Oh, how the times have changed!

I know everyone is talking about the really-amazing-I-totally-want-one-too air fryers these days, but I’m about to give some mad love to a different kitchen gadget: the spiralizer.

I know, I know. I’m a few years behind the trend. It’s okay. Good food transcends trends

I’ve been watching spiralized noodle recipes pop up all over vegan blogs for a few years now. I’ve saved amazing-looking recipe after amazing-looking recipe, pinning them to my “Recipes I Want to Try” board on Pinterest.

There was only one problem: I didn’t own a spiralizer.

Sadly, without one, preparing vegetable noodles is not a simple task. As spiralized vegetables grew in popularity, thanks to vegan bloggers no doubt, prepackaged noodles started to pop up in health food stores.

Perfect!

I bought some, and then some more, and then some more. Soon, I was buying the noodles every time I saw them in the store. However, buying premade versions isn’t always practical, especially for budget-conscious vegans like myself.

As someone who prefers a lighter diet in the summer, vegetable noodles are the perfect addition to my warm-weather menu. They’re ideal for those times I’m looking for something heartier than a salad, but don’t want to feel like I ate a brick. Spiralized vegetable noodles fill that order, plus they taste good.

Win.

So, I decided after all these years to purchase a spiralizer. It was relatively inexpensive (mine was under $30) and I know I’ll use it a lot.

So far I’ve made zucchini noodles or “zoodles” as they are adorably nicknamed. I’ve also tried sweet potato noodles (loved them) and cucumbers (loved them too) and I have a beet noodle recipe pinned for later.

What about you? Do you like spiralized vegetable noodles as much as I do?

Since I’ve been eating more vegetable noodles lately, I decided to share a few of the delicious vegan recipes I’ve found with you. After all, what are friends for, right?

Here are 15 recipes that I’ve either cooked and loved or want to cook.

Zucchini Pasta with Lentil Bolognese from Minimalist Baker

This red sauce gets its heartiness from lentils and carrots. Pile some high on a bed of zucchini noodles, and you have a flavorful, healthy plant-powered meal to the table in just 30-minutes.

Here are a few more hearty choices:

• Vegan Taco Bolognese Zucchini Spaghetti
• Butternut Squash Noodles with Creamy Garlic Mushrooms & Lentils
• Zucchini Aglio E Olio with Mushrooms
• Butternut Squash Noodles with Kale & Rosemary Butter

Heirloom Tomato, Basil & Balsamic Zucchini Noodles from Blissful Basil

These zucchini noodles bring the flavors of summer together in one bowl. Fresh heirloom tomatoes combined with fragrant basil and sweet balsamic vinegar come together for a deliciously easy dish.

These recipes look amazing as well:

• Walnut Parmesan Zucchini Noodles
• Avocado Pesto Zucchini Noodles
• Zucchini Noodles with Lemon Cream Sauce
• Beet Noodle Pasta with Avocado Cream Pesto

Miso Zucchini Noodles from Mary Ellen of VNutrition and shared on A Virtual Vegan

Don’t let this simple dish fool you; it’s packed with flavor thanks to that delicious miso sauce. It can come together in just 15 minutes, making it the perfect dish for hot summer evenings when you don’t feel like spending a lot of time cooking.

These recipes take a bit more time but are worth the extra effort:

• Zucchini Noodles with Sesame-Peanut Sauce
• Peanut Zoodles with Crispy Tofu
• Thai Rainbow Zucchini Noodle Bowl + Crispy Tofu
• Asian Quinoa Salad with Peanut Dressing

Do you have a favorite noodle recipe that’s not listed? Tell me in the comments or find me on Twitter or Instagram!

The post 15 Vegan Spiralizer Recipes Perfect for Summer appeared first on Chic Vegan.

Just a few notes about this recipe: Don’t feel limited by my choices of vegetables or greens. Farro is a dense, chewy grain that can hold it’s own against almost any vegetable. Feel free to mix it up. Zucchini, yellow squash, asparagus, leeks, green beans, or mushrooms would be great in this dish. If you don’t like dandelion greens (or they’re out of season) simply replace them with a different green you do like. A bitter green such as dandelion greens or arugula goes really nicely with the sweet, tart of the roasted tomatoes but if you really dislike bitter greens, spinach also works nicely. Tailor the dish to your taste preferences.

If you want to add a nice citrus burst, add the juice of 1/2 lemon over the farro when you remove it from the heat the final time, and stir until combined. If you don’t a have lemon on hand (like me!), don’t worry about it. It’s delicious either way.

Roasted Tomato, Garlic & Greens Farro Salad

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked farro (1 cup dried yields 2 cups cooked)
• 1 pint grape, cherry, or heirloom tomatoes
• 1/2 purple onion, diced
• 1 bunch of dandelion greens (may substitute with spinach or arugula), roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt & fresh cracked pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Rinse one cup dried farro under water and remove any debris. Using a 3 to 1 ratio, add the farro to a large saucepan and cover with three cups of water or vegetable stock. Bring to boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until tender- about 25 minutes. Remove from heat and drain any excess cooking liquid. Then set aside to cool.
3. While the farro is cooking, wash the tomatoes and place them whole on a lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with a small amount of salt and pepper and place them in the oven until they are roasted and the skins are about to burst open- about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
4. Heat the oil in an iron skillet or other skillet of your choice. Add onions and cook until slightly translucent, about 2 – 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another minute until the garlic is almost golden brown.
5. Add roughly chopped greens and cook until lightly wilted. Add farro, salt, and pepper. Cook until heated through, about 1 – 2 minutes.
6. Remove from heat. Gently fold the roasted tomatoes in the salad until fully combined. Serve warm.

The post Roasted Tomato, Garlic & Greens Farro Salad appeared first on Chic Vegan.

So, what is a scape? A scape comes from the garlic plant. In early to mid-June, a garlic plant will send up a stalk from the center of the plant. This stalk is called the garlic scape. The scape, if left on the plant, will form the flower and then seed. Removing the scape allows the plant to put all of it’s energy into increasing the garlic bulb size. Scapes can be used just like garlic, though they aren’t as strong as a garlic clove. Elephant garlic scapes are the scapes from the elephant garlic plant.

I love finding a new-to-me produce to build a recipe around, like the scapes. The recipe I came up with uses summer vegetables like zucchini, eggplants, and tomatoes. There’s red peppers to give the dish a nice crunch, olives to give it a bump of richness, and lemon-dill-garlic to brighten it all up. I had my vegetables sitting on top of a bowl of creamy polenta, but they could just as easily have gone on top of some pasta. If you don’t care for dill, swap it out for sweet basil and it works just as nicely with the lemon and garlic. Super simple and super flavorful.

Let me know what you think in the comments or find me on Twitter!

Lemon-Dill Summer Vegetables with Creamy Polenta

Ingredients

• 1 zucchini, diced small
• 2 small eggplants, diced small
• 1 red pepper, diced small
• 1/2 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped small
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 4 – 5 stalks of garlic scapes (or green onions)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• handful fresh dill
• Fresh cracked pepper to taste

Directions for the Summer Vegetables

1. Heat an iron skillet on medium heat. Add zucchini and cook for a minute.
2. Add eggplants, red peppers, and half of the lemon juice. Cook for two minutes.
3. Add remaining ingredients except for the dill, reduce heat to low, and cook until all of the vegetables are tender. About 3 – 5 minutes.
4. Remove from heat, stir in dill, and serve over creamy polenta or pasta.

Directions for the Polenta

Polenta is an Italian corn porridge. If you’ve never made polenta before the first thing you should know that it doesn’t have to be made with a product that says “polenta” on the package. You can if you want, but you can just as easily use any ground cornmeal- I prefer a medium coarse cornmeal for my polenta. The key to making polenta is the ratio of liquid to polenta- not only does this affect the taste, but the cooking time as well. For this recipe, I used 1 cup uncooked polenta and 3 cups of water. I cooked my polenta in water first, and then whisked in a little soymilk at the end to make it extra thick and creamy. Get the low-down on making the perfect polenta in this article, The Real Rules of Making Polenta (Hint: They’re Not What Everyone Says). 

Notes

I didn’t use oil to cook the vegetables, I used a well-seasoned iron skillet which prevented the vegetables from sticking. If they had, I would have used a bit of water to help get things moving again. If you prefer to use oil, simply cook your vegetables in a tablespoon or two of an oil like olive oil.

The post Lemon-Dill Summer Vegetables with Creamy Polenta appeared first on Chic Vegan.

Most of my weekday meals are repetitive–beans, greens, and a sweet potato show up fairly regularly. But, don’t let the simplicity of the components fool you–I’m not into boring food. I keep things interesting by using a ton of spices, hot sauces, and by making a few batches of fresh condiments such as salsa or crema to accompany my meals- like this Cilantro-Lime Vegan Crema, for instance. It turns boring and repetitive into delicious and interesting, which I really enjoy.

But, back to those gorgeous purple knob onions. I knew I wanted to grill them the moment I set eyes on them. I love warm, soft onions with lightly charred edges- delicious! I can’t remember what it was that made me want to make salsa from them, but somehow I decided that was what I was going to do. Glad I did, too–I put this salsa on everything!

If you don’t have access to a grill, you can always use the broiler. This salsa is so silly simple to make, it’s hardly a recipe. One quick note about the spice level: I like spicy. If you like spicy like I do, don’t discard the jalapeno seeds. If you want a more mild salsa, deseed the jalapeno. If you want a not-spicy-whatsoever salsa, omit the jalapeno altogether.

Grilled Corn Salsa

Ingredients

• 4 ears of corn
• 1 red pepper
• 2 knob onions or 1 medium size purple onion
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1 – 2 limes
• 1/2 bunch cilantro (to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon pink salt
• Freshly cracked pepper to taste
• hot sauce to taste

Instructions

Prepare and preheat grill or broiler. Slice onions and limes in half and set aside. Place the corn on the grill, close the cover and grill for 15 minutes, taking care to turn every five minutes, until the kernels are tender. Remove them and set aside to cool. Put the red pepper, jalapeno, limes, and knob onions on the grill. Cover and grill until the each of the peppers has blackened blistered skin, the knob onions are soft and charred, and the limes are grilled on one side. Once grilled to perfection, set everything aside to cool.

If using the broiler, set the tray in the upper third and broil for 10 – 15 minutes until the edges char. The corn may take a bit longer in the broiler so lower the tray to avoid burning as necessary.

Once the corn is cool, remove kernels into a large bowl by carefully cutting them from the cob with a knife. Remove the skin and de-seed both the red pepper and the jalapeno pepper (or leave the jalapeno seeds in for more spice), then dice into small pieces. Chop the knob onions and the cilantro. Mix everything together and squeeze the grilled lime juice over the top. Add salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Mix until fully combined and enjoy on everything.

If you have leftovers you can store in an airtight container and it’ll last for a few days in the fridge. Let me know how it goes in the comments, or find me on Twitter.

The post Grilled Corn Salsa appeared first on Chic Vegan.

The first thing I needed to do is candy the grapefruit. To be honest, I’ve never candied grapefruit before. A quick Google search told me that it isn’t hard to do, though most of the recipes I found called for a lot of sugar. A lot of sugar. I’ve seen some call for 3 cups or more.

I’m not a big fan of candy and I never have been. Cakes, cookies, brownies, pies, donuts, strudels, so much yes. Hard candy, gummies, lollipops, and the like? Nope. When I was younger I worked as a General Manager of a Sweet Factory candy store (true story) and was never tempted at all to eat any of the candy. I don’t care for overly sweet things and so my candied grapefruit may not be as sweet as you want it to be. If you love sweet, you will want to bump up the amount of sugar you add to these slices.

I preheat my oven to 400 degrees. I peeled the grapefruit, making sure to remove the pith (the white part) and cut it into 1/4 inch slices. Next I removed all of the seeds. Most of the the recipes I’ve found say to boil grapefruit slices in sugared water and dredge in granulated sugar with the peel still on. Even though I’ve read that citrus peels have four times more fiber than the fruit itself, I decided to cut mine off. I placed the citrus slices even spaced apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

I also decided to try to candy limes because I thought that they’d be pretty together with the grapefruit (and they are) but don’t do that. Or, if you do, add way more sugar because whoa! Sour.

Instead of boiling and dredging, I decided to just sprinkle the brown sugar liberally on the top of each slice. I topped the sugared slices with a sprinkle of pink salt and baked them until they are dried out.

They’ll look like these beauties here:

So how do they taste? I liked them. They’re really tart and sweet and I could have ate the whole batch in one sitting. I didn’t care for the limes as I said, but the grapefruit were fantastic. Keep in mind, you’ll want to sugar the slices to your preferred sweetness levels. I really enjoyed how the pink salt pepped up the tart sweetness of the grapefruit. I love that stuff.

I used these candied grapefruit to top a grapefruit bundt cake that I adapted from this Orange Bundt Cake recipe by Fran Costigan that I found over on VegKitchen. I omitted the 1/4 cup of cane sugar, added lemon zest, and used grapefruit juice and zest where it called for orange. I baked it for 50 minutes and let it cool for 45 minutes. Once the cake was cool I mixed up the glaze.

I loosely based it on this recipe for Vegan Royal Icing. I took two cups of organic powdered sugar and sifted them into a bowl. Then I measured 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract into the bowl. I added a few tablespoons of grapefruit juice and whisked it together until smooth, taking care not to add too much liquid. Only use as much as you need to make a nice thick, runny glaze. Once you have the right consistency, add a few tablespoons of corn syrup and whisk until smooth. Taste for yum factor. Adjust as needed. The glaze pictured is a bit more runny than I would have normally liked but I didn’t have as much powdered sugar as I had thought. I used the glaze to glue the candied grapefruit to the top of the cake and drizzled the whole thing.

Didn’t it turn out pretty? I’ve never made a cake like this before and I think it turned out so cute. I served this cake to my non-vegan family and they enjoyed it. Even younger children enjoyed it. It has a good crumb and a great citrus flavor. I really loved the addition of the candied grapefruit; I’d make this again. If you decide to make this cake or just the candied grapefruit let me know how it goes in the comments or find me on Twitter!

The post Vegan Candied Grapefruit Bundt Cake appeared first on Chic Vegan.

Since I’ve never made a crema, I had to do a bit of research on what exactly goes into making it. I found a few vegan crema recipes that used yogurt, some added avocado, and quite a few were made using cashews. If I had cashews on hand I probably would have opted for those as a base. But I didn’t. I didn’t actually have anything on hand that the other recipes called for so I decided to improvise using a box of silken tofu that I found hidden in the back of the fridge.

Vegan Cilantro Lime Crema (Gluten-Free & Oil-Free)

Ingredients

• 1 box silken tofu – medium-firm style
• 1 Lime – juiced
• 1/2 jalapeno – deseeded
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 bunch cilantro (to taste)

Preparation

Using a food processor, blend the silken tofu until smooth. Add jalapeno, lime, cumin, and salt to food processor and blend until smooth.  The last step is to add the cilantro and here’s the thing: I like a lot a cilantro- like, a lot of cilantro, so I use a lot of cilantro. But you don’t have to. Use the amount of cilantro that suits your tastes. This crema is a bit thicker than others made with cashews or vegan yogurt. If you wanted a thinner crema, feel free to add more lime juice or a bit of water until you reach the consistency you prefer.

A quick note about using silken tofu: If you are soy intolerant you can swap out the silken tofu for vegan yogurt or cashews. If using yogurt, use 1 1/2 cups of plain yogurt in place of the silken tofu. To find a soy-free vegan yogurt, use this Vegan Yogurt Guide.

If using cashews, soak 1 1/2 cups of cashews for an hour or so in filtered water. Drain the water. Using a food processor, process them with the lime juice until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and puree until fully combined.

I served my crema on top of a baked sweet potato topped with black beans, red onions, and kale but it would go perfect on any dish. Try it on a Mexican-style tofu scramble, a vegan cheese quesadilla, or a bowl of brown rice, tomatoes, seitan, and avocado. Speaking of avocado, why not serve it over a halved avocado stuffed with vegan chorizo? The possibilities are completely endless.

If you have leftovers you can store in an airtight container and it’ll last for a few days in the fridge. This Vegan Cilantro Lime Crema was super tasty, both my wife and I enjoyed it immensely. I think you will too. Let me know how it goes in the comments, or find me on Twitter.

The post Vegan Cilantro Lime Crema appeared first on Chic Vegan.

That was a few years ago now and since then jackfruit has been popping up all over Instagram and Twitter feeds everywhere. I’ve even seen a few fully prepared versions at my local health food store. Which is awesome because jackfruit is amazing. It’s shreddy, chewy, and has this incredible ability to really soak up major flavor. I’ve seen it used in all sort of delicious recipes- tacos, burritos, sliders, and curry just to name a few. I use it in black bean soup, my Vegan Black Jack Soup is perfect for those cold winter days. One place I never thought to use it was chili…until now.

Before I tell you about this amazing roasted tomato chili- if you are a novice at working with jackfruit don’t worry! I put together a little tutorial to help get you started. I cover things like where you can find jackfruit, and which type you’ll need because yes, there’s more than one type. So, if you need a crash course in all things jackfruit just head over here and check out Jackfruit 101. Now, onto this lovely spicy chili!

Roasted Tomato & Jackfruit Chili

Ingredients

• 3 –  14 ounce cans diced fire-roasted tomatoes
• 1 – 20 ounce can of young green jackfruit in brine
• 2 – 15 ounce can of dark red kidney beans
• 1 – 14 ounce can of tomato sauce
• 1 poblano pepper, diced with seeds removed
• 1 jalapeno pepper, diced with seeds removed
• 1/2 purple onion, diced
• 1/2 cup “no-chicken” vegan broth or other vegetable stock
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

This recipe couldn’t come together any easier, honestly. It really is just dump everything into a slow cooker and set to medium and let simmer away for a few hours to let the jackfruit break down and the flavors to marry. Generally speaking, I simmer my chili for a minimum of 2 hours but you can easily and without worry simmer it for much longer.

The longer you cook jackfruit, the more like “pulled” meat it becomes. I have found that cooking for at least an hour or two is best. If you are pressed for time you can help speed the process along by using a fork to shred the jackfruit while it’s cooking. You won’t have as much soaked in flavor, but you’ll be able to get dinner to the table in an hour. Either way I think you’ll enjoy this chili as much as my family did. Let me know how it goes in the comments or find me on Twitter!

The post Roasted Tomato and Jackfruit Chili appeared first on Chic Vegan.