This week on Youtube I’m showing you what I ate over the holidays. I spent Christmas with my parents who also follow a whole food plant-based diet. We enjoyed a whole food vegan holiday meal.
Green Bean Casserole
We made a green bean casserole recipe from Plant Based Dads. We didn’t exactly follow their recipe, but used it as an inspiration. Instead of taking the time to coat onion slices with bread crumbs and air-fry them for a crispy topping, we simply put the breadcrumbs on top of the casserole. We made breadcrumbs out of Ezekiel toast. And we still included onions within the casserole, but this option was much quicker.
Marinated Tofu
Then we had some marinated tofu. I don’t have an exact recipe because we like to wing it, but it included about equal parts date syrup and mustard, plus two parts balsamic vinegar. Then some garlic powder, black pepper, and just a splash of liquid smoke. I meant to add in some barbecue sauce as well, but totally forgot. It was still pretty tasty.
Glazed Roasted Carrots
Next we made some glazed carrots. This was inspired by a recipe I made over the summer which you can see in one of my “CSA” posts. It’s equal parts date syrup, mustard, and balsamic vinegar plus garlic and basil to taste.
We roasted the carrots until they were soft, and then to make it easy on ourselves, we decided to let the tofu marinade be a multi-tasker. We simply poured the leftover marinade from the tofu over the roasted carrots. Then we baked them for 10 to 20 minutes longer with the glaze.
Scalloped Potatoes
It’s not a holiday meal without potatoes! So next up we made these scalloped potatoes from Well Your World. This is a really easy and delicious potato dish.
Squash Pie
For desert we followed Cathy Fisher’s Pumpkin Pie recipe. But we used some local delicata squash instead of pumpkin. This squash pie was so tasty!
“Chocolate” Pie
Finally we made a “chocolate” pie. I’m putting that in quotes because it’s not actually chocolate! I’m sensitive to even small amounts of caffeine, so I try to avoid chocolate as much as possible. But I love the flavor! So I started using carob powder instead. It is a natural plant-based alternative that has a chocolatey flavor without the caffeine. You can use it in place of cocoa powder in any recipe.
We started with same crust as our squash pie, but added a heaping tablespoon of carob powder. After baking and cooling the crust, we added our filling. In a food processor, we blended 2 blocks of silken tofu with 2 heaping tablespoons of carob powder, 1 teaspoon vanilla powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and about 3 tablespoons of date sugar. We drizzled some date syrup and topped it with chopped pistachios. Yum!
Maintaining healthy eating over the holidays is easy on a whole food vegan diet. When you start with healthy ingredients you can “splurge” and eat as much as you like with none of the guilt, but plenty of flavor.
