Plant Based U

Fat-Free and Low Fat Vegan Plant Based Recipes

maple syrup

Low Fat Vegan Chocolate Banana Silken Tofu Pudding

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Hey everyone!

Here is a super easy recipe for those of you looking for a plant based dairy free version of chocolate pudding, perhaps a lot healthier and cheaper than some of the store bought versions like Belsoy or Silk.



I use Mori-nu Silken tofu, I find the firm style is a bit better and save the soft version for sauces like my Alfredo sauce. You can add more or less banana if you like, just make sure it is ripe (lots of yellow spots on it) before using so that it is sweet and not starchy and sour. You can also use a frozen banana if you like.

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Low Fat Vegan Chocolate Banana Silken Tofu Pudding
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Vegan
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4 servings
 
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Place the ingredients into your blender or Vitamix in the order listed and blend. (If you have a low power blender you may need to add a few tablespoons of plant milk to get it to blend.)
  2. Pour into pudding cups or tupperware
  3. Place in refrigerator for 1 hour until firm.
  4. Serve with your favorite fruit!

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…. 

Fat Free Whole Wheat Vegan Banana Bread

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Banana bread is one of my favorite childhood treats. I remember baking it many times and trying to pack as much banana flavor into it as possible. But traditional banana bread isn’t very healthy. It’s made with white flour, oil, eggs and sugar. It’s also not usually vegan.

So I wanted to make a fat free oil free vegan version of banana bread and this one uses stone ground whole wheat flour. Even though it’s oil free, it’s actually very moist and a very similar texture to regular banana bread. I was really impressed with this recipe.

Instead of sugar I’ve used maple syrup, but you can also use another liquid sweetener such as honey or agave if desired, but since they are sweeter than maple syrup you should use a little less.

The best banana bread is made with VERY ripe bananas, who’s skins have turned black and are very soft. If you use regular yellow or spotted bananas they won’t be sweet enough for this bread. When bananas ripen the natural starch inside is turned into sugar by enzymes, so it’s important to let your bananas ripen a lot before using them.

The key to slicing fresh banana bread is making sure you let it cool completely before slicing it. It makes it easier to cut and you have less chance of tearing it.

Then you can wrap it up or store it in air tight containers.

Scroll down for the recipe.

Fat Free Whole Wheat Vegan Banana Bread

 
1 loaf (12 slices)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups overripe mashed bananas (about 3 large, 4 medium)
1/3 cup almond milk
1/2 cup maple syrup (or 1/4-1/3 cup honey or agave because it’s sweeter)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat flour (or other whole grain, or gluten free)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ceylon cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Note: for a sweeter (more traditional) loaf you can add an additional 1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F/177 C.

2. Combine wet ingredients in a large size bowl and mix together.

3. Combine dry ingredients into a medium size bowl and whisk together.

4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir just until combined. If you want to add some dry ingredients such as fruit or nuts gently fold them in now.

5. Pour batter into a non stick silicone loaf pan or a lightly oil spritzed metal loaf pan. Use a spatula to smooth out the top. Sprinkle additional cinnamon on top if desired.

6. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a knife in the middle comes out clean.

7. Allow to cool for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a cookie rack to completely before slicing.

8. Serve.

Additional Tips:

If you tend to have bananas that ripen and then turn black before you can use them, you can peel them and place them in a bag or in a plastic container in the freezer. Then take them out and thaw them for this recipe. It’s nice to have overripe bananas whenever you have an incling to make banana bread.

What’s your favorite addition to bake into banana bread? Walnuts? Raisins? Berries?

Antioxidant Omega-3 High Protein Vegan Granola Bars

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(made with quick oats)

The other day I was looking at granola bars at the grocery store and I was starting to get frustrated. Most granola bars are pretty unhealthy, they contain a lot of high fructose corn syrup, milk ingredients, oil, nuts and salt.

When you’re looking for a quick high energy snack for traveling, hiking or to have before your work out it’s nice to eat something that’s just as healthy as a home cooked meal. So I decided to make my own homemade no-bake vegan granola bars, and came up with this bar which is high in protein and contains lots of omega 3’s and antioxidants in it too.

Instead of using oil and corn syrup to bind the oats together I used really ripe mashed bananas and it almost makes these bars taste a little bit like oatmeal banana bread. I also threw in lots of goodies like sultana raisins, Sun-Maid raisins, dried cranberries, goji berries, ground flax seed, ground chia seed, hemp hearts, dark chocolate, and coconut flakes.

All in all they are pretty darn tasty! I definitely don’t mind eating one of these and they’re perfect for traveling or hiking too. I decided to make two batches to test out the difference between instant/quick oats and traditional rolled oats.

They basically tasted the same, but the instant oats were a little easier to chew as the oat pieces were smaller. So it’s up to you on what type you’d like to use. (But don’t use steel cut oats, or oat groats as they aren’t cooked yet and are too hard to chew.)

It’s also a high raw food bar, as many of the ingredients are naturally raw like the bananas, raisins, goji berries, flax, chia, and hemp.  For this reason they need to be stored in the freezer because raw banana is perishable and it will spoil quickly if left on the counter or in the fridge.

Vegan chocolate chips can be hard to come by depending where you live, almost every chocolate chip I saw at the store contained milk ingredients, so instead I just bought a Lindt 70% cacao chocolate bar which was dairy free and chopped that up to use as chocolate pieces. It’s also much lower in sugar than traditional chocolate chips as well.  40 g equals 4 squares out of the Lindt bar. You could also substitute 1/4 cup of dark chocolate chips, or vegan carob chips as well.

(made with rolled oats)

Omega 3 Antioxidant Vegan Protein Bars

Makes 10 bars

Wet Ingredients:

2 medium ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup maple syrup (or other vegan syrup)
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups quick oats or rolled oats (I tested both)
3 scoops vegan protein powder (I used Vega Sport chocolate flavour, but you can also use unflavored hemp protein powder)
1/4 cup shredded coconut *optional
2 tbsp hemp seed (hemp hearts)
3 tbsp chia seed, ground
3 tbsp flax seed, ground
2 tsp ceylon cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins (I used golden and Sun-Maid)
40 g dark chocolate broken into pieces or chocolate chips
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup goji berries

Directions:

1. Mash the banana with a fork and mix wet ingredients in a large bowl.

2. Next add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.

3. Stir until well combined.

4. Line a square pan with saran wrap and press mixture into pan.

5. Place pan in freezer for 3-4 hours until firm and then remove from pan.

(rolled oat bars)

6. Slice into 10 bars with a sharp knife.

(Quick oat bars)

7. Wrap each bar in saran wrap and store in freezer.

8. Let come to room temperature before eating.

Nutrition Facts 10 Servings Amount Per Serving: Calories 282.0 Total Fat 10.1 g Saturated Fat 2.2 g Polyunsaturated Fat 2.8 g Monounsaturated Fat 2.6 g Cholesterol 0.2 mg Sodium 335.9 mg Potassium 301.2 mg Total Carbohydrate 34.4 g Dietary Fiber 6.7 g Sugars 18.1 g Protein 15.2 g

Have you ever made homemade granola or protein bars before? What do you put in them?  

 

Low Fat Oil Free Vegan Baked Maple Yam Pecan Casserole

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Low Fat Oil Free Vegan Maple Syrup Yam Sweet Potato Pecan Holiday Casserole

Low Fat Vegan Maple Yam and Pecan Casserole

Featured in my new recipe eBook: Vegan Comfort Foods From Around The World with other holiday favorites like Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Holiday Stuffed Acorn Squash, Cranberry Apple Pecan Stuffing, Cheezy Sauce For Steamed Vegetables and 5 different gravy recipes and more!

I want to  share some of my delicious Christmas dinner recipes I made last year with you. Baked Yam Pecan Casserole is super easy to make and one of my favorite Thanksgiving and Christmas dishes.

It was my extended family’s first “predominantly vegan” Christmas and holiday dinner.  My mom was so thrilled not to have to deal with a turkey, so she just had her husband pick up some pre cooked roast turkey for himself and my grandmother, and the rest of us just at vegan and loaded up on all the delicious sides!

We made my new Cranberry Apple Pecan Stuffing, mashed potatoes and 2 kinds of gravy, vegetables in cheezy sauce. I know some of you will be wanting the recipes, so here’s another one for you to save for special holidays, or whenever you have a serious Yam craving! (Or if you are obsessed with sweet potato casseroles, or sweet potato pie, like they are in the South. I’m in Texas right now lol)

Now these are actually yams, but Americans will still call them Sweet Potatoes. Pretty much anything that seems like a potato and tastes sweet, they call sweet potatoes. In Canada and the rest of the world, they are called yams (In Australia kumara).  Hence why I called the recipe a Yam Casserole. I think the name “sweet potato” is very ambiguous and confusing, as in the USA it encompasses basically any starchy root than is semi sweet, whether it’s golden yams, purple yams, orange yams (like above) etc.  Check out the Wiki on yams if you don’t believe me!

This recipe is SUPER easy and you can of course scale it down if you don’t want lots of leftovers.

This recipe is also oil-free, Earth Balance-free and guilt free! If you don’t have maple syrup, you can certainly use some agave, brown rice syrup or other preferred sweetener.

Low Fat Vegan Maple Yam Pecan Casserole (Sweet Potato Pie -ish)

(You can also half this recipe, if you don’t want leftovers)

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

5 large yams (orange flesh sweet potatoes in the USA if you insist on calling them that 🙂 )
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp herbamare
1/2 cup pecan halves

Directions:

1. Peel and slice yams into 2″ thick slices. (This is so they cook faster)

2. Steam yams or cook in a pressure cooker just until tender. As soon as you can poke easily with a fork and break them apart they are done.

3. Drain and turn into a bowl and mash with potato masher.

4. Add seasonings and stir gently.

5. Pour into a casserole pan, garnish with pecans and keep warm in the oven at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes until needed.

6. Serve.

What’s your favourite Christmas or Thanksgiving side? What did you have this year for Christmas dinner? Sweet potatoes or yams?

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?