From spicy fried cauliflower to mac stuffed sweet potatoes, these meals will please even meat-eaters.
If you've chosen to eat vegan as a new year's resolution, you're not alone, and you've probably crossed off a few other popular resolutions off the list at the same time. Eating vegan is better for the environment, may help you lose weight, and allows you to do something kind for the animals that share our planet. If you need more reasons than that, check out Peta's list of reasons to go vegan for the new year.
We're not here to judge anyone's eating habits, but cutting back on meat might be worth trying, and if you have vegan friends or family members that you need to feed, you'll definitely want some out-of-this-world recipes that taste superb to all your guests. These are some of our favorite finds:
Spicy Fried Cauliflower "Chicken"
It's not chicken, it's cauliflower. But with all the spices and the delicious sauce mixture, you wouldn't guess that you were eating a vegetable. The recipe calls for a deep fryer, but you can pan fry this one as well -- it still tastes great. First, dip it in a sauce mixture that contains hot sauce, non-dairy milk, and dijon mustard, then coat it in a flour mixture with cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, and nutritional yeast. You can add a vegan dipping sauce if you want to take it up a notch. See the full recipe at Sweet Potato Soul.
Creamy Vegan Butternut Squash Linguini
You can make this one gluten-free as well by substituting gluten-free pasta. It uses butternut squash, garlic, onion, red pepper flakes, and vegetable broth for the sauce and is topped with fried sage. It's ready in less than an hour. See the full recipe at Cookie and Kate.
Harvest Sweet Potato Hash
This recipe is toasty, savory, and sweet, all at once. It includes roasted Brussel sprouts, diced sweet potatoes, roasted pecans, apples, and dried cranberries, along with a spice mixture that combines savory spices (sage, thyme, onion, and rosemary) with sweet ones typically reserved for harvest pies (cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg). It's a magical pairing to say the least. See the full recipe at Paleo Running Momma.
Courtesy of Paleo Running Momma
Crispy Potatoes with Vegan Nacho Sauce
This one makes a great appetizer -- or breakfast, because, why not? We're adults. The cheese sauce is made of cashews, lemon juice, jalapeno chile, nutritional yeast, and spices like paprika, cumin, and chili powder. Pair it with roasted potatoes for the ultimate comfort food. See the full recipe at Good Housekeeping.
Panko Baked Avocado Tacos
This quick and easy dish is filled with creamy avocado taste on the inside and a crunchy panko breadcrumb mixture on the outside. You'll bake the avocados in the panko breadcrumbs (which you can also buy gluten-free) and spice mixture and serve them with tortillas or tacos, pinto or black beans, radishes, lime juice, and hot sauce. See the full recipe at Minimalist Baker.
Courtesy of Minimalist Baker
Smoky Mac Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
These are a bit of a project, but the results are well worth it. Baked sweet potatoes get stuffed with pasta in a delicious vegan cheese sauce along with kale, tomatoes, corn, and green onion. The sauce is a puree of pumpkin, cashews, veggie broth, nutritional yeast, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, and spices. See the full recipe at Vegan Yack Attack.
Are there other vegan recipes that we missed on our list? Share them with us in the comments below.
