Your Vegan Cooking Guide

Welcome to the Vegan Cooking Guide. Ready to play with your food?

Are you looking for tips on preparing basic vegan foods like vegetables, beans, and whole grains? If so, then you will love the information you'll find here. Not only will you learn the basics of vegetarian cooking, but you will learn how to cook without recipes and let your creativity come out to play. It's like your very own virtual vegan cooking school. :)

Do you like to cook? Or is it a necessary evil? Before I went vegan back in 1994, I was the worst cook I knew; my friends actually joked about my lack of skills in the kitchen (boo-hoo). I just really HAY-AY-ATED cooking.

It wasn't until I went vegetarian (and later dropped the eggs and dairy) that I was forced to learn how to cook for myself and hubby Jeff. And what I have learned over the years is that cooking is the best way to relax, let all the stress float away, and let your creativity flow.

But cooking CAN be stressful too, especially when you first head down the path to vegan and you really don't have a clue what to cook. Or you get bored with the same few recipes you make over and over again.

Sure you can find vegan recipes on this website. Recipes are not difficult to find out there. But what you will discover HERE is how to cook WITHOUT recipes. Does that sound scary to you? Exciting? A little bit of both? I totally understand.

But it's important for you to learn how to cook without recipes. Why? Because it is (surprisingly) an easier way to approach your food than using a recipe. There is no time-consuming measuring of ingredients, so it is best for people who feel they are too busy to cook vegan food. You just use your natural-born instinct to guide you. Sometimes you will mess up. And sometimes you'll hit it out of the park. But with each and every dish you make, you will learn something new.

Let's begin with a few tips to help get you started with this Vegan Cooking Guide...

VEGAN COOKING STEP #1:

Whether using a recipe or not, the most important thing you can do is to get familiar with the main vegan ingredients you will be using to create your vegan food. This is vital to your success wtih vegan cooking. If you don't know how to work with each ingredient individually, how can you hope to mix them together to make a yummy vegan meal?

Take a peek at the list below, and you will find vegetables, whole grains, beans (and vegan protein foods), and fruits. These links lead to lots and lots of information that will help you learn to shop for these ingredients, how to cook them, and how to flavor them individually.

Highly recommended: To make sense of alllll the information you will find by clicking the links in the List of Whole Food Ingredients below, be sure to review the easy-to-understand Vegan Cooking Guide Tutorial to learn how to make use of all the information you will find after clicking on the vegetable, bean, whole grain, or fruit listed below. (This will open in a new window so you can go back and forth as needed.)

VEGAN COOKING STEP #2:

Now, Step 1 helped you to get familiar with how to make each whole-food main ingredient on its own (how they taste, how fast/slow they cook up, and the flavors that match them such as herbs and spices, etc.). And now that you have these basics down, you can begin to put them together to make easy vegan meals.

Really, the possibilities are limitless. Become comfy with the main ingredients for your vegan meals - refer to the list of vegan foods below to guide you. Also, take a peek at my blog Everyday Vegan Cooking and Nutrition, where you will find lots and lots of dishes I created on-the-fly using the same techniques you are learning here.

VEGAN COOKING STEP #3:

Now that you have an idea of how to cook your main ingredients, and how you can get started making these ingredients into a meal, it's time for some helpful vegan cooking tips to help you along:

1. When you look through the list of Vegan Flavor Matches for the various veggies, whole grains, and beans, you might see some ingredients you aren't familiar with. Don't get hung up on them. Choose to focus on those ingredients you already know and love. For instance, if you see "Bragg Liquid Aminos" (a soy-based condiment much like soy sauce) listed as an option but you only have traditional soy sauce on hand, then go ahead and use what you are familiar with. Over time, as you continue to cook, you will naturally become more curious about the "strange" ingredients and you can investigate them at that time;


2. When cooking vegan food, you'll be chopping, slicing, and dicing veggies. Be sure to chop each down to about the same size cuts so they cook evenly. Also, keep in mind the relation to the rest of the dish -- for instance, if I am making a rice dish, I will chop veggies on the smaller side to so they don't overpower the grain; if I am making penne pasta, I might choose to keep my veggie chops or slices on the larger side;


3. Fresh herbs are yummy but can freak some new cooks out. You can go ahead and use dried herbs, just remember that they should be added earlier in the cooking process so they can begin to rehydrate and release their flavors. Be sure that you rub them between your thumb and forefinger or between the palms of your hands before adding them to your pot or pan to give the herbs a boost of energy so they can do their herb-y thing. Fresh herbs should always be added toward the end of cooking to enjoy their full flavor effect because they are more fragile;


4. If your dish seems a little blah, add lemon juice or vinegar at the end of cooking to perk up the flavors. Especially helpful when reheating a soup, stew, or grain-based dish. (By the way, NEVER use distilled white vinegar in your cooking.);


5. Wondering which flavors to add to your dish? Always let "THE BIG 4" guide you: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter/pungent. Add some of your favorite flavors, then taste. What do you think it needs? (There is no right or wrong answer. That's the beauty of cooking because you make the rules.) Does your dish taste like it needs more sweetness? Then add a little bit of maple syrup, some raisins or chopped dates, Agave nectar, or Sucanat (a natural sugar). Does your dish need a bitter/pungent edge? Add some freshly ground black pepper, some unsweetened cocoa, chili peppers, or olives;


6. Nuts and seeds contain vital enzymes your body needs so always buy them "raw". However, toasting them in a dry pan (watch carefully!) greatly brings out their flavor and can add much to a dish. The solution? Toast half of them, and leave the other half raw so you get the best of both worlds;


7. When working with beans and grains and veggies, you can sometimes have a challenge with consistency and texture. So do your best to add ingredients to the dish to "up" the crunch factor such as nuts, seeds, fried onions, or lightly crushed crackers or tortilla chips;


8. Think color! The more color a dish has, the more visually appealing it is, and often the tastier and more nutritious too.

VEGAN COOKING STEP #4:

Get to know the Vegan Food Pyramid so you have an understanding of which food groups you need to eat on a daily basis. This will help to guide you in choosing your main ingredients with which to make your vegan meals.

Helpful Kitchen Tools

To assist you on your vegan cooking adventure...

The Vitamix is an ESSENTIAL part of my vegan kitchen, allowing me to make absolutely divine and healthy meals VERY quickly and easily. It isn't unusual for me to use my Vitamix three times a day (for instance, smoothie in the morning, soup in the afternoon, and a cashew chocolate shake for dessert).

A pressure cooker is VITAL to my sanity! It helps me to pull a meal together in minutes when life gets so busy I can't even think straight, let alone figure out how I'm going to feed us!

Pressure cookers are super fast, cooking foods quickly - especially beans and grains, mainstays of the vegan diet. And best of all your food retains the nutrients you need to fill your body with good stuff.

Pssst...Remember, before you use this Vegan Cooking Guide, you may want to refer to the Vegan Cooking Guide Tutorial for a better understanding of what you'll find within the pages of each main ingredient listed below.

Vegan Cooking Guide
List of Whole Food Ingredients

"Hi Sassy, What a fantastic site!!! As a vegan of 3yrs, I love it. I can cook recipes anytime, but I love that your site shows me ideas and stuff so I don't NEED to." :D

-- Tonia from Perth, Australia

Be sure to visit the Vegan Coach Blog where you'll discover how I use the information within the pages of this site to whip up dinner in minutes!

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