This past semester was my first time living away from home and not in residence, so it was also the first semester during which I cooked for myself regularly. This was both a blessing and a curse, as you’ll likely understand if you’re in second year or above. Cooking is often an annoying responsibility, but it also gives you freedom. For example, I personally believe that my family’s diet (what I eat when I’m living with my parents) contains too much meat; when I’m at school, I’m able to eat what I want, which includes reducing my animal product intake.
The following are recipes for some dishes that I’ve enjoyed this semester and that don’t contain meat, dairy or eggs. I hope they can provide you with some cooking inspiration, whether you’re vegan, vegetarian, trying to reduce your animal product consumption, or even completely disinterested in plant-based eating.
Slow-Cooker Chili
Assuming you don’t serve this chili with sour cream, it is completely vegan. (I like eating it with sliced radishes and green onion, as the recipe suggests. I also enjoy it with toast – a good brand is Ezekiel 4:9 flax bread, which you can buy at Tara’s here in Kingston.)
I’m going to be honest, I only made this once (it lasted me a while), and I didn’t have canned tomatoes at the time. So I used canned spaghetti sauce instead and added some fresh cherry tomatoes as well. I also added too much cumin by accident, which I found out can be quite overpowering. I remedied this by adding a can of white kidney beans and a generous amount of ketchup (I think the vinegar and sugar helped balance things out).
I guess my point is that I don’t actually know what this tastes like when you follow the recipe to a T, but I’m sure it’s delicious. Also, of course, you should generally feel free to do whatever you want to any dish until you like it! That’s actually one of my favourite parts of cooking for myself… I can experiment freely, and if things turn out badly, I don’t have to harm anyone else’s taste buds in the process!
Stir Fry
There are literally endless variations of stir fry. I don’t really have a recipe, but I generally follow a few steps when making it:
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Put a large pan or wok on high heat, and add oil (something with a high smoke point is best here, but if you only have olive oil, just put the heat closer to medium instead). (Sesame oil also adds great flavour, so I recommend using a mixture of sesame and something flavourless.)
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Wait until the oil comes up to temperature, then add a bunch of chopped scallions, and minced ginger and garlic. Stir this around, since it will burn relatively easily. I also sometimes add some sesame seeds here.
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Add literally whatever your heart desires, for example, broccoli, carrots, tofu, peppers, bean sprouts, bok choy, eggplant, zucchini, snow peas and/or green beans. If I’m using tofu, I like getting the extra-firm variety, cutting it into cubes, and frying it in the pan so it can get browned a bit before adding the vegetables. With this step, it helps if you have some general idea of how long it takes different vegetables to cook, so that, for example, you can put the carrots in well before the bean sprouts.
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Dissolve a few tablespoons of cornstarch into a few cups of vegetable or mushroom stock (or just water, if you don’t have stock), and add this to the pan. When the cornstarch gets heated, it thickens the sauce.
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Add soy sauce and oyster sauce (vegan oyster sauce is a thing, although I’ve never tried it). You can also add some white sugar and/or chili paste and/or rice vinegar and/or Chinese cooking wine here, depending on how you want it to taste.
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Simmer until everything is cooked, and serve over rice.
I am actually Chinese, but I definitely can’t claim that this is an “authentic” recipe or anything. I often just take the general idea of dishes and make food that I like to eat.
Fried Rice
I consider this a spin-off of the stir fry “recipe” above. I basically do all the same things, except in step 4, I add cooked and refrigerated rice instead of liquid (using rice that was cooked and refrigerated beforehand is preferable, so it doesn’t get mushy when you fry it). Then I cook the rice with the vegetables, not stirring too often so that the rice can get crispy. I usually need to use more oil than with the stir fry, since the rice tends to stick to the pan. I also chop my ingredients smaller, and sometimes add corn and peas.
Hearty Vegetable Stew
http://www.food.com/recipe/hearty-vegetable-stew-123428
This stew is really great served with a grain like rice or quinoa, or just on its own. I think it would work well with almost any combination of vegetables; for example, when I made it I replaced the celery and mushrooms with some broccoli, simply because that’s what I had at the time. I also omitted the bay leaf and replaced the red wine with broth, but I’m sure those ingredients would add great flavour if you had them.
Sweet Potatoes with Rice and Peanut Sauce
http://cookieandkate.com/2013/spicy-thai-peanut-sauce-over-roasted-sweet-potatoes-and-rice/
I basically followed this recipe exactly as written, and it was delicious and filling. No weird changes here, just sharing a great recipe.
Chickpea Sandwiches
Okay, so this might sound more like a lunch recipe than a dinner one, but I’ve had it as a lighter dinner, and it could totally be eaten with soup to add something warm to the meal. Basically, you either cook chickpeas or get some canned ones (drained and rinsed), and mash them up with some tahini and a bit of cumin. I don’t know the exact measurements; just add tahini until the mixture sticks together and could be put on a sandwich. Mix something sweet into it, such as agave or chopped dates. You can also add some lemon juice. Spread it onto some bread or toast; I’ve also added hummus, tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce to the sandwich.
Obviously, I have a lot more exploration to do in terms of cooking, and I have a bunch of recipes that I want to attempt next semester. I just wanted to share some of the ones that I can verify are actually good and practical to make for someone like me. I hope you try these out, and share any great recipes that you’ve found or created! Happy cooking!