Vegan and greens-loaded suppers?

[dragons in the flower bed]

I am bored with our supper routine (burritos on Monday, spaghetti on Tuesday, kids' pick on Wednesday, adventurous food on Thursday). I feel a need for more greens and less dairy. What are your favorite greens-loaded or vegan recipes, or your favorite sources for such?

[TheReader]

I've recently been doing a potato soup that might work. I'm not vegan, so not sure if the oils/fats are a problem; I make mine with butter added in, but it's optional. I also stir in cheese, but again, optional.

 

Put into the crock pot however many potatoes needed to make a hearty meal for your size family. For mine, all boys (a teen and preteen, + the little guy), it's 8 potatoes since I'm not putting in meat. If I add sausage I might cut it back to 6 potatoes.

 

Add some garlic cloves (3 or 4 or so), salt/pepper, and one whole hot pepper, whatever kind you have. Just to give a bit of spice. Cover all this with water. Cook on low all day long.

 

In the last 30 minutes, add shredded kale -- you could use fresh spinach or arugula just as easily, I think. Also add, if this works with vegan eating, a little milk & butter to thicken/cream it up. If that doesn't work, you could just add some flour to thicken and olive oil if it needs the fat. I've totally forgotten the milk/butter and it's fine, just a broth kind of soup instead of a cream kind of soup.

 

Salt & pepper in that last 30 mins again, to taste, as sometimes the dried spices lose flavor in the crock pot. This is really delicious.

 

For greens in general you could do any number of salads, varying what other veggies you include and varying the dressing you use. You could also do wraps/burritos without the meat if you wanted to keep it vegan.

 

For vegan w/o the greens you could do various pasta salads -- I do a sweet/savory one that is pretty good. The spiral pasta, cooked according to package directions. While the water boils, saute' sliced bell peppers (red, yellow or green, or a mix) in a bit of olive oil. As the peppers are finishing, if you can get mango, add sliced mango just for a minute or so to warm it up and help it take on the pepper flavor. While the peppers cook, before you add the mango, slice up cucumber, dump it in a big bowl. Add some grape tomatoes (or diced regular ones) to the bowl. Dump in the pepper/mango once heated through. You can add various other fruit as well -- apple or pear, strawberries, star fruit are all things I've added. Then add the cooked pasta on top and make your dressing.

 

For the dressing, use equal parts olive oil, red wine vinegar & sugar. (I use something like 1/8th cup each, more or less). Mix and heat to melt the sugar in. Pour over the pasta THEN toss/mix the salad.

 

If you don't need to stay 100% vegan (not sure since you mention spaghetti, burritos, etc...) you can add cheese to this, any mild flavored cheese. It's perfectly fine without the cheese though.

 

Hope that helps a little bit!

[dragons in the flower bed]

Thanks! That potato soup looks delicious.

 

We're not vegan. I just want to lean that way. Ethical dairy can pretty quickly eat up the entire grocery budget, and the whole calorie budget too.

[stripe]

I think black beans, rice, and greens makes a nice dinner (each cooked separately).

 

More ideas at

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/vegetable/

[flyingiguana]

http://www.everydayhealth.com/health-recipe/kale-lentil-and-chicken-soup.aspx

 

This isn't quite what I do, as I add more vegetables (frozen spinach, mushrooms, and whatever else happens to be in the vegetable drawer). I also add brown rice and I use regular (not red) lentils. The rice and regular lentils need to cook in the broth for about an hour before adding the other things. I add the kale and frozen spinach at the last minute. They could just fine -- and then they're green, rather than that odd blackish color that they turn into with too much cooking. And I really don't understand pre-frying the vegetables. I just throw them in the pot.

 

This isn't vegan. I make it with chicken broth because I'm using up the broth that got produced in boiling chicken for enchiladas. However, I suspect you could do it with plain water if you just added enough other stuff to produce a good flavor. If you needed a bit of fat in the soup for flavor, you could add a bit of olive oil.

[Plaid Dad]

Kale and sweet potatoes are a great combo. I like them prepared with caramelized sweet onion. They're yummy with black beans and rice, either in a bowl or as a burrito.

 

Tabbouleh that's more parsley than grain is surprisingly good.

 

Kale and white bean soup.

 

I also have green smoothies on hot days when I can't be bothered to cook: greens, bananas, water, and whatever fruit is available. I do orange smoothies as well, with canned pumpkin or sweet potatoes, mango or pineapple, carrot, banana, and apple pie spices. (No help with greens there, but I love orange smoothies!)

 

My dw does wonderful things with chard; I'll ask her for some of her favorite combos and let you know. :)

[jeswa]

A great website for vegan recipes is http://www.vegweb.com. The kale chip recipe is really good and my kid love it too.

 

Hth,

Jes

[jeri]

veggie burgers (google Eating Well and veggie burgers--just had a very yummy pumpkin burger tonight which got raves; the cashew burger, while pricey, is good too)

 

falafels (allrecipes, sort by rating, the first guy up--either one or two--is excellent!)

 

eggs with whole grain bread

 

Bree's lentil soup (another google) is awesome--kids love it! I serve it with cornbread. Very quick and easy

 

grilled sandwiches--good bread, cheese, tomatoes, whatever sliced meat you have around the house

 

jeri

[susankenny]

My favorite:

 

http://www.chooseveg.com/vegan-recipes.asp

 

 

Susan

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I love Mollie Katzen's cookbooks- they are vegetarian, but many recipes are vegan. She uses lots of greens, too.

[Oakblossoms]

We use greens in lasagna. I make a tofu ricotta.

Enchilada filling. Just cook down in a cast iron pan with some onion and garlic.

Green smoothies..I always add a dark berry to cover the taste.

Cut into ribbons and add to soups.