Hi, I'm Becky Striepe from Glue & Glitter.
And today I'm going to show you how to make four
super-easy, super-delicious vegan dinners.
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One thing I hear from a lot of new vegans
is that they struggle to come up with weeknight dinners.
You know those evenings when you get home late
and everyone's hungry and you just don't even have
the brain-space to look up a new recipe.
And that makes sense, right.
Before you went vegan maybe you had like a handful
of recipes that you would make on nights like that,
and suddenly those recipes are off the menu.
What do you do?
These are four of the recipes
that my family makes on nights like that.
One thing you'll notice about these meals
is that they're all bowl meals.
There's one stew and the rest of them
are all a starch with protein and veggies layered on
and extra toppings on top of that.
I love that bowl formula because it's perfect
for busy weeknights and you can use what you already have
in the pantry and the fridge.
So check your pantry and see what grains you have
for your base and then figure out your proteins.
Do you have beans, do you have tofu,
is there some frozen vegan meat in the freezer?
And then layer on whatever veggies you've got,
add a sauce, and you are ready to eat.
These are four easy bowl meals that my family loves
and I think you're gonna find some inspiration
for your own weeknight dinners.
Let's get into it.
The first recipe is a Mashed Potato Bowl.
It's quick and easy to make and you can cook the tofu
in the air fryer or in the oven.
Start by pressing and dicing a block
of extra-firm tofu and sprinkle on some soy sauce,
and some garlic powder, and then you have options.
You can either air fry it at 400 for 20 minutes,
shaking once, or you can cook it on a baking sheet
at 425 for 40 minutes.
While the tofu is cooking, it's time to make
the kale and corn and make the mashed potatoes.
So let's start with those veggies.
Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and add your kale
and some frozen corn.
And then sprinkle on even more garlic powder.
Saute that up for just a few minutes
and then sprinkle on seasoned rice vinegar.
This little bit of acid is what makes the kale
super-delicious, my six-year old loves kale
prepared this way.
Saute the kale until it turns bright green
and the corn is thawed and then it's time
to make your mashed potatoes.
You can cook the potatoes however you like.
Whatever method you use, just transfer those warm potatoes
to a large bowl and add some vegan butter
and then use a potato masher to start the mashing process.
Once the vegan butter is melted,
it's time to add your unsweetened vegan milk
and then mash a little bit more
just to get things incorporated.
At this point, I like to switch from mashing
with a potato masher to using a fork
so that you're still mashing a little bit
but you're also whipping the potatoes
so they end up really light and fluffy.
By now the tofu should be all done cooking.
So you'll transfer your mashed potatoes
and the veggies to your serving bowls
and top it with a little tofu
and sprinkle on some green onion. (upbeat music)
This second recipe is one that we make
almost every week when it's cold outside.
It's a Vegan Chicken Stew.
You can make it in the Instant Pot
like we're going to do in the video
but you can also make it on the stove top.
I've got stove top directions on my website.
Start by adding water to your Instant Pot
and a couple of broth cubes then add some minced celery,
a drained can of chick peas,
some raw, cubed red potatoes, diced carrots
and frozen corn and then some chicken-style seitan.
Then it's time to spice things up with garlic powder,
onion powder and dried thyme.
Put the lid on your Instant Pot
and set it to sealing and then cook at high pressure
for five minutes and then let it do
a 10-minute natural release.
When the natural release time is up,
quick-release the rest of the pressure
and then add baby spinach and stir that in.
Depending on how cold your kitchen is,
you might be able to use the residual heat
of the stew to wilt the spinach
but if it's not wilting for you, you can hit the saute
button on the front of your pot
and that will warm things back up
and it'll melt the spinach more quickly.
Just keep on stirring until it wilts down
and turns bright green and then it's time to serve.
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This Ginger-Tofu Sushi Bowl
is another weekly favorite in my house.
I like how flexible it is so if someone
in your house doesn't like one of the topping ingredients
they can just leave it out of their bowl.
Start by making the marinade for the tofu,
add some fresh ginger and fresh garlic to your blender
along with maple syrup.
Toasted sesame oil, soy sauce and rice vinegar.
And then just blend that up
until it's an nice, smooth mix.
Pour the marinade over some cubed tofu
and set it aside to marinate for 10 minutes.
When the marinating time is up,
just pour off that excess marinade,
you don't want it too soupy in the bottom.
As you can see there's still a little marinade
at the bottom of my bowl,
you just don't want it sitting in like inches
of soupy marinade because that's gonna interfere
with the cornstarch coating.
Speaking of the cornstarch coating,
sprinkle on some cornstarch or some potato starch
and then give that tofu a shake so it gets
a nice even coating.
That starch is going to give the tofu
that crispy outside that we're going for.
Then transfer the tofu to your air-fryer basket
or to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
If you're air frying you're going to cook it
at 370 for 15 minutes, giving it a shake
at about eight minutes into cooking.
If you're baking, bake it for 30 minutes.
No need to even flip it.
Dish that cooked rice up into your bowl
and then add your toppings.
I like to serve this with carrot sticks,
cucumber slices, sliced avocado,
and sliced-up seaweed snacks.
Add a little bit of pickled ginger if that's your thing,
then add the tofu to the bowl.
Top it off with some cashews for crunch
and some green onions.
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This last recipe is
a Chipotle Lime Veggie Burrito Bowl.
We're gonna start by cooking the veggies.
So heat some olive oil or broth,
if you prefer to broth-fry.
And then add some diced bell peppers.
Then add some chopped red onion to the pan.
Then season those veggies with a little bit
of garlic powder and sea salt
and a little bit of lime juice.
Saute the veggies over medium heat
for about 10 to 12 minutes,
until they start to soften and turn nice and fragrant.
Now it's time to prepare the rice and beans.
Start with cooked brown rice and some black beans.
This is just a drained can of black beans.
Toss in some cilantro, even more lime juice,
and some sea salt and Chipotle chili powder.
And just toss that all together so that the flavors
get evenly mixed.
From there you're ready to serve.
Divide the beans and rice mixture between your bowls.
Top them off with the cooked veggies
and then it's time to garnish.
Serve these up with some shredded cabbage, sliced avocado
and your favorite salsa
and some chips on the side for dipping.
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I hope that this video has helped you
come up with some weeknight dinner ideas of your own.
If you have any questions that I didn't address
in the video about any of the recipes
or anything else, feel free to drop them below,
I'm always happy to help.
And don't forget to write and subscribe.
Happy cooking.
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