Roasted Tomato Lentil Soup with Olives and Spinach

It’s so satisfying to dump a whole bag of spinach into a soup and watch it wilt into seemingly nothing because how many times do I throw out full bags before getting to eat them?! I used ALL the spinach. I will always remember this day for all spinach ghosts who have departed my fridge without realizing not just their full, but ANY potential.

This soup is pretty quick and easy. It does not reheat well however so if you are just two people, halve the recipe. I would add more lentil though, it seemed very light on lentil. You could double it, just not if you halve the recipe. Are you following? 🙂  Also, canned roasted tomatoes were not at my local grocery store so I bought plain diced. If you wanted to be hardcore, you could roast your own. And I have yet to discover the difference between sweet paprika to smoked etc. I just used regular old paprika. I already had a decent amount of spices before vegan cooking but have used even more and more after starting. My spice cabinet is overflowing! So no buying a spice just for this recipe.

Here is a link to the recipe.

I did not also realize that french bread is vegan. It IS! I naively thought there was some egg or butter involved in making it. So, as long as you can eat french bread, that should make everyone vegan right? Ignore that you can’t have cheese or butter with said bread? Ok, it will not make it easier for the average person, but I was slightly surprised and then realized, duh, obviously french bread is light and fluffy and no butter or egg!

Vegan Hot Pot aka my first attempt at Thai food

So, I screwed this up but it was still SO GOOD! I will definitely make this again, in part because I had to make a special trip to Whole Foods to get star anise. Prettiest spice I have come across.

When I started eating vegan, one of my goals was not to do dishes that are straight up copy cats of non-vegan dishes. I don’t have any desire to make vegan pizza or vegan spaghetti and meat balls for example. I AM sort of intrigued though to try making vegan mac and cheese just because I think the taste would be interesting.

But I did this more for health reasons and as it is turning out, learning a lot more about cooking than I thought. I have never tried cooking Indian food before and now this is my first foray into Thai food.

Three ingredients I have never bought before and what I learned:

1. Star anise. If I could put pretty flower shaped spices into every soup, I would. Also, I somehow missed the fact that anise obviously means what we Americans call “licorice.” Duh, but I didn’t get it until I got it home and smelled it.

2. Lemongrass. I’ve seen it and been confused by it. Never bought it and found out I was still confused. So you peel back the outer layers and are supposed to just use the tiny bulb at the bottom for the recipe. I think that is what I used? It is hard to tell. You also need to buy three lemongrass, I just bought one.

3. Dried shiitake. This is a pretty common ingredient, I just have not used it before. So, I was a COMPLETE IDIOT! I just dumped this into the soup without realizing that I needed to soak it in water beforehand. It also helps if you chop it up also, duh! You could also easily double the mushrooms in this recipe.

Other than that, this soup is SO GOOD! And you can add so much stuff to it, a different result each time. And it is an easy recipe to make, does not take much.

Here is a link to the recipe.

4 cups mushroom or vegetable broth
1 tablespoon organic cornstarch

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil (regular vegetable oil will do, too)
1 red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin, long pieces
Big pinch salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced lemongrass (3 stalks lemongrass)
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 star anise
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 oz dried shiitakes
2 tablespoons soy sauce (or tamari to make it gluten free)
1 roughly chopped tomato
Fresh black pepper

15 oz can lite coconut milk
Juice of half a lime

To serve (obviously just pick and choose, these are just suggestions):
Cooked rice noodles or jasmine rice
Fresh cilantro
Fresh basil (thai basil if you can find it)
Grilled tofu (seasoned simply with sesame oil, black pepper and salt)
Roasted cashews
Cooked aduki beans
Steamed broccoli or cauliflower
Finely sliced bok choy
Extra wedges of fresh lime

Soak the dried mushrooms in water according to the directions on their packet. Rinse, remove stems and chop into large pieces.

Mix the cornstarch into the broth and set aside (this is easiest if you just mix it into about a cup of broth, then pour the rest of the broth in.)

Preheat a 4 quart pot over medium heat. Saute onion and pepper in the oil with a big pinch of salt, until onions are soft, about 5 minutes.

Add garlic, lemongrass, ginger and red pepper flakes and mix in. Cook until fragrant, about a minute, then pour in the broth/cornstarch mixture and add most of the other ingredients: star anise, cinnamon, shiitakes, soy sauce, tomatoes and fresh black pepper. Stir often for the first 10 minutes or so, until the cornstarch has thickened the broth a bit. Now cover pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat to simmer and cook covered for a good half hour, until mushrooms are completely softened.

Add coconut milk and lime, and taste for salt. Heat through and serve with fresh herbs and other accouterments.

 Oh, and I just realized and confirmed how fatty coconut milk is! Lite coconut milk for life.

Coconut Lentil Soup

A few things I learned making this soup:

1. Fresh coriander just means fresh cilantro.

2. Habanero peppers are harder to find than I thought. So go with serranos if you can’t find them or just add a bunch of spice, which is what I ended up doing.

3. Nobody likes “lentil gruel” which is what my boyfriend called this dish. I just was too lazy to blend some of it up in the blender after making it so it looked less soup like and more bean like.

4.  I added a lot of flavor to dish recipe. I added cayenne peppers, extra cumin, red pepper flake, paprika, thyme, hot sauce, garlic powder and soy sauce.

5. Making the gremolata didn’t happen since I could not find habanero in my grocery store.

Here is the link for the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and finely diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 large onion, finely diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2 stalks celery, finely diced (about 3/4 cup)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced on a microplane grater
• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger grated on a microplane grater
• 1 small habanero or serrano pepper, seeds and ribs removed, flesh finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed
• 1 pound dry brown lentils
• 3 quarts water or vegetable stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 (12-ounce) can coconut milk
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce, such as Frank’s
• 1/4 cup juice from 2 limes
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• Kosher Salt
• For the Gremolata:
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems
• 1 small habanero or serrano pepper, seeds and ribs removed, flesh finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced on a microplane grater
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger grated on a microplane grater
• 1 tablespoon zest from one orange, grated on a microplane grater

Procedures

1. 1

   Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven or saucepan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add carrots, onions, and celery, and cook, stirring frequently, until softened but not browned, about 4 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, habanero pepper, cumin, and coriander and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute longer.

2. 2

   Add lentils, water, bay leaves, and coconut milk.Bring to a boil over high heat and reduce to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until lentils are completely tender and have started to break down and thicken the soup, about 1 1/2 hours, adding more water or vegetable stock if soup begins to get too thick. Add chopped cilantro and stir to incorporate.

3. 3

   Discard bay leaves. If desired, partially puree some of the soup with a hand blender or in a standing blender to thicken. Add hot sauce, lime juice, and soy sauce and stir to combine. Season to taste with kosher salt.

4. 4

   For the Gremolata: combine all ingredients in a small bowl.

5. 5

   Ladle soup into individual bowls, sprinkle with gremolata mixture, and serve.

Vegan Jalfrezi with potata and spinach with some bs cliantro chutney

This is the first dish I have made since becoming (mostly) vegan that has disappointed me at some level. I still ate it all and thought it was good, it was just not the spice I expected. I have found that finding ways to add FLAVOR is the key to vegan, at least in my mind. That makes up for the lack of cheese, meat and dairy in part, but also just makes any dish more satisfying even if you aren’t missing the animal products.

This was an almost bland dish while still being pretty good. If I ever made it again, I would figure out how to bring more spice to it. It wasn’t easy for me to think of spices to add to it after I figured out mid-dish that it would not spicy enough. Because it is Indian and I am new to making Indian food, I am not as versed in making it more spicy than I am with other dishes. I don’t feel as confident added a bunch of red pepper flake or garlic powder to an Indian dish as I would as another more familiar dish.

Here is where I found the recipe. The recipe guy is a restaurant trained chef who worked for Cooks Illustrated for years! I put the exclamation point in because I have made two of his recipes now and they both weren’t that great. I have no idea how a trained chef is coming up with these bland recipes.

Sadly, I am such a low level cook I had no idea that it is so easy to boil potatoes to make them easy to eat. It takes 10 minutes people, if you are non-potato users like me.

There is just a lot to chop in this recipe. So much I would almost do it all beforehand instead of as you go, there is that much to prepare.

The cilantro chutney this recipe calls for is completely unnecessary and also not good. It was watery, way too bitter and added nothing. Do not make it, waste of time.

Ingredients

• 1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and cut into rough 1 1/2-inch chunks
• Kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped in food processor on pulsed
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped in food processor on pulsed
• 1 tablespoon ginger, chopped in food processor on pulsed
• 4 to 5 small green Thai bird chiles (or other green chiles, if you prefer) I chopped Serranos in the food processor. 
• 1 small red pepper, finely diced in the food processor with the rest of the ingredients
• 8 stems cilantro, leaves roughly chopped, tender stems finely minced and reserved separately
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon hot paprika
• 2 small plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped (a canned tomato is fine)
• 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, with their liquid
• 8 ounces curly spinach, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoon juice from 2 limes
• For the Cilantro Chutney
• 2 cups picked fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 small green Thai bird chile

Procedures

1. Place potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with water by 1-inch. Season to taste with salt. Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are tender but not falling apart, about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2. In a large heavy-bottomed saucepan or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add grated onion, garlic, ginger, chiles, cilantro stems, and red pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until most of the moisture has evarporated and mixture is beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Add turmeric, coriander, cumin, and paprika, and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

3. Add chopped tomatoes, chickpeas, spinach, 1/2 cup of water, and cooked potatoes. Stir until spinach wilts. Add half of lime juice and season to taste with salt. reduce heat to lowest setting, cover, and keep warm while making chutney.

4. For the Chutney: Combine cilantro, garlic, chile, and remaining lime juice in a blender or in the cup of a hand blender and add 1/3 cup water. Blend until smooth, scraping down sides and adding water as necessary. Season to taste with salt.

5. Add more liquid to jalfrezi if necessary and serve with chutney and steamed basmati rice or naan.

Vegan Caesar Salad with Tofu, GARLIC caper dressing and avocado

If you want a salad that packs and punch and that can even please the biggest meat eater (it actually did) this is the one. The dressing is very flavorful and can be sealed and used up to a few days. This is a somewhat time consuming salad to make. For roasting the garlic for the dressing, I did it myself but you could easily get some roasted garlic from the Whole Foods salad bar if you want to save some time since it takes 35 minutes to roast.If you would be making this on a workday, you can always soak the cashews the night before or that morning before you leave for work so you aren’t adding a two hour wait to making this.

If you are new to nutritional yeast also, as I was, Whole Foods has it in the bulk section so you can just buy the amount you need for the recipe and not invest $12 in a new ingredient you aren’t sure you will like. I ended up liking it but cheese substitutes are never a favorite of mine in concept.

Although it is a very simple recipe, it has a lot of different parts to it so it is heavy in making dishes between the pan for the tofu, the pot for the quinoa, food processor for the dressing etc. The payoff is it is makes great leftovers so once it is made, it makes things pretty convenient for a few days. And my boyfriend, who hardly ever even eats vegetables, really liked this salad.

To Roast the Garlic:

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 400°F: Set a rack in the middle position.
2. Peel (most of) the paper off the garlic: Use your fingers to peel away all the loose, papery, outer layers around the head of garlic. Leave the head itself intact with all the cloves connected.
3. Trim the top off the head of garlic: Trim about 1/4 inch off the top of the head of garlic to expose the tops of the garlic cloves.
4. Drizzle with olive oil: Drizzle 1 to 2 teaspoons of olive oil over the exposed surface of the garlic, letting the oil sink down into the cloves.
5. Wrap in foil and bake: Wrap the garlic aluminum foil and roast in the oven for 40 minutes.
6. Begin checking the garlic: After 40 minutes, begin checking the garlic. The garlic is done when a center clove is completely soft when pierced with a paring knife. Even once soft, you can continue roasting until deeply golden for a more caramelized flavor — check the garlic every 10 minutes. Exact roasting time will depend on the size of your garlic, the variety, and its age.
7. Use or store the garlic: Let the garlic cool slightly, and then serve. Press on the bottom of a clove to push it out of its paper. Roasted garlic can also be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks or frozen for up to 3 months.

For the Breaded Tofu:
3/4 cup fine storebought breadcrumbs (I went to Trader Joe’s)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed between your fingers
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed between your fingers
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon garlic powder

14 oz extra firm tofu, sliced into 8 slabs widthwise
3 tablespoons soy sauce

For The Briny Caesar Dressing:
1/2 cup cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours and drained
1 head roasted garlic (about 10 cloves, see tip)
2 cloves fresh garlic
1/4 cup capers, with some brine
3/4 cup water
Several dashes fresh black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons grapeseed or olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

For the rest: 

1 cups cooked and cooled quinoa

8 oz chopped romaine

4 oz baby arugula (or chopped arugula)

1 avocado, cut diced into 1/2 inch pieces

Make the Breaded Tofu:
Preheat a large non-stick pan, preferably cast iron, over medium-high heat. On a dinner plate, use your fingertips to mix together the breadcrumbs, dried herbs and garlic. On a separate plate, pour the soy sauce.

Place a tofu slab in the soy sauce, and toss to coat. Then dredge them in the breadcrumbs, tossing to coat. (Use your dry hand to handle the tofu in the breadcrumbs, otherwise you’ll get a crumb mitten on your hand.) Put coated tofus off to the side of the plate and continue until all tofu is coated. Put a thin layer of olive oil in the pan, and then transfer tofu cubes to the pan. Let cook for a few minutes then flip, using a thin metal spatula so that you don’t scrape off the breading. Cook for about 7 minutes total, adding a little extra to the pan as needed, and flipping occasionally until browned on most sides.

Once browned, remove from pan and slice on a bias into 1/4 thick pieces.

Make the dressing:
Simply add all of the ingredients to a small blender or food processor, and puree until smooth. Scrape down the sides every now and again to make sure you get everything. Thin with a little water, if necessary. Keep tightly sealed and refrigerated until ready to use. Keeps for up to 5 days.

Assemble:
Assemble the salad in a very large mixing bowl. Toss the greens with the quinoa, and then add the dressing. Serve topped with tofu and avocado!

Butternut Squash Tikka Masala with Chickpeas

I found this recipe for Butternut Tikka on this Awesome Website. I did the vegan version using coconut milk in place of cream and chickpeas instead of chicken.

So, if you have never chopped up butternut squash before, it isn’t easy. It is very tough to peal and also to cut into 1′ squares. You will get through it, I promise you. It made me wonder if there was a cheat where you could warm it up in the microwave before had to make it easier but I did not search for that, I just manhandled a butternut squash until it did what I wanted it to do. I took all of the non-vegan parts out of this recipe to make it more clear. I loved using the parchment when I roasted the butternut, zero mess in my baking pan.

This dish is the right level of spice and enjoyment and I highly recommend it.

Ingredients

1 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed into 1 inch cubes ( about 6 cups)
2 T olive oil
1 ½ teaspoons Garam masala Spice Blend
½ teaspoon salt
One can chickpeas (drained and added after the dish is made)

Sauce Ingredients:

• ⅓ Cup sliced ginger
• ¼ Cup garlic ( 10 cloves)
• 2 fresh serrano chilies- cut in half lengthwise
• 4 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon garam masala 
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 8 roma tomatoes- rough chopped ( sauce will be blended)
• 1 ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 1 ½ C water
• 1 can coconut milk
• ¼ Cup chopped cilantro for garnish

Serve with rice

Preheat oven to 400F. In a medium bowl, toss butternut with 2 T oil, garam masala and salt, until evenly coated. Spread out on a parchment lined sheet pan and roast in the oven for 30 minutes.

While butternut is roasting, make the sauce. Place sliced ginger, garlic and chiles in a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped. Heat 4 tablespoons oil in a heavy bottom pot or dutch oven. Saute garlic ginger and chili mixture over medium heat for 7-8 minutes, stirring often, scraping up brown bits with a metal spatula. Cook until golden. Add tomato paste, and sauté for 2-3 minutes, or until color deepens. Add spices, and cook for 2 more minutes. Add tomatoes, salt, and 1 ½ C water. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low heat for 20 minutes. Blend the sauce in batches in a blender, covering the blender with a kitchen towel and firmly holding lid down ( to prevent an explosion). Return the blended sauce to the pot.

Add the roasted butternut and chickpeas and bring to a simmer. Serve with rice and cilantro.

Details

Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 40 mins Total time: 1 hour 10 mins Yield: 6

Ingredients vegans rely on to not kill themselves (or just good stuff, for the most part)

Having started my vegan experiment only two weeks ago, I have noticed that there are some go-to ingredients vegans use to mainly add protein or make up for the lack of dairy/cream. Most of these are pretty standard ingredients but used in a different mindset when you get rid of meat/dairy. And they all pack a nutrition filled punch.

1. Avocado. It is huge in vegan recipes. It is creamy and can be added to any dish to give it depth, richness and is a dairy double, something non-vegans probably never think of for avocado. And it is a healthy fat packed with potassium, unlike delicious, delicious, horrible cheese. Making a vegan chili and can’t dump shredded cheese and sour cream on it? At least you have avocado. It just starts there. You can add it to any soup or salad to make it hardier or creamier, but vegans have found a TON of other things to do with avocado.

2. Coconut Milk. I have seen coconut milk come up in many recipes and have already bought three cans to make the recipes I have made. It is a cream double in curries, sauces and soups. It also is amazing, I love coconut flavor being added to spicy dishes. Get ready to buy a lot of fresh limes too which go so great with coconut milk anything. Harry Nilsson was spot on with that song.

3. Coconut oil. Ok, I haven’t used this yet but it comes up a lot and we are still on coconuts so I am mentioning it. I have been substituting olive oil so far. Coconut oil is used a lot because of the health benefits and also to add a coconut flavor to things. This may sound silly to some, but the cost of coconut oil has left me from buying it so far. I spend $12 on stupid things left and right but I am very weird about spending on groceries.

4. Chickpeas. In everything. Buy five cans of chickpeas now. They aren’t just for hummus or salad bars. I think most people like chickpeas but probably don’t eat them on a regular basis. As I have seen so far in vegan cooking, chickpeas can almost be added to anything as a protein boost. I have also been focusing on spicy/Indian dishes and chickpeas are prevalent. Which is awesome because I like them. Apparently if you are going super crazy Atkins or paleo, which I am so the opposite of not, you can’t eat chickpeas. Eff that, I lurve ’em.

5. Quinoa, In everything. Again. This is not really a vegan thing, I think the world at large is eating a ton of quinoa right now? I know that I have tried find both quinoa and old skool couscous lately and quinoa is busting out at my grocery store while couscous is barely present. As a side note, my dog really loves quinoa which I find hilarious. I have found quinoa best to add to any salad as a protein boost, that is my main usage of it so far. Also comes up a lot in vegan soups. I don’t find it that great as the base of a dish but that might change.

6. Tahini. Another cream/dairy substitute, tahini comes up often as something to help make vegan salad dressings more flavorful and make up for the lack of cheese/cream. My boyfriend, the man who loves ranch dressing, has called me out for saying I want to put tahini in everything now. It’s so fatty, he complains! So use it wisely, a small amount of tahini goes a long way in a dish to add some flavor. And it has a ton of other nutritional benefits which I am not going over here, but livestrong website told me so. So there! Long live tahini!

7. Maple syrup. I have seen this come up a lot in vegan cooking. Have not used it yet so this is all I am going to say.

8. Tofu. I LOVE tofu. And so do vegans. So it is a good thing I am trying to mostly be a vegan now. If you really want to embrace tofu, become a vegan today. There is so much to do with it. And it stays fresh for such a long time! It is an extreme money saver along with being one of the biggest multitasker proteins of all time. There is nothing you can’t do if you have tofu.

9. Seitan. So, of course, this comes up. I have had seitan a few times at the Whole Foods hot/cold bar. I was fine with it. I was sorta surprised you have to re-hydrate it? I read that in a recipe, apparently seitan is like a dried chile? What? I thought it came good to go like tofu? So, I can totally see myself getting down with some seitan in the future but I have issues with it. One is that I think all those vegan recipes that try to be meat dish recreation too much all rely on seitan. And two, I hate re-hydrating things. I just find it unnatural even though it is totally natural. So we will see how it goes with me and seitan.

10. SPICES! Fill your spice rack. So the biggest thing with eating vegan and not being some freak who can live off of kale juice and a plain salad alone and stay true is spices! Something I like about cooking vegan is that a lot of the recipes I have been making have been heavily spice based and I LOVE it! I like spicy food. I like learning more about spices and what it does to a dish. When you are eating a diet based mainly on veggies, spices are the key. They can make something into something else. It is like magic. They satisfy me when eating whatever. I already had a healthy spice cabinet before I started this journey and now I have a few more. It is amazing what spice can do. Maybe this is more of a revelation to me because I grew up in a household that only used butter, salt and pepper to flavor something and garlic was exotic, but bring on the spice.

11. Ginger. A lot of what I have made, perhaps thanks to it being by this former Cooks Illustrated guy who is obsessed with ginger and “grating things on a microplane” whatever that is, is, again, ginger. I get it, another vegan thing. You need to add flavor and spice when making veggie based food and ginger has that. I don’t think you need the micro grater or plane or whatever it is though, but what do I know? I have made a few of this guy’s recipes and they have been super bland despite the micro aspect is all I can tell you. But yes, ginger is key and you should get some and keep it in your fridge if you want to be vegan, it will come in handy. I love it in juice also.

12. Garlic. I panic if I am low on garlic. I know nothing about cooking but I know I can add garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon to almost anything to make it good. But I have noticed that vegan is heavy on garlic which is my norm anyway but makes sense. Low caloric impact, obviously a veggie and packs a punch. That is my philosophy on veganism as a whole as well.

13. Fresh herbs. I so miss having outdoor space/sunny windows to grow herbs in. I live in a basement apartment in Chicago. We keep the blinds closed because we don’t want people to see in. In a large city, you sacrifice things to have a dishwasher and laundry in the unit. #TRUESTORY Anyway, you should totally grow your own if you aren’t me. It is another vegan go to, to add some veggie high impact flavor: add some cilantro or basil or parsley or mint to something.

14. Chilies. I have been focusing on Indian cuisine with my vegan jaunt, but I have seen chilies kinda getting into everything. Again, a way to add a lot of spice and flavor at low calorie count, cost and good as a nutritional value. I did get annoyed the other night because I wanted habanero and our grocery store didn’t have them or even serranos! WTF!

15. Nutritional Yeast. I have only used this once but have seen it come up a bunch. This is a vegan thing they use to mimic cheese. They sell it at Whole Foods in the bulk section if you just want enough to make your dish. It was pretty much almost gone when I tried to buy it so I didn’t get much. Made me realize how many vegans there are because no one else is eating it. I totally enjoyed the salad dressing I made with it and would make it again. A lot of recipes call for it and it’s cool. I was a little skep at first but it is fine.

16. Cashews. Another cheese substitute. I hate cashews on their own but these come up all the time in vegan recipes. Cashews are used as “dairy” constantly. I put some in water to soak for a dish then ground it up in my food processor. I lived. Guess what? Cashews are cool. Eat some as a dip or dairy sub or toasted or whatever.