Last Christmas, I gave you my heart... and I also had my first oil-free vegan Christmas feast :)
I shared this on Instagram that my family agreed to our first ever fully vegan Christmas and we shared some amazing vegan food. I took charge, really, and these are the 4 dishes I made on my own to share. They're also some of my favourite recipes for any time! We have:
-Vegan cheesy creamy pasta bake
-Baked felafel loaf with balsamic glazed fries
-Balsamic roasted veggie salad with lentils
-Quinoa tabouleh
I love love love love LOVE these dishes and they are so super healthy and so definitely oil free and low in fat. I thought after posting my acne story I'd share some quick oil free recipes so you don't have to sit and wonder if your life is over when you cut oil and overt fats from your diet. It's so not the end... and it's a little fun, you get to be a bit more creative with your cooking.
~THE ROAST VEGETABLE SALAD~
This salad screams Autumn but I'll happily eat it in Summer, no worries :P It's extremely simple and easy but it's so tasty as a side or even as a meal if you wanted to grab a fork and dig right into it.
Serves: someone or some people who are hungry
Ingredients:
Organic carrots
Organic beetroot
Organic potatoes
Organic sweet potatoes
1-2 tins organic lentils (I love Macro Organic lentils from Woolworths)
Organic baby spinach
1/4 cup balsalmic vinegar
1 tsp coconut sugar/ any other sugar you like (coconut sugar is quite subtle)
Preheat oven to around 180 degrees Celsius
Chop and wash veggies, spreading them across 1-2 baking trays (depending how many veggies you've got)
Bake for around 20 minutes
Remove from oven and combine vinegar with coconut sugar to make a glaze/dressing and with a tablespoon, splash the vinegar mix over the half cooked veggies
NOTE* If you put the glaze on in the beginning it will most likely result in FIRE. Not really, but your veggies may turn to charcoal.
Bake for another 20 or so minutes, or until your veggies are cooked
Rinse lentils to remove any foam and wash spinach too
Serve altogether, leave the veggies to cool or serve them warm on the salad leaves with the lentils and my tip is to make some more of the vinegar mix and sprinkle it across the lentils too so they have heaps of flavour
--When you see the photo bigger than on instagram and you realise how blurry it actually is--
~THE CREAMY PASTA BAKE~
Originally I was going to make my amazing low fat vegan cheesy macaroni but we got home and discovered we didn't have any macaroni pasta and whilst I love this pasta, I couldn't call it macaroni because the texture is so different. It's a little thicker and not as smooth as macaroni pasta so instead it's more of just a creamy pasta bake. So good nonetheless though, and if you don't have acne, highly recommend melting some Vegusto vegan cheese onto it (which I did for everyone else) but it'll be really tasty anyway coz of the nutritional yeast.
Ingredients:
1 500g packet Macro organic pasta shells (can use gluten free pasta if you can't have wheat)
5-6 potatoes (love love love Coles organic potatoes for this) steamed
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
Pepper
Water
Peas/celery/ whatever veggies you think would work with this
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius
Boil pasta according to the directions
Drain and set aside
After being allowed to slightly cool, place cooked potatoes in a nutribullet or high powered blender with 1/2 the jug filled with water and the nutritional yeast
Blend on high until super smooth and silky, may take a few attempts of stirring the potatoes around and adding more water
Add lemon juice and pepper and blend for the final time
In abaking dish place pasta and cover with the cheese sauce
Wrap the top in foil and bake for 20 minutes, and finish for a final 10 without the foil (if you have no issues you can add your vegan cheese here)
--ARE ALL THESE PHOTOS BLURRY? WUT? #deception --
~BAKED FELAFEL LOAF~
This is a great alternative to the fried version loaded with oils and we all know fried foods generally aren't the best for us. This is everything... crunchy on the outside like a felafel and soft inside without drying out coz of a secret ingredient ;)
Well, it's not so secret now but shhh don't tell my family about this recipe... they think I'm magic
Ingredients:
1 whole packet/box of felafel mix (check ingredients for added fats!)
1 organic zucchini
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius
Prepare the felafel mix accoridng to the directions, usually combining with water and allowing to sit for a few hours
Grate up a zucchini and combine with the felafel batter
Pour into a lined loaf tin and bake for 30 minutes to an hour depending on your oven settings
~QUINOA TABOULEH~
This went amazingly with the felafel loaf, and tabouleh is probably my favourite salad. This is perfect for like, every day in summer, I swear!
Ingredients:
1-2 bunches of parsley
1-2 chopped organic tomatoes
1-2 cups cooked organic quinoa (buy in bulk from Organic Wholefoods or even Coles)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 organic onion, diced super finely
Handful chopped mint leaves
Pepper
Hope you enjoyed these recipes, I'll be sharing a tonne more in the coming weeks and thankyou so much for all your support so quickly so soon. It's been wild and I love you for not being nasty haha.
Lily x
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