Vegan

This type of cake recipe—using oil, not butter, and without eggs—was first developed during the Depression era, when milk and eggs were scarce and expensive. Rather than forgo sweets entirely, families developed recipes that worked around the limited availability of certain foods. Obviously, the availability of dairy isn’t an issue anymore, but this history means that there are plenty of pretty good dessert recipes ready-made for vegans.

I know I continually say that I’m skeptical about tofu, especially something as weird as tofu cream cheese. However, I have to say this vegan cheesecake is actually better than a lot of cheesecakes I’ve had. In fact, it’s so good that when I finished my first piece I went back for a second. Like any cheesecake, it’s great with any kind of fruit on top, especially strawberries.

One day I was looking through my cupboard trying to decide what I would have for dinner and came upon a can of coconut milk. The truth is, I only bought it because it sounded fun and exotic, but I had no idea what to make with it. After a little more digging I came up with the coconut-curry combination and the rest, as they say, is history. All right, that might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but it is very tasty-—definitely impress-your-date material.

I had never tried quinoa before testing this recipe, and my verdict is that the grain with the funny name is good. The combination of vegetables and quinoa is so delicious that I would be happy with a big bowl of just that. This is even better though, because stuffing it into the onion makes an awesome and impressive dish.

I’ve always loved pot stickers, but I was skeptical when we decided to try a vegetarian version. We got it right on the first try, and that doesn’t happen often. Your meat-eating friends won’t even care that these are vegetarian, because they’re pretty darn good dumplings, if I do say so myself.

In my family, I’m the sloppy joe guru. I stand there for a ridiculously long time adding a little bit of this and a little bit of that, getting the taste just right. Needless to say, I was skeptical about a veggie version. What are sloppy joes without the beef? Well, I can tell you with confidence that they are amazing. In fact, no one even realizes that they don’t have meat in them.

This version of vegetarian chili uses textured vegetable protein as a substitute for the ground beef. Although it looks a little like granola in its dry form, it absorbs the flavor of whatever you put in the dish, so in the end even meat eaters don’t realize it’s not really beef.

I used to be very apprehensive about different ethnic foods until I studied abroad. The first time I had a tagine was in France and I wondered where it had been all my life! That first tagine was the furthest thing from being vegetarian-friendly, as it came with every kind of meat you can imagine, but an all-vegetable version is just as good. This is a great meal for when you have friends coming over or to take to a potluck.

Lentils get a bad reputation, largely because they can look like lumpy mud, even though they taste really good. This lentil and potato salad is delicious, and because we used yellow lentils, it actually looks pretty, too. This is great to take to a potluck to share with friends.

Satay is an Indonesian dish where, typically, foods are skewered and then grilled or broiled. But to me satay is all about the peanut sauce that’s served alongside the skewers. I love peanut sauce! I made a stovetop version with just broccoli and cauliflower accompanied with that amazing peanut dipping sauce, so it would be a really easy meal for one. The sauce would also be great with some baked tofu.

This is one of my favorite salads in the whole book, despite what anyone says about the color. Soba noodles, which are made from buckwheat, are a kind of gray-brown color, so everyone thinks the salad looks a little bizarre or even unappetizing—until they try it and realize that it’s a delicious twist on pasta salad. The lime juice and fresh veggies make it refreshing and light.

It can be expensive to buy sushi, but it’s pretty cheap to make at home. And it’s nice because then you can use whatever vegetables you like, rather than settling for the standard vegetables that are in most rolls. You can use what we’ve listed here, or pick something completely different. It’s up to you. Nori (seaweed sheets), rice vinegar, sushi rice, and wasabi paste are the special ingredients to seek out for this dish. They may all be available in your supermarket or natural foods store, or (definitely) in an Asian food store. Bamboo sushi mats are cheap and handy to have if you are going to make maki sushi regularly; they can be found in most kitchenware stores these days.

Okay, this salad is really dinner-for-one-and-lunch-the-next-day. I got the recipe from my host sister in Germany, who says that the longer the salad is in the fridge, the better it tastes. I told her that I don’t think we can tell that to college students in the U.S., because some of them will end up with science experiments! Still, you could even make a double or triple batch and keep it in the fridge for a quick lunch or to bring along to a barbecue.

This Japanese spin on coleslaw is a refreshing salad, and serving it with crispy fried tofu coated with sesame seeds makes for a great, quick dinner. Even though the tofu is fried, you only need a little bit of oil, so it’s still a nice light meal.

Okay, I like tabouleh, but obviously not as much as the people in a town in the Metn district of Lebanon. They are listed in the Guinness World Records for making the world’s largest bowl of tabouleh. It weighed in at a hefty 1,514 kilograms. That’s 3,338 pounds of tabouleh. Where do you suppose they got a bowl that big?

This is a great dish for a hot summer day when you need something light. The fresh green beans and grape tomatoes make for a delicious salad that’s nice for picnics, or to take along on a day when you don’t have time to stop at home for lunch.

Soup is great because you can make a lot when you have time and freeze it in smaller portions so that you always have a quick home-cooked meal on hand. You can even take the frozen soup with you if you have access to a microwave to reheat it. Plus, it is chock-full of vegetables and pretty low in calories.

For me, spaghetti sauce usually means a jar of whatever is on sale at the grocery store, so I wasn’t sure about how a spicy spaghetti sauce of my own creation would turn out. I have a tendency to forget that a little bit of spice goes a long way and end up sweating my way through meals. But this time I kept it under control and came up with something that isn’t particularly spicy at first but has a bit of a kick at the end. Spaghetti squash is the perfect way to keep calories in check. It has a taste and texture similar to pasta, but only about one-quarter of the calories.

I never realized that there were so many ways to make curry until a few of my friends got into a discussion of the virtues of the different types. There’s red, made with red chiles; green, made with green chiles; and yellow, made with turmeric. Countries all across Asia, from India to Malaysia to Thailand (and Mongolia!), have dishes called curries—all spicy. Then there’s the wet/dry divide, which has to do with how much sauce the dish has. In case you’re interested, this is a dry, yellow, Indian-style curry.

Here’s another easy and fast stir-fry dish that incorporates tempeh, which is a great meat substitute. Served over rice, this is a perfect dish to eat on a day you work out or are extra busy and need some long-lasting energy—it’s got good lean protein.