Plant Based U

Fat-Free and Low Fat Vegan Plant Based Recipes

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Fat Free Plant Based Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Fennel and Portobello Mushrooms (Oil Free Vegan Recipe)

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Oil free roasted Brussels sprouts and balsamic vinegar are a delicious combo and a great accompaniment to any meal!

Ahh Brussels sprouts, you either love them, hate them, or fear them…. As a kid I definitely didn’t think I liked them. lol They looked like baby heads of cabbage, and they were green and my mom really never made them. So whenever I would see them at a restaurant or buffet I would avoid them because they were “new and scary”.

Brussels sprouts don’t really scare me now. But you do need to know how to cook them. If you undercook Brussels sprouts they can be really spicy and hard to chew, if you overcook them they can be quite bitter, mushy and unappetizing. I’ve most commonly had them just steamed, but I wanted to try a take on a vegan roasted side dish that had Brussels Sprouts in it.

If you’re going to boil or steam them instead, here’s a quick tip, if you cut an X in the stem of the Brussels sprout it will help it cook faster and more evenly inside, instead of being overcooked on the outside and undercooked on the inside!

I found a vegan Brussels sprouts recipe for inspiration from Celeste’s Vegan Goodness, omitted the oil and switched up portobello mushrooms for the shiitake and added some more seasonings to make it oil free and low fat vegan. If you’ve never tried fennel before either, here’s your chance to check it out. It has a licorice-eque flavour to it and contrasts well with the shallots. This is a delicious way to roast your Brussels sprouts without oil.

(Fat Free Plant Based) Roasted Brussel Sprouts With Fennel and Portobello Mushrooms (Oil Free Vegan Recipe)

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4-5 cups trimmed Brussels sprouts (about 2 lbs)
1 fennel bulb, sliced into half moons
3 1/2 cups sliced portobello mushrooms (about 8 oz)
2 cups sliced shallots (about 3 large)
1-2 cloves of garlic sliced
1 cup low sodium vegetable broth
5 tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 tsp Herbs De Provence
1 tsp Herbamare or sea salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper



Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F/205 C.
2. Place sliced Brussels sprouts in a large mixing bowl.
3. Place sliced fennel in mixing bowl.
4. Slice mushrooms into thick strips and add to bowl.
5. Peel and slice shallots. Remove rings and place and add to bowl.
6. Peel and slice garlic and add to bowl.
7. Add vegetable broth, balsamic vinegar and herbs, salt and pepper. Stir gently to combine. We’re using vegetable broth here instead of oil to season and moisten the ingredients so the herbs will stick.
8. Lightly spritz a 9×12 large roasting pan with light cooking spray or use a reusable non-slip mat (my preference).
9. Pour in veggies and arrange so that they are evenly spaced out.
10. Roast for 30 min. Stir and roast an additional 30-35 minutes until Brussels sprouts are tender.
11. Serve as a side dish or add to salad or Buddha bowls for a savory ingredient.



Additional Tips:

To prepare Brussels sprouts, slice off the tough root at the bottom and peel off 2-6 of the outer leaves depending on how dirty or discoloured they are. Slice in half once peeled.

To prepare fennel, cut off the green tops and fronds. Discard. Slice fennel bulb in half and then cut out the bottom root in a triangle like you would cut out the core of a cabbage. Slice fennel lengthwise.

If you don’t like fennel or don’t have any fennel, you can omit it from the recipe as well. I would just use more Brussels sprouts then to bulk it up.



All done!

Serve with your favourite main dish and devour!

What do you think? Have you ever made roasted brussels sprouts in a dish?




Quick and Easy Thick Plant Based Pizza Sauce (Oil-Free Vegan Recipe)

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Plant based or vegan pizza is probably something you’ll have to make at home, depending on where you live because not a lot of places offer vegan cheese, or are familiar with cheese-less pizzas if you go that way.

I really don’t like store-bought pizza or pasta sauces, they’re full of junk and usually bland.  So I make my own.  I wanted to come up with a really fast recipe for thick pizza sauce that you don’t have to spend forever cooking on the stove and adding raw ingredients too. Once mixed this is ready to go on the pizza.



I also like thick sauces, because low-fat healthy pizza crusts can be a little dry and you really want to have that moisture from the pizza sauce on there. Here’s one that’s oil-free, fat-free and vegan!

Quick and Easy Thick (Vegan) Pizza Sauce

Ingredients:

1 small can of tomato paste
6 tbsp of water with 1/2 tsp Better Than Bouillon Vegetable base OR 6 tbsp water mixed with 1/2 veggie cube bouillon
1 tbsp liquid sweetener (honey, vegan honey, brown rice syrup)
3/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp freeze-dried garlic or garlic powder
2 twists of ground black pepper
dash of smoked paprika
dash of sea salt *if desired
A sprinkle of chili flakes *if desired



Directions:

1. Open the can of tomato paste and scoop into a bowl. Add all of the ingredients to the bowl and stir to combine. Taste test, adding additional seasonings if desired.

2. Spread over pizza crust leaving a small gap for the crust of the pizza.

This recipe should cover up to an extra-large pizza with sauce, or several personal pan pizzas.

I had extra leftover even after liberally topping my large pizza crust. I also topped it with my special recipe of sautéed baby portobello mushrooms and onions, frozen pineapple, kalamata olives, and fresh garlic. As you can see I really like pineapple! Mine is the side on the left lol.



If desired you can also sprinkle some Daiya mozzarella cheese or other vegan cheese on it, but for a truly fat-free recipe, you can skip it.

Let me know what you think! What do you put on your plant-based pizza?



Creamy Raw Vegan Mexican Cilantro Corn Soup

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FTC Notice: This post contains affiliate links which go towards supporting the blog. This recipe is featured in my BRAND NEW 2 part Savory Raw Dinner Recipes DVD set.  It is super easy and very delicious!

Savory Raw Vegan Dinner Recipes

When I was thinking up raw soups to make, that would look great and I would enjoy eating, I got the idea of packing in more and more veg into it instead of having it be all heavy from nuts or lots of avocados. The solution was to add some fresh yellow bell pepper, for flavour, bulk, and colour. It really adds to this simple combination of corn and avocado and took it to a whole new level. Whenever I show people pictures of this soup, they can’t believe it’s raw and think it looks so great. Well, it tastes even better too. You can also get very creative with the garnishing.  I went for a very simple look to display the solid soup ingredients and garnishes. Of course, if you make the recipe you can add as much as you like. You can also make this a little spicier by adding more chili powder.

The beauty of raw soups is that they are quite fast to make (aside from cutting fresh corn off a cobb, you can use frozen if you must) and you can blend them until they are the temperature you want in the Vitamix. So they can be room temperature, warm or quite warm. Just blend for 30-60 seconds for room temperature 1-2 minutes for warm, and then once you get past 2 minutes you are essentially really heating the soup and can cook it a little.  So keep this in mind, depending on whether you want a room temperature raw soup, or a transitional warm “raw” soup. This recipe will please even the most skeptical people of raw soups. Just blend it a little longer so it’s warm and not cold if you’re using corn and bell peppers straight from the fridge. Please let me know what you think! I love your feedback. For more delicious recipes check out my Savory Raw Dinner Recipes 

Creamy Raw Vegan Mexican Cilantro Corn Soup

from my recipe program: Savory Raw Dinner Recipes

Ingredients:

3 cobs of corn 2 yellow peppers, cut into chunks
1 small onion, cut into chunks 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small avocado or 1/2 large
1/2 cup cilantro diced
2 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp Herbamere or sea salt
1 1/2 large limes juiced
1/2 red pepper, diced
diced chili peppers or chili pepper powder to garnish green onions to garnish

Directions:
1. Cut the corn off the cob. (Make sure you have a sharp knife, a bowl or plate to catch the corn, and a towel. It’s messy!)
2. Put half of the corn, both yellow peppers, avocado, onion, garlic, half of the cilantro, cumin, lime, and salt into the Vitamix or food processor. 3. Use the Vitamix tamper to push ingredients down into the blade and blend until creamy. (If you don’t have a Vitamix and need to add a little water to make it blend, do so)
4. Pour into 2 bowls. Add remaining corn and red peppers. If you like it spicy add diced chili peppers.
5. Garnish with cilantro, red pepper, green onions and a sprinkle of chili pepper powder. Serve!

How did you like this soup? Did you know you can use the base of this as a raw salad dressing too?

How To Enjoy Eating A Lot Of Apples or How To Have an Apple Happy Meal!

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So you live in a Northern climate, it’s winter, there’s not a lot of tropical fruit around, there’s not really any “ripe” fruit around, you don’t have a lot of money to spend on produce; you’re hungry and want an easy inexpensive meal.

My friends, let me introduce to you the apple. It’s quite versatile and easy to get ALL over the world all year round. They keep well, can lasts for weeks if not months in the fridge or a cold cellar.



But how do you get this apply-goodness inside you without it being a pain in the jaw and eating all those waxy peels?…

Read More

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Pomegranate Apple Grape Juice

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FTC Notice: This blog post contains affiliate links which go towards supporting the blog. We got some delicious pomegranates from Costco this week, so I’ve been eating them different ways, snacking on the seeds, straight juice and mixed juice. Today I’m having an (80/10/10 diet approved) antioxidant rich breakfast: a bowl of raspberries and a pomegranate, red grape, apple juice. Pomegranite juice on it’s own isn’t so bad, it just has a really bitter aftertaste. If you find it too strong and want to enjoy some nutritious juice this season, mix it with other sweet juices. Apple, grape, or pear works best. Maybe even an apple celery pomegranate concoction would be nice as well. To juice a pomegranate you’re going to want to use a citrus juicer.  The kind you press the handle down onto it. I have a Breville 800CPXL that works great You can try a hand held citrus juicer, but they’re not easy to juice like oranges, and you will find you get whole pieces stuck in crevasses near the peel. For the rest of my raw vegan juice I used my regular Breville centrifugal juicer , which I enjoy as it’s much easier to use and clean than my previous Jack Lalane juicer. I tried that one and actually returned it, it was too messy to use and clean.

Raw Vegan Pomegranate Apple Grape Juice

Ingredients: 1 pomegranate 2-3 peeled apples 2 cups of red grapes (sweet) Directions: Cut the pomegranate in half and using a citrus juicer, juice half of the pomegranate at a time. Really press down with the juicer until the pomegranate seeds all come out. Repeat with the other half.  For any seeds you missed in the strainer, use a spoon and push down on them to pop out the last bits of juice. Take your apples and grapes and run them through a centrifugal juicer. Pour into a tall glass, ensuring the extra foam stays in the container and doesn’t go into the glass. Now pour your pomegranate juice into the glass with the other juice and mix. Serve with ice cubes if desired. Enjoy your delicious juice without the bitter aftertaste of pomegranate!

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Banana Pear Berry Smoothie

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This is a really easy 80/10/10 and raw vegan fruit smoothie to make, using some ripe fruit. You want to use ripe bananas that are soft and lightly brown speckled and pears that have turned from rock hard green to soft yellow with some brown flecks.



Make sure you have ripe pears as well. If your pears have any bad spots in them cut them out before using. If your pears are really ripe like mine were it won’t add much of a gritty texture to your smoothie. Unripe, hard pears are NOT good in smoothies!

 

Raw Vegan Banana Pear Berry Smoothie

Ingredients:

3 large ripe bananas
2 very ripe bartlet pears, seeded
2 cups frozen mixed berries



Directions:

Place bananas, pears and berries into Vitamix or blender. (If you don’t have a Vitamix you need to add some water to blend) Using the tamper, push the fruit down towards the blade and turn onto 5 and then up to high. Blend for 45 sec to a minute until smooth.

Enjoy!



What do you think of this smoothie recipe?



How To Make Homemade Low Fat Raw Vegan Almond Milk In A Blender

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Almond milk is something that many people use nowadays, whether they are vegan or have dairy allergies. Sure you can buy some (non raw) almond milk at the store for your smoothies or cooking, but there’s likely going to be sugar, preservatives and other additives and synthetic stuff in it as well. While it is convenient to use pre made almond milk, it’s not a good idea to base your whole diet on processed packaged foods.



It’s very easy to make at home, and most cost effective if you enjoy using almond pulp in recipes like raw bars, cookies, crackers, or drying it out to use for almond flour. This raw almond milk is great for using in raw smoothies, raw banana ice-cream and raw dressings.

This low fat almond milk is also a nice pretty white colour and not browny tinged from additives like processed almond milk! Beautiful.



How To Make Your Own Homemade Raw Vegan Almond Milk

Ingredients:

1 cup of whole raw shelled almonds
Enough water to cover almonds if soaking overnight
4 cups filtered water (for making milk) If you want it even thinner use 5 cups of water.

Required tools:

Container to soak almonds
Metal mesh strainer/nut milk bag
Vitamix, Blendtec or other blender

Directions:

1. Soak almonds in a bowl or container with enough water to cover and let sit overnight, around 8 hours. (You can skip this step if you have a Vitamix or Blendtec)

2. Drain and rinse the almonds. Place into Vitamix or other blender with 4 cups of filtered water. Blend for about 45 sec to a minute on high. Just until all the almonds are in tiny pieces and it’s frothy.

3a. If using a nut milk bag hold the bag open over a large bowl and gently pour the blended almond milk into the middle of the open bag. Be careful not to spill pulp over the sides. Pour a little at a time and put the blender container down and close the bag at the top and squeeze the bag into the bowl to separate the almond pulp from the almond milk. You can either save the squeezed almond pulp to dry into almond flour or use to make cookies or nut balls or compost it. Continue this process until you have separate all the milk from the almond pulp. If you can’t stand and squeeze you can hang the bag filled with pulp and almond milk up above the bowl and let it drain for a while or in between breaks. Using a good quality nut milk bag you should only have to strain the milk one time if you didn’t spill any pulp over the edge.

3b. If using metal mesh strainers: get out 3 medium bowls or containers. Hold your small metal mesh strainer over one of the bowls and pour the almond mixture slowly into it. Fill up the strainer and then use a spoon to push the liquid down from the pulp. Place the extra pulp in one of the bowls if you want to save it for later. This will take a while. If using a metal strainer, keep filling it up with almond mixture and filtering the pulp from the milk with your spoon and set the pulp aside. Rinsing your strainer in between each filter will make it easier to strain and get rid of the little pieces stuck to it.  After you have filtered your almond milk once, you may want to filter the whole thing a few more times for a smooth milk. Place your filter over the last clean bowl and pour your filtered almond milk over it. You should see some froth and a little pulp being filtered out the second time. Rinse your other bowl and strainer and filter back and forth until your almond milk is smooth to your liking. I do this 6-8 times with a metal strainer for the smoothest milk.



5. Once you’re done you can store the almond milk in the fridge. Depending what you want to do with it you can leave it plain, or blend in a date and some vanilla for sweet almond milk.

I leave mine plain so I can use it for things like banana ice-cream, chia “tapioca” pudding, smoothie base, dressing base etc. I just add pitted dates or vanilla extract  or fresh vanilla bean to the recipe if I need a sweet milk.

Best used within 3 days. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.

Have you ever made your own plant based milk at home? What’s your favourite?



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?