- Hey there, I'm Merle and today I'm going to be showing you
some of my favorite spring vegan recipes.
Okay so the first one we have here
is the Energy-Boosting Buddha Bowl.
Buddha bowls are super super trendy,
and normally I'm very wary of trends,
especially health trends.
But I have to say, if you boil it down,
it's just a really easy healthy meal for you to have.
It's super filling and very very customizable.
Buddha bowls can mean a lot of different things
to different people.
Let's define it as a dish consisting of whole grains
or seeds, roasted veggies, some sort of a dressing,
and a protein.
And the cool thing is it is so customizable,
so you can kind of pop in
any seasonable vegetable that you want,
and you can make these year-round.
You can get really creative with how you wanna make it.
If you want it a little more on the savory side,
maybe do a little more of a umami based dressing.
It's also a really great way to get rid of any ingredients
you might have lying around in your fridge.
Or if you have something
you wanna use up before it goes bad,
you can just roast it, whatever it is.
Maybe you got some Brussels sprouts kicking around in there,
or you got some broccoli,
or some kale that's about to go yellow,
roast it or saute it,
and you can just toss it over any grain you want.
This dish is sort of representative of any Buddha bowl dish.
The reason I chose this specific Buddha bowl to show you
is because it features beets and beets are typically
pretty seasonal for the spring, at least in L.A.
I tend to make Buddha bowls towards the end of the week,
maybe once I have a few things that are gonna go bad,
or that I don't know what to do with.
Maybe I have some Brussels sprouts kicking around
and I don't have any plan for them,
they're not a part of my meal plan,
which I never really have a meal plan (laughs).
I do my best but you know,
I tend to veer off the track here and there.
I would highly recommend that you try
to go to a farmers market or buy local vegetables
and ingredients when you can
because it's gonna make a difference in the flavor.
And at least then you know where your food is coming from
and that's always a good thing across the board in any dish.
Anybody who knows me knows that I love ramen.
I was really motivated to make a vegan ramen meal
that would stack up.
So for me what was really important
is getting that umami flavor
which is why I use miso paste in this,
also because miso is a traditional Japanese ingredient.
I wanna try to keep it
as close to the real thing as possible,
and to just make a really great both
so that I could customize the toppings.
A good vegetable stock is going to make or break this dish,
so I would always use homemade,
or at least seek out my favorite stock for this dish.
You just don't want the stock to taste like onion water.
That's what you definitely don't want.
I think ramen feels like a really intimidating dish,
but as long as you're a little loose with the term ramen
as far as how it's traditionally made,
you can just make something that's quick
and easy enough for you.
Gordon Ramsay probably isn't coming over
to check it for you so you know, give yourself a break,
and make something that tastes good to you,
and that is reminiscent of traditional ramen.
The quinoa salad is a really nutritious
and very delicious flavor-packed meal.
It's a great source of fiber and protein.
There are so many flavors coming into this dish.
You've got the sweetness from the corn,
you've got the acidity from the tomatoes,
and then of course you've got all these great seasonings.
So you can add in whatever seasoning you'd like.
And then of course, you wanna top it off
with some delicious fresh yummy avocado
for that nice kind of buttery last minute touch.
The Vegan Pesto Pasta is a perfect weekday meal.
It's really simple and pretty much anyone can do this
no matter what your culinary level is.
Also what a cool little pesto hack, right?
You're taking something as delicious as pesto,
and you're adding arugula
to get some more nutritional value in there.
Of course it's gonna taste a little like arugula
'cause you're putting arugula in there.
But the basil is such a strong flavor
that it doesn't in any way
take away from the pesto flavor that you're looking for.
So you can enjoy the fact that you're taking something
as delicious as pesto and making it more nutritious.
I remember when I first saw somebody
adding other greens to pesto,
I was like, "Duh, why don't I do that?"
Especially if it's not a really aggressive tasting green.
You can also do this with spinach, kale, any other green.
I've actually done it with carrot tops as well,
if you want a great way to put your carrot tops to use
so you're not just throwing them away
or just composting them.
They're super nutritious and they taste pretty good too.
Any way we can sneak more nutritional value into our dishes
is always welcome in my book.
And this is such a classic spring dish.
It's like I just wanna be sitting out on a wraparound porch
in a rocking chair drinking iced tea and eating this dish.
All right and now we've got the chowda.
I am from the East Coast, specifically from Massachusets,
so I do know a thing or two about a good chowder,
or chowda as some might say.
Again, my ultimate goal is never to be missing out
on dishes I love just because I'm going vegan.
So I'm always looking for dishes
that I always loved my whole life
that then we can make vegan
and this is a great example of that.
Using the cauliflower,
you can still get that really creamy thick chowder texture.
And the great thing is that the majority
of these ingredients are plentiful in the spring.
This could be an easy one-stop shop at the farmers market
for you if you have one available to you.
And this is a great dish to make in bulk.
You'll probably hear me saying that a lot,
but I'm always thinking of ways
that I can make my week go smoother.
And if you make a big batch of this chowder,
you can be feeding you for the rest of the week.
What I'm always looking for in a chowder
is a nice creaminess and what you're really subbing out
besides the clam, instead of using clam stock,
you're gonna use vegetable stock.
And instead of using milk or heavy cream,
you're gonna use a non-dairy milk.
So make sure you choose a non-dairy milk that you like.
I would also highly recommend
you do not go with a sweetened non-dairy milk
'cause that's gonna throw the flavor off completely.
So if you like oat milk, use oat milk,
if you like almond milk, use that, et cetera, et cetera.
It really doesn't matter, it's just gonna give you
that creaminess that you're looking for in a chowder.
And the creaminess is what really brings the comfort in,
if you ask me.
This dish is great too because it's pretty quick,
and it's pretty simple.
It's really just sauteing and then letting it simmer
and blending it together.
An immersion blender is super super helpful for this,
but if you don't own an immersion blender,
you can just use a cup
and pour it directly into a tabletop blender,
and just blend it up that way.
It takes a little longer but it has the same effect.
My grandfather might kill me for seeing
that I'm calling this chowder but what did I say?
We gotta keep it open-minded and be creative and be curious.
Obviously, it's not clam chowder but it has the creaminess,
it has the savory flavor,
and it's comforting and it's warm and it's delicious,
so don't be a Debbie Downer, please.
So now we have our Butternut Squash Al Pastor Tacos,
which are really delicious.
It's great because you can make a large amount
of this butternut squash and then you can use
some of it for your tacos.
You could save some of it for later
for a side of another dish.
Adding all these spices to your butternut squash
is gonna make a much more complicated flavor
with the sweetness that you inherently have
in butternut squash.
'Cause they've got the sweetness,
and then you added all of those incredible seasonings
which pack a delicious punch in your mouth.
I would recommend making these tacos
if you're having a little dinner party,
or maybe you're having a party party.
Either way, you can make a huge amount of them all at once.
And if you're just making them for yourself,
you can always just make a few tacos for yourself
for dinner or for lunch
and then save that seasoned butternut squash
to add as a side to another dish.
I love this recipe because it doesn't require
a ton of dishes and you kind of just put everything
in the oven and then you get to wait,
and you can go work on another task,
maybe water your plants or you know, do some work.
Or watch a show, relax,
you don't have to do work, you can enjoy your free time.
Maybe you're going to a potluck or a party or something
and it's very last minute and you only have an hour or so
to put something together for a large group of people,
these tacos are perfect for that.
They're not super simple, they're a little complex.
There are a lot of different flavors going on there.
You've got the pineapple, you've got the butternut squash,
and then of course all the delicious seasonings
you add to it.
So people are gonna be thinking
that you know what you're doing in the kitchen.
It feels like a little bit of a classy dish to me.
It feels like it's got the beginner skill level requirement,
but it feels a little high-brow.
Which we love that because if you bring this to a party
people are gonna be like,
"Oh, they dibble-dabble in cooking, I can tell."
I'm crazy about these Buffalo Chickpea Wraps,
I have to say.
It's super simple.
It's just you're just making your chickpeas,
and then you've got some tomato and some crispy lettuce.
Make sure you get some nice fresh crisp lettuce,
and it'll give you that nice crunch that you're looking for
when you bite into the wrap.
This is one of the recipes I use for myself
when I'm a little bit in a rush and I'm like,
"All right I got a can of beans,
"and I'm just gonna toss those in the old cast iron,
"put them in a wrap."
And if you don't feel like using buffalo,
you could do barbecue sauce or any mix of seasonings
that are more what you're looking for.
Chickpeas are so magical.
There are so many different ways to use them.
If you wanna have them over a higher heat,
you can give them a little bit more of a crunchy factor.
If you want them to be a little less crunchy,
a little more chewy, you just don't cook them for as long.
You can mash them up.
They're just so versatile.
And what I would recommend
is if you do have canned chickpeas,
save that water because for this last recipe,
I'm gonna show you a really cool vegan dessert.
So with your leftover canned bean water,
which is called aquafaba,
we can make a really simple vegan chocolate mousse.
Basically you're gonna take the bean juice,
and you're gonna whip it, whip it, whip it, whip it, whip it
until it gets to this nice frothy meringue type texture,
and that's when you're gonna
mix in your melted dark chocolate.
If you're not vegan, of course you could melt down
milk chocolate or white chocolate.
Both will also work.
I'm crazy about this mousse because it requires
so few ingredients, it's very easy,
and it tastes really complicated but it's not.
Those are some of my favorite vegan spring recipes.
I hope that these recipes will help make veganism
a little less intimidating and more approachable
for those of you who are plant-based,
and those of you who are not.
(gentle music)