Harissa tofu bowls with herbed rice, crunchy veggies and a zesty dressing is an easy, flavor-packed weeknight meal that’s very flexible! Make it exactly as-is, or mix and match veggies to use what you have. Serve in a bowl, or make a wrap!

This is the type of bowl meal that I love to whip up on busy weeknights: lots of crunchy veggies; a delicious dressing; and protein, like marinated beans or crisp, seasoned tofu. You combine it all in a bowl with either cooked grains, such as rice or quinoa, or some pasta/noodles. This combination is so flexible and works really well! And the best part is that for most of them, there is little cooking time, so it comes together quickly and is absolutely delicious and satisfying. 

The flavor in these harissa tofu bowls comes from the delicious crisped tofu seasoned with harissa sauce and herbs, and the zesty garlic lime maple dressing. Plus, there’s all that flavor from the different herbs and crunchy veggies, as well.

You can convert this into a wrap or sandwich, too, if you like! Other flexible meals like this include my Vietnamese curry tofu bowl, chili garlic sandwich, gochujang sandwich, and curry banh mi. Or make into hummus bowls like my harissa cauliflower hummus bowl. Those can also be served as bowls or as sandwiches or wraps. 

You can change up the veggies in these harissa tofu bowls to use whichever veggies you like. You can also pair it with shredded lettuce or cabbage instead of rice, if you want it to be more like a salad. It’s just an incredibly flexible recipe, so have fun, and make it your own!

Why You’ll Love Harissa Tofu Bowls

• super flexible, 30-minute meal
• crunchy veggies make this dish so FRESH and reduce cooking time!
• crisp, flavorful harissa tofu is so delicious!
• naturally gluten-free and nut-free with easy soy-free options

Continue reading: Harissa Tofu Bowls (30 minutes, gluten-free, nut-free with soy-free option)

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Saag butter beans — creamy spinach curry with melt-in-your-mouth beans and lots of amazing Indian spices — is a hearty, veggie-forward main dish that’s just got an incredible flavor and texture! What makes it really special is the crispy garlic chili oil tempering that you drizzle on top. Serve with rice, naan, flatbread, or sourdough for an easy, flavorful meal. Gluten-free soyfree and nutfree

I finally got some butter beans to use in this simple saag. Saag basically means greens, and the most common saag uses mustard greens. For this saag we use spinach to make a really flavorful spinach curry with a set of spices for the authentic flavor. If you don’t have every single spice listed here, use whichever spices you have, and it will still turn out amazing. 

To get the right texture for the greens, use frozen spinach and pulse it in the food processor while it’s still frozen. That gives it this coarsely chopped texture which I really love in my saag. If you don’t like any texture in your saag, you can puree the spinach with some water or non-dairy milk and use that mixture.

Choose whichever method you like for preparing your saag. Whether the texture is chunky, chopped, or smooth, it will taste amazing, especially with these creamy butter beans and savory tempering!

Why You’ll Love Saag Butter Beans

• creamy butter beans in a deeply seasoned spinach curry sauce
• crispy chili garlic tempering oil adds even more flavor and amazing texture
• easy to make with any greens you like
• simple, 1-pan meal ready in about half an hour
• naturally gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free

Continue reading: Saag Butter Beans (Beans in North Indian Spinach curry)

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Malabar eggplant — crispy eggplant in a shredded coconut red chili curry sauce — is a delicious introduction to the deep flavors of South Indian Malabar cuisine. Serve it with naan or flatbread and some dal for a veggie-packed meal that’s also packed with flavor!

Some veggies can be difficult to like when made simply. Eggplant is one of those. This Malabar eggplant is packed with flavor and texture and is very versatile. You can bake the eggplant or pan fry it. And you can even use other veggies instead, like cauliflower.

South Indian Malabar cuisine is a mix of multiple regional cuisines in Southern India. It’s heavily influenced by coastal and Kerala cuisine along with the many other nearby areas, because of the region being a major trade route. Kerala was considered “the spice garden of the ancient world,” because it produced flavorful spices like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, and pepper.

Trade, migration, and invasion brought influences from Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Malaysian, and other cuisines to Malabar region(north kerala region).

If you want to explore Malabar cuisine further, also check out my Malabar veggie curry

But back to this eggplant.

The other day I had lots of eggplant on hand, so I decided to make a Malabar-style eggplant , the sauce of which is inspired from crisp and spiced Malabar Chikin recipes. Usually I use cauliflower in this recipe, but you can basically use whichever vegetable you have handy. All of the flavor is in the batter, and that batter is super delicious. After battering and baking or frying the veggies, you toss them in this easy sauce and serve with some tofu curry or dal. You can also replace half the eggplant with tofu to ale this into a meal!

The sauce for Malabar eggplant is on the dry side. If you want to make the dish saucier, you can add in some coconut milk. The sauce can also be rather hot, so adjust as needed based on your heat preference.

🍆 Why You’ll Love Malabar Eggplant

• melt-in-your-mouth eggplant coated in a flavorful, crispy-crunchy batter
• incredibly shredded coconut curry sauce with option to make it even saucier!
• versatile! Make it with eggplant or cauliflower or protein like tofu or seitan or soycurls and adjust flavors and textures to taste.
• naturally gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free

Continue reading: Malabar Eggplant (Crispy Eggplant with Spiced Coconut sauce. gluten-free)

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Make the most of strawberry season with this amazing strawberry mousse cake! It is jam packed with sweet-tart strawberries with a thick layer of rich strawberry mousse and strawberry compote on top.

If you need a show-stopping dessert, this strawberry mousse cake is here for you, especially if you don’t like everything chocolate. This is a very vibrant and summery cake with berries added in 3 ways!! Fresh strawberries, strawberry compote, and a velvety strawberry mousse. Make my simple vanilla cake. Make some quick compote on a skillet. Blend up the mousse right in the blender! Layer, refrigerate, and slice!

The base is a thin layer of cake that you top with this really thick strawberry mousse layer and fresh strawberries and then you top the whole thing with this incredible strawberry compote. It just is mind-blowingly delicious. 

You can make the cake using whatever pan you have. I used a six-inch cake pan and also used a cake collar. You can just use your tall six-inch pan and pour the mousse in, if you don’t have a cake collar. You can also use a regular-sized eight-inch cake pan, and it will fill up the mousse to the top. It’ll be a thinner layer of the mousse, but it’ll still be plenty of strawberry mousse on top, because the cake layer will be thinner as well.

If you do use a regular pan instead of the cake collar, just make sure to line it with parchment before you pour in the mousse, so that it’s easy to take everything out. This cake is summery, refreshing, kind of like an ice cream mousse cake and decadent. Let me know if you try this and don’t forget to review the recipe!

Why You’ll Love Strawberry Mousse Cake

• gorgeous cake with so much strawberry flavor!
• creamy strawberry mousse made in the blender, no cooking needed
• sticky-sweet strawberry compote topping
• easy to make soy-free, nut-free, and gluten-free

Continue reading: Strawberry Mousse Cake (vegan, gluten-free option)

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Baked eggplant and tofu in a super quick and flavorful peanut sauce is a one-pan meal that is super versatile! You can easily make this recipe gluten-free, soy-free, and even nut-free! Serve with rice, quinoa, or as lettuce wraps.

This is a super quick peanutty recipe. I had a bunch of eggplant left, so I decided to use it with the tofu. I made this easy peanut butter satay sauce and then tossed the tofu and eggplant in it and then baked it. You can also pan fry the mixture until crispy, if you’d prefer that to baking. 

Either way, it’s a really simple eggplant and tofu recipe. It’s just 2 Steps, 1 Pan, 1 Bowl recipe that needs 15 minutes of active time. Just mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl, reserving a few tablespoons for drizzling later. Add your eggplant and tofu to the bowl of sauce, toss, and either bake or pan fry. Serve with rice or quinoa or add this to lettuce wraps.

You can also mix this up to use other veggies besides eggplant, like broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms or bell pepper! Or use more tofu. Eggplant and tofu go well together Especially coated in this flavorful satay-style peanut sauce.

Why You’ll Love Eggplant and Tofu in Peanut Sauce

• 1-bowl, 1-pan meal
• ready in under an hour, 15 mins active time
• crispy tofu and tender, crispy eggplant in flavorful peanut sauce
• versatile! Easily made gluten-free and even peanut-free, soy-free, and/or nut-free
• serve how you like: over rice, quinoa, or as lettuce wraps

Continue reading: Baked Eggplant and Tofu in Peanut Sauce (1 pan Gluten-free)

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Lemon Garlic butter beans with bright, lemony flavors are a super quick, 1-pan, 30 minute creamy refreshing recipe. Serve with pasta, or crusty bread or rice for an easy meal.

The garlicky lemon sauce is based on my lemon pasta with plenty of garlic and lemon and simple ingredients. Instead of pasta, you toss in butter beans for a hearty, simple main dish.

This is a vibrant, springy, delicious sauce with amazing flavor and it is pretty flexible. You can change up the flavor by changing up the herbs in the sauce, so feel free to use what you have and what’s seasonal where you are. 

You can also use other beans, like great northern beans, cannellini beans, or chickpeas. This sauce is also great tossed with baked or pan-fried tofu. And, of course, you can use this garlic lemon sauce on cooked pasta if you want, too!

Why You’ll Love Lemon Garlic Butter Beans

• 30-minute, 1-pan meal
• tender butter beans in a creamy, lemon garlic sauce with lots of amazing herb flavors
• simple dinner paired with crusty bread for dipping or served over pasta
• gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free

Continue reading: Lemon Garlic Butter Beans (gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free)

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If you love stuffed peppers, you are going to love this unstuffed pepper casserole! It has all the amazing flavors and textures of stuffed bell peppers without needing to fuss with stuffing each pepper and needing a knife when you eat it. Options for gluten-free Soyfree Nutfree

Unstuffed pepper casserole with rice is super easy, two-step casserole where everything bakes up in the casserole dish, so you don’t have to stand around to sautéing ingredients on the stovetop. Most of the active cooking time is just chopping up the ingredients and then quickly mixing them together in the pan. 

Even the rice cooks in the oven rather than on the stovetop!

I use veggie grounds in the dish, but you can also use lentils, chopped soy curls, or other vegan meat substitutes instead, if you prefer.

A crunchy breadcrumb and cheese mixture tops off this unstuffed pepper casserole, but if you want to make it gluten-free, you can omit the breadcrumbs and just use cheese. 

We bake the aromatics and peppers first then add everything else to the pan to bake! It’s a versatile casserole. Change up the herbs and flavors to preference. Add some chickpeas to the mix. Use a mix of rice and quinoa!

Why You’ll Love Unstuffed Pepper Casserole

• all of the flavors of stuffed peppers with less work
• No need to stuff individual peppers, no need to make the filling separately! Just add to 1 Pan
• veggie-packed casserole that cooks all in one baking dish
• crunchy, cheesy topping!
• easily made gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free

Continue reading: Unstuffed Pepper Casserole (Deconstructed Stuffed Peppers!)

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These Zucchini rolls are like lasagna roll ups, filled with delicious herbed sun-dried tomato tofu ricotta , all nestled in a pan with bubbly tomato ragu. They looks so pretty! And No watery mess!

You Must Make These Zucchini Lasagna Rolls! No need to sweat or squeeze the zucchini needed, just spread the cheese mixture, roll and nestle in the sauce and bake! Great texture, just perfect comfort food! Unlike zucchini lasagna bake that needs a lot of steps, and can still give you limpy or watery result, these rolls bake up perfectly, are versatile and also easy to serve!

This is a really beautiful dish which you can serve at parties or for a fancy dinner. It’s also relatively easy to make. The only time consuming part is rolling up the zucchini slices. But unlike pasta, there’s no pre-cooking to do. Just use a peeler to slice your zucchini into long, skinny pieces.

You can use pre-cooked lasagna sheets in this as well, if you don’t want to use zucchini.

The vegan ricotta-style filling is also easy to make. It has amazing flavor with the herbs and sun dried tomato. Just add everything to a bowl, and mix and mash to make the filling. It comes together super quickly! 

Spread that creamy filling into the zucchini, and roll it up. It doesn’t even have to be perfectly spread out. Roll the zucchini up, and place into a baking dish with some pasta sauce, then top it with vegan cheese and bake. I add some veggie grounds(vegan ground meat substitute) to the pasta sauce and it all bakes at the same time to make this meaty ragu. Use lentils or just omit for variation.

These zucchini lasagna rolls come out so pretty, and they’re fun to serve and eat.

Why You’ll Love Zucchini Rolls

• beautiful appetizer or entree for a party or fancy dinner
• tender zucchini around a cheesy vegan ricotta-style filling with beefy tomato sauce and creamy vegan cheese on top
• fun to make and to eat!
• naturally gluten-free with nut-free and soy-free options

Continue reading: Zucchini Rolls with Herbed Sun dried tomato ricotta (gluten-free with soy-free and nut-free options)

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This Italian herb and sun-dried tomato Red Lentil chickpea stew is a super easy, one-pan, meal that is so satisfying and flavorful! It makes a delicious, protein-packed weeknight meal with garlic bread or sourdough to dip, or serve it over pasta, baked potato, or roasted vegetables.

This high protein vegan stew uses both chickpeas and red lentils. The stew has a simple base of aromatics, herbs, sun dried tomato, vegan parmesan and non dairy milk. The red lentils break down during cooking and thicken up the stew, so you don’t necessarily need a cream addition. You can even serve it over roasted veggies or with garlic bread or however else you like. No matter how you serve it, this lentil chickpea stew is a perfect, easy meal for a cool, spring evening.

If you’re looking to change up your game from making all of the lentil curries or chickpea curries, this chickpea lentil stew is for you. It uses Italian herbs and oregano ,mirepoix and some sun-dried tomato for all that umami flavor in the sauce, and it is amazing over some toasted garlic bread or sourdough or over pasta or baked potato.

I also offer an option to make this into a curried lentil chickpea stew with just a simple adjustment to the spices.

Why you will love this Lentil Chickpea Stew

• easy, one pot meal that’s packed with protein and flavor
• versatile! Use other cooked lentils and use cooked chickpeas, white beans, or butter beans. You can also change the flavor to curried, if you like.
• tender beans in a thick, flavorful sauce
• naturally gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free

Continue reading: Herbed Red Lentil Chickpea Stew (1 pan, nut-free, soy-free, gluten-free)

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This is an absolutely delicious, moist and citrusy vegan lemon cake. A lot of the lemon flavor comes from this amazing, velvety lemon cream that you spread between the layers and all over the cake.

You guys know that I don’t really like overly sugary cakes or overly sugary frosting. So For this lemon cake, the frosting is based on my no-cook lemon pudding. It uses cashews and coconut cream and then just a bit of sugar for the sweetness and loads of lemon to give it that zingy flavor. This mousse like lemon cream frosting takes this cake to heavenly moist zesty state!

We make this simple lemon cake batter that has mild lemon flavor. Then layer it with the exquisitely lemony cream, to make this perfectly zesty Spring cake! This can easily be a birthday or event cake. Decorate with fresh lemon and zest or edible flowers!

You can bake one cake or two cakes. If you make one cake, just slice it in half, then assemble the cake with the lemon frosting and let it set. Then, you just even out the edges of the frosting and top it however you like, and then your cake is ready to serve. The lemon juice in the cake can tend to brown the cake edges , so if you’d like less browning, omit the juice and add more zest.

The lemon cake itself is moist and fluffy, and I even offer a gluten-free option, in case you need it. It’s a very simple batter that’s easy to make.

The cake batter comes together in one bowl, and you make the lemony cream in the blender, so there’s not a ton of cleanup.

If you let the lemon cream chill for a bit, it starts thickens to a frosting consistency and you can use it like one! You can also just pour the cream over the cake in a cake pan, let it chill to set for a quicker cake.

Why You’ll Love this Vegan Lemon Cake

• moist, fluffy cake with lovely lemon flavor
• fluffy, lemony mouse-like frosting
• 1 bowl batter
• you make the frosting in the blender!
• easily made nut-free, soy-free, or gluten-free

Continue reading: Vegan Lemon Cream Cake (soy-free, nut-free, gluten-free options)

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