How to make for a full Vegan dinner or lunch

Greetings and blessed love for 2016! 

I wish you all much love success and conscious evolution to higher self this gregorian new year.  

As requested by a Sistar on Instagram I am making a post on how I create a vegan meal daily.

So basically I have a vegetable dish, a salad dish, a pea stew and a grain. Sometimes I even have no peas. So for example I may have quinoa, pigeon peas and stir fry greens with a salad or sweet potato or fried plantain on the side.

To start my meals I always do the flavour first, chopping: 

1 onion

3 pimento peppers

3 cloves garlic

Chives

 I also add other herbs and spices I may have. I am sure you have your own flavoring preferences! I divide these seasongs into three for my dishes.

For the Taste of  each dish I always add

Turmeric

Cumin

Ginger

Oregano

Tomato paste 

Sea salt

Powdered coconut milk 

And on occasion I use soy sauce, the best is Braggs liquid aminos,  but I try not to use soy products. I know I wrote a while back that I was giving them up, but I, on the occasion and I mean like once or twice a month the most, do have a soy burger or tofu since other family members still enjoy such. 

Part 1 the Grain

As I posted before, I make my grains like I would rice. The grains I eat are millet, quinoa, amaranth, couscous and on occasion I have basmati brown rice. I also have the Natures Earthly Choice Three Continent Blend which has wild rice, brown rice, two quinoa types and amaranth, so delicious.  I also buy organic brown rice or quinoa pasta instead.

Ingredients

Grain

Water

Sea salt

Powdered turmeric, ginger and  cumin and coconut milk

Optional chopped onion, pimento, garlic.

I usually use a ratio of 1 cup of grain to 2 cups of water. I usually combine the water and grain and I use about three dashes each of salt, cumin, turmeric and ginger and coconut milk. I don't use measurement, just throw it in.if you find grains to be bland definitely use the powdered spices I mentioned. I also add a few pieces of onion and garlic.

I let that simmer with the cover on until water Is gone, basically like rice.

Part 2 the Peas

For peas sometimes I use the can but generally buy the dried or even frozen form. If I use can I take out the water and rinse the peas. I use pigeon peas, chick peas, red beans, lentils and black eyed peas, on occasion black beans too but not as often.

If using them dried, first soak the peas in water. If using lentils I do it for a few hours before cooking. If like chickpeas or the others which are quite hard, soak overnight with a dash of baking soda in it. Another alternative is to soak them in boiling water and b. soda if time is short.

So in the pot I put a little coconut oil and a drop of blackstrap molasses and I let then bubble up. Then I add my onion, garlic, pimento and mix around. Then I add the peas and mix up. I also put the same spices and salt but usually use a generous amount of cumin.  Cumin and peas go together perfectly.

I then add the water. If using canned peas, I only put enough water to the level of the peas. If using dried peas which have to cook for a while I would fill more. When coming to the end I add a spoon of tomato paste and coconut milk powder, again about five dashes. 

Part 3 veggies

As I have shown, I steam, stir fry or bake or eat raw, my veggies. It depends on my mood.

Either way if they are being cooked I do so for as little time as possible.

Stir fry requires a non stick frying pan or wide deep pot  or wok if you have one. Sometimes I put oil but mostly I just use a little water to sauté my onion etc first. Then I drop in the veggies and add seasoning like oregano, ginger and chives, and sometimes turmeric and cumin. I stir fry for no more than five minutes. When cooking pumpkin and cho cho or christophene, don't cook until soft, but semi soft, when the pan is taken off the fire the veggies continue to cook in the steam. I have my recipes for baked veggies here already. You can use soy sauce as your only flavoring as well. Like if u r making cabbage and string beans stir fry.

Salad, plantain and sweet potato I won't bother to explain as there are recipes here for that as well. But I bake my sweet potato in skin, seldom do I boil. Only if gas or time is short.

I hope this helped those of you who want to get better at cooking vegan! Remember less salt and soy, more herbs and spices to season.

Give thanks for life!

Ila