Foods From Around The World

Vegan Mexican Black Bean & Corn Tacos

Serves 2-4 (depending how ravenous you are!)

Ingredients:

19 oz. can no sodium black beans or pinto beans (or 2 1/3 cups cooked fresh)
12 oz. can no sodium/no sugar corn or 1.5 cups frozen or fresh cut
4 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
3/4 tbsp maple syrup, maple sugar or honey – I don’t use agave (*optional to add flavor to the unsalted beans)
1.5 tsp roasted cumin (or regular, but roasted is much more flavorful)
1/4-1/2 tsp Herbamare or salt (or to taste)
Pinch of fresh ground pepper
1/4-1/2 lime juiced (or to taste)
8-12 corn tortillas (depends how full you load your tacos)
Salsa of choice (I always look for the lowest sodium on the shelves, you’d be surprised how much sodium is in salsa)

Directions:

1. Heat a pot over medium heat. Drain the corn (if applicable), add some black bean juice to the pot and the garlic and cook for 3-4 minutes.

2. Add the black beans, corn and seasonings (leave the lime juice until the end) and heat for 5-7 minutes to let the flavors meld together.

3. Meanwhile heat your corn tortillas over medium heat in a crepe pan, griddle or frying pan just until warm and place in a tortilla warmer, tinfoil or tea towel to insulate. Alternatively you can heat them over a gas flame until slightly charred or microwave just at the end all together for 30 seconds. (Any longer and it won’t be good…)

4. Add the lime juice to the beans and corn and taste test. Adjust seasonings to taste.

5. Assemble tacos, starting with a layer of black beans and corn, some salsa and then top with your marinated Costa Rican Cabbage Salad. Sometimes I like to add some fresh guacamole for variety as well.

6. Enjoy!

Make it spicy: add some chipotle chili powder, cayenne or a sliced jalapeno to the black bean and corns. Use your discretion.

Corn tortillas are fairly common in the USA and easy to find at most grocery stores and health food stores. I use corn tortillas because they usually have only 3-4 ingredients (but read the label to make sure there is no oil or lard) and are lower calorie than wheat tortillas. Wheat tortillas are more for burritos. If you’re in Canada check your health food store or google mexican/latin groceries in your area. I found several in my city of Calgary that had homemade corn tortillas. I will post a video later on show you how to make your own corn tortillas with masa (corn flour).

This makes a fairly light meal, if you’re family or dinner guests are ravenous I would recommend serving some fresh seasoned rice on the side to round it out, or double wrapping your tacos (use 2 tortillas) and load them up with beans and corn. 🙂

I hope you enjoyed my first episode of 20 minutes To The Table. I filmed this in my kitchen with a camera, a tripod and a lot of books lol.  Let me know what you think by posting below!

How To Cook Dried Beans in an EZ Bean Cooker or Pressure Cooker

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DriedBeans

Here I show you how easy it is to use an EZ Bean Cooker or digital pressure cooker to cook dried beans from scratch.

Please like, share and subscribe to my channel for more demos and healthy recipes! I hope you enjoyed my EZ Bean Cooker Tutorial, right now I’m running a contest for a FREE EZ Bean Cooker. Go here for details: http://www.plantbasedu.com/ez-bean-cooker-giveaway

Preview Video of Vegan Comfort Foods From Around The World

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I wanted to make a little video for you to show off my new printed version of Vegan Comfort Foods From Around The World. I just received my sample proof on Tuesday and here I am showing you what it looks like and what’s inside.

Right now Vegan Comfort Foods From Around The World is on pre-sale so make sure to grab your copy here: http://www.plantbasedu.com/comfortfoods

Thank you for your support everyone! I can’t wait until you can have my book in your kitchen and enjoy making healthy meals for you and your family.

Veronica

Gordon Ramsay Finally Empathizes With Vegetarians – Shocked At Factory Farming Practices

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Although this is about farming practices in the UK, don’t think that it’s not just like this or worse in the USA or Canada. Pigs, cows, chickens, and turkeys are kept in horrific environments and under often dangerous and unsanitary living conditions.

Gordon Ramsay prefers to use free range vegetarian fed animals in his cooking, but at least after what he sees going on in factory farms he admits that he can see why people would choose to give up the taste of meat to become vegetarian or vegan. This is really really great to hear. I have been a fan of Gordon Ramsay for a while, but was always bothered by his often dismissive and negative comments to vegans and vegetarians on his shows. They could have been edited that way, but it sure seemed like he didn’t like us before. I have seen him create a few vegetarian recipes, but I am not sure of any vegan ones being made on his shows.

There are SO many more reasons to go vegetarian or vegan as well besides just animal cruelty. It does send a message when you vote with your dollars to buy fruits and vegetables instead of meat and dairy products. But you also are taking more control over your health and what goes onto your plate by questioning where it came from and how it was produced. The sad fact is that most meat and dairy products come from animals that are treated very poorly and sometimes even brutally and that’s not something that I want to be a part of. While some may argue it’s not natural or hard to be vegetarian or vegan, I think it’s important for your health, the planet and the animals to not support these disgusting factory farms. Everything you buy counts as your vote to have more of that. Big companies are profit driven and what you choose to eat every day makes a big difference.

If I can help people learn how to enjoy cooking and making vegan food, or even just eat more of it (and less meat) that makes a difference. Every little bit counts.

How To Tell If A Fruit Is Ripe Enough To Eat – Banana, Peach, Nectarine, Pear, Kiwi, Apple, Orange and Tomato

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Sometimes you want to know if the fruit you are eating is actually ripe. Especially if you’re eating it raw or in a salad, you want to make sure that it’s at the peak ripeness (flavour and sweetness) and that it will taste good and not be sour, starchy, bitter or pasty and inedible.

Here I show you how to tell if your most common fruits in North America are ripe and when you want to eat them.

I couldn’t tell from my perspective what the banana would look like when I peeled it. What I meant was that the speckled spots do not mean that the banana is bruised or gone bad inside. The banana has a small discolouration from being knocked before it ripened.




Let me know what you think! Did you learn anything new?

How To Select and Cut A Ripe Pineapple Video

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Pineapple is something many people are often afraid to buy whole in the store. They are used to the overly sweet pineapple chunks or rings you get in a can that you grew up on as a kid. But when they start eating healthier or going vegan they might pick one up and sigh “Where do I even start with this thing? It’s so big and prickly and I don’t know how to cut it properly!”.

Not all pineapples come with instructions on how to cut it either!

Fear not, here is a video demonstration I did in my kitchen to show you how I cut a pineapple and how to tell if your pineapple is sweet and ripe.

There are many many ways to cut and serve pineapple, this is just one of them.

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Please click below to watch my video on youtube:
How To Cut and Select A Pineapple

I don’t always cut my pineapples meticulously, but this is the way to do it if you want to get the most out of your pineapple or make it look pretty for serving.

You can also use a pineapple slicer, but honestly I’ve just found them to be so messy and sometimes they shred the pineapple and/or don’t fit the pineapple and it’s either too big or too small for your pineapple. And at the end my counter is covered in pineapple juice and it’s very sticky when it dries!

If I’m in a rush, I will basically cut off all the sides of the pineapples and instead of cutting out the eyes at an angle I will just cut straight down and shave off more of the flesh until the eyes are gone. This is a little more wasteful, but sometimes our pineapples are so big that we don’t miss the little extra bits.


You can freeze any leftover pineapple in bags in the freezer, or use in fruit salad for the next few days, or to put in smoothies.

How Do I Know If My Pineapple Is Ripe?

The best way to check if your pineapple is ripe is to turn it upside down and smell the bottom of it and see if has a fragrant smell. Often the bottom or the whole pineapple will be a yellowy golden color.  Although color is not the definitive guide to telling if a pineapple is ripe, I have found that yellow pineapples seem to be a bit sweeter and less acidic than hard green pineapples. And BTW pulling a leaf from the inner section of the pineapple is NOT an indication of ripeness. That means absolutely nothing! LOL.

How To Ripen a Pineapple?

Pineapples generally take about 2 years to grow and aren’t exactly a fruit, they are a bromeliad, and they have been bred to be edible. Pineapples ripen from the bottom and don’t really ripen much more once they’re picked. BUT there is still some enzyme activity going on and you can make your pineapple a little bit sweeter. Turn your pineapple upside down on your counter for a few days and the enzymes from the bottom of the pineapple will trickle down into the top of the pineapple and it will change your pineapple and make it a bit softer and sweeter all the way through. This is a trick I just learned and I thought it was so cool I’m going to do this from now on. Softer sweeter pineapples also seem to be less acidic so they won’t hurt your tongue as much after eating a few pieces.

What do you like to do with your fresh cut pineapple?

Low Fat Raw Vegan Green Smoothie with Grapes, Celery and Spinach

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Here’s an easy and tasty fat free raw vegan (80/10/10 style) green smoothie recipe you can make for on the go or taking to work. I used to take this to the office (where I used to work) because my boss kept teasing me about my creepy alien green concoctions lol.

Check it out!

Click subscribe on the video to get my latest recipes via video. I do these much less often, so don’t worry you won’t get too many emails!

What’s your favourite green smoothie recipe?