3 Plant-Based Dishes That Everyone Will Enjoy
When you live in a household with a mix of plant based and omnivore eaters, it can be tricky satisfying both palettes with plant-based options day in and day out. Having experimented with different options for more than a few years now, I wanted to share 3 of my go-to plant based dinners that both me and my omnivore husband can get excited about.
A twist on The Spouted Kitchen’s Cauliflower Capellini
Back in 2012, one of the first “whole food” cook books I ever got was The Sprouted Kitchen: A Tastier Take On Whole Foods by Sara Forte, and this is the book that convinced me that healthy eating could also be tasty. With a couple recipes under my belt, I was hooked and loving the new sense of curiosity and experimentation that this cookbook revived in me! One of her dishes that became a mainstay in our home – that my husband actually frequently requests - is Cauliflower Capellini.
The only substitute needed to make it completely plant based is to use vegan butter instead of regular butter – the pecorino is optional, so I leave it out. Of course, you can use whatever pasta you have on hand – it doesn’t have to be capellini (I used rotini). And same goes for the hazelnuts that it calls for – I usually end up using pine nuts and it tastes great. If you want to ensure you get some protein in this meal, Sara suggests adding in chickpeas which I have tried and can definitely attest to.
Because this pasta dish is still quite light, you could pair a white wine with it – something like a buttery chardonnay would work great. But one of my favorite pairings with this dish is a crisp and fresh New Zealand pinot noir, perhaps from the Central Otago region.
Minimalist Baker’s Best Vegan Enchiladas
I can’t talk about plant-based meals without bringing up The Minimalist Baker. Dana Schultz has helped to normalize this style of diet and food and her recipes are simple, delicious and oh-so-satisfying. Her book, Minimalist Baker’s Everyday Cooking is a mainstay for me – and I can’t think of one recipe that I’ve tried that hasn’t turned out. One of our favourites from her book is Best Vegan Enchiladas (republished here on Blissful Basil’s site).
I don’t make many adjustments from her original recipe, but I do skip the adobo pepper inclusion in the enchilada sauce (too smokey for me) and I replace the poblano pepper called for in the filling with jalapeno pepper just for more of a kick.
The spicy tomato enchilada sauce that’s the heart of this recipe pairs beautifully with a peppery Barossa Valley Shiraz from Australia.
Broccoli, Beans and Tofu
This is exactly what it sounds like – extremely simple with big flavours that will please anyone’s palate. Bonus is that it can be whipped up in 20 minutes!
I know that tofu isn’t the most flavourful plant-based protein – but I have found a way to make it delicious. Sautéed in equal parts apple cider vinegar and tamari or soy sauce (I use 2 tbsp of each), the flavours seep into the tofu to ensure each bite is bursting. I then sauté the broccoli in the same pan to get consistency in flavours.
When it comes to the green beans, my husband’s favourite way to have them prepared is based on Diana Kuan’s Red Hot Kitchen. This is the cookbook for anyone that likes to add spice into their meals as each chapter focuses on a hot sauce that you can replicate at home followed by some incredible recipes for each. The beans that I always prepare are her XO Sauce Dry Fried Green Beans – and while I wasn’t able to find the exact recipe online, I found a version of it from an earlier book that Diana had published that’s quite similar – Dry Fried Green Beans.
Now a meal with so much umami flavour and spice can sometimes be hard to pair, but our go-to here is usually an off-dry German Riesling as the sweetness of the wine really compliments the spice in this dish.
