Black history month Eats
Hey honies, I want to share with you some things I have been cooking recently. It is February and the title is an homage to our history, our culture and our people. I hope this serves as further inspiration for your healthy eating. As usual, no exact recipes. Just season your food until your ancestors tell you that’s enough lol. I recently purchased an instant pot and have been making a lot of soups lately. If you’re looking for some soup inspiration, check out my previous post December Eats: Soup Edition! In this post, I share 5 plant-based, vegan food ideas that are healthy, easy and super delicious! I hope that something I share inspires you to make healthy food choices. Remember, every meal is a chance to work towards a healthier you.
Cauliflower tacos
Tacos are one of my favorite meals. They’re delicious and filling. I have used cauliflower as a meat substitute before so I figured I would add some roasted cauliflower to this recipe and see how it turned out. Of course, it was delicious! Cauliflower is a great substitute because it takes on whatever flavor you season it with and is really simple to cook. For all of my texture eaters, cauliflower should soften like broccoli when cooked. If you are unsure about seasonings, grab a pack of taco seasonings to use instead. I’ll break down how I cook my cauliflower below. For these tacos, I paired the cauliflower with quinoa and beans…specifically black beans with green chiles and cilantro lime quinoa. Feel free to add the rice and beans to your taco, or just eat it on the side. This time I went with convenient canned beans and added the chiles. For the rice, I cooked the quinoa in my instant pot and it came out perfectly! I might never cook it on the stove again. Once the quinoa was cooked, I stirred in a few bunches of chopped cilantro and squeezed the juice of 2 limes, add lime juice to your taste. I topped my tacos with pico de gallo and hot sauce. Don’t just take my word for it, I cooked these tacos for one of my meat eater friends and they were a hit! I’m sure you will love them as well. If you try this recipe, let me know how you like it.
Roasted cauliflower:
Wash your produce! I cannot stress this enough.
For seasonings I mix about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of your preferred oil (I go for EVOO or avocado) with spices like cumin, garlic salt, chili powder, onion powder, crushed red pepper flakes & pepper. Use the mixture to marinate the cauliflower. I use a brush to rub the mixture all over. Pro tip: flip the veggie over and pour in some of your oil mixture, feel free to give it a gentle shake.
Roast in the oven
Black bean tacos
As if we needed another taco recipe! Of course you do, you’re welcome. Anyway, beans are an excellent source of plant based proteins and are delicious when cooked properly. When I am rushing, this is a really fast meal to make that is also really filling. For this recipe I grabbed a can of black beans, vegan cheese shreds, cilantro, avocados, fresh salsa and corn taco shells. While the beans warmed, I diced the cilantro and avocados. Total prep and cook time is under 15 mins!
Taco dip
I first made this for my housewarming party. I wanted to make something for my friends that are not plant-based. Most of them didn’t know it was meatless meatballs until I told them. It was a unanimous hit! Both pans were gone before the end of the night! I’m not sure what all different layers I did but here we go… My first layer was sauteed meatless meatballs. I then mash up the meatballs into a crumble- I prefer this to the meatless crumbles. Next, I added some veggies- tomatoes and red onions. Next came refried beans, be sure to keep this layer thin. Lastly came lots of chiles, cilantro, tomatoes, red onions, vegan cheese and taco seasonings. I used 3 different vegan cheese this time: 2 were shredded and the other was my fav, a cashew cheese dip from Trader Joe’s.
White Beans, Cabbage, Yams & Brown Rice
Another recipe featuring beans lol. This was my first time cooking white beans but will not be the last! Let me tell you, they were delicious, honestly…truly. I stumbled upon white beans in the store at the end of December, after all the other beans were gone, these were one of the few kinds left. My dad is from Mississippi so naturally beans go with rice. I wasn’t sure how I was going to cook the beans but went with my instant pot and added a smokey flavor by using liquid smoke. I made sticky brown rice to add because that’s my preference. Cabbage is another simple veggie to cook. I sauteed my cabbage in ghee (clarified butter) and onions and season it with pepper flakes, garlic pepper and sea salt. Yams, oh delicious yams. Shoutout to my mamma’s yam recipe that I am not giving yall so don’t ask lol.
Zucchini, Kale, Corn, Saffron Rice & Black Rice
I’m not exactly sure how this random and delicious meal came together..I mean who needs 2 types of rice? Me and now you. Anyway, let’s jump into the good stuff.
I cook my corn on the cob in the oven and it’s delicious. Mix some simple seasonings like salt, pepper and garlic with ghee or your choice of oil and wrap the corn in foil to keep it moist. Super simple and so freaking good. Topping your rice with tomatoes is an easy way to add flavor as well as another fruit serving to your meal. If you are thinking of trying black rice, expect the texture to be more chewy and dense than other rices.