Easy Vegan Recipes: Oat Cookies, Fried Capsicums with Tomato Sauce, and Stewed Leeks, Carrots and Kidney Beans

This week I'm focussing on easy vegan recipes. First we have something sweet, and then two recipes for quick lunches or dinners.

Looking for something to snack on? The recipe for these great oat cookies originally comes from Food Not Bombs and is available through the Vegan Cuisine Cookbook on Wikibooks. This is the simplest cookie recipe I've ever made, but the results are delicious. I don't like my cookies very sweet, so I halved the sugar.

This Turkish side of fried capsicums with tomato sauce from Twins in Kitchen is extremely easy. It's done in 15 minutes and goes well with any Mediterranean dinner. I also like to eat at as a quick snack with some bread.

Last but not least, we have this dish of stewed leeks, carrots and kidney beans in tahini sauce. It makes a good pairing for the capsicums, but can also stand alone. It's simple to prepare but complexly flavoured and delicious.

What are your favourite quick and easy vegan recipes? What do you make when you feel uninspired but want something good to eat?

Peppers with Sundried Tomato and Isot Pepper Stuffing

For a long time, I hated stuffed vegetables. They were either soggy or undercooked and had plain, flavourless fillings. So when I was stuffing these beautiful red peppers I decided to make a rich filling out of kidney beans, smoky isot pepper and sundried tomatoes. The peppers were roasted before stuffing to intensify their flavour.

This recipe is super good for an easy weeknight dinner. It comes together very easily, and you can make a salad to have on the side while the peppers are roasting. Isot pepper adds a wonderful depth of flavour to this dish, but if you can't find it, you can replace it with 1/8 tsp of chili powder.

Peppers with Sundried Tomato and Isot Pepper Stuffing

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 long peppers/capsicums
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
10 sundried tomatoes
1 (400 g) can kidney beans
1 tsp isot pepper/urfa biber
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste
100 ml breadcrumbs (gluten-free if you want)
3 tbsp water

Method 

1. Cut the peppers in half. Remove stem and seeds. Roast at 200 C for 20-40 minutes, until they're as soft as you like them. Chop the onion finely and mince the garlic. Rinse the sundried tomatoes and chop them finely.

2. Heat an oiled pan over medium heat. Fry onion until softened. Add garlic and fry for a few minutes. Add sundried tomatoes and fry for a few minutes more. Remove from heat.

3. Drain and rinse the kidney beans. Mash them and combine with the onion mixture and all remaining ingredients. Stuff the peppers and roast for 10 more minutes.

Leeks, Carrots and Kidney Beans in Tahini Sauce

This combination of leeks, carrots and kidney beans looks unassuming, but has a deep rich flavour from the tahini. It makes a lovely Turkish meal when combined with another easy side, like capsicums in tomato sauce.

 

Leeks, Carrots and Kidney Beans in Tahini Sauce

Serves 2 as a side
Closely based on this recipe

Ingredients

2 carrots
1 leek
1 tbsp tomato paste
250 ml water
1 (400 g) can kidney beans
3 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp lemon juice

Method

1. Chop the carrots and leek. Heat an oiled pot over medium heat. Fry the carrots for a few minutes. Add the leeks, tomato paste and water and stir well. Put the lid on and simmer until the vegetables are tender. Drain and rinse the beans and mix them in.

2. Salt well. Mix together the tahini and lemon juice. Spoon over the top of the vegetables. Close the lid and let rest for a few minutes before serving.

Best Dinner Recipes

I really enjoy trying out recipes from other blogs, so I thought I'd write a best-of. These are the best dinners I've cooked and managed to take a photo of in the last few weeks. First up: Better-than-Tuna salad on The Fig Tree, originally from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. This salad is great on sandwiches, in pitas or on its own. It's also a great way to get your veggies - it's full of celery, capsicum and carrots.

I also recently made this Sambar from Hungry Desi, a food blog full of delicious-looking and mostly vegan recipes. You can put nearly any vegetable you like in your sambar. I used onions this time and it was very good.

And because the recipes on Hungry Desi are just that appealing, I made another one, Kadai Tofu. It was wonderfully spicy and flavourful. I replaced the milk with soy milk. I expect a little coconut milk would also work great.

That's all for this week, hope you enjoyed the recipes! Let me know if you try any of them out.

Buffalo Chickpea Pita Pizzas

I've been looking forwards to making this recipe for buffalo chickpea soft tacos for a long time, but I don't have easy access to tacos at the moment. And so, buffalo chickpea pita pizzas were born.

Buffalo Chickpea Pita Pizzas

Closely based on this recipe
Serves 6, as a snack

Ingredients

1 onion
1 green capsicum
2 cloves garlic
2 cans chickpeas (ca. 750 ml drained)
60 ml sriracha
250 ml vegetable broth
1 bunch spring onions
3 pita breads
1 avocado
a lemon (optional)
vegan sour cream (optional)

Method

1. Chop the onion and capsicum and mince the garlic. Fry the onion in oil until softened. Add garlic and capsicum and fry for a minute. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Add the chickpeas, sriracha and broth to the pan and bring to a boil. Boil until the sauce is reduced into a thick coating for the chickpeas. Chop the spring onions and stir them into the chickpeas. Add salt to taste.

2. Cut pita breads in half and top with chickpeas and avocado. Bake at 180 C for five minutes. Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice and a dollop of vegan sour cream, if you have any.

Lindsay's Bean Salad

It was always a treat for us kids to go on holiday to our grandparents'. One of the reasons was that my grandmother was a wonderful cook. She and my grandfather had a big garden in which they grew most of their vegetables, and she put them to great use. One of her dishes that I remember particularly well is this very simple but delicious bean salad. It goes perfectly with quiche.

Lindsay's Bean Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 400 g cans mixed beans or kidney beans (ca. 750 ml)

400 g green beans (ca. 1 litre)

1/2 onion

4 tbsp vinegar

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

Method

1. Top and tail the green beans. Steam them until tender, drain, and rinse with cold water. Drain and rinse the canned beans. Slice the onion finely.

2. Mix the beans and onion with all the remaining ingredients. Leave to marinate for at least half an hour.

New Zealand Roasted Vegetable Salad

This is my conception of the kind of salad you're likely to find in the cabinet of a New Zealand cafe - solid, satisfying and easy to throw together. It's a good option when you're tired and want dinner without a fuss.

New Zealand Roasted Vegetable Salad

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 capsicum
2 zucchini
2 carrots
olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 tsp cumin
a pinch of pepper
1/8 tsp chili flakes
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cans kidney beans (about 750 ml drained)

Method

1. Chop the capsicum, zucchini and carrots roughly. Toss with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and roast at 200 C for 50 minutes or until soft.

2. Mince the garlic and add to a large bowl with the cumin, pepper, chili flakes, cider vinegar and olive oil. Beat with a fork until emulsified.

3. Drain and rinse the beans and add to the bowl. Add the vegetables and mix well. Enjoy!