Vegan Comfort Food For The Fall Has Arrived!
Craving Vegan Comfort Food? We’ve Got You Covered!
Need some easy to make and soothing vegan comfort food? In this episode of #LunchBreakLive, Chef Tracy Childs creates two fun and simple recipes to give you that warming comfort that we all need right about now! Tracy, co-founder, and chef at Tracy’s REAL Foods & Veg-Appeal will show us her Fall favorites. She will be cooking up easy Apple Pie Bites and Quick Cream of Spinach Soup. As director of the nonprofit PlantDiego and an instructor with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Tracy’s culinary expertise showcases her plant-based cooking knowledge.
Creamy Vegan Comfort Food Found In Healthy Ingredients!
Creamed soups are perfect for the Fall, and the Cream of Spinach Soup that Tracy made is no exception. It is full of flavor, thick and creamy, and will warm you through and through. It is the perfect vegan comfort food for a chilly evening, curled up on the couch. And it is a dish filled with nutrients, for an added bonus. You don’t have to choose between flavor and nutrients…you can have both!
It’s Not Vegan Comfort Food Without Dessert!
Most people think of desserts when they imagine comfort food. As they should! So this meal wouldn’t be complete without a great dessert. And these mini apple pie bites are a perfect choice! They are SOOOOO easy to make and only have healthy ingredients so BAM…eat more than one if you want! I know I plan to. Haha. They have that fall apple and spice flavor and are just sweet enough to fulfill your sweet tooth.
Looking For More Vegan Fun?
These are two fun foods to try, so I posted the recipes for you below. Please give them a try and let us know how you liked it. I will defiantly be making the apple pie bites for sure. Those are my kind of vegan comfort food! And I will take mine with frosting! If you are looking for more awesome vegan recipes to try, check out previous episodes of #LunchBreakLIVE. There are so many delicious ones to choose from. And if you want to meet like-minded vegan and veg people in your neighborhood, then be sure to sign up for plantbasedneighbor.com It is a great way to meet new people and spread your vegan vibes. Until next time…
Cream of Spinach Soup
Ingredients
- 1 16 oz bag of frozen spinach or kale/collards
- 2 cups any type of potatoes and cut into chunks
- ½ -1 cup white beans like garbanzo beans, drained
- ½ - 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 3 cups vegetable broth plus more or water as needed
- 4 garlic cloves sliced
- 1 medium onion sliced
- ¼ cup raw cashews
- Lemon slices for garnish
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, dry sauté the onion adding splashes of vegetable broth as needed to prevent burning. Sauté until it’s soft, then add the garlic and Italian Seasonings and sauté for another second or two, making sure there’s a bit of broth to move it around.
- Add potatoes, beans and vegetable broth, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and add the cashews about half-way through.
- Add the spinach and cook for a further a few minutes until the spinach is tender and well incorporated.
- Turn off the heat.
- Using blender, puree the soup along with the cashews to a smooth consistency. You can also leave some of the soup in the pan, to add a bit of texture to the soup. Add additional broth or water as needed. Taste it, you might want to adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.
- Serve with black pepper, and a wedge of lemon on the side.
- Garnish with a few reserved white beans and a sprinkle of hemp seeds if you like.
- You can enjoy this soup hot or chilled.
Notes
Lemon:Â add a little lemon juice at a time and see which level of acidity fits your taste.Â
Leftover:Â it keeps well in the fridge for up to 3 days
Easy Mini Apple Pie Bites (makes about 32 bites)
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted raw pecans walnuts, almonds or any nut or seed
- 4 medium sweet apples (like Fuji or your favorite), cored and cut into large slices or chunks.
- ¼ cup pitted dates
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- Pinch salt
- 2 tablespoons ground flax
- 2 tablespoons oat flour
- ½ cup raisins optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 and line mini muffin tins with mini muffin liners.
- In a food processor, chop the nuts of choice (or a mixture) into medium chunks. Put them into a large bowl.
- Place ½ of the apples into the food processor and pulse to chop them into small ½ inch pieces then add them to the nuts in the large bowl.
- Add the dates to the food processor and chop them into chunks.
- Add the remaining large apples chunks, along with the salt, cinnamon and flax to the food processor and process until just blended and the apples & dates are processed, like a chunky apple sauce.
- Add these ingredients to the other apples with the nuts in the large bowl along with the raisins and stir well.
- Mound the mixture by heaping tablespoon (using a melon-baller is great) into the mini muffin liners, mounding over the top.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until browned and allow them to cool in the tins, to retain shape.
- Store cooled Mini Apple Bites in a closed container.
- You can make a lovely vegan cream topping to enjoy with your Apple Pie Bites. Here is an example of one recipe. https://jessicainthekitchen.com/cashew-whipped-cream-vegan/
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