Whole-food Vegan Recipes
This section is dedicated to helping people figure out cheap, easy, and tasty recipes - and also some more complex recipes for people wanting to try them out.
A lot of recipes found online that claim to be cheap and easy often turn out to be the opposite. They are also usually quite unsatiating. This list of recipes therefore aims to provide good, healthy, and filling meal ideas.
These recipes are all going to be whole-foods based, as it is the healthier and optimal alternative--with some non-whole-foods options that are not too unhealthy, for the people that want tastier dishes while not sacrificing health too much, like adding a bit of olive oil.
You are not required to be whole-foods based to be vegan, but the more whole-foods ingredients you use, the healthier the food will be.
Whole-foods is commonly defined as:
"Food that has been processed or refined as little as possible and is free from additives or other artificial substances[1]." - Lexico.com
Common ingredients and cooking methods that are not considered whole-foods will be replaced by the following:
- No oil - there is no direct replacement, except for recipes where tahini or peanut butter works/are needed. However, a drizzle of olive oil is not a significant sacrifice in health, and only worth giving up if you want to optimize.
- No sugar - replaced by date sugar, which is simply whole, ground dates and not actual sugar. It is, however, a more costly alternative. Sugar can also be replaced by fruits where applicable, or sugar-rich foods like carrots, sweet potatoes, and sweet onions.
- Preferably other source of sodium than salt - replaced by miso paste or soy sauce (or other fermented foods where applicable). If you lack both of these products, a not excessive amount of salt should be fine.
- No alcohol - this is both unnecessary and unhealthy, as scientific consensus classifies alcohol as a carcinogen [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , [6].
- No frying - replaced by steaming, baking, or roasting.
- No refined grains - replaced by whole grains (e.g. whole-wheat pasta, whole-grain couscous, brown rice, etc.).
- Preferably no juice - replaced by the whole, blended fruit. If you do not have a blender, juice - like lemon juice instead of blended lemon - will do.
The recipes are sorted by difficulty level (from easier to more complicated), and by time (from fastest to longest to prepare). Difficulty, on the other hand, takes into consideration how complicated the preparation and cooking process is, how accurate the quantities of ingredients have to be for the recipe to turn out right, how important timing is, the amount of steps to take, and the chance that the recipe can turn out bad considering the level of knowledge of someone who barely or never cooks.
| Name | Difficulty (x/5) | Time (minutes) | Type of Cuisine | Sweet/Savory | Flavor (Acidic/Fruity/Oniony/Garlicky/Rich) | Meal Type (Soups/Main Dishes/Breakfast&Snacks/Desserts/Sides&Salads) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avocado pasta | 1 | 20 | Generic | Savory | Rich | Main Dish |
| Cheesy tofu and cabbage rice bowl | 1 | 25 | Generic | Savory | Oniony | Main Dish |
| Eggplant pasta | 1 | 25 | Generic | Savory | Oniony | Main Dish |
| Green pasta with tomato sauce | 1 | 25 | Generic | Savory | Garlicky | Main Dish |
| Lemony lentil soup | 1 | 60 | Generic | Savory | Acidic | Soup |
| Messy pasta with tofu and seeds | 1 | 25 | Generic | Savory | Garlicky | Main Dish |
| No-bake xberry cake | 1 | 240 | Generic | Sweet | Fruity | Dessert |
| Peanut butter sweet toast | 0 | 5 | Generic | Sweet | Rich | Breakfast&Snacks |
| Pumpkin pasta | 2 | 120 | Generic | Savory | Rich | Main Dish |
| Scrambled tofu bowl | 1 | 25 | Generic | Savory | Rich | Main Dish |
| Xberry oatmeal | 1 | 15 | Generic | Sweet | Fruity | Breakfast&Snacks |
| Xberry smoothie | 0 | 5 | Generic | Sweet | Fruity | Breakfast&Snacks |
| Xberry yogurt with oats | 0 | 5 | Generic | Sweet | Fruity | Breakfast&Snacks |
