When people hear I’m vegan they usually think all I eat is salad and that I lack protein (lol), and although most of the statements made are false, I do love myself some salad! I could honestly probably eat salads for every meal, depending on what you call a salad of course. I’m not talking about just lettuce, tomato, cucumber and carrots dressed with some vinaigrette, oh no! We’re talking about a salad jam packed with flavour that will leave you feeling satisfied and full until your next big meal….
rice
Tomato Bean Stew
You can never have enough bean stew recipes right? They’re not only delicious and combined with rice a perfect protein, but they are also very nice to prep for days ahead! This batch gave me about three big meals, so perfect for those evening when you’re just a bit to tired to cook. Beans and rice are also quite cost-effective meals, just add whatever veggies you prefer and you’ve got yourself a perfect dish!
These type of meals are also great for those people who stress about proteins, just eat some rice and beans.
You can play with this recipe to make it your own, for this batch I used carrots to add a bit of sweetness, but why not try adding (sweet) potatoes, peas, or corn? Maybe you don’t have kidney or black beans on hand, no problem, you can use whatever bean you have on hand or prefer! Cilantro might taste like soup to you, don’t worry you can add whatever herb you like, try adding some parsley or basil. Well you catch the drift right, just have fun with it!
You can use this bowl as a little inspo for how to have to serve this dish, but just adding it over rice (find recipe for unicorn rice here) and maybe some spinach will be good enough for me. You could also eat it with some flatbread or stuff them inside some potatoes if you’re feeling adventurous!
You could even use it as a spread on some hearty flax crackers, there are no rules when it comes to how you have your food, right!?
Let me know if you liked the recipe in the comments below and if you decide to recreate this dish feel free to tag me on Instagram as I’d love to see your creations, and find me on Facebook!
One Love,
Tomato Bean Stew
Ingredients
- 1 can kidney beans
- 1 can black beans
- 7 cloves garlic
- 1 red onion
- 1 big carrot
- 1 small knob ginger grated
- 2 cups tomato pureé
- 1 chili pepper
- 2 cups water
- 1 tbsp curry masala powder
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 handful cilantro
Instructions
- Start by sauteing the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes over low/medium heat. After this you can add the carrots and cook for another 2 minutes before adding the remaining ingredients.
- Bring it to a boil and let it simmer for about 30 minutes to an hour. Enjoy over rice or with some flatbread.
Unicorn Rice + Rainbowl
If you’ve been following me for a while or even a short moment you might have seen me using “unicorn noodles” in most of my dishes, well there’s a new unicorn in town and this ones about to steal the crown! You obviously already read the title or seen the thumbnail, but let me introduce to you, unicorn rice, yes hear me unicorn rice! The fun part about creating recipes is being able to name it whatever the heck you want, so yes this is Unicorn rice, why? Well it’s blue/lilac and has the ability to transform it’s pigment to hot pink… Sounds like a unicorn to me.
But seriously though, how much fun is this? Also the rice might have the same ability as the noodles but they both deserve individual posts. You can do this with whatever rice you like, but using the technique on short grain rice has to be my favorite! But enough chit chat, you didn’t come for my hype, but rather for joining me on the hype train, so let me share some instructions so we all can have our unicorn rice.
1 Cup rice of choice (short grain is my fave for this)
1 chunck of purlpe cabbage
water
Directions:
- Start by putting the purple cabbage in a small (sauce) pan and add about 2 cups of water. Turn on the heat to a low temperature and let the cabbage simmer until the water turns almost deep blue. Once the water turned deep blue turn off the heat and remove the cabbage, use it for a salad or stir fry, or maybe for the bowl!
- Now wash your rice and add it to a pot, instead of cooking this with regular water add the deep blue water. Ok now comes a very important note! Make sure that when you cook the rice it’s on the lowest heat possible, it might take a little longer, but if the heat is too high the colour will change and might even turn out light brown (yuck). Now cook it until the rice is done, this will take somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes.
- Once the rice is done you can use it for whatever dish you like, but wait here is where the magic comes in.
- To make the rice turn from lilac/blue to hot pink all you need it some lemon juice or any other form of acidity. It’s basic science actually, since the pigments in the cabbage have been transferred into the rice.
Now we’ve figured out how to create the rice, let’s put it into action by creating a delicious bowl using this rice. You know what, if you’re not feeling like making this rice you can use whatever rice or grain you want! Find the recipe below. As a sauce I used my Miso beet sauce and a drizzle of sriracha, but feel free to use any other sauce I can imagine this would be delicious with this Satay Sauce.
Keep in mind that when you’re making this rice even the slightest interaction with acidic food will make it change colour as you can see on the picture above. I pushed the mango down and it reveals a more lighter almost faded colour because of the slight acidity in the mango.
Let me know if you liked the recipe in the comments below and if you decide to recreate this dish feel free to tag me on Instagram as I’d love to see your creations!
One Love,
A.J.
Unicorn Rice + Rainbowl
Ingredients
- 1 serving (unicorn) rice
- 1 serving bell pepper
- 1 serving sporuts
- 1/2 avocado
- 1 serving mango
- 1 handful baby spinach
- 1 serving (cheri) tomatoes
- 1 piece lemon
- 1 serving sauce of choice
Instructions
- Cut all the ingredients in bite size pieces and simply assemble the bowl the way you like. Or toss everything together, it's your bowl. Enjoy!
Kidney Bean Curry
“But where do you get your protein!?”, a common question many vegans seem to deal with, even I got asked the question on several occasions. Now I may not be a nutritionist but I do know that rice and beans make a complete protein, so my answer has to be, (here it comes) rice and beans! This simple combination has been a staple ever since I remember.
Tip: When you use canned or beans from a jar always wash them to remove the soaking water, this will make you feel less gassy. Wash them until the little bubbles disappear.
…
Spicy “Asian” style Rice Pizza
I’ve been wanting to make a gluten free pizza for the longest time now, but always got turned off by the thought of all the work it would take for me to make a perfect gluten free crust, so I let the idea rest. Then again I was planning to make an attempt this week and it just came to me, a crust made out of sticky rice, it sounded easy and delicious so I went for it! I still want to make a proper gluten free crust though, but until then these will do, and trust me this pizza will hold its own, it is a winner!
Forget about that delicious dough crust and make a rice crust, its nice and crips on the edges and deliciously soft but firm in underneath the toppings. The trick it to pre bake the crust and to make it not to thin but about 1 centimeter or 0,4 inches thick. I love a traditional pizza crust, but this one is just as amazing in its own rights.
Because of the pizza is made with rice I decided to keep the asian theme going and used spring onions, gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes) and oyster mushrooms sautéed with soy sauce, you can use shiitake to make it even more “asian”. Keep in mind that I have a very high tolerance for spicy foods so if you prefer a more mild heat or non just use less or non of the chilli flakes. As usual you can customize it to your own liking so feel free to top this pizza with whatever you’d like such as tomatoes, onion, vegan cheese and any other topping you love!
If you make this dish leave a comment below to let me know how you liked them, or tag me in your creations on my social media accounts.
One Love,
A.J.
Rice Pizza
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 1/2 cup uncooked rice short grain
- 2 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp sugar (optional)
- 1 tbsp chilli flakes I used gochugaru (optional
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder (optional)
Sauce
- 1/2 cup passata tomato sauce
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp ginger
- 1 tbsp chilli flakes I used gochugaru
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/4 tsp garlic and onion powder
Toppings
- 150 grams oyster mushrooms
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 scallion
- 1 chilli pepper
- baby corn
Instructions
Asian Style Pizza
- Wash and rinse the rice about 4 times. Bring the rice to a boil with a about 2 1/2 cups of water. Once the water starts to boil turn down the heat and cover the pot and let it simmer for about 12 minutes. Turn of the heat and remove the rice from the pot and place it in a bowl. Add the garlic powder, chilli flakes and sugar to the rice and mix it well. let it cool down before making the crust.
- preheat your oven to 175 Celcius or 350 Farenheit. Place the rice on a piece of parchment paper, wet your hands and shape the rice into the shape of a pizza or if you're feeling adventurous you can form it into a rectangle, or square even, just make sure the crust isn't to thin and the edges a little thicker. Place the crust in a oven and cook it for about 20 minutes. While this is happening were gonna prepare the toppings.
- After about 35 minutes remove the crust from the oven and add a layer of the sauce and Add the toppings. Put the pizza back in the oven for about 15 minutes and its done. you can cut it with a pizza cutter. and your pizza is done. Enjoy!
Oyster Mushrooms
- Sauté the mushrooms in a pan with some oil over medium/low heat. After about 3 minutes add the soy sauce, sugar and chilli pepper and cook for another 2 minutes.
Notes
- This will not work with long grain rice.
Vegetable Fried Rice and Satay Sauce
One of the things I try to avoid at all cost is spoiling food, so dishes that use leftovers and kitchen scraps are high on my list of favorites. Vegetable fried rice is one of those dishes that allows you to use your imagination when it comes to vegetables and spices, you can really use whatever vegetable scraps you’ve got stashed in your fridge. Besides using scraps you can also use your leftover rice to make this dish. Often I catch people throwing away their leftover rice, which makes me gasp, because its perfect for making fried rice, and a ton of other dishes.
Growing up fried rice used to be one of my favorite meals, I loved the spices and didn’t mind eating all the vegetables, ofter I didn’t even notice them, this was awesome because I was kind of a picky eater. Luckily I grew to absolutely love vegetables and dishes like this always surprise me because of the amount of vegetables you can stuff in them.
These are the vegetables I used, but feel free to try different kinds of vegetables. I often throw some corn, celery leaves and mung bean sprouts through the mix or even some chopped purple cabbage, you can really use your imagination. Some other options are broccoli, mushrooms, cauliflower, bamboo, jackfruit, and whatever else floats your boat!
I made my own spice blend, you can make the one I used or make your own. Everyone loves different things so if you want it to be less spicy, make it less spicy. You can use store bought spice blends or just keep it plain and simple, again this is your dish, so customise it to your own liking. To make things even more easier you can cheat and use store bought satay sauce, just make sure it’s vegan.
I’ll work on more dishes and ideas for saving your kitchen scraps and leftovers, because I like to keep the spoiling of food to a bare minimum. Now you know what to do with your leftover rice, if you’ll try this recipe let me know how it turned out by leaving a comment below or tagging me on Instagram. Have an awesome day and bon appetite!
Bless,
A.J.
Vegetable Fried Rice and Satay Sauce
Ingredients
Rice and Vegetables
- 1 cup uncooked rice
- 1 leek chopped
- 2 onions diced
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 2 Bell peppers diced
- 2 spring onions chopped
- 2 carrots chopped
- 1 hot pepper i used adjuma (optional)
- 1/4 cup baked onions (optional)
Spices
- 1/4 tsp 5 spice
- 1/4 tsp ginger powder
- 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
- 1/2 tsp lemon grass powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp corinader powder
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
Satay Sauce
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup full fat coconut milk
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 5 tbsp peanut butter
- 1 tsp corn starch
- 1/4 tsp ginger powder
- 3/4 cups water
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1/2 hot pepper (optional)
Instructions
Fried Rice
- First cook your rice and once the rice. After your rice is cooked sauté the onion, garlic and pepper for about 5 minutes on medium/low , after this you can add the rest of the vegetables, the spices, sugar and soy sauce and cook for another 5 minutes. Keep in mind that you can use whatever spice blend and vegetables you prefer. Now add the cooked rice and cook for another 5 minutes while mixing it to combine all the ingredients. Now you can add salt and pepper to taste.
Satay Sauce
- Sauté the garlic (and optionally some hot pepper) for about 1 minute over low heat and add the coconut milk, soy sauce, ginger, peanut butter, sugar and lemon juice and 1/2 cup water. While this is coming to a boil in a seperate bowl add the cornstarch and 1/4 cup of water to mix before putting it in the pot (this will prevent lumps). Now add the cornstarch mixture to the pot and stir until the sauce becomes thick. Now add salt to taste.