Plant Based U

Fat-Free and Low Fat Vegan Plant Based Recipes

oil-free

Fat Free Potato Chip Recipe

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Hands up how many people like eating crunchy snacks? What about potato chips? Mhmm that’s what I thought! You love potato chips, but wonder how you can eat them as part of a healthy diet. I love crunchy things and sometimes you want the crunch of a chip, but without all the excess fat and calories. Sure you can buy some baked or popped chips at the store, but they’re quite pricey and fairly bland. Not to mention not exactly “fresh”.



As a society we tend to overeat on packaged snack foods because they are so easily available everywhere and in such large quantities. Why not try making some of your own favorite snacks and keep them totally healthy?

In fact after making your own healthy snacks you might appreciate the amount of labor and love goes into making them. So hopefully you won’t just devour them in a few minutes, but savour your hard earned tasty snack! (At least I hope so…)

For this fat free potato chip recipe you will need a mandolin or a V-slicer. Something that you can slice a potato on very thinly. Also please be careful and use the vegetable holder/guard that comes with your slicer, or use some safety gloves so you don’t slice your finger. Personally I have never had a problem using these devices. Just go slowly and be aware of your fingers and you will be fine.

You’ll also require a microwave oven and a roll of parchment paper. Or you can get something like “Top Chips” on Amazon that includes a slicer, spices and a microwaving tray.



Microwaved Fat Free Potato Chips

Makes 70-80 chips Total time: 45-60 minutes

1 large russet potato
Salt and/or pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Fill a medium bowl with water and peel the potato.

2. Using a mandolin slicer on the thinnest setting, slice the potatoes.

3. Place the sliced potatoes in the bowl of water to prevent browning and remove excess starch.



4. Dry potato chips thoroughly with paper towel or a tea towel.

4. Line two large plates with a sheet of parchment paper (essential so the potatoes don’t stick) and place enough potato slices on it to cover (about 9). Make sure none overlap.

5. Mix salt, pepper and any other seasonings together in a bowl and sprinkle seasonings very lightly over the chips with your fingers. Go easy at first and taste test your first batch to know if you need more or less seasoning on the next.

6. Microwave one plate of chips at a time on high for 3-6 minutes (depending on the strength of your microwave). Watch them after 3-4 minutes and stop the microwave when they turn a golden brown in the centre. (My low powered microwave took about 5 minutes)

7. Use oven mitts to remove the plate from the microwave (it’s very hot!) and let cool a few minutes (before removing the chips from the parchment).

8. Remove the chips and set aside in a bowl or dish and repeat this process until all of your potato slices have been cooked (using the correct cooking time for your microwave).



9. Chips will harden after they cool down and become crispier. Eat when cool and crunchy!

Safety Note:

Please make sure to use oven mitts as the plates will be very hot. Also don’t microwave chips back to back for the entire amount, let the microwave have a little break after every 3 plates of chips. I overheated my microwave on the fourth plate and it turned off as a safety precaution.

Additional Tips:

Extra chips can be stored in an air tight container. Eat soon as they can go stale as there are no preservatives.

Use a large potato. The chips shrink significantly after cooking and if you start with a medium potato you’ll end up with small chips.

To Make Fat Free Oven Baked Potato Chips:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Use a baking pan lined with a non stick silicon mat or a sheet of parchment paper. Place cleaned and dried potato slices on the mat/sheet and season. Bake for 15-17 minutes until golden and crispy. Cool before eating.

Additional Seasoning Ideas:

Chipotle chili powder and salt

Salt & Vinegar

Curry powder and salt

Garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper

Grind your favorite herbs or mixes like Herbs De Provence or Italian Seasoning to a fine powder and mix with salt for herbed potato chips

Nutritional Information: Entire recipe (without seasonings) Calories 254.7 Total Fat 0.2 g Saturated Fat 0.2 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.2 g Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g Cholesterol 0.0 mg Sodium 58.7 mg Potassium 1,502.2 mg Total Carbohydrate 58.0 g Dietary Fiber 8.8 g Sugars 4.2 g Protein 6.2 g



And no the microwave does not cause cancer,  nor does microwaved water kill plants.

What seasonings do you like on your potato chips?


Jeff Novick On The Myth of Moderation Pt 2: The Impact of “Just A Little Oil!”

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If you missed out on The Myth of Moderation Pt 1: check it out here.

As humans we tend to be fairly curious and like to test the limits of what we can and can’t do. Often when people opt for a new diet or eating plan they try to stretch the boundaries of what they are “supposed to do” and try to do what they perceive is acceptable, normal or even healthy. In the case of a low fat vegan diet, many people still believe just a “little bit” of oil can’t hurt anything, and in fact is good for you.

While I won’t argue that a healthy individual with no ailments would be harmed by a little bit of oil in one recipe eaten only once, a little bit of oil here or there does add up and it counts. I like to strive for a whole foods based diet as much as possible, and the fact is oil is a refined food and just isn’t included in the optimal diet.

We have plenty of opportunities to get omega 3’s from chia seeds, flax seeds and walnuts, and omega 6’s from other nuts and avocados. Adding olive oil or coconut oil is not necessary for health, and you will benefit from more nutrients and antioxidants if you just ate the whole food instead.

Jeff Novick, MS, RD talks about the concept of adding just a little bit of oil to your salads or veggies and how that actually makes more of a difference than you think.

For more information, I also highly recommend Jeff Novick’s lecture From Oil To Nuts: The Essential Facts About Fat Oils. You can watch a free section of it on YouTube, but it’s definitely worth getting the whole lecture on DVD. He also has a short excerpt from Going Nuts Over Nuts his 2012 lecture on YouTube.

The Myth of Moderation Pt 2: The Impact of “Just A Little Oil!”

So now you’ve got Jeff’s take on adding “healthy” oils to your salads and vegetables. If you’re cooking veggies you have a few oil free options.  You can steam them on the stove, microwave them, or saute them in a non stick pan.

Jeff Novick on the Myth of Moderation Pt 1: Do All Foods Really Fit?

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I love watching presentations by Jeff Novick. First he always presents great information that challenges the beliefs of the mass public and secondly he is very engaging and entertaining while doing so. I also highly recommend his lecture From Oil To Nuts: The Essential Facts About Fat Oils. You can watch a free section of it on YouTube, but it’s definitely worth getting the whole lecture on DVD. He also has a short excerpt from Going Nuts Over Nuts his 2012 lecture on YouTube.

One of the objections I often hear from readers and friends about a low fat vegan diet, is that everything in moderation is ok. They argue that oil, sugar, meat, dairy etc. should be fine in moderation and that an oil free low fat vegan diet sounds too extreme.

The problem with “moderation” is that it’s sure hard to moderate your intake when we are surrounded by food at home, at the store and restaurants, where it’s difficult to be aware of just how much of one thing you are taking in. We don’t have regular lean times in the winter anymore. We don’t need to load up on fat to keep warm for the winter and make it through on less.

Most of us in fact will never willingly skip a meal or even a snack, because the media tells us it’s bad to skip breakfast and we have a tendency to not just eat when we’re hungry, but when we’re bored or celebrating as well.

So is it even possible in a world of abundance to self regulate this moderation? I think it would be quite difficult. And though it sounds extreme, aiming to have zero oil or animal products in your diet gives you a better chance of having low amounts of these foods in your diet, as opposed to too many. If you regularly opt to eat these foods you will inadvertently consume high amounts over the week or month as it adds up. The only way to truly avoid certain foods 100% is by making all of your food every day from scratch and I doubt that many of us are doing that on a weekly basis, let alone for the rest of our lives. So that’s why I make oil free vegan recipes and aim for no oil, no meat, no dairy. Because occasionally when I do eat out, it’s a guarantee there’s going to be some extra oil or fat in that dish and I don’t know how much of it there is.

Let’s hear what Jeff Novick has to say on moderation.

The Myth of Moderation Pt 1: Do All Foods Really Fit?

 

So if you like to consume everything in moderation, how can you be sure you are consuming the proper amounts of fruits, vegetables, water and getting enough vitamins, minerals and fibre? It’s very difficult to consume enough fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains every day when you start trying to add in meat, cheese, oils, alcohol desserts and snack foods every day.

Has any of this information changed your perception of moderation? Discuss.

Gluten Free Vegan Yam Black Bean Burgers (Adapted From TheGlutenFreeVegan.com)

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Here we go with another yam recipe! Ahem… “sweet potato” if you are in the states and kumara if you are in Australia. This recipe is an adaptation of fellow blogger Megan Lust whom I met at the International Food Blogger conference in Portland, Oregon last August.

Funny story, so we sort of found each other with a few other vegan bloggers (there weren’t many!) and bonded over the lack of vegan food at the conference and being pretty hungry. We hung out and then after we saw each others’s business cards we were like hey you sound familiar…. I found out we’ were both Canadian and she was from Saskatoon. Then I thought odd… I swear I know a gluten free vegan in Saskatoon.

And we find out we had actually been vegan food swap buddies a few months before. We tried it out this Canada blogger vegan food swap for 2 months when it first started before giving up (because too many people were sending prepackaged vegan junk you could easily get at the store.) But the cool thing was she had lovingly made me some HOMEMADE ginger pear jam because I begged to not be sent anything junkie with oil and said anything else would be awesome. Here is my previous blog post about the lovely things she sent me.

Faster forward to a few months later and the other day I was cruising her website The Gluten Free Vegan and saw these yummy homemade “sweet potato” burgers. (We Canadians use that word online generally so Americans know what we’re talking about! and most of our blog traffic comes from the USA and not Canada) and I decided to make them myself.

I wanted to try these. I JUST HAD TO.

So in my version of course I stripped the oil out of it and tried to make it lower fat, and also changed up the seasonings to it as well. If you like smokey black bean yam burgers that have a South Western taste you’re going to love these!

These vegan patties also stay together really well because Megan (the genius that she is) uses spiralized or shredded yam pieces in the patty to help it stay together without needing breadcrumbs which makes for a tasty gluten free vegan yam burger! (Much tastier than my previous attempt of yams with black beans and breadcrumbs, that recipe has never seen the light of day because it just wasn’t delicious enough lol.)

You end up with a delicious and crispy on the outside moist in the middle veggie patty that is perfect to serve between burger buns, or even set it atop of some rice or pilaff. So check it out!

Gluten Free Yam Potato Black Bean Burgers

Adapted from Megan Lust’s recipe at The Gluten Free Vegan

Makes 6-8 patties

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups grated or spiralized yams/sweet potato (about 2 small ones)
1 19 oz.(large) can low sodium black beans, drained and rinsed well
6 green onions/scallions/spring onions, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
6 cloves garlic
3/4 cup walnut pieces
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/4-1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F/205°C.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. Add walnuts to the bowl of your food processor and pulse until finely ground.
4. Add in the carrot, celery, green onions and garlic and pulse to finely chop. Be careful not to let it become a paste. Remove contents and set aside in a bowl.
5. Add in the black beans to the food processor and gently pulse until chopped. Add 1 1/2 cups of the grated yams and pulse into a chunky puree. Scrape out into same bowl.
6. Add the remaining 1 cup  of grated yams and seasonings. Stir and combine well.
7. Form into 8 patties with your hands and place on the parchment-lined baking sheet.
8. Bake for 25 minutes until lightly browned and set.
9. Garnish with condiments and serve as desired. (I use hummus instead of Veganaise, ketchup and relish or pickles and lettuce.)

Additional Tips:

If you don’t have smoked paprika or chipotle pepper, I recommend it, but you can use regular. It just won’t have that full bodied smokey flavor to it.

For a gluten free option, serve patties in a large lettuce leaf or use gluten free buns.

Additionally you can serve these like sweet potato cakes over top of rice.

Store remaining patties in between sheets of parchment paper, either in the fridge or seal and place in freezer. To reheat, place into a non stick pan and heat over medium heat until warmed through.

Have you ever made your own vegan burger patties? What do you put in them?

Pomegranate Apple Green Salad With Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette

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The other day I went to a raw food potluck in Calgary and someone made this delicious salad that had a bunch of mixed vegetables and pomegranate seeds and it was quite delicious. So I thought why not make my own pomegranate salad for the holiday season?

To easily peel a pomegranate, you can cut it in half and fill a large bowl or sink full of water. Start peeling off the outer peel. The seeds will sink and the white parts will float so you can scoop them out and discard them. Once you’re done peeling everything apart you can drain the water and you’re left with pomegranate seeds.

(Or you can go to Costco and buy packages of fresh pre peeled pomegranate seeds in the refrigerated produce section if you don’t want to peel one.)

This is a really lovely salad that I designed to be really simple to make yet seem a little fancier. It’s got antioxidants from the pomegranate and the raspberries and omega 3’s from the walnuts (in the dressing).

I prefer to make all of my own salad dressings and not use any oil in them at all. So I used walnut pieces for healthy fats in this dressing. If you don’t have fresh raspberries right now, you can also use frozen. Just let them sit out for a few minutes to defrost a little first.

So let’s check out the recipe:

Raw Vegan Pomegranate Apple Green Salad

(With Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette)

Serves 2 side salads or 1 medium/large salad

Salad:

4-6 cups mixed greens
1-2 apples peeled and sliced
1-2 tbsp raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
3 tbsp fresh pomegranate seeds

Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

1/2 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)
1/4 cup mandarin orange juice (2 oranges)
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp broken walnut pieces
2 large medjool dates, pitted
1 tbsp Trader Joe’s orange muscat champagne vinegar/other fruit vinegar/apple cider vinegar
1/8 tsp Herbamare or salt *optional

Directions:

  1. Arrange the salad ingredients in side salad bowls or a large serving bowl.
  2. Place the salad dressing ingredients into a Vita-Mix or a blender and process until smooth.
  3. Drizzle dressing overtop of salad.
  4. Serve.

Additional Tips:

Feel free to double this recipe if you’re entertaining.

What’s your favorite holiday salad? Have you ever used pomegranates in a recipe? 

Lebanese Tahini Sauce For Falafels

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I love making homemade dips and sauces! I find them SO much more flavorful than the store bought ones.  The other day I made some baked falafels I bought from Trader Joe’s and I wanted some tasty tahini sauce to serve them with. This is the dip I came up with. It would also be delicious to serve some taboulli salad with your tahini dip and falafels as well.

photo from WhatsGoodAtTraderJoes

You can also use this as a spread for pita wraps/sandwiches, to dip pita in, crackers, veggies, chips, etc. It tastes a little like hummus but without the chickpeas.

Tahini Dip For Falafels

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup water
2 cloves of garlic
3-4 tbsp lemon juice
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth and creamy. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Serve with falafel, veggies or pita.

Have you ever had tahini dip before? What do you like to serve it with?

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

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FTC Notice: The post contains affiliate links that go to supporting the blog. 

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?