Veg meal inspiration thread

[Jade]

So, I definitely recognize one of my strengths as being good at cooking. When I was little, my grandma had me cooking with her all the time, and I absorbed most of what she knew. She wasn't a culinary genius, but I know I have a special gift for just being taught the basic intricacies of cooking in our instant food world. I've taken what she taught me and coupled it with my extremely sensitive taste and smell, and thrifty veganism to usually create some yummy dishes.

I mean, I was vegan when we had food stamps and the only food store we had access to was a generic grocery with mostly expired food. The school of hard knocks, but many valuable lessons were obtained.

So basically, if you are struggling to make food with what you have in the fridge and cupboard, I can try to help you whip up something palatable with what you have. I specialize, too, in munchies. But, I will first start with a list of what I think should be staples in a vegan fridge, to make sure you can stretch each staple as far as possible, and for the most part, things you can buy slightly ahead in bulk that won't spoil.

-Fresh garlic, or if not always possible it's good to have organic garlic powder as backup
-Unprocessed salt, cracked pepper, turmeric, cinnamon
-Nutritional yeast
-Apple cider vinegar
-Flour, some type of sweetener unless you're opposed, baking soda and/or powder
-Olive oil and/or coconut oil (I use olive oil for savory dishes, coconut oil for sweet/asian dishes usually - it's too sweet for me to use for everything)
-Oatmeal
-Some type of rice (I prefer wild or brown)
-Lentils (I like to buy lentils that take the same amount of time to cook as my rice, and just cook them in one pot together)
-Cashews (raw if possible)
-Some type of nut milk
-Herbal tea (not for recipes; I just consider it a staple )

Secondary staples:
-Soy sauce
-Ginger (can keep a nub in the freezer; grate some off when needed)
-Cocoa powder
-Dried fruits/nuts
-Sriacha (I'm not a spicy person but I know this goes far for a lot of people, also I'll use a little dab sometimes)
-Any other spices/seasonings/herbs (dried basil, sage, red pepper flakes, cumin) or oils (sesame, safflower) you like. I list sesame because it's very potent, and a little bottle lasts forever. My husband usually uses it to dress his salads with a little soy sauce.
-Any other condiments you may use (I use dijon mustard when I make cashew cheese sauce usually)
-A white/yellow onion can last a little while in the fridge and can be stretched. I'm not *huge* on onion so I usually only use it for specific dishes. I like green onions a lot but they don't last near as long. I do have a chive plant growing in my windowsill that has been very low maintenance: I recommend this (I also have thyme and basil growing in pots - my basil has been outside for the summer but will come in here soon)
-Potatoes

I do have extra seeds of these plants, along with lettuces (growing micro lettuce is very easy indoors - so is growing broccoli sprouts!). If anyone is interested in starting an organic indoor garden, feel free to let me know, I could probably make up a care package of some seeds to get you started.

Having access to most of this list allows for a wide variety of flavors to be utilized. I will also add that I don't have a large variety of kitchen appliances/cooking vessels, but I do have a cheap blender/food processor combo that I use somewhat regularly, a small cookie sheet, a 9x13 cake pan/roasting dish, a small sauce pan and a large saucepan with lids for both. A vegetable peeler and grater can be useful, too. And a large mixing bowl.

So, if you need help planning a meal or two with some basic ingredients (it's obviously unnecessary to have the full list of staples), I can definitely try to help. This is hopefully assuming you have a vegetable or two onhand as well (broccoli is a healthy green that holds up in a fridge for a while), but I've made do with less before.

Godspeed, cooking friends! Nothing is better than the opportunity to commune with our food and imbue it with our love over a slow process of preparation. I promise you, some of my favorite meals were meals I was dreading preparing for lack of ingredients, but tried my best in the process.

To get you started, here's the evolution of the cashew sauce:

Basic cashew sauce:
-~1/2-1 cup of cashews into food processor/blender
-Start with a few tablespoons of water, process to desired thickness - the longer you process, the smoother it will be, but I don't mind mine with a little texture. Also, to take it up a notch, soak the cashews for a while to make them even creamier! I don't find it necessary to do this though)
-Bit of salt

I add this to vegetable/rice dishes to give it another flavor profile often. It's easy to spice up, too. Add 1/2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, and you have a sour cream! Making it into cheese sauce at this point is easy. Along with the cider vinegar, add nutritional yeast (I'd say maybe 1/4 cup per cup of cashews?), and a teaspoon of dijon mustard - I make broccoli mac and cheese all the time, and actually will put it over anything. You can add herbs to this at any time, too - a basil cashew cream is awesome!!