Plant Based U

Fat-Free and Low Fat Vegan Plant Based Recipes

fat-free

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Persimmon Fruit Pudding

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We’re coming into persimmon season soon, so I highly recommend trying them this year if you haven’t yet. You can find persimmons at Asian markets or specialty ethnic grocery stores.

Persimmons look rather like an orange-red tomato and are short and fat. When they are unripe, they will be rock hard and VERY starchy and need to be cut with a knife. Some people like the Thais enjoy eating fuyu persimmons raw in salads more like a vegetable, but personally I find they leave an awful starchy film on my tongue. So I prefer to only eat persimmons that very ripe, when the starch has fully turned into sugar and they are so delicious this way.

This persimmon pudding tastes 1000 times better than it looks, trust me! You can use ripe fuyu, or hatchia persimmons for this recipe, but I used fuyu. It took me about a week and a half to ripen them on my counter until they were soft, juicy and wrinkly on the outside.

 

This recipe is featured in my upcoming DVD series Savory Raw Dinner Recipes!

Raw Persimmon Pudding

Serves 1

This makes a great small breakfast, snack or dessert.

Ingredients:

2 fuyu persimmons, very ripe
1 banana, fresh or frozen
1-2 tbsp raisins
dried coconut (optional)

*Only use ripe persimmons. They will be very soft, a little wrinkled on the outside and look overripe, but I assure you they are not. They are absolutely amazing blended when they are at full ripeness. If yours are still hard or slightly hard, leave them alone until they are very soft!

Directions:

1. Slice the persimmons in half, scoop out insides and put into Vitamix or blender.

2. Add banana and blend on high. (For a nice cool pudding, use a frozen banana)

3. Top with raisins and coconut or fruit of choice.

Enjoy!

80/10/10 Recipe: Low Fat Raw Vegan Green Pea Lemon Dill Blended Soup

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Green peas and dill are some of my favourite green things to eat. So I decided to combine them into a tasty raw soup recipe.

This is sort of a chunky style raw soup with diced veggie chunks in a blended base. Feel free to customize it as you like, but I find that having something to chew on in raw soups is nice so it’s not just eating smoothie with a spoon.

Alternately, if you don’t love green peas raw, you can substitute more of something else like zucchini, cucumber or even diced peppers.

Raw Green Pea Lemon Dill Soup

Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:

Soup Base

2 cups zucchini, peeled and chopped
2 cups yellow or orange tomatoes, chopped
1 cup of celery, chopped
1/2 cup dill, chopped fine
4 green onions, chopped
5 or 6 small dates, pitted
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup of chia gel (or a tbsp or two of chia seed)
2 tsp celery powder or 1/2 tsp salt (optional)

 

Veggies:

1 celery stalk, diced
1/2 cup zucchini, diced
1/2 cup cucumber, diced
1 cup fresh or frozen peas
1 green onion, diced

*Using a veggie chopper is the fastest way to get the vegetables into little cubes to stir into the soup.

 

Directions:

1. Blend soup ingredients in a Vitamix or blender until well combined.

2. Divide soup and veggies into 2 bowls and garnish with extra dill or green onion.

Enjoy!

What do you think of this recipe?

Kik Alicha (Vegan Ethiopian Yellow Split Pea Stew)

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I love Ethiopian food, when it’s fresh especially, but also because it is very tasty and filling as well.

Some of the dishes are very easy to make, and taste perfectly fine using zero oil. The lentil and split pea dishes are especially tasty and easy to make.

This yellow split pea stew one is my absolute favourite of all Ethiopian dishes because it is mild and savoury. I’m not one for the spicy dishes like mesir wot, but you can always add some spiciness to this dish if you desire.

Serve this Kik Alicha with injeera, rice or even Indian bread like chapati or roti for a whole meal.

 

Kik Alicha (Ethiopian Yellow Split Pea Stew)

Serves 2 as mains for an Ethiopian dinner

Ingredients:

3 cups water
vegetable broth as needed
1 cup dried yellow split peas, rinsed
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch chunk of fresh ginger, peeled, and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
3/4 – 1 tsp herbamare or salt
pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place water and the split peas in large pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; and cook about 30 minutes, just until tender. (Alternatively you can cook them in a pressure cooker, use a digital electric pressure cooker as it has a non stick pan, don’t do this in a metal stovetop pressure cooker as it can burn to the bottom.)

2. In a frying pan, add some vegetable broth and bring to high heat. Add onion, reduce to medium high and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add more broth as needed Add the garlic, ginger and turmeric; cook another 5 minutes.

3. Once done, add the mixture to cooked peas; stir in salt and pepper. Simmer until peas are very soft, and almost mushy about 30 minutes more. Taste test; adjust seasonings if needed.

What’s your favourite Ethiopian dish?

80/10/10 Recipe: Fat Free Raw Vegan Blender Applesauce

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This is a really easy recipe 80/10/10 style recipe that you can use as a quick breakfast, a snack, replacement for cooked applesauce in baking or a raw dessert. If you have a few bruised apples laying around, it also takes care of those too!

Raw vegan apple sauce is also very kid friendly for a quick meal. I use ceylon cinnamon in this applesauce recipe. It is OUT OF THIS WORLD! You can check it out here  at our store. It doesn’t have a dry bitter flavour like the regular hard cinnamon sticks you find at the grocery store. Ceylon cinnamon is made from a different cinnamon tree and actually tastes like sweet cinnamon, almost a mix between powdered sugar and cinnamon. It’s sugar free of course and tastes great for many different dessert toppings.

Fat Free Raw Vegan Blender Applesauce

Serves 1 or 2

Ingredients:

3 medium apples, peeled and cored
1 banana fresh or frozen
1 date, pitted
1/2 cup water
1 tsp ceylon cinnamon (this is the true sweet cinnamon you can get it here at our store)
dash of allspice

Directions:

1. Place apples, water, banana, cinnamon and allspice in a Vitamix (or food processor) and push down using the tamper, and blend until creamy. Using a frozen banana will give you a nice cool applesauce.

2. Garnish with sliced or chopped apple, raisins, shredded coconut or additional cinnamon.

3. Serve immediately, or refrigerate for later.

Makes 3 cups

Additional Tips:

I use this when I also need some applesauce for baking, and just omit the date and cinnamon if it would affect the recipe. It’s a great way to use up some extra apples and banana when you don’t want them to go to waste!

 

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Summer Heaven Smoothie

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This is a really quick smoothie that you can make in the summer. It’s an 80/10/10 fat free style smoothie that is really delicious! I didn’t think that I would like watermelon with banana, but trust me it’s very delicious and this way you don’t need to add water to your blender. Make sure your fruit is ripe for the best taste.

Raw Vegan Summer Heaven Smoothie

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1/8 of a large watermelon (about 20 ounces 3 1/2-4 cups)

2 peaches, peeled and destoned

2 bananas, peeled

Directions:

Place ingredients into Vitamix or blender in order above. Blend until smooth. *Tip: use cool watermelon or frozen bananas for a refreshing summer drink.

Approx: 512 calories

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Cherry Dream Smoothie

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Raw Vegan Cherry Dream Smoothie

Serves 1
Ingredients:

1/2 cup water
2 cups pineapple
2 cups black cherries, pitted
1/2 mango (ataulfo is best)

Directions:

Place ingredients in order into Vitamix or blender. Blend on high until smooth. You can use fresh or frozen of any of the fruit ingredients, but fresh is best for the full flavour of each fruit.

The best tool I have found to help with pitting cherries is the Cherry It Cherry Pitter, which I got on Amazon. It rocks, for when you want to eat a bunch of cherries nice and neatly, blending them or freezing them. It can also do olives too. Not that I have tried though! This cherry pitter will be your new best friend during summer time. I love sitting around with a big bowl of pitted cherries and just enjoy popping them into my mouth one by one.

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Cherry Blaster Smoothie

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I love love love cherries. I also love love love cherry smoothies. If you’ve never had one, YOU MUST TRY IT. Pitting cherries by hand is kind of a pain, but scroll to the bottom to find out how I do mine quickly.

If you live in the USA you can also look for frozen black cherries at the grocery store, those are great to have too. You can also buy cherries cheaper at the end of the summer season and pit a bunch yourself and freeze them in plastic bags to use all year which is handy to have.

Cherry Blaster Smoothie

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 cup black cherries, pitted

1 banana (ripe)

1 ataulfo mango (or 1 cup frozen mango)

1 cup peaches or apricots, pitted (sweet ones)

1-2 dates (optional, if your fruit is more tart)

Directions:

1. Place the first four ingredients into Vitamix or blender and blend until smooth. If your blender needs a bit of water to run properly add a little to get things going. Taste test. If it’s sweet enough, you’re done. If your peaches or mangos are not very sweet, add the dates and blend again. Taste test and serve.

To pit cherries easily, I recommend the Cherry It Cherry Pitter which I got on Amazon. I love this thing!

 

Fat Free Vegan Pumpkin Raisin Muffins Sweetened With Maple Syrup

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I love pumpkin muffins. I remember the first time I had them as a kid, I was at school and one of the teachers brought us some. They were so moist and delicious. Even though I’m not a big fan of desserts like pumpkin pie, I enjoy things like pumpkin loaf and pumpkin muffins.

But often the really delicious muffin recipes can have a lot of sugar and oil in them. So I’ve created a new recipe that has no oil, and much less sugar.

Feel free to make these with whatever kind of flour you have on hand, but I try to mix it up once in a while and stay away from refined white flour. Also light maple syrup is less sweet than sugar, but adds nice moisture to these along with the canned pumpkin. I really love maple syrup added to baked goods.

Sometimes organic canned pumpkin is on sale at Whole Foods, so I stock up so I can make more pumpkin inspired recipes!

Fat Free and Vegan Pumpkin Raisin Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups spelt flour (or whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup oat flour (you can grind your own steel cut oats in Vitamix, or coffee grinder for this)
2 tsp celyon cinnamon (this is the sweet “true” cinnamon and tastes so yummy amazing!)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 14 oz can pumpkin puree
2/3 cup light maple syrup (or 1/3 cup agave + 1/4-1/3 cup water)
2/3 cup raisins (or as much or little as you like, I love raisins in baked goods!)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 Degrees F.

2. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

3. Add the pumpkin, maple syrup, raisins and mix until combined.

4. Spray muffin pan with non stick spray or use a silicon muffin tray.

5. Spoon batter into cups with a tablespoon filling just below the top about 2/3 – 3/4 full.

6. Bake 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick in the centre of a muffin comes out clean.

7. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before removing and placing muffins on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Nutritional Info
• Servings Per Recipe: 12
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 160.3
• Total Fat: 1.1 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 235.5 mg
• Total Carbs: 35.5 g
• Dietary Fiber: 4.0 g
• Protein: 3.2 g

What’s your favorite addition to pumpkin muffins, raisins, walnuts, cranberries? Something else?

Fat Free Raw Vegan Mango Cilantro Salsa

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FTC Notice: This blog post contains affiliate links and product links that go to supporting the blog.

This raw vegan mango salsa is probably my favourite ever.  When you have delicious ripe mangoes mixed with the cilantro, red onion and tomatoes it’s heaven.  I serve this on many things! Salad, lettuce wraps, cabbage bowls, as a dip etc. Try this out you will love it!


This recipe is also featured in my Savory Raw Dinner Recipes book and dvd set.

If you’ve never seen an ataulfo/champagne mango before this is what it looks like. You can generally find these in the grocery stores or Asian markets from April to July/August in North America. Outside of that season, they tend to get brown spots and are bad inside, kind of like bad avocados. They taste MUCH nicer and sweeter in season. I love putting these types of mangoes into my plant-based recipes in homemade salsa for burritos, tacos, or burrito bowls.

How To Tell If An Ataulfo Mango Is Ripe:

This type of mango will turn pale yellow to light orange on the peel. It will be soft to the touch and smell fragrant. You should only cut open this mango when the skin starts to wrinkle and look “old”. Trust me then it will be juicy and sweet. If you have any that get black spots on the skin keep them away from other mangos so they don’t spread. As it ripens the black spots will spread. Cut these parts out and don’t eat them.


 

This is what an ataulfo mango looks like when cut open. It is stringless unlike the Kent or Tommy “red and green” skinned mangoes. And is much more delicate.

Raw Vegan Mango Cilantro Salsa

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 ataulfo/champagne mango
1 small tomato, deseeded, diced
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1/4 cup cilantro diced
1 clove garlic, minced


Directions:

Score the mango into cubes and cut off with a knife or spoon, or peel the mango and use square plate or veggie chopper to cube. Combine ingredients in a bowl and mix gently.

Variations: 

Thai, Filipino, and Indian Honey mangoes are of the same family, you can certainly use these mangoes as well for this salsa. It is much better with a stringless variety, so these are my first pick over the “red and green” style mangoes.