This recipe is the closest I’ve come to replicating tuna salad like I used to eat it when I was growing up. It’s really good in a sandwich, or just with crackers for a snack! This might be too bland for some people, so feel free to adjust the amounts to your liking. If you want it to be more “fishy” tasting, throw in some kelp powder or dulce.

ChickPea “Tuna” Salad

• 1 can of chickpeas (16-ish oz)
• 1/4c-1/2c Vegan mayo (i use veganaise)
• 1 1/2 tbsp dill relish
• 1 tsp yellow mustard
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 or 2 medium sized celery stalks, chopped
• 1/2c walnuts, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Drain chickpeas, and puree with a food processor, blender, or even just a fork. Add remaining ingredients and mix! fast and easy! By the way, that’s just some paprika on top! :) Enjoy.

For mother’s day, I decided to bake my mom something! I combined a few recipes together: the butterscotch bar is from family circle magazine, and I just veganized it. The base caramel recipe is from the Glad Cow Cookbook/dog hill kitchen, and I modified it to my liking. If you want to make extra caramel to ensure you have enough, the leftovers make awesome caramel candies.

Caramel Butternut Bars
for the bars

• 1/2c Earth Balance (melted)
• 1 3/4c packed light brown sugar
• Substitute for 2 eggs (I used Ener-g)
• 2c Self Rising Flour
• 1 teaspoon butter rum extract
• 1c chopped pecans

preheat oven to 350 F. combine all ingredients together in a mixer (note: when using ener-g egg replacer, I always use warm water, and wisk with a fork until frothy). smoosh batter into a 13 x 9 pan (or use an 8×8 for thicker bars), and bake for 25 minutes. While the bars are baking, prepare your caramel topping.

for the caramel

• 1/2c Earth Balance
• 1/2c white sugar
• 1/2c light brown sugar
• 1c soy creamer, or soy milk
• 1/2c light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla

combine all ingredients, except vanilla in a medium sized sauce pan, and bring to a boil. cook over medium heat for about 20-30 minutes until sugar mixture reaches 248 F (243-5 F for softer caramel). Make sure the sugar mixture doesnt boil up too high; if it does, reduce the heat. Once at 248 F: Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, let sit for about a minute until mixture thickens a bit (The longer your caramel cools, the more it will firm up, so time it right to where your bars come out of the oven about 10 minutes before your caramel is done), and pour over butterscotch bars. use a spatchula or spoon to spread caramel evenly over the surface of the bars. sprinkle with chopped pecans, and allow to cool for a few hours, or overnight. cut and serve!

Fettucini Alfredo was one of my favorite foods before I went vegan, so I’m suprised it took me a year to get around to veganizing this dish. This recipe isnt exactly like regular alfredo sauce, but it’s close enough to satisfy my cravings! I like to use cashews for cheesy italian things (ricotta, alfredo, etc) because I think it works better, taste wise, than soymilk or tofu. So when I found a simple recipe for cashew alfredo on vegweb, it got my gears turning. I tried a few other recipes online before this one, and the cashew recipe was closer to authentic than the others. I’d imagine if you can get your hands on some mimic cream, you could probably subsitute that in for the cashews & hot water.

Vegan Alfredo Sauce
makes about 1 1/2 cups of sauce- enough for two people

• 1 cup cashews (I used raw)
• 1-1 1/2 cups hot water (you can even take it straight from the pasta water)
• 1 tsp garlic powder (or 1-2 cloves of fresh)
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• juice from 1/4 a lemon (about 1 1/2 tsp)
• 2 tbsp Earth Balance margarine (optional)
• parsley flakes (optional)

I started out by placing my cashews and 1 cup of hot water in my food processor, and pulsed until it was smooth looking. In retrospect, the sauce was kind of grainy from bits of cashews (as seen below), so next time i’ll use a clean coffee grinder on the cashews first, or just a blender instead of a food processor.

once the cashew cream is smooth, add the remaining ingredients (minus the parsley), and blend. If your sauce is too thick, add more hot water. I added the earth balance straight onto the pasta to melt, but if you want to blend it up in the sauce, you can melt it or soften it first. You can also add other ingredients to change the sauce to your taste: a pinch of nutmeg, some vegan parmesan cheese, your favorite spice!

pour the sauce over cooked pasta of your choice (fettucini is good, but i only had spaghetti), stir, sprinkle with parsley, and serve immediately! For me, non-vegan alfredo leftovers were never really as good, so I’d imagine this variation doesn’t reheat well, either.