[ICTHUS]

Can anyone direct me to some good, cheap vegan recipies for lunch or dinner?

I'm going to be entertaining a couple of Austrian backpackers I met in Australia, who are coming to Vancouver, next month, and they're vegans. I really want to give them the best hospitality possible, on a really tight budget.

Any ideas?

[beanbag]

beans and rice are super cheap, and you can add all sorts of fun spices. plus, beans + rice = complete protein. all you have to do is cook them and then mix them up. throw some salad and/or steamed veggies in, and you're good. one of my favorite dishes (granted, it has ground beef in it, but you can easily take that out and either substitute with tofu or leave it out completely) is rice and lentils (the greenish-brown ones). you cook them separately and then you can either combine them in your plate or simmer them together.

my new favorite cookies are both vegan and gluten-free. take 1 cup of sugar (I use 2/3 brown sugar and 1/3 white sugar), 1 cup of peanut butter, 1 TBSP of baking soda, 1/2 a banana and some vegan chocolate chips (or you can substitute raisins if you can't find vegan choco chips), mix them all up together, drop them onto a cookie sheet in round balls (don't smash them) and bake them for 10 mins at 350. remove them from the oven but let them cool on the cookie sheet because that will cause them to finish baking correctly.

you can also take fruit (pears or apples) and cut it in half, grease a glass casserole dish with a little bit of margarine and place the halved fruit inside with some brown sugar sprinkled on top and bake at around 350-400 until the sugar melts and the fruit is a nice golden brown.

you can make your own hummus from garbanzo beans and lemon juice. you can also make falafel (ground garbanzo beans and various spices--there are recipes all over the web, but I've always used the boxed near east brand. I just don't know if you guys have it in canada) which is vegan. unfortunately, I don't know of any vegan yogurt so your falafel might be slightly boring. you can always serve it with tomatoes and cucumbers anyways, sans yogurt.

[Sean.thomson]

I hear hay is pretty cheap nowadays....

[Pre-Ex-Girlfriend]

The first thing that comes to mind is sandwiches. Various veggies all grilled together... mmm. You could even make a salad with a vinaigrette to go with, or heck, a simple veggie soup.

This recipe sounds delicious, relatively cheap, and easy to make. As one person suggests, you could serve it with pasta. That website also has tons of vegan cookie recipes.

[MtlMom]

How many which meals are you providing? Are they staying for a few days or are they just dropping by for a meal?

[ICTHUS]

My place is too small for them to stay overnight. I just wanted to have them over for dinner, maybe two or three times.

[MtlMom]

Okay.

This:

Vegetarian Cornbread

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup vanilla soymilk
1/2 cup water

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8x8 baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Mix dry ingredients together.
3. Combine wet ingredients, then add to the dry ingredients until just mixed – do not overmix.
4. Bake for about 30 min until top is golden brown.

+ this:

Tofu Chili

2 cups cooked and drained beans (pinto, kidney, etc.)
1 lb. frozen tofu - thawed, drained, squeezed of excess moisture and mashed
1-2 lbs. mushrooms, sliced
3 small onions, chopped
1/2 - 1 cup mild green chilis, minced
8 very ripe tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup tamari
1/2 cup red wine
4-6 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs oil
1 cup each, minced: green pepper, celery, carrot
1 tsp each: cumin, basil
1 tsp chili powder (to taste)
3 tbs tomato paste

Mix together tofu, wine, tamari, cumin, basil and chili powder. Allow to marinate at room temperature for one hour. Heat oil in frying pan and saute onion, mushrooms and vegetables until just tender. Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan. Simmer until flavors blend, at least 2-3 hours.

= best friends for life.

[bobthecockroach]

Curry! Many curries consist of nothing but extremely cheap foods (rice, lentils, chickpeas, onions, tomatoes). Throw in some spinach, and you can probably make a couple dozen curries.

[redbaron]

I second the curry suggestion. You can do a massuman curry and just substitute the beef for tofu (plus massuman has potatoes and peanuts nom nom nom). I would definitely pan fry/sear the tofu so it had a nice crisp outside first though so you get some nice textural contrast.

Def. an easy thing to make that's both GF & vegan I suppose (though I'd use meat in mine since I don't have those dietary issues ). My mom has started learning to like curry now that she has celiac and can't have gluten so it's been great, I just have to remember not to make them quite as hot as normal (I like my curries 5*+)

[PontiusPirate]

Originally Posted by redbaron

I second the curry suggestion. You can do a massuman curry and just substitute the beef for tofu (plus massuman has potatoes and peanuts nom nom nom). I would definitely pan fry/sear the tofu so it had a nice crisp outside first though so you get some nice textural contrast.

Def. an easy thing to make that's both GF & vegan I suppose (though I'd use meat in mine since I don't have those dietary issues ). My mom has started learning to like curry now that she has celiac and can't have gluten so it's been great, I just have to remember not to make them quite as hot as normal (I like my curries 5*+)

WORD. Always always fry or bake your tofu. It's especially good if you freeze it first - gives it a lovely fluffy texture inside. I cut mine, roll it in a bit of corn starch or flour mixed with a pinch of salt & curry powder, then fry it up. Mmmmm.

[redbaron]

indeed, actually makes it quite pleasing to eat.

I'd still prefer my curry with something more delicious like Lamb, but I know that not everyone is down with that, hence Ryan's initial question

[HairyScaryMark]

You could try something with cous cous (please note, I've never wrote a recipe down before).

First prepare the key ingredients.

Key Ingredients

Cous Cous
lemon or lime
Onions (covered in options section)
pinch of salt and pepper.


Fresh Mint
Harissa paste.
Finely chopped Black Olives

Option 1

Mixed 'Mediterranean Style' Vegetables

Chop up a mixture of the following and cook in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Check regularly and try not to completely overcook but there is some room for error here as they're still nice when cooked for longer.

onions
mushrooms
courgettes
carrots
mushrooms
mixed peppers
anything else you think would work
cook them with excessive quantities of garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, basil and lemon or lime (feel free to add in pieces of lemon or lime and remove them later). You are unlikely to use too much as you're going to use the juice in place of adding olive oil to the

Warning: the olive oil and garlic sometimes 'fry' the food and they once splashed in the direction of my eyes while I checked on them, be careful.

Add vegetables to your cous cous with with all the 'juice' from the stuff you cooked them in for flavour.

Then add harissa paste and mint and mix together thoroughly. I like a more than suggested quantity of each but it is possible to overdo.


I usually make this with prawns but obviously that's not vegan so you may want to try out something with chick peas or similar in the place of it.

Option 2

Cold Vegetables

Chick peas.
cucumber
tomato
lemon and lime
even more mint
finely chopped black olives (optional)
olive oil

add to cous cous and stir thoroughly.