Fran's knowledge about veganism for the low energy cook.

[vondage]

B12
It is very very hard to get b12 from a vegan diet, to do so you would need to eat a lot of marmite every day. However, you can buy fortified food such as cereal, bread, soy milk that has it in or you can take a supplement. B12 deficiency, although rare, can lead to irreversible brain damage. All other vitamins and nutrients can be got fairly reliably from a vegan diet (although it's worth reading up on what is more tricky and where to find them), but b12 can only really be found artificially. The vegan society do a great supplement that has your RDA of B12 along with things like vitamin D and others that are slightly harder to get in a vegan diet.


Dairy
Soy milk behaves just like cow milk to cook with so in very useful in recipes, but can curdle in coffee so let it cool a little first.
Oat milk is delicious (if you like the taste of oats) but doesn't cook particularly well, and if your coffee is too hot the the bits of oat in it will cook and go grainy. It's easily solved by letting the coffee cool slightly before adding milk though. The fortified oatly brand of oat milk is not vegan though, the vitamin d in it comes from lanolin. The normal one is fine, and tasty, and being in a carton means it keeps for ages, so no need to keep popping to the corner shop when you run out, yay.
Rice milk is ok, very sweet though, and not at all nice in tea.
Soy cheese is ok, but honestly it's not all that great. Grated in tacos/fajitas it add a savoury creamy texture but it's not something I would have on its own in a sandwich and I can't be bothered to buy it and watch it go off in the fridge. Nutritional yeast has a much better flavour, so when dissolved into sauces or sprinkled over food or mixed into marge for a spread is a much better option. We seem to eat it all the time, on popcorn, in dips, stirred into risotto, I love the stuff!
Soy yoghurt is great, it doesn't taste like dairy yoghurt but it's a very good replacement.

Eggs
For breakfast eggs, tofu scramble is good instead of normal scramble but takes longer to cook so remember to leave enough time.
For eggs in baking, pureed silken tofu, soy yoghurt, banana, ground linseeds or oil all work in various things, or you can just buy pre-made egg replacer.

Tofu scramble:
1 pack firm tofu (not silken, in a pack in the freezer, not in a carton)
1 onion
1-2 cloves garlic
seasoning - I like the following, but you can use anything.
1 tsp Turmeric (but if using just for colour then use about .25)
a pinch of paprika or cayenne pepper
2 tblsp nutritional yeast

Fry the onion slowly (or with the lid on) until translucent
Add the garlic
Add the seasoning
Drain the tofu well (or press it if you can be bothered, but it isn't necessary) and crumble in in small pieces, about the size of a pea
Fry, stirring well, for about ten minutes until it all smells good
Stir in the nutritional yeast
Serve with toast, hash browns, thinly sliced smoked tofu, tempeh bacon, potato wedges, chips or whatever floats your boat.
Or stir in some cooked cous cous to make it into a tofu-y salad.

Protein
People worry about vegans getting enough protein but it's ridiculous, you can get all you need from just vegetables, but beans, seeds, nuts, lentils, wheat or pea protein are all good sources too. The only thing to be aware of is that most plant based proteins don't have all the amino acids needed so should be combined over the course of the day with whole grains, nuts or seeds or leafy vegetables to get the most out of them.
Quinoa is a complete protein that you can use in place of rice or pasta, a very handy store cupboard ingredient for the lazy/energy deficient cook.
Frozen soy beans are also good and make a change of texture from canned. I am however devoted to my canned beans, no soaking, no boiling, just open, drain, rinse and you're ready. If in any recipe I haven't said to drain and rinse it's just because I forgot, I always mean to type it.

Leafy Greens
Full of calcium, protein and greatness, but can be a faff to prepare. You can wilt soft greens into anything sauce based. You can stir fry. You can steam over whatever you are cooking in water. You can make into soup or stew.

Or you can buy microwavable bags. Or spinach from a can. Not as nice as fresh but really good to have in the cupboard for times when you haven't been shopping for a while.

Eating out
If nothing else most menus offer some kind of salad that you can have without the meat/cheese/creamy dressing, and there is almost always chips! Salad and chips, salad and chips, can get dull but always tasty!

What I tend to do though if the place is not too rushed is make my own meal out of the starters/side dishes/pasta/potatoes/sauces on offer. For example, the last pub meal I had was linguine from the pesto linguine meal, with tomato and red pepper sauce which was one of the steak sauces on offer, and salad, a side order from other things! The time before it was Breaded mushrooms (a starter) with nion relish (that was listed as a burger relish) instead of creamy garlic dip, and new potatoes and seasonal veg (without butter), the side orders from the fish special! Sometimes pubs can be funny about 'ooh, we can't put that through the till' but most are fine about it.

Larger chains that have their menus online are handy, wetherspoons show everything that's vegetarian, vegan, dairy free, gluten free etc so you can look before hand. It may be supporting big chains instead of local business but hey, it's useful!

Chinese, Indian, Thai foods are generally quite a safe bet too as traditionally they use very few dairy products, so if it's marked vegetarian, unless it's batter which is worth asking about, it's unlikely to have hidden milk. Oh, and in chip shops, chips and baked beans is a crazily satisfying meal!

Eating at other people houses
Let them know in advance and offer to take something for yourself. Or just have pasta. Everyone has pasta!

Barbecues
http://community.livejournal.com/vegancooking/2277388.html




Hand (stick) blender is your friend
Hand blenders make making soups, dips, smoothies and sauces so much easier. You don't have to faff with transferring it, you don't have to worry about steam blowing out the top of the vent and burning you, it's so much easier to clean and so much easier to store. So, essentially, I think they're great, and when I say blend/puree here, that is what I mean.

I've divided the following into vague section based on how easy/time consuming they are to make. All of the following are easy, it's just that some of them take more attention than others. Lots are also suitable for cooking in bulk and freezing in individual portions, so I've marked them where appropriate. To freeze them you can either buy specific tubs for them (pfft), store them in empty takeaway containers (they stack well, go in the dishwasher if you have one and can also go straight into the microwave) or in sturdy freezer bags. If you're using freezer bags it may be worth freezing them flat first, then you'll be able to stack them more easily later. Oh, and mark them as to what they are and when they were made, it makes life a lot more simple later on!

Crazy easy:

Jar of tomato sauce, with can of green lentils/aduki beans/other small legume, to be served with pasta, cous cous, jacket potato, rice or mash. Add spinach from a can for extra goodness!

Or make as above (but for economy use tinned tomatoes instead of sauce if you're adding other flavour), but add flavour-from-a-jar (see below).

You can also wilt handfuls of pre-washed spinach from a pillow pack into this to get your leafy greens to up the calcium into this really easily. Or wilt spinach into anything liquid-y. Just shove it in the pan, put the heat to low and stick a lid on, in three minutes times it will have shrunk and you can stir it in.

Slice a courgette or aubergine in half, spread with (vegan) pesto or tomato puree, or maple syrup, or curry paste, mustard, marge mixed with flavour-from-a-jar, or any flavoursome spreadable thing, shove in the oven and come back in half an hour. Have with any carbohydrate, jacket potato will cook at the same time if microwaved a little first.

Ratatouille from a can, with beans or lentils from a can, heated in the microwave, served with cous cous (and flavour-from-a-jar if desired). Including the time it takes to boil a kettle, this is a true five minute meal!

Simple:
Lentil Chilli (for two for a meal and leftovers) Versatile.
In a saucepan fry an onion until translucent(you don't actually need to fry the onion, you can add it to the mix and let it cook in the sauce, but it's better fried first if you can be bothered).
Add a clove of garlic, crushed, minced or chopped and fry for a minute more.
Add one can of chopped tomatoes and 3oz of well rinsed red lentils (it is important to rinse them, the scum if you don't is not nice!)
Add two to three tsp of chili flavour (see below) or a little dried or fresh chilli, some salt, sugar and cumin, and a tblsp of tomato puree.
Add a drained and rinsed can of red kidney beans
Cook for about twenty minutes
Serve with rice, cous cous or jacket potato
The next day, the leftovers will have thickened slightly, and can be served hot or cold in wraps with some lettuce and soy yoghurt, had as a thick dip for lunch, or thinned with a little water and had with rice, cous cous or jacket potato again.

Soups. Freezes well.
Basic, all purpose soup recipe:
Fry onion
Fry other veg
Stir in a spoonful or two of flour (this thickens it)
Add stock, cans of tomato, or other flavourful liquid, stir well
Add beans
Cook until veg is soft
Puree.
Soup combinations: Root veg (you can just buy bag of fresh or frozen stew veg, no preparation needed), Mediterranean veg, sweet veg (red pepper, sweet potato, squash), smooth veg (parsnip and cauliflower), anything in the world that you can think of! Basic soup is also particularly good for using up the ends of vegetable that are starting to go off in your fridge, them with some good stock (from powder) and a can of bean and you have a good, hearty, healthy meal! You don't need beans of course, but added texture and protein seems good to me. You can also add flavour-from-a-jar to make soups more interesting

Roasted garlic, kale and white bean soup

Stews. Freezes well
Essentially, it's as above but don't puree it. If, once it's cooked, you want it to be a bit thicker you can either take some of it out, puree it and add it back in, or you can mix some flour with a little water in a separate bowl and stir that in, once boiled it will thicken the whole thing.

Broccoli and seitan stew

Roast veg and butter bean stew.



Roast veg. Versatile
If you want your veg to be crispy then roast them in a metal dish, if you want them to be soft and melty, then roast them in a ceramic/pyrex dish.
Wash veg, peel if needed, cut into large chunks and stick in a hot oven in a bowl with some (preheated if possible) oil for around an hour, stirring occasionally.
I always have onion in whatever combination, but then I add onion to everything.
You can go for root-type veg, carrots are cheap and tasty, parsnip, swede, sweet potato, squash, turnip, celeriac etc, or go for soft Mediterranean type veg with aubergine, courgette, peppers, tomatoes, mushroom etc.
Or a combination of both.
You can also add large beans like butter beans for the last ten minutes of cooking as an easy way to add more protein.
You can add (vegan) pesto or tomato puree, or maple syrup, or curry paste, mustard, oil mixed with flavour-from-a-jar too, if you want a change of flavour. Cajun roast broccoli is amazing!

You can just have with bean/lentil stuffing (packet stuffing with a can of mashed or whole beans stirred in before cooking) for a tasty complete meal, or with quinoa, or with mash/jacket/roast potato then make into bubble and squeak type food the next day, or make into soup by adding stock and pureeing, or chop small and stir into cous cous or pasta salad, or add to a can of tomato and have with pasta, or add a can of tomato and eat as a stew (quinoa is nice to have with this) or add to a can of tomato, thicken a little and put into wraps with something leafy, or cover with a cheeze sauce and bake it, or add to gravy and top with mash for a pie thing, or cover in pastry for pastry pie thing, or chop and stick on the top of a pizza base, or eat in a sandwich, or have in a tub with some dip for lunch.
You can essentially make a big trough of tasty veg at the weekend and do lots of things with it throughout the week.

Takes watching, but not full attention:
Grilled/fried tofu or tempeh
Tofu, covered with marinade made from flavour-from-a-jar and oil, grilled or fried can be eaten hot with anything, or cold with anything, especially in sandwiches or wraps, or pittas.
You can also coat it with cornflour (and flavour!) and fry it for a super crispy texture, it's so so simple but good like this.

Tempeh is even better in my opinion, but harder to find. It does has a stronger more fermented flavour, so if that's not your thing you might not like it, but it gets really crispy and is very good the next day in sandwiches for lunch. It also doesn't need a marinade as much as tofu does, so better for quicker food.

Risotto
I have no idea why people think these are hard work, they're not, you just need to be in the same room as them for the 20 minutes they take to cook, or at least flitting back and forth. They're also really creamy so good if you're missing that texture, and very stress free, everything is in one pot so is all cooked at the same time, no juggling/balancing timings to worry about!

Basic risotto recipe:
Sweat one or two onions, then add any other veg you fancy and fry until lightly coloured.
Then add risotto/arborio rice (1 to 2 oz of dried rice per person) and some stock cube/powder.
You can add a little wine or lemon juice if you want a zing, depending on the flavours you're adding, but it's not necessary.
Stir well and add some hot water from the kettle. You're probably aiming for about half a cup each time.
Stir well each time and when the liquid is absorbed keep adding more until your rice is cooked.
When the rice is nearly ready add canned beans, or pre-soaked and cooked dried beans. You can also stir in herbs, soy cheese or nutritional yeast if you want an extra flavour.
Some good combination for inspiration (but really it can be anything)
Asparagus with Cannellini beans
Carrot, Red Onion and Aduki beans
Mushroom and Aduki beans
Plain Risotto with Haricot beans and Garlicky vegetables on the side
Leek and green lentils
Dried thyme is really good in risottos, fresh would probably be better, but dried is more convenient.

Risotto a plenty!




Lentil dhal (for two) (from Sadie/woodjuice). Freezes well.
1 onion, finely chopped
2cloves garlic, finely chopped or pureed
6oz red lentils, rinsed
1pint water
1tsp turmeric
1pinch cumin
2pinch ground coriander
2tsp garam masala
1tsp sugar
1tblsp tomato puree
chili to taste (2 small dried/1 fresh/some cayenne pepper/whatever you have)
2tblsp fresh coriander(cilantro), optional but delicious. I keep some chopped in the freezer, so I guess it's not strictly fresh but close enough!
Fry the onion and garlic in a saucepan.
Add everything else.
Boil for 10 minutes, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for another 30.
(Be aware that at this point it may erupt like lava and splash everywhere. I recommend wearing an apron, and using a deep pan!)
Stir in coriander(cilantro) and add a little salt if needed. Oh, and garnish with more fresh coriander(cilantro) if you're trying to impress. If just for you, garnish with a spoon!

Lentil Dhal




Takes cooking:
Seitan is a product made from wheat gluten that cooks like and has a similar texture to beef, so whatever you would do with beef you can do with this.
So, stir fry, stew, bake, pie, mince and top with mash, marinade and grill, stick in anything really.

Sausage (veggie, obviously, Linda McCartney's are vegan) and mash with protein-y onion gravy. Or leftover beany stuffing is a good replacement for sausages here.

Gravy, based on how my mum used to make it. (makes loads, very roughly). Freezes well. Versatile
Very gently fry 2 or 3 onions, finely chopped in a large pan until translucent. Add 2 or 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped.
Add flavour (these are what I use, it seems weird in writing), 1 tsp yeast extract, 1 tsp mustard, 1 tsp tomato puree, a shake of soy sauce/worcester sauce/liquid aminos, a pinch of sugar and a tsp of something sweet and fruity. Cranberry sauce or redcurrant jelly is best, but if I have none of these in the fridge I'll just use jam instead! It enriches the whole thing and really works well.
Add strong veg stock to fill the pan.
Add a can or two of drained rinsed chickpeas and puree until smooth (I use a hand blender so can do it right in the pan, if you're using a jug blender be careful that the steam doesn't blow the top off it).
Bring to the boil and let the whole thing cook for a couple of minutes.
Mix some flour (probably about a tablespoon) with a little water to make a runny paste and pour this into the gravy to thicken it. It won't fully thicken until it has boiled for a couple of minutes, so let it do that and see how thick it is, if you want it thicker simply add more flour paste.
Taste, add salt and pepper if needed, or any of the above flavourings if the balance isn't quite how you want it.
If you want it to be restaurant smooth you can pass this through a sieve, but I don't care about tiny grainy bit and imperfections, so just have it as it is.
This from the freezer makes a really quick base of a meal, it really adds to processed sausages etc, or you can just have it with mash and greens for comfort food!




Curry - made from tofu, tempeh, seitan, beans, lentils or chickpeas, or even just veg! Freezes well.
Fry onion, add vegetables and/or protein source, cook until coloured, add flavour (see below) or curry paste, add stock or tinned tomatoes and cook until soft. Coconut, either milk from a can, or a bit shaved off a creamed block stirred in towards the end makes it all come together. You can wilt greens into this too, spinach will almost disappear but add to taste and texture (and calcium!), kale can be a feature in its own right!
Also, cauliflower or broccoli are really good, as are chunks of potato, and aubergine is great if cooked for long enough (it takes longer than you would think to get it melty soft, at least 40 minutes, so not worth it if you want a quick meal, but great for luxury), peas are good too. Everything is good in a curry though. And they don't need to be hot at all, in fact you don't need to even put chilli into them if you'd rather not.

Kale curry




Bucket (not a great name, but so called because we cook a bucket of it at a time) Freezes well. Versatile.
Chop loads of different types of veg into small dice (soft style ones work best, we would use a combination of onion, peppers, courgette, green beans, aubergine, carrot, celery, peas, sweetcorn, mushroom).
Fry it all up in a very little bit of oil (the veg release moisture, the oil is just to get it started) in the largest pan you have.
Cook for quite a while, until the veg is soft but with a little bit of bite.
Separate into boxes and freeze.
You now have boxes of veg that can be turned into pasta sauce with the addition of tomato sauce or canned tomato, into cous cous (it's very good with celery salt added, and a literal four minute meal, hee!) or pasta salad, into pizza topping, into pie, into wraps, soups, sandwiches, into dips, into risotto, into anything at all. Very handy.

Mince substitute. Freezes well. Versatile.
You can just use TVP mice, but the best way I have found to make this is using a mix of quinoa, aduki beans and green lentils.
Chop onion as small as possible, fry well, add garlic, add rinsed protein source, add lots of tinned tomato, add tomato puree and cook well, stirring often. Once the quinoa has split it should be ready. This freezes well but will need liquid adding to it when it reheats.
You can add italian type flavour and have it as bolognese, you can add chilli type flavour and have it as chilli, in wraps, in tacos or with rice, you can put it under mash or pastry for pie, you can add it to pasta bakes or lasagne, hotpot, you can do anything with it really. But it does get drier after freezing, it's the quinoa absorbing more water, but as long as you factor this in it's great!




Obviously Vegan, but worth being reminded about:
Bubble and Squeak
Falafel (you can make your own from scratch, from a packet mix or buy them pre-prepared)
Sausage (veggie, obviously!) casserole
Big fired breakfast (or dinner), hash browns, toast, fried bread, mushrooms, tomatoes and baked beans are all vegan, and brilliant from a greasy spoon. Or have at home and add tofu scramble into the mix.

Lunches:
Sandwiches/wraps/pittas/baguettes/rolls
Filled with Bean dip/salsa/guacamole/salad/crispy fried tofu/tempeh/bolognese/falafel
Pasta/cous cous/rice/quinoa salad
Bean dip (hummus or other, see below) and veg
Bean dip and crackers
Bean dip and nachos
Bean dip and bread sticks
Bean dip and sliced smoked/flavoured tofu
leftovers

Flavour-from-a-jar s
All of these can be made in bulk and kept in jars until needed. I know that you could just make the seasoning for each dish you make when you make it, but when I'm knackered I find it so much more convenient to just take two tsp from this jar or that jar instead of measuring them out each time. And I have the storage space to be able to do that, yay. The spices can be bought in bags much cheaper than the little glass jars, the ethnic foods section of my supermarkets have them, if they don't then your friendly neighbourhood ethnic supermarket should. The herbs are cheaper if bought in the cardboard 'refills' packs.

The only thing with these is that you can fall into the trap of all your food tasting the same. If you make different seasonings for each meal you will have more of a variety, but for the lazy/low energy cook then these are great. And it's not like you have to use them every day, just when you're eating something that might be a bit bland on its own.

Chilli flavour - Slightly hot, vaguely mexican, can easily be made less hot if you would like.

2 tsps Garlic Powder
1.5 tsps Onion Powder
2 tsps Cayenne Pepper (this is the hot bit, feel free to reduce)
3 tsps Paprika
2 tsps Chili Powder (not powdered chilli, as is sometimes sold in big bags, nor as hot as it sounds, this is a combination of about five different pre-blended flavours.)
1.5 tsps Salt
2 tsps Sugar
2 tsps Stock cube (but not oxo, it doesn't appear to be vegan, and they won't reply to my emails. grrr. My stock of choice is Marigold in a tub not cubes (and not the salt-free, it really doesn't taste as good), as I can just take it by the tsp when I want it.)

Curry flavour - just a basic vaguely indian flavour. Not authentic, but tasty.

2 tsp Turmeric
2 tsp Ground Coriander
2 tsp Cumin
4 tsp Garam Masala (or, make you own garam masala from it's parts, but I can't yet be bothered to do that when pre packaged from my ethnic-food-friendly sainsburys has giant bags for 49p)
.5 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper (again, this is the hot bit, feel free to leave it out completely and just put it in separately to the dishes you make depending on the mood of the day, or use fresh chillis in the dishes)
.5 tsp sugar

Cajun flavour - Like on southern fried chicken or potato wedges. Delicious on anything roasted. (based on flavouring from Vegan with a Vengeance)

1 tsp paprika
.5 tsp ground cumin
.5 tsp dried oregano
.5 tsp dried thyme
.25 tsp cayenne pepper (again, lessen if desired)
.25 tsp salt
.5 tsp sugar

Vaguely Italian flavour - very easy to make this each time actually, but still handy to have around. Good in pasta dishes.

1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Basil
.5 tsp Thyme
.5 tsp Garlic powder

Moroccan flavour - Good in cous cous or roasted dishes, in jacket potato fillings, stirred into bean dips, mixed with tahini for a falafel dressing.

2 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Garlic
1 tsp Sugar
.5 tsp Cayenne Pepper
.5 tsp Celery salt

Roasted garlic

Cover lots of whole heads of garlic in a little oil and roast at 180 for about 30 minutes. Once cooked and cooled squeeze the cloves out of their skins and into a clean jar, cover with olive oil to keep them fresh. This can then be added to anything to make it taste better, and is much more mellow than fresh garlic. Actually, you can probably buy this, I only just thought of that!

Pesto (from the PPK)

3 to 4 loosely-packed cups fresh basil
6 cloves garlic
1/4-1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
1/3 cup raw cashew nuts
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Puree basil, olive oil, salt, and garlic until creamy. Add the pine nuts and puree some more. At this point the pesto should be light green and well emulsified. Add cashews and puree until there aren't any large chunks. Add more salt if you need to. Let sit for an hour or two before eating and it will taste even better.

Satay Freezes well, Versatile.

Makes generous 2 portions, or thoroughly acceptable 3. I tend to make about 12 portions at a time and freeze them in plastic bags.

3.5 tbsps Peanut Butter
1 tbsp Tahini
1 tsp Tomato Puree
2 tsps Sugar
2.5 tbsps Lemon/Lime Juice
4 cloves Garlic
1 Fresh Chili / dried chili equivilent (approx half a tsp dried chili flakes, or to taste)
4.5 tbsps Light Soy Sauce
3 tbsps Hot Water
(Occasionally, salt to taste)

Mix all ingredients together in order, or however you find them in the cupboard.

If you don't have Tahini, use extra Peanut Butter, or Sesame Oil. If you don't have Light Soy Sauce use Dark Soy Sauce but substitute a third of it for more hot water. You can use dried garlic instead of fresh. You can use Tabasco Sauce or Sweet Chili Sauce instead of Chili. Lemon/Lime Juice can be fresh or from a bottle. If you don't have Tomato Puree you can use Ketchup. And if you can't be bothered to boil the kettle, cold water will do. It just mixes more easily with hot.

You can have it with tofu, tempeh or beans as a really quick meal, you can heat it to thicken it and use it as a spread, you can flavour stew with it, you can use it thin as a dipping sauce, you can marinade things in it. In a tub from the freezer, defrosted then with a can of beans added and microwaved, served with rice or wheat noodles that take three minutes to cook is another good five minute meal.




Herbs generally
Fresh herbs or dried herbs, all are good.

Bean Dips: Versatile
These can be used in sandwiches, as dips or as pates, tossed into salad, as fillings for pies, pasties, tacos or wraps. They can be mixed with breadcrumbs and baked as a stuffing type dish. They can turned into a base for a soup (just add left over vegetables and stock). They can be eaten on toast, or put in toasted sandwiches. They can be thinned down (with stock, juice, tomatoes or anything flavoursome) and used as dressings. You can add gram flour and fry them as patties. You can use them to stuff large vegetables as a main dish or small vegetables as canapes/snacks. Or, just eat with a spoon!

Hummus

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tblsp tahini
1 tblsp lemon juice
2 cloves garlic (although the garlic strengthens, so if you're making it to use the next day bear it in mind and use less, or you'll have garlic paste! not that there's anything wrong with that...)
1 tblsp olive oil (or less, it just adds to the texture)
1-2 tblsp water (plus a tblsp instead of oil if you want to cut out the fat)
1/4 tsp salt

Essentially, just blend it all together! Then taste and add more lemon juice, garlic or salt if wanted. You probably will want more salt at least but better to under salt at first! It should be thick and creamy, if you want it creamier add more water, it sounds weird but it really changes it.

Black bean dip (by Susi from vegweb)

1 can black beans
1 small finely chopped onion (or onion powder if time/energy are an issue)
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon mustard
1-2 garlic clove, minced
parsley, finely chopped

Blend everything but the parsley, add the parsley. This spread gets better with age so refrigerate at least 1 hour. Spread on vegan bread, pita, tacos or whatever works for you delicious!!

Butter bean and Cumin

1 can butter beans, drained.
1 tblsp lemon juice
1 tblsp olive oil
2 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Blend everything, season.

Cannellini bean and lemon juice

Blend cannellin beans and lemon juice, season.

Essentially, blend any beans with any flavouring. Yum.