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Fat Free Vegan “Clean Out The Refrigerator Fuhrman Soup” or How To Make Homemade Soup From Scratch Easily

February 15, 2012 by Veronica Grace 27 Comments

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Low Fat Vegan Clean Out The Refrigerator Vegan Vegetable Soup Nutrient Dense Soup

FTC Notice: This post contains affiliate links that go towards supporting the blog.

This recipe is featured in my Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm recipe ebook along with 29 other AMAZING vegan soup recipes, vegetable stock recipes, and all the tips and tricks to making ANY kind of soup. It’s going to teach you basically to be a soup making expert and be able to cook delicious healthy meals at home, very easily from what you have around.

Somedays you just don’t know what to make for dinner, or only have odds and ends leftover from previous recipes. You look in your refrigerator and see a few carrots, an onion, some celery, some greens and maybe some mushrooms that have seen better days.



What do you do with it all?

You make homemade vegetable soup of course! This is what I do when I feel creatively drained or uninspired to make a new recipe from scratch.

This is also a great way to eat a “Nutrient Dense” or “Eat To Live” style vegan meal like Dr. Joel Fuhrman recommends. (Check out his books Super Immunity, or Eat To Live, if you already haven’t) Lots of low calorie, high antioxidant plant foods, gently cooked together are wonderful. In Feb 2012 I was at the McDougall 3-Day Advanced Study Weekend, and Dr. Fuhrman was telling us the benefits of eating just 1/2 an onion a day, about 1 tomato and just 1 mushroom and how nutritious these are to add to your diet regularly. He has an amazing wealth of knowledge, and I am definitely going to be making more nutrient dense, low calorie green vegetable based dishes from now on.

This soup is a great way to get more of these antioxidants and phytochemicals into your diet in a fairly easy no-fuss way. It’s also a great vegan cabbage soup recipe that is low calorie and packed with veggies.

It is also especially handy to keep some vegetable broth on hand (low sodium is always preferable) for just such an occasion, so you don’t have to make your own vegetable stock as well when you’re short on time. (When I do have time I like to make fresh vegetable stock every week and keep it in the fridge for daily sautéing and making soup with)



Making your own nutrient dense vegan homemade soup from scratch is quite easy. The hard work is only peeling and chopping your veggies. Basically use what you have and always start cooking the onions and the hardest vegetables first (so peel and prepare those first) and they can start cooking while you finish peeling/washing and slicing the other veggies.

It also helps to have some fresh herbs on hand. My top picks would be thyme, dill, basil, cilantro or parsley. These can easily be used up in soup recipes if you have any stray or wilting bits left, so don’t throw them away.

And as with making almost any homemade soup, I always throw in a few bay leaves. They really add a lot of flavour and are great for seasoning soup, vegetable stock or dried beans.



Basic Ingredients For Making Your Own Homemade Nutrient Dense Soup

  • Low sodium vegetable broth (water and salt is not a good enough substitute for this, low salt bouillon and water will do in a pinch)
  • Any vegetables such as carrots, celery, mushrooms, potatoes, yams/sweet potatoes, golden beets, turnips, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, kale, swiss chard, peas, corn, etc
  • Beans or grains (if desired) white beans, lentils, chickpeas, pinto beans, black beans, barley, rice, pasta, etc (make sure beans are pre cooked, or canned before adding)
  • Fresh herbs/dried herbs like thyme, bay leaf, dill, basil, rosemary, cilantro, parsley, Italian herb seasonings, Herbs De Provence etc
  • Base flavor enhancers like canned tomatoes, tomato paste, coconut milk or almond milk (depending whether you want a tomato-ey or creamy soup) *This is optional
  • Seasonings like salt, pepper, lemon juice, lime juice, sweetener (to balance acidity from tomatoes or lemon if desired) cumin, chili pepper, cayenne, smoked paprika, etc

If you add some things from each category (especially ones that you personally like…) and can season to taste and balance out blandness by kicking it up with some lemon, salt and a little sweetener if desired you will have a great soup on your hands.

Also a trick I have for bringing out sweetness to tomato based soups is to add golden beets to it. Golden beets can be found at your health food store, and some grocery stores or farmers markets. They are becoming more popular nowadays. They look almost like small yellowish turnips, but they are beets! (For one thing they don’t turn your hand red and make a mess) They contain natural sugars that leak out into the vegetable broth, so it balances out the harsh acidity of tomato based vegetable soups and goes really well with beans or barley as well. Just make sure you cut the pieces into little cubes, and start cooking them right away with the onions in broth. They take the longest to cook, so you don’t want them to be crunchy while the rest of your vegetables are soft.



Additional Pointers For Cooking Homemade Soup

If you want a fast soup, cut all your veggies (especially potatoes and beets) into smaller cubes so they cook faster. Always add these first to the pot along with carrots and celery. Fresh hard herbs like thyme or rosemary need to go in at the beginning of the soup. Dried or tender herbs like basil, cilantro or parsley can go in near the end of cooking to retain their flavour. Quick cooking veggies like greens, broccoli, asparagus or cauliflower should be added 3-5 minutes before your soup is done so they don’t fall apart and go mushy. Canned corn is very forgiving and can go in at the beginning of cooking and will hold it’s firmness. Canned beans should go in the last 10 minutes or so of cooking as they are fairly soft already and you don’t want them to be mushy and overcooked. Always salt and pepper your soup at the end. Don’t just keep adding salt every time you stir it. When some of the water dissipates you can be left with an over salted or over spiced soup. Always reserve taste testing for the end when everything’s cooked and you can doctor up the flavour from there. Start with a little salt, pepper, spice, or sweetener and keep tasting and adding until you get it right to your liking. Always use low sodium, sodium free and sugar free canned foods so you can control the salt and sugar content of the soup. Read labels! *Note about adding pastas to soup. I really prefer cooking most pastas separately and then putting it into serving bowls and pouring the soup over it. This makes your soup nice and clear and pretty and reduces the risk of over cooking it. If you do cook the pasta in the soup, it’s going to use up some of the water and make it murky with the starch. Check the cooking time of your pasta and add it part way through the soup when the vegetables are starting to be almost soft enough.



And now my made up on the spot “throw it all in a pot” and cook it soup. This is a great way to get more greens into your diet or use up any extras that you don’t have a recipe planned for. This soup is packed with green vegetables, but is light and refreshing. We ate this by itself and basically ate the whole pot because it’s very low in calories. This is a great first course or “weight-loss soup” as well. Fill up on healthy vegetables!

Low Fat Vegan Clean Out The Refrigerator Vegan Vegetable Soup Nutrient Dense Soup

“Clean Out The Refrigerator” Homemade Vegetable Soup

Featured in Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm by Veronica Grace

Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 litres/quarts vegetable broth, (low sodium or homemade)
1 large onion, diced
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1-2 bay leaves
1 tbsp fresh thyme, or 1 tsp dried (or favourite herbs, like dill, basil, etc)
2 carrots, sliced
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 medium golden beet or turnip, diced small (smaller is better)
1-2 cups of sliced mushrooms
6-8 asparagus spears, ends trimmed and cut into thirds (or other green vegetable of choice like zucchini)
2 cups broccoli or broccolini florets
2 cups sliced green cabbage, or other greens like kale or Swiss chard
handful of parsley, chopped
juice of half a lemon
Herbamare or sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste



Directions:

1. Add 1 cup vegetable broth to a large soup pot and turn onto medium heat. Add bay leaves, thyme, onions and beets and sauté for 5-6 minutes. Add more broth if necessary to beets until they are almost covered.  (While this is cooking you can continue peeling/slicing your other veggies)

2. Add the mushrooms, garlic, carrots, celery, cabbage and the rest of one carton of vegetable broth. Stir and let it keep cooking over medium-medium high heat for about 10-15 minutes. Add more vegetable broth if needed from the other carton. You want your vegetables to be almost done before adding the broccoli and asparagus. Check on the beets, if they are still too hard keep cooking until they are almost done.

3. Add the remaining vegetable broth and bring it up to a boil. When it’s boiling, turn it back down to medium-medium high and add the asparagus, broccoli and parsley (and any spinach if using). Cook for 2-4 minutes (depending on the size you cut them) and test the broccoli and asparagus for doneness. You don’t want them too wilted or mushy. When done immediately take off heat.

4. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper and season to taste. Adjust seasonings if desired.

5. Serve!



What do you think of this “Eat To Live” style recipe? Have you ever made homemade soup before? What do you do with your leftover vegetables?



Filed Under: *My Recipe Books, Cooked Vegan Recipes, Eat To Live - Dr. Fuhrman Recipes, How To, One Pot Meals, Soups and Stews Tagged With: asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, Carrots, celery, Eat To Live, fat-free, gluten-free, mushrooms, nut-free, soup

Low Fat Vegan Deluxe Dijon Tofu Scramble With Veggies

January 18, 2012 by Veronica Grace 16 Comments

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Low Fat Vegan Oil Free Deluxe Dijon Tofu Scramble With Mushrooms, Onions, Broccoli, Zucchini, Red Peppers

Deluxe Dijon Tofu Scramble With Mushrooms, Broccoli, Pepper and Zucchini

This is by far the best tofu scramble I have ever tasted, including at vegetarian restaurants. It is also the first scramble I have ever made personally. I was really going for something that would be savory and flavourful and have some colour and dynamic to it and not like a plain tofu only style scramble. I guess I wanted to go big or go home, and dove right in.

So I searched around and found great inspiration from my friend Malloreigh’s Semi Famous Tofu Scramble. She puts tons of veggies in her scramble, and I agree it works. So I have made this recipe below A LOT!!! I of course, took out the oil, switched to light coconut milk, and changed some of the seasonings to make this a low fat vegan chef (and Dr. Mcdougall) approved version. I think you will enjoy it just fine without the oil.

Every time someone wants a special breakfast, I make this. My mom and her husband even love it and they are new to tofu and not even vegan. If you’re used to eating eggs, let me tell you this tastes BETTER than eggs because it’s so flavourful, you will think salt and pepper eggs are boring next time you have them.

Some people might think ewh weird eating vegetables for breakfast, but everyone in Asia has soup and vegetables for breakfast, and even Americans have veggies for breakfast! Omelettes are often stuffed with veggies, and so are those potato egg skillet thingies at Denny’s lol. It’s not strange, it’s delicious. Try it! Potatoes do not have to be the lone breakfast veggie any longer.

Here’s my signature version of Tofu Scramble:

Low Fat Vegan Deluxe Dijon Tofu Scramble (with Broccoli, Zucchini, Pepper and Mushrooms)

Serves 4 as a side

Ingredients:

1 package firm tofu, drained (pressed firm tofu is perfect too)
5 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp herbamare or salt, or to taste
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp maple syrup (or liquid sweetener of choice)
1/2 cup light coconut milk (I use So Delicious SugarFree Original, use unsweetened only please)
1/2-1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups whole mushrooms, chopped (or about 1 -1/2 cups sliced)
1 small crown of broccoli, chopped into half florets
1/2 red pepper, sliced lengthwise and then in half
1/2-1 small zucchini, chopped in half moon thinly (thinner is better to cook faster)

Directions:

1. (Depending on your type of tofu you may or may not need to cut it first before pressing.) Cut tofu into 8 pieces if it’s hard to press with your hands. Squeeze out excess water with your hands or with a tea towel. Crumble tofu into a bowl. If your tofu is easy to crumble, I lay it on a clean tea towel and wrap it up and press all the water out and then crumble it into a bowl. I have used both styles of firm tofu, any firm tofu is good, just get the excess water out. Don’t use silken tofu for this.

2. Add  the nutritional yeast, herbamare or salt, dijon mustard, maple syrup and half of coconut milk. Mix until combined.

3. Next sauté the diced onion dry in a non stick pan or wok over medium heat until soft. Trust me, it will not stick if you have a good non stick pan. (If you don’t have non stick, you can use vegetable broth to cook in) Add the garlic and mushrooms; stir and cook for about 3-4 minutes. (The mushrooms should release water and keep everything from drying out and sticking)

4. Add the crumbled tofu and cook, stirring or tossing gently for about 10-15 minutes. The tofu is very forgiving. You can basically cook the rest of your breakfast while stirring occasionally in your non stick pan without worry. If your non stick pan is not so great, you can add a little vegetable broth or water and in small amounts and keep stirring. You want the tofu to absorb the flavours and cook well without burning.

5. When your other breakfast stuff is almost ready (if you have any), add the broccoli, zucchini, red pepper, and the rest of the coconut milk, mix together and cover with a pot lid. Let it steam for about 5 more minutes until the broccoli is cooked and bright green. Don’t let it burn, add a little more liquid if needed if it’s really dry. You can use extra coconut milk or a bit of water.

6. Taste test and adjust seasonings if desired.  You don’t want your tofu to be too wet, just wet enough that everything can cook and not stick to the pan. Serve right away. I like to eat mine with hash browns or my vegan banana pancakes.

Additional Tips:

Make sure your zucchini is sliced thin enough, you probably don’t want hard crunchy zucchini. If you cut it thicker you can add it right after the mushrooms and cook it with the tofu before you add the rest of the vegetables.

Cook your vegetables until they are the tenderness that you like. Try not to overcook them so the broccoli stays together and looks nice.

Variations:

You can change out any of the vegetables if you don’t like them, or don’t have them. It may sound weird having broccoli for breakfast but trust me, it is delicious and not weird! My family loves it. I think the essentials would be onions and mushrooms in this recipe. You could also throw some spinach in at the last minute to wilt if you like instead of broccoli or zucchini.

If you are feeding more people, you can just up the veggies in this recipe and spread out the scramble. I’ve done that and served 5 people a side serving before fine. If it’s just 2 of you, you can share it with some fruit, toast, pancakes etc and be stuffed!

Add some spiciness to the dish with some tobasco or chipotle chili powder if you want to heat it up.

Low Fat Vegan Oil Free Deluxe Dijon Tofu Scramble With Mushrooms, Onions, Broccoli, Zucchini, Red Peppers

Have you ever made tofu scramble before? What do you think of this recipe?

Filed Under: Breakfast, Brunch, Cooked Vegan Recipes Tagged With: breakfast, broccoli, brunch, gluten-free, mushrooms, nut-free, pepper, tofu, zucchini

Low Fat Vegan Tangy Collard Greens With Mushrooms, Onions and Coconut Milk

January 17, 2012 by Veronica Grace 31 Comments

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Low Fat Vegan Tangy Collard Greens With Mushrooms, Onions and Coconut Milk

Tangy Collard Greens with Mushrooms, Onions and Coconut Milk

Here is my delicious low fat vegan collard greens recipe!

Reminder: Make sure to subscribe to my bi-weekly newsletter on the right to receive my newest raw and cooked vegan recipes each week! You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Link icons are above!

This is an easy oil free and super delicious side dish that you can prepare to accompany any meal! A lot of people know of collard greens, but have no idea how to prepare them healthily, or at all. Generally in the southern United States, it is fried or deep fried and this pretty much negates the benefits of eating collards for health, because your body is dealing with all the denatured carcinogenic fats and free radicals from the oil slathered on it.

To get the health benefits of greens they should be prepared simply. Some of them like baby spinach and tender lettuces can be eaten in raw salads. Collards can be used in raw sandwiches (burrito style rolls) or steamed or sautéed gently.

Depending where you live it may be easy or difficult to find collard greens. I’m in Texas right now, and they are abundant, it only costs about 88 cents (USD) for a giant bunch of them! In Canada, I can only get them in Whole Foods and it costs about $2.99 (CAD) per bunch. So we’re loading up on them here!

Collard Greens Lower Cholesterol Better Than Kale or Broccoli!

“In a recent study, steamed collard greens outshined steamed kale, mustard greens, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage in terms of its ability to bind bile acids in the digestive tract. When this bile acid binding takes place, it is easier for the bile acids to be excreted from the body. Since bile acids are made from cholesterol, the net impact of this bile acid binding is a lowering of the body’s cholesterol level. It’s worth noting that steamed collards show much greater bile acid binding ability than raw collards.” Ambrosone CB, Tang L. Cruciferous vegetable intake and cancer prevention: role of nutrigenetics. Cancer Prev Res (Phila Pa). 2009 Apr;2(4):298-300. 2009.

Brief History of Collard Greens

Like kale, cauliflower and broccoli, collards are descendents of the wild cabbage, a plant thought to have been consumed as food since prehistoric times and to have originated in Asia Minor. From there it spread into Europe, being introduced by groups of Celtic wanderers around 600 B.C. Collards have been cultivated since the times of the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. While collards may have been introduced into the United States before, the first mention of collard greens dates back to the late 17th century. Collards are an integral food in traditional southern American cuisine.

How to Select and Store Collard Greens

Look for collard greens that have firm, unwilted leaves that are vividly deep green in color with no signs of yellowing or browning. Leaves that are smaller in size will be more tender and have a milder flavor. They should be displayed in a chilled section in the refrigerator case to prevent them from wilting and becoming bitter.

Place collard greens in a plastic bag, removing as much of the air from the bag as possible. Store in the refrigerator where they should keep fresh for about three to five days.

Cooking Collard Greens

It is very important not to overcook collard greens. Like other cruciferous vegetables overcooked collard greens will begin to emit the unpleasant sulfur smell associated with overcooking. To help collard greens to cook more quickly, evenly slice the leaves into 1/2-inch slices and the stems into 1/4-inch pieces. You may boil or steam them up to 5 minutes and then season.

For more information on collard greens check out this website http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?dbid=138&tname=foodspice

 

Oil Free Baked Potato With Tangy Oil Free Collard Greens

Giant baked potato with salsa, hummus and "Tangy Collard Greens"

Low Fat Vegan Tangy Collard Greens with Mushrooms, Onions and Coconut Milk

This collard greens recipe is much lower in fat than traditional collard green recipes that call for frying onions in oil first and then adding the greens. I serve these with giant baked potatoes for a completely filling meal. (Yes, dinner can be this simple and delicious!)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 large bunch collard greens, washed
1/2-1 cup of sliced mushrooms of choice
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
1/2 cup light unsweetened coconut milk (So Delicious SugarFree Original is excellent for this, don’t use vanilla or sweetened for this recipe)
1/4 – 1/2 tsp herbamare or salt
1 tbsp of lemon juice (or more if desired)
1/2 tsp sugar or sweetener
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Take the stems off of the collard greens by turning them upside down and making a small circle with your pointer finger and thumb and squeezing the leaves down and off from the stem. Like you would straighten a pipe cleaner. Cut the remaining parts of the stem off the top if you miss any bits.

2. Bunch all the collards up together on a cutting board and cut into chunks.

3. In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil. When boiling, add the collard greens and cook for 2-3 minutes. Drain well.

4. In a large non stick skillet, turn to medium heat. When it’s hot add the onions and sauté dry for 5 minutes. (TRUST ME, it will NOT burn if you use a non stick pan, and no oil is necessary!) Add the mushrooms, collards, coconut milk and seasonings except for pepper and sauté for 8-10 minutes until collards are at desired tenderness.

5. Taste test and add fresh ground pepper and any additional seasonings like more lemon if desired.

6. Serve as a side dish with your meal. (I love serving these with baked jacket potatoes, beans, or rice.)

Variations:

You can also try this recipe with other greens like kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, beet greens etc.  If you use baby spinach, DO NOT boil it, you can just wilt it in the pan with the coconut milk in a few minutes. Make sure your onions and mushrooms are cooked first before adding the spinach.

If you don’t want to use coconut milk, feel free to use a low fat almond or soy milk instead. The coconut flavour is very mild in this and not essential to the overall taste.

Try other seasonings as well, add some spices like paprika, chili, cumin etc instead of the dijon and nutritional yeast.  Mix it up!

*If you don’t want to use a non stick pan, you can put the collards, onions and mushrooms into a steamer basket, steam for 5 minutes over boiling water and then drain. Season to taste with the coconut milk and seasonings and stir to combine.

See non stick pans – are there safety concerns http://lowfatcooking.about.com/od/healthandfitness/a/nonstickpans.htm  You should NOT worry about cooking oil free over medium heat in a non stick pan. If nothing is flaking off, or food is not being burned onto the pan on high heat for a few minutes this is not a concern.

Have you ever cooked collard greens before? What do you think of this recipe?

Filed Under: Cooked Vegan Recipes, Green Dishes, Side Dishes Tagged With: coconut milk, collards, gluten-free, greens, mushrooms, nut-free, onions, side dish, soy-free

Oil Free Low Fat Vegan Cranberry Apple Pecan Stuffing

December 26, 2011 by Veronica Grace 11 Comments

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Oil Free Low Fat Vegan Cranberry Apple Pecan Holiday Stuffing

This is a very delicious and healthy, but decadent stuffing recipe you can use for Thanksgiving or Christmas! It contains no butter, margarine or earth balance, and you won’t even notice! It’s full of flavour and very moist and tasty with so many colours and textures to enjoy.

We ate it along with my Baked Maple Yam Pecan Casserole and Decadent Vegan Pecan Pie. Make sure to book mark this!

This photo above was my first time making it and it turned out very well and since then it has become the stuffing recipe that I use from now on. I wanted something with cranberry and pecan in it, and then threw in mushrooms, celery, apple and apple juice as well. In fact my family DEMANDS that I make this savory stuffing recipe each year and no one minds not having turkey flavoured stuffing at all!

This recipe makes a large casserole pan full, so definitely only do the full recipe if feeding a family. If you’re a small family or a single you could half the recipe if you’d like to make less. It definitely won’t disappoint and everyone will rave about how tasty this home made vegan stuffing is.

Fat Free Vegan Cranberry Apple Pecan Stuffing

Ingredients:

15 cups large cubes of bread
1 large onion, diced
2 stalks of celery, sliced
2 cups mushrooms, diced
1 cup cranberries
2 apples, diced
3 1/2 cups apple juice
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2/3 cup pecans
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 1/2 tsp crushed dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried margoram
1/2 tsp dried savory

Directions:

1. Toast bread crumbs at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes until dry. Check after 10 minutes to prevent burning. Alternatively you can spread on a cookie sheet and dry out overnight.

2. Slice pecans halves in half. (This makes them spread farther and keeps the recipe lower in fat) Toast pecans at 350 for 5 minutes. Watch carefully to prevent burning.

3. Soak dried cranberries in 3 cups of apple juice for 30 minutes.

4. Saute onions, celery and mushrooms in vegetable broth over medium heat for 8-10 minutes until soft.

5. Saute diced apples in 1/2 cup apple juice, brown sugar and cinnamon until soft.

6. In a large bowl combine ingredients and mix thoroughly until all the herbs are spread out and the bread is moist. If your bread is still a little dry you can pour a little extra apple juice in the bottom of the roasting pan to prevent burning and drying out.

7. Spread out in a large lasagna size roasting pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until heated through.

 

What do you think? What’s your favourite type of stuffing?

Filed Under: Cooked Vegan Recipes, Holiday, Side Dishes Tagged With: apple, celery, cranberry, mushrooms, pecan, soy-free

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

December 9, 2011 by Veronica Grace 20 Comments

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FTC Notice: This blog post contains affiliate links that help support the blog.

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?




Filed Under: Cooked Vegan Recipes, Dinner, Side Dishes Tagged With: balsamic vinegar, brussels sprouts, fennel, gluten-free, low-fat, mushrooms, nut-free, portobello, rosemary, soy-free

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