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bean salad with black-eyed peas and aduki

I’ve eaten this meal probably 50 times this year and I still love it. It’s easy, healthy, and filling.

Bean Salad

2 Cans beans – recommend black beans, aduki beans, and/or black-eyed peas

1 Cucumber, diced

1 Tomato, diced

4 Green onions, chopped small

1 Tbsp flax oil

1Tbsp ume plum vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Drain the liquid from the beans, rinse thoroughly with water, and drain well again. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well. That’s it!

Recently, several people have contacted me through my website, thanking me for my great video and requesting recipes. You have the wrong Vegan Girl.

I don’t have a video, unless you have seen the one of my cat walking around, or the one of me trying to play Auld Lang Syne on the mandolin.

I’m thrilled that someone out there made such a powerful video about veganism that has inspired so many people to try it. I wish I could take credit for it, but I cannot. I encourage you to look more closely at the video and see if you have the correct URL.

Update: The consensus is that www.vegan-gal.com is the site you might be looking for.

Just like every year for the past several, this has been my healthiest year ever. Having some very simple recipes and basic ingredients on hand has been the key to maintaining a clean diet and avoiding junk food binges and restaurant outings. Below are the simple meals that have made up a large part of my diet throughout 2007. Generally speaking, I try to eat at least 2 mostly raw meals per day. I’ve posted my favorite breakfast recipes in a separate post.

“Meal Salad”
The idea of the meal salad is to take whatever vegetables are in the fridge (I never use leafy greens) and mix up a little dressing to make it more filling and appetizing. I usually use these vegetables:
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1 avocado, peeled and cubed
1 stalk celery, chopped
¼ onion, chopped
sprouts or shredded zucchini
5 black olives, chopped small

My typical salad dressing:
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 Tbsp flax oil or olive oil
1 Tbsp Bragg liquid aminos
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
½ lemon, juiced
a little bit of black tahini

Cucumber Seaweed Salad
This is based on a recipe from Living on Live Foods by Alissa Cohen. (Pictured above.)

½ package of wakame or arame seaweed, rehydrated
1 cucumber, sliced thin
¼ onion, chopped
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp Bragg liquid aminos

Mix all ingredients together. Best when you let it sit for 30 minutes.

Cooked Quinoa Salad
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
¼ onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
sea salt or herbamare to taste

Mix the quinoa and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, add onions, cover, and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Mix in the rest of the ingredients.

Garlic Manna Bread
Manna bread is a very dense and nutritious sprouted grain bread made by Nature’s Path. It is cooked at low temperatures but it isn’t raw. If your local health food store carries it, you can find it in the freezer section.

1/2 loaf Manna bread, sliced
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbsp olive oil

Mix garlic and olive oil together. Spread on Manna bread slices.

Breakfast has always been my favorite meal of the day. When I was a kid, I delighted making pancakes or french toast with my family. When I became vegan, I was thrilled to find vegan versions of my favorite breakfast foods. Just because I’m a gluten-intolerant health nut with a focus on raw food, doesn’t change my emotional need to have exciting breakfasts. It certainly doesn’t change the fact that a filling, healthy breakfast is the best way to start the day. Listed below are the recipes that I eat on a regular basis.

Green Smoothies
If I don’t eat a green smoothie for breakfast, I will usually eat one for lunch or dinner instead. I believe they are an ideal meal for just about everyone and can go a long long way in counteracting any other junk food that finds its way into your diet.

1/2 head of any leafy greens
2-4 pieces of fruit

Blend in a high power blender or cut the greens and fruit into small pieces and blend in a standard blender. It’s best to eat a variety of greens if eating them every day.

Porridge
This is my favorite weekend breakfast treat. I usually have this at least once each weekend.

2 cups sprouted buckwheat or soaked oat groats (soaked overnight)
1 apple
1 pear
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 vanilla bean or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 banana, sliced

Mix all ingredients, except for the banana, in a food processor until well mixed and remove from food processor. Mix in sliced bananas. Pour in fresh almond milk for an added treat.

Cooked Amaranth
This is a good breakfast to make on work days (or it was when I worked a “real” job) because you can set a timer get ready for work while its cooking. Just don’t forget to mix in the fruit about half way through.

1 cup amaranth
2-1/2 cup water
1 banana, berries, or other fruit
2 Tbsp flax seed oil

Mix amaranth and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, cover, and cook for 25 minutes. Mix in fruit about 10 minutes before the amaranth is done cooking. Remove from heat and mix in flax seed oil.

Green Gorilla Smoothie
The name was stolen from a similar smoothie for sale at Green Life Grocery here in Asheville. I don’t have any measurements on this. Every smoothie is like the kitchen experiments my sister and I used to throw together, except these actually taste good. No two are ever alike. All of these ingredients are not necessary, but these are the most common ones I use.

Almond Milk and/or young coconut water and meat
2 or 3 heaping spoonfuls of spirulina powder
a spoonful of barley grass juice powder
a spoonful of cacao powder or nibs
a spoonful of maca powder
2 bananas
pineapple
shredded coconut

Blend well. Make sure the powders aren’t stuck to the sides.