(gentle music)
- Hey, guys.
It's Candice, the Edgy Veg.
Welcome back to my channel.
Today, I'm going to show you
how to make three easy vegan dinners for beginners.
That rhymed.
Didn't even plan it.
(chomping)
All right.
I wanted to tackle these three easy dinners
because there's a rumor out there
that going vegan is super difficult.
So I wanted to bust that myth
by showing you guys how to take your favorite meals
and super easy substitutions
with items that are easily found in a grocery store.
So I'm gonna show you how to make
a super easy vegan bolognese,
just using veggie ground round
that you can buy in almost any grocery store
in the vegetarian section.
I'm going to show you how to make
a really easy quesadilla,
and also a really yummy peanut stir-fry.
One of the things I always say is
if you didn't like kale salad before you went vegan,
you're not gonna like it just because you're vegan.
So you can take your actual favorite recipes
with a couple easy swaps,
and then they're vegan recipes.
All right, the first one I'm gonna show you how to make
is a vegan bolognese.
Perfectly, I mean, perfectly, wow.
Personally, I eat a lot of pasta.
I love pasta, and pasta sauces are a super easy thing
that you can veganize
using ingredients that you're super familiar with.
So instead of using ground beef,
I'm using this veggie ground round.
This gone is Gardein, but Eve's makes a really great one
that you can find in the refrigerated vegetarian section
of every single grocery store; they're everywhere.
The other ingredients are the same.
So we have our diced tomatoes, we have onion,
we olive oil, thyme, some basil, and salt,
and of course, spaghetti.
And the things about pasta is
most dried pastas are accidentally vegan.
Definitely check your labels,
but I would say like 98% of dried pastas are vegan.
I have my pasta cooking right here.
I'm using spaghetti today.
So in another pot, I'm just going to heat up
three tablespoons of olive oil, and then when that's warm,
and I'm using about medium-high heat,
so I'm going to add in one chopped onion.
You can use any onion that you want for this, really.
This is white onion.
You can use a cooking onion.
But yeah, just kind of eyeball that.
Mix that all together.
We're going to let that cook for about three minutes,
and then we are going to add the garlic.
The pasta's ready to go.
I'm just going to drain that, and not rinse it.
Step one, super easy.
All right, it's been about three minutes.
I'm going to crush three garlic cloves right into the pot.
I'm going to cook this for another about two minutes,
one to two minutes until it's fragrant
and you can really smell that garlic.
All right, I'm adding a little pinch of salt,
and I'm doing this bolognese recipe
without the traditional mirepoix,
which is carrots and celery,
just to make it super, super easy.
If you have a more traditional bolognese family recipe
that you love to make,
you can just use these easy substitutions
to follow your own recipe,
but in the spirit of making it super easy,
I'm relieving you from chopping a bunch of vegetables.
All right, I can really smell that garlic,
so now I'm going to add the veggie ground round.
And this is about two cups,
and you just want to cook that until it's heated through.
I'm also going to add a quarter teaspoon of thyme
and some fresh-cut basil,
(plate crashing)
and just throw things around.
Okay, once that veggie ground round is heated through,
we are going to add our diced tomatoes.
You can also use stewed tomatoes or crushed tomatoes,
just one 1/28th ounce can of tomatoes, even fresh ones.
You can use that.
I've done that if I have some tomatoes that I need to use.
It doesn't really matter.
Just make sure it's tomatoes.
So we are going to add that right into the pot.
Get all the juices.
And then, mix that together.
Okay, I'm going to bring that to a boil,
and I'm going to simmer it for about 10 minutes.
Now you can, depending on how much time you have,
this is an easy recipe, so at minimum,
simmer it for 10 minutes.
If you like a more,
if you like your sauces with more depth,
like a depth of flavor to them,
you can simmer this up until like two hours
if you wanted to.
I'm just gonna do 10 minutes here,
because it's quick and easy dinners.
All right, after 10 minutes,
that is so, it's just so good and hearty and chunky,
you can season it to taste.
So I'm just going to add a little bit of salt,
a hint of pepper,
and then you can serve that on top of your spaghetti.
All right, I'm tossing the noodles
in a little bit of the sauce.
Hearty plate of spaghetti.
Is there anything better than pasta?
Like I'm just wondering.
Easy dinner for beginner number two
is a super simple peanut stir-fry.
You can throw this together in a matter of minutes.
It's like, from start to finish, 10 to 15 minutes,
the easiest dinner ever.
And again, it's just using a couple slops of our protein.
You can use any tofu that you love.
I'm using a smoked tofu.
And then the rest of the ingredients
are more or less the same.
Most Asian noodles don't have eggs in them
unless they're egg noodles,
so you can really get away with almost anything here.
I'm using these vegan chow mien noodles,
but you can also use rice noodles or,
I don't know, any Asian-style noodles that you'd like.
Our water is boiling,
so we are just tossing in the noodles here.
And I'm cooking these for three minutes.
Then over medium-high heat, I'm going to heat up some oil.
I'm using avocado.
You can use coconut, you can use canola,
any cooking oil that you like to use.
I'm going to add in some chopped onion
and let that cook until translucent, about three minutes,
over, whoops, medium-high heat.
And now we wait again.
I'm going to throw together a quick peanut sauce.
I'm going to add some soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil.
I have some dried ginger and some garlic powder here.
And then, of course, some peanut butter.
Can't very well have a peanut butter sauce
without peanut butter.
I'm going to mix that all together.
If you're having issues mixing the peanut butter
with everything else, you can add a little bit of hot water
from the noodles, actually, and mix that together.
You can also do this if you have like a tiny blender,
like a Magic Bullet or something.
Just whiz it all together in there.
Super easy.
But with some good old-fashioned elbow grease,
you will have the sauce in no time.
See?
I'm going to add some red pepper,
some chopped carrots.
And for the sake of speed,
I'm going to add the tofu in here as well.
I'm going to cook these just until
the vegetables are tender and the tofu is heated through.
I like the good crunchy carrot in my stir-fry.
The peppers tend to get a little bit soft,
but then you have the crunchiness of the carrot,
and then the chewiness of the noodle.
It's a nice, just flavor, or texture carnivale, if you will.
All right, I have drained my noodles,
so I'm just gonna add them to the pan.
Now I'm going to add in some of the peanut sauce.
It's okay if your peanut sauce is a little bit liquidy,
because while you cook it,
it is going to firm up a little bit.
You just want to, over low heat,
heat that up until the sauce is hot, which naturally,
the heat from the noodles and vegetables will do.
All right.
And then you can plate this guy.
(gentle music)
Dinner number three is a mushroom and spinach quesadilla.
Super simple to make, super delicious.
Instead of meat, we are using mushrooms
'cause mushrooms are nice and meaty.
You can use any mushroom that you want.
I just love portobellos.
So it's almost like a vegan take on a steak quesadilla,
except we are going to add some spinach, some avocados,
some cilantro, and for the cheese,
I'm just using these pizza-style vegan shreds.
You can use any brand that you want.
I'm using Emborg today, but Daiya is readily available
in the grocery store,
Follow Your Heart is readily available in the grocery store,
or you can leave this cheese out completely,
because you do have the creaminess of the avocado.
Okay, the first thing I'm going to do
is heat up some olive oil in a pan.
We are going to cook some red onions.
Add that, so this is one red onion.
Let's just go for all of it.
We are going to cook that over medium-high heat
until these onions are translucent, about three minutes.
I'm going to add a pinch of salt,
just to draw the moisture out of the onions.
All right, I am going to throw in these mushrooms.
I'm going to add a little bit more salt
to draw out the moisture from the mushrooms.
You want the moisture in the pan so that
when we eventually throw the spinach in,
it helps wilt the spinach.
All right.
I have some chopped spinach here.
I'm going to add half of it to the pan,
and we're going to wilt that and then add the other half.
And I'm going to let this wilt for about two minutes.
The spinach is about wilted,
so I'm going to add the juice of half a lime.
And a dash of pepper.
I have taken the mushrooms off of the pan
and set them aside.
Now I'm going to prep the quesadilla.
So this recipe is meant to feed a family of four,
so it makes four quesadillas.
We love when it's perfect.
Like nothing makes me happier.
I'm gonna cut an avocado and just spread it
along the bottom half of my tortilla.
You can definitely eyeball this.
Okay, work with me.
There we go.
You can also just do this in a bowl.
I'm gonna spread it all on the bottom.
It's a Saturday, all right?
My brain is elsewhere.
If you want a lot, you can add a lot,
but I just find if you add too much avocado,
then that mixed with the cheese,
it's almost like too creamy almost?
Keep a little bit of room here on the side
because the cheese is going to melt
and everything is going to kind of squish out that way.
Then I'm going to add, again, on half of this,
I'm going to add the mushroom and spinach mixture.
Some chez.
Yeah, you heard me.
So I have some veggie shreds here.
Again, this is optional.
If you are choosing to not use vegan shreds,
you can just add a lot more avocado.
There we go.
Again, if you are not into cilantro, you can leave this out.
So then fold it in half,
and we're gonna cook that in our pan.
I've cleaned it.
It's already a little bit hot
from whatever's cooked in there.
I'm gonna put it on medium heat.
Very carefully.
I like to do cheese side down.
That melts right away.
And we are just gonna cook that for a couple minutes
on each side, or until this tortilla crisps up
and the cheese is melting.
(gentle music)
All right, guys.
There you have it.
Three delicious vegan dinners in under 15 minutes
for beginners.
I know how much you guys love to see me eat on camera,
so I'm gonna try all of these.
Oh my god.
Starting with, there's all kind of carbs happening in here.
I'm all for it.
Love, love, love.
So add a little bit of peanut sauce on top,
as well as mixing it in with the noodle.
Mmm, so good.
See this?
This is why I don't eat on camera.
It's creamy, it has that peanut flavor.
The vegetables add a nice crunch.
And the tofu, because I used smoked tofu,
has just like this nice, chewy texture as well.
If you like heat, you can add some chili sauce or sriracha.
It's very tasty.
Like marathon eating happening here.
All right, we have the mushroom quesadilla.
Oh my god, I love mushrooms so much.
This is so good.
There's a little zest of lime.
It's creamy.
It's like a steak fajita, or quesadilla.
You can serve it with some vegan sour cream,
or some salsa, or some guac.
Mmm, mmm, mmm.
Oh my god, that's good.
All right.
Carb life continues.
This for me is just comfort on a plate.
It tastes like a bolognese.
It's perfect. It's comforting.
All right, guys.
If you want to see more easy recipes,
let me know in the comment section below
which ones you'd like to see.
If you liked this video, this style of video,
give it a big thumbs-up so I know to make more like this.
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on new videos every single week.
And I'll see you next time.
Bye!
Mmm, mama mia!