Happy Veganuary! We're using this month-long celebration of veganism to discover and experiment with new seasonal recipes. And one week in, our team has already found, tried out and bookmarked some seriously good ones.
We're forever waxing lyrical about the benefits of a vegan diet, favouring healthy, natural food that's sourced and prepared without the involvement of animals. And thanks to the community of people who feel the same way, there's more options out there than ever before.
Right now, we're all about wholesome dishes that are simple to make and instantly nourishing. Comfort is key in winter cooking, and easy to achieve with a simple roster of ingredients. Find out what seasonal produce is being grown in your local area, and use this as a starting point. For us, carrots, cabbage and mushrooms are forming the foundation of our current diet.
Check out our latest winning dishes below, a cosy seasonal soup and quick golden milk drink. Not to your taste? Scroll on for our treen-curated reading list of cookbooks we'll be reaching for all month long.
Seasonal soup
The ingredients
- 1 sliced leek
- 1 sliced carrot
- Half white cabbage, chopped
- Vegetable stock cube (add with 2 pints cold water)
- Decent pinch salt
- Decent pinch pepper
- Juice of half lemon
- Stock cube sized non of grated ginger
- 10 sliced cloves garlic
- Handful of dried pasta (dried pasta is often a great vegan alternative) great for using up an almost finished bag too!
- Block of tofu (or vegan chicken bits, What the Cluck is a great alternative and both are sold in most supermarkets), chopped into bite sized pieces
- 3 tbsp soya sauce
- 1 tsp nutritional yeast (not essential)
The making
Add olive oil to a pan and heat all the vegetables together for approximately 20 minutes, or until soft.
Add chopped garlic cloves, grated ginger, pepper and the juice of half a lemon. Add your crushed stock cube, 2 pints of water and a decent pinch of salt. Stir and bring to the boil for around 20 minutes.
During this time place your tofu slices into a frying pan with the soya sauce, and cook until crispy, or follow cooking instructions for any vegan chicken alternative (no soy needed here). Take off the heat and toss with the nutritional yeast — just you wait to see what this can do!
Back to our soup: add a handful of dried pasta and cook for a further 8-10 mins, or however long your pasta suggests. Do the taste test and add more salt, pepper, lemon juice or water to your liking.
Ladle into a bowl, top with your tofu bits (or vegan chicken) and enjoy! We served ours with crusty bakery bread to dunk.
Golden milk
5 ingredients + 5 minutes = a calming mood booster. This quick hot beverage is loaded with antioxidants, proven to boost your mood, help with sleep and reduce stress. We like our drinks as versatile as our wardrobes.
The ingredients
- 750 ml of oat-milk for two cups, or one large mug (coconut or any nut milk will work just as well)
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (ground ginger also works well)
- 1 pinch of ground black pepper
- Sweetener of choice (maple syrup, vegan honey, sugar)
- *Any quantities can be adjusted to your taste.
The making
Add all ingredients together into a pan, mix to combine and warm over a medium heat for five minutes.
Pour into your favourite mug(s) and enjoy.
Recipe reading list
We asked around and gathered the titles our fellow vegans have been reaching for. If you're needing a little inspiration, you'll find lots of creative plant-based ideas in the pages of these cookbooks. They've got you covered for breakfast, lunch, dinner and all the snacks in between.
Vegetable Heaven — Catherine Mason
Isa Does It — Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Vegan with a Vengeance — Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Asian Green — Ching He Huang
The Happy Pear: Vegan Cooking for Everyone — David and Stephen Flynn
Vegetarian cookbooks that can be easily adapted:
The Modern Cook's Year — Anna Jones
Flavour — Yottom Ottolenghi
Bazaar — Sabrina Ghayour
Greenfeast — Nigel Slater
The Green Roasting Tin — Rukmini Iyer
Got any recommendations for us? Drop us a DM on Instagram or tell us about your recent culinary discovery at hello@shoptreen.com.
