Vegan Stuffing

1 loaf of vegan bread torn into pieces dried out a day or two
4 celery stalks chopped
1 onion chopped finely chopped
2 cups of vegan stock
1 lb of vegan sausage cut into smaller pieces
2-3 oz maple syrup
8 T vegan butter
t T Sage, Thyme, Rosemary and any other herbs you like

Heat oven to 350. Melt the vegan margarine in a large saucepan. Sauce the onion and celery and sauce until translucent. Brown the sausage. Add the maple syrup and stir. Add the dried bread and mix well into the butter. Add as much of the Vegan stock as necessary to make the dressing moist. Put the stuffing into a square oven proof casserole with a top and place in oven for about 30 minutes. Remove casserole lid and keep in the oven for another 15 minutes or so until the top of stuffing is crispy. Top with vegan gravy (recipe below)

Vegan Gravy

6 cups of vegetable stock 
1/2 cup sweet onion finely chopped
4-6 oz of mushrooms chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 cup of flour
1 tsp soy sauce 
1 tsp sage
1tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste


In a large sauce pan, heat about 1/2 of the stock until boiling. Add the onion, mushrooms and garlic and cook until onions are translucent about  5 -10 minutes. Add the spices and the soy sauce. Sprinkle in the flour and cook. Stir continuously to make a roux until brown. Slowly add as much as the stock as necessary to make a gray of your liking while whisking until smooth while keeping the mix on a low simmer. 

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This is a recipe I made up years ago when I was vegetarian. I made my own ricotta cheese out of tofu, vegan sour cream, nutritional yeast, garlic and lemon. Check out my recipe below and I hope you enjoy it as much as my friends and family did.

Vegan Ricotta Cheese:
 
Ingredients:

1 lb of firm or medium firm tofu
1/2 cup of unsweetened non dairy yogurt (I used So delicious yogurt)
1/2 cup vegan sour cream
2 T nutritional yeast
1 t lemon
2 cloves minced garlic

Put all ingredients in a bowl and smash everything together with a fork until it resembles ricotta cheese. Add more vegan sour cream if necessary.

Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 16 oz bag of vegan cheese
2 T olive oil
2 cans organic crushed tomatoes
1 small can of organic tomato paste
1 onion
3-4 cloves of minced garlic, more if you love garlic, less if you don't
1 16 oz package of mushrooms, sliced
1 large zucchini chopped
a splash of red wine
1 package of lightlifefoods veggie sausage or any other meat substitutes you like
1 16 oz pkg of vegan parmesan cheese
2 16 oz pkg of lasagna noodles (I used the ones you don't have to boil and it turned out really well)

Pre heat oven to 275. Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Saute onions until translucent and then add garlic. Continue to saute for a couple of more minutes. Add the splash of red wine (can be skipped if you do not like wine in your sauce). Saute until wine evaporates. Add the chopped mushrooms and zucchini and continue to saute for another 5- 6 minutes or so. Add the crushed tomatoes and blend in. Add the your meat substitute and heat for about 15-20 minutes.

To make lasagna, lay noodles on a large rectangular baking dish. Add 1/2 of the tomato sauce you just made. Add another layer of noodles and top that layer with the homemade ricotta cheese. Add another layer of noodles and top them with the mozzarella cheese. Add one more layer of noodles and top with the remaining tomato sauce. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top and cover with tin foil. Bake for about an hour. Remove the foil and bake another 15 minutes. Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 packages of Pillsbury crescent rolls
2 packages of vegan cream cheese
1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise
1/2 cup vegan sour cream
6 T ranch spices - I use the Penzeys ranch spice
2-4 cloves garlic pressed
Use what ever veggies you like chopped small. I used about 5 cups of broccoli, cauliflower, yellow peppers, carrots and tomatoes. You can use more or less veggies of your choice.

Method:
Roll the crescent rolls out on a cookie sheet and pinch edges together to form a pizza like crust. Bake according to instructions. Let cool completely. Meanwhile, mix the vegan mayonnaise, sour cream, cream cheese, garlic and ranch spices together in a bowl. Top the pizza crust with the ranch mixture and veggies, slice in squares and enjoy!

Ingredients - serves 6

1.5 T olive oil
1 large onion chopped
1 carrot chopped
1 leek chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 t dried thyme
1 T flour
6.5 cups vegetable stock
4.5 cups frozen corn or fresh corn
2 t garam marsala
1/2 t coriander
2 bay leaves
1 small sweet potato chopped
1.5 cups cauliflower chopped

Method:

Heat oil in a pot. Sauté chopped onion, carrot, leek, thyme, coriander, garam marsala and garlic until onion is translucent. Stir in the flour and cook for an additional minute and pour in the vegetable stock. Stir well. Add the sweet potato and cauliflower to the pot and turn up heat until boiling then reduce. Simmer for about 20 minutes while stirring frequently until the sweet potato and cauliflower are both soft. Stir in 3.5 cups of the corn and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes. Using and immersion blender or regular blender, blend the mixture until somewhat smooth. Add the rest of the corn and serve. May top with toasted pumpkin seeds or croutons if desired.

I wanted to use up as many ingredients I had leftover from our trip to Florida to limit the things I'm bringing back to Michigan and what I came up with was pretty good. Even my non-vegan husband liked it. Basically, I followed the process I used to use when I was vegetarian years ago and I was making a cheese based sauce. Since I've been vegan, the only cheeze sauces I've made are from cashews and/or butternut squash which is my favorite, but this turned out pretty well also.

Ingredients:

1/2 - 3/4 10 oz pkg of rice noodles or whatever vegan noodles you might have
1/2 8 oz bag vegan cheeze mozzarella
1/2 8 oz bag vegan cheeze cheddar
8 oz chopped mushrooms
4-5 cloves garlic chopped
2 T olive oil or vegan margarine
2-3 T nutritional yeast
2 T four
1/2 cup plant based milk

Topping:
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup mix of vegan mozzarella cheeze and vegan cheddar cheeze
2 T nutritional yeast

Process:
Preheat oven to 350. Heat olive oil in a shallow pan and add chopped garlic. sauté for a couple of minutes until deliciously fragrant. Add the chopped mushrooms and continue to saute until somewhat soft. Mix in the nutritional yeast well and set aside off of the heat.

Heat olive oil or margarine over a medium flame. While heating the oil, mix the flour with the plant based milk well. Try to eliminate chunks of flour but don't worry too much if you can't. Using a whisk, add the milk/flour mix to the heated oil and stir constantly. Slowly add the 1/2 cup of plant based milk and continue to mix with the whisk until creamy. You can add more milk if it gets too thick. Add the plant based cheezes and continue to mix well using the whisk. When the texture is nice and melted, set aside on a very low fame while you work on preparing the rice noodles per instructions on the box. When prepared, drain and add the noodles to the cheeze mix and fold the cheeze in well with the noodles. Meanwhile using vegan butter grease an oven friendly bowl preferably with a lid (you could cover with foil if you don't have a lid). Add the noodle/cheese mixture to the oven friendly bowl. Add the mushrooms to form another layer. Finally add the cheeze/breadcrumb/nut yeast mix sprinkle all over the top. Cover and heat for about 45 minutes. Remove foil or lid and let heat for another 10- 15 minutes until the top is nice and melted. Remove from oven and enjoy!

NOTE: I made the above with what I had on hand, but I really think this dish could be much more delicious by mixing in steamed broccoli and perhaps adding a layer of sliced tomatoes!! Or add your favorite veggies!

Ingredients for Sauce:

1/4 cup of vegetable broth
1/4 cup soy sauce or liquid aminos for gluten free
 3 T brown sugar or agave nectar
3/4 cup peanut butter
juice from 1 lime
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 T or more to your taste garlic chili paste
1/2 T ginger
1 T minced fresh garlic

Pad Thai:

1 8 oz package of mushrooms sliced
1 broccoli crown cut up 
1 8 oz pkg of bean sprouts
1 8 oz pk of frozen peas
1 pkg of extra firm tofu pressed and cut into cubes
2 T of minced fresh garlic
5 stalks of green onions cut into slices, separate the white slices from the end green slices
1 T rice wine vinegar
2 T olive oil
1/2 cup chopped peanuts
1 8 oz. package of rice noodles prepared and set aside


To prepare the sauce and tofu

Mix all sauce ingredients together. Set aside about 1/4 cup of the sauce and coat the tofu with it. Heat in an air fryer for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Shake up every 5 minutes or so to make sure it doesn't stick or burn. If you don't have an air fryer, you can bake in a 400 degree oven on a cookie sheet sprayed with pam for about 25 minutes or so. Make sure to turn the tofu half way so it doesn't burn.

To prepare:

Heat olive oil in a large pan. Add the white onions and saute for a few minutes. Add the minced garlic and saute a little longer. Add the rice wine and let burn off. Add the mushrooms and saute until starting to soften. Add the other vegetables and saute for another 4-5 minutes or so. Add the peanut sauce and tofu and bring to a boil. Add the rice noodles and continue to mix. If the sauce seems a little thin, you may sprinkle a tsp of cornstartch on it to thicken it up a bit. Plate, add chopped peanuts to top and also the chopped dark green part of the green onions. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 block of pressed firm tofu - to press, put tofu between a few pieces of paper towel on top and bottom and top with something heavy like a heavy pan. Let set for 1/2 - 1 hour or so-
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 tbs soy sauce or liquid amino if you would like gluten free
1/2 tsp fresh ginger
juice from 1/2 lime
2 tbs sesame oil
3 tbs bee free honey or agave nectar
1 tbs chili sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbs fresh garlic

Method

Cut tofu in medium sized squares. Pre-heat oven to about 400 degrees. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowel and dip the tofu squares and place on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes and then turn the tofu over and bake for another 15 - 20 minutes. You can also use an air fryer if you like at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Make sure to toss the tofu every 10 - 15 minutes if using the air fryer.

Enjoy the tofu on rice noodles with any leftover sauce.

Ingredients

3 cups of kidney beans (canned or boiled) mashed
3 cups of breadcrumbs
3 tbsp vegan margerine
1 leek chopped
2 - 3 stalks of celery chopped
1 tbsp parsley
1 tsp chili paste
1/2 onion chopped
5 tbsp aquafaba
oil

garlic herb filling:
5 tbsp vegan margerine
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp parsley

Method:

saute leek and celery in 3 tbsp vegan butter.  Add half of the breadcrumbs, beans, chili paste, celery and two tbsp of the aquafaba to the leek and celery mix.  Form about 5-6 patties with this mix and make an indentation in each patties. Mix all of the garlic herb filling ingredients and put a tbsp or so of the mix in the indentation of each pattie and cover with the rest of the pattie. Melt 3 tbsp of butter in a pan. Meanwhile dip each patties in the remaining aquafaba mix and then dip in the breadcrumbs to cover. Put each patties in the pan with the melted butter. Heat until both sides of the patties are brown. You may have to add additional vegan butter to the pan so not to burn the patio.

We did a pre Thanksliving run of this Wellington recipe and loved it!

Ingredients:

​4 portobello mushrooms
Splash of olive oil
2 tbsp of dry thyme
4 cloves of garlic chopped
1 large red onion chopped
1 tbsp rosemary
1 cup of white wine
1/2 tips brown sugar
2 cups of chestnuts (roasted)
2 cups of pecans
2 slices bread
1 package of puff pastry
1/2 cup vegetable stock
2 tbsp non-dairy milk

Method:

Splash olive oil on portobello mushrooms and top with 1 tbsp of the thyme. Add the chopped garlic also to the mushrooms, and pepper to taste. Bake mushrooms for 15 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

Meanwhile, sauté onion in a splash of olive oil and add the other tbsp of thyme and rosemary. Heat up and add the 1 cup of white wine and let burn off. Add the 1/2 tbsp of brown sugar. When the wine has burned down, set the mix aside.

In a food processor, mix chestnuts, pecans and the bread. Add this to the onion sauté from above, add the vegetable broth and mix until everything is well combined. Lay out one sheet of the puff pastry and pile 1/2 of the onion/nut/bread mix in the middle. Lay the portobello mushrooms on top vertically and cover the mushrooms with the remaining onion/nut/bread mix, kind of like a cocoon. Put a second sheet of the puff pastry on top and seal the edges by wetting it with water and sealing with your fingers. Use a knife or pizza cutter to cut and excess of the puff pastry off. Use a fork to seal the edges. Make sure to make holes in the puff pastry using a knife or fork for ventilation and brush lightly with non-dairy milk. Bake at 275 for 40 minutes and enjoy!