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5 Vegan Foods That will Have Your Dinner Guests Talking




What are the top health benefits of vegan cooking?

A vegan diet helps protect you against type 2 diabetes by lowering blood sugar levels and boosting kidney function. Even if you don't go completely vegan, plant-based foods can still enhance your overall health. Not to mention, vegan foods are incredibly satiating!

Spicy, savory, and sweet; a vegan dish can create any combination of flavors. If you want to impress your dinner guests with a plant-based entree, you're in the right place.

What are the best all-vegan recipes? Read on to find out.

1. Flavorful Lentil Nachos

One of the easiest ways to start vegan cooking is to make crowd-pleasing nachos. Not just any nachos, though, loaded lentil nachos; Yum!

Here are all of the ingredients you'll need:

  • 1 lb potatoes chunks

  • ⅓ cup nutritional yeast

  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice

  • 1.5 teaspoon garlic powder

  • ½ teaspoon turmeric

  • Salt and pepper to taste

  • 1 teaspoon paprika

  • 1 cup almond or oat milk (unflavored)

  • 8 tortillas

  • 1 cup pico de gallo

  • 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro

  • 30 oz of canned lentils

  • Steam the potatoes until they're nice and tender. Then put the potatoes in a blender and let them cool for 15 minutes.

Stir in plant-based milk, lemon juice, garlic, and nutritional yeast. You can also add salt and pepper, turmeric, and paprika. Blend everything on a low setting.

Once everything is nice and creamy, add about one tablespoon of water. Continue to add one tablespoon of water until you have a perfect consistency. Now it's time to start cooking!

Preheat your oven to 350 and line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper. Lay the tortilla triangles in one layer and bake them for 25 minutes. Once the tortilla triangles are nice and crispy, you can put them in a 9 x 13 baking dish.

In a separate mixing bowl, stir together the taco seasoning and lentils. Stir slowly and gently to distribute the seasoning throughout the entire bowl.

Pour the lentil mixture over the chips. Top it off with pico de gallo and vegan cheese. Bake until the cheese is lightly brown; it usually takes 20 minutes. Garnish loaded lentil nachos with cilantro and scallions.

2. Completely Vegan Cheeseburgers

What says yummy more than a delicious veggie burger? Here are all of the ingredients you'll need to make the best vegan cheeseburgers:

  • 2 1/2 cups of finely chopped onions

  • 10 minced garlic cloves

  • 1 extra-large carrot cut into ¼ inch pieces

  • 2 cut celery stalks cut into ½ inch pieces

  • 1 cut bell pepper cut into 1-inch pieces

  • 8 oz green beans cut into ½ inch pieces

  • 7 oz fresh trumpet mushrooms

  • 2 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire sauce

  • 1 teaspoon white vinegar

  • 1 cup cooked quinoa

  • ½ cup brown rice

  • 1 cup whole wheat bread

  • 1 red onion

  • ½ cup nutritional yeast

  • 6 100% whole grain burger buns

Preheat your oven to 400° and line 2 baking sheets with silicone mats. Place the chopped onions, garlic, and a quarter cup of water in a large skillet. Cook over medium heat for 7 minutes until the onions are nice and translucent.

Use a food processor to combine the mushrooms, parsley, thyme, paprika, and black pepper. You can also add the Worcestershire sauce and vinegar. Add the blended ingredients to the skillet and cook for a few more minutes.

Take the skillet off of the heat and start making your patties. You can use patty molds or cookie cutters. You should bake these vegan burgers on the middle rack of your oven for about 20 to 25 minutes.

Provide guests with sliced bell peppers, onions, and an assortment of greens for toppings. You can add vegan cheese sauce to these delicious burgers too. Top each bun half with a tasty vegan burger and savory onion pepper mix.

3. Cornbread and BBQ Bean Bake for Vegan Cooks

Does the idea of cornbread and barbecue make your taste buds smile? Then you owe yourself to learn how to make the barbecue bean and cornbread bake! Here are the ingredients you'll need:

  • 2 cups chopped Swiss Chard

  • 1 cup chopped celery, onion, and carrot

  • 3 minced garlic cloves

  • 2 cans of no sodium white kidney beans

  • 1 can tomato sauce

  • ⅓ cup low sugar barbecue

  • 5 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

  • ⅓ cup yellow cornmeal

  • 1 tablespoon cane sugar

  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

  • ⅛ teaspoon sea salt

  • ⅓ cup unsweetened applesauce

  • ½ cup plant-based milk

Preheat the oven to 400°; take a large non-stick skillet. Cook the Swiss chard, onion, celery, minced garlic, and carrots for 7 minutes. Fun fact; Swiss chard has all of the vitamin K you'll need for the day!

As you're cooking the vegetables, add 2 tablespoons of water at a time to avoid sticking. Take a 2-quart baking dish and combine the vegetables with the tomato sauce, barbecue sauce, beans, and vinegar—Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. While the main dish is baking, you can prepare the toppings.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, cornmeal, and salt. Mix the applesauce, 1 teaspoon of vinegar, and milk in another mixing bowl.

Add the milk mixture to the cornmeal bowl. Stir until everything is perfectly blended. Spoon the batter into mounds on top of the hot bean mixture. Bake until the filling is bubbly, which usually takes 20 minutes.

If you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean, you're done baking. Let the dish stand for 15 minutes to cool before serving. A nice sprinkle of green onions makes the perfect garnish.

4. Chipotle Lime Rub Corn on the Cob

Bring together a world of spicy tartness with grilled corn on the cob chipotle lime vegan recipes. Here are the ingredients you'll need:

  • 8 ears of corn with husks

  • ⅓ cup lime juice

  • 1 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper

  • ½ teaspoon salt

  • 2 teaspoon garlic powder

When picking ears of corn, use this guide to select the perfect ones. The tender kernels of freshly grilled corn, paired with the spicy rub, create an explosion of flavor. You won't even miss the butter!

Peel back each corn husk. However, don't remove the corn husks.

Take off all of the silks. The silks are the fine strands lying on top of the corn.

Rinse the corn off thoroughly and fold the husks back down. Tie the husks with a 100% cotton string. Soak the corn in water for 2 hours.

Drain the corn and then throw it on the grill. Cover the grill for 35 minutes. You'll be good to go once the kernels are juicy and tender.

For the best results, you'll want to turn the ears of corn once during cooking. Using a small bowl, combine all of the remaining ingredients.

When you're done grilling, take the cotton string off the corn and pull the husks back. Brush the corn with your tasty lime juice rub, and enjoy your meal!

5. Apple Strawberry Walnut Galettes

So far, we've been talking about vegan dinner recipes. But what about dessert?

Surprise your guests with a fun vegan apple strawberry walnut galette! Here are the ingredients you'll need:

  • 1 cooked, cooled sweet potato cut into chunks

  • 1 cup wheat flour (extra for dusting too)

  • 1 ¼ cup almond flour

  • ⅓ cup date paste

  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

  • Sea salt to taste

  • 3 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk

  • 4 peeled and cut apples

  • ½ cup chopped walnuts

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 3 cups halved strawberries

  • Preheat your oven to 375 and line 2 baking sheets with high-quality parchment paper. Carefully mash the cooled sweet potato chunks in a bowl. Stir in whole wheat flour, almond flour, and date paste too.

Mix everything together until you can knead it into a dough. Divide all of the dough into 2 equal parts. Roll both parts into fully formed balls.

Put the 10 in dough ball on a baking sheet and dust it with flour. Place weights, and carefully fold the edges inward over the pie weights.

When you overlap the dough, gently pinch each edge to form a pleat. Then brush the edges on the outside of the crust to get rid of any excess flour dust. Followed by brushing the edges with almond milk.

Repeat this process to create the second crust. You'll want to bake this dish for about 20 minutes.

In a large skillet, combine the apples, walnuts, vanilla extract, wheat flour, and the rest of your date paste. Remove the sauce from the heat and divide the apple filling between the crust.

Cover the filling with the strawberries and bake the galettes for 15 minutes. Cool for a few minutes before cutting into wedges and serving.

Make Flavorful Vegan Recipes

What are you waiting for? Now's the perfect time to buy all of the fresh vegan cooking ingredients you need. Using the ideas in this article, you can create a dish that is savory, sweet or a combination of both experiences.

Here at Leafy Kitchen, we understand how important plant-based nutrition is. That's why it's our goal to always provide our readers with fun, new vegan meal planning options.

When you eat well, you can feel well! Want more tasty ideas? Have fun exploring the rest of our site, or feel free to read another one of our blog posts.

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