A creamy vegan cheese log coated in crunchy pecans and fresh herbs is perfect for holiday parties served with crackers and veggies. This recipe is super easy, delicious, and versatile! (gluten-free, soy-free and nut-free options)

This is a wow-worthy, super easy vegan cheese log that you can whip up for any party, potluck, or holiday gathering. It’s delicious, cheesy, and creamy with a fantastic pecan-herb crumb which adds wonderful texture and flavor. 

The holiday cheese log pairs beautifully with all kinds of veggies, crudites, crackers, fruit, or even spicy jams and chutneys. It’s perfect on a charcuterie board served with mango chutney and paired with one of my cheese balls, like my Jalapeno popper cheese ball.

You can also use this creamy cheese as a spread for baguettes or bagels or even to make grilled cheese, quesadillas, or mac and cheese. For mac and cheese, just add some stock to a pan, heat it up with the cheese log to make a sauce, and toss in your cooked pasta of choice. 

This vegan cheese log recipe is flexible and easy to adapt to your flavor profile. Try adding paprika and jerk seasoning, Cajun spices, or extra red pepper flakes for a spicy version.

Why You’ll Love this Vegan Cheese Log

• creamy vegan cheese log coated in crunchy toasted pecans and fresh herbs
• perfect for parties, potlucks, cheese boards, and charcuterie boards
• easy to make and versatile! Try different base and seasoning options.
• easy to make gluten-free, soy-free, and/or, nut-free

Continue reading: Holiday Vegan Cheese Log

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Lemon white bean soup is a creamy, vibrant one pot meal that’s perfect for busy weeknights. It’s hearty, filling, and uses simple, budget-friendly ingredients. (gluten-free with soy-free and nut-free options)

It’s soup season, and I am loving all the creamy, hearty, and budget-friendly soups — and this lemony white bean soup fits exactly into that category. It’s packed with tons of veggies, beans, and protein. 

The best part about this lemon white bean soup is that it’s flexible to your flavor profile. You can easily adjust the flavors and ingredients based on what you have on hand. It’s vibrant, lemony, and perfect for the whole family!

The soup gets its protein from beans, cashews or tofu, nutritional yeast, and the veggies. You also blend up some of the beans into a puree to create that creamy texture along with either cashews or tofu. You can even omit the cashews and tofu, if you need to, and use just the beans for the creamy base.

This creamy lemon white bean soup is wholesome, flexible, and easy to make. The perfect go-to for cozy soup season!!

Why You’ll Love Lemon White Bean Soup

• creamy, vibrant soup with tons of veggies and protein
• versatile recipe! Adjust seasoning and proteins to your taste.
• 40-minute, 1-pot meal
• naturally gluten-free with easy soy-free and nut-free options

Continue reading: 1-Pot Lemon White Bean Soup

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Spice-Rubbed Braised Tofu with Vegetables in a Savory Umami Sauce. A unique delicious holiday entree that all cooks in one pan! (gluten-free and nut-free with soy-free options)

I wanted to make a vegan braised meat-style dish for the holidays, so I came up with this one-skillet meal that’s rich, hearty, and incredibly flavorful. It features an amazing, aromatic spice rub that smells so meaty you’ll be surprised it’s entirely plant-based. The spice rub coats tofu that’s been frozen, thawed, and pressed, giving it a dense, chewy texture perfect for braising.

The base for the braise starts with crisped-up potatoes and carrots. After searing the vegetables, we make a deeply flavorful sauce with caramelized onions, lots of aromatics, and fresh herbs, and flavor boosters. 

The tofu and vegetables braise together in this sauce, allowing the tofu to absorb all that flavor while developing a slightly crispy top and a tender, chicken-like interior.

We use an oven-safe pan to start the dish on the stovetop and finish it in the oven, where the vegetables become perfectly tender and the tofu gets a gorgeous golden top. 

It’s fantastic served with rice, couscous, mashed potatoes or other mashed vegetables, bean purée, some crusty bakery bread, or a side salad. 

A simple herb sauce adds a bright, fresh contrast, but you can enjoy it on its own, too. It’s full of amazing flavors with or without. The herb sauce just bumps up the flavor even more.

Why You’ll Love Braised Tofu and Vegetables

• 1-pan entree that’s perfect for the holiday table
• flavorful braised vegetables in caramelized onion sauce
• big pieces of crisp, herb-rubbed tofu
• naturally gluten-free and nut-free with easy soy-free option

Continue reading: Chicken-Style Braised Tofu and Vegetables (1 pan!)

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Dal Makhani is one of the most ordered Indian dish in restaurants. You can make authentic, buttery, rich dal makhani at home. It’s just as good as the restaurant version! Black gram and kidney beans are simmered in a creamy spiced sauce and is perfect for special occasions or a great dinner. With Instant Pot and Sauce pan instructions. (gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, oil-free option).

Love ordering Dal Makhani at restaurants? You’ll love this homemade version even more! This is adapted from my home-style dal makhani that’s on the blog and in my books. The difference is that this version has more spices, including some whole spices, which create more layers of flavor. 

This version of dal makhani is a little bit more involved than my home-style version. It has both a base sauce and a spiced oil. This levels up the flavor and adds a smoky, creamy flavor, like restaurants usually serve.  There’s also a lot more Kashmiri chili powder in this version compared to the home-style one. 

The home-style recipe is quicker and still delicious, but this one takes it up another couple of notches, simmering the beans in a deeply-flavored sauce.

Makhani means both “butter” and “like butter,” and the dish is called dal makhani, both because of the butter content and the creamy, buttery texture of the dal. The goal is to cook the beans long enough that they become soft and almost break down into the sauce, thickening it and creating a smooth consistency. For the right texture, I prefer to use a pressure cooker / instant pot, but you can also cook it in a saucepan. I included both methods in the recipe.

After cooking the beans, we make a delicious sauce with whole spices, aromatics, and ground spices, then add the cooked beans to it. Then, we prepare a spice oil with toasted fenugreek leaves, Kashmiri chili, smoked paprika, and a smoky burnt cinnamon stick. Burning the cinnamon stick for just half a second before adding it to give the dal its smoky restaurant-style flavor.

Traditionally, restaurants achieve this smoky flavor by using food-grade charcoal. They place a piece of hot charcoal in a bowl with oil, which immediately smokes. Then, they nestle the bowl inside the dal pot and cover the pan for 10 to 15 minutes. If you don’t want to use charcoal or burnt cinnamon, liquid smoke can also work.

Why You’ll Love Dal Makhani

• creamy, buttery dal with two kinds of beans
• deep flavor from the sauce and the spice oil, no dairy needed!
• flexible! Cook the beans in the Instant Pot or on the stovetop
• naturally gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free with an oil-free option

Continue reading: Restaurant-Style Dal Makhani

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This apple chutney flavoured with butter and star anise is perfect as a dip, a spread and an ideal addition to your grazing plate for parties

Not every kitchen experiment is a success. But it isn’t necessary that the ‘not success’ dish is unpalatable. In fact, some of these end up being delightful, tasty surprises, like this apple chutney.

Inspired by a friend’s superwoman-like ability to make relishes, I’d set out to make an apple relish but with the wrong core ingredient – the apples I’d picked (or rather, found piled on the fruit tray) had a strange texture. Rather than being crisp and crunchy, they were of a soft, brittle variety that started to crumble when peeled. But hey, no one called me a quitter! I forged ahead, determined to make something out of the apples I’d peeled to the tune of Kishore Kumar’s ‘Mere saamne wali khidki mein’ – please note, tunes are important during the act of peeling because ‘good mood is important to make ‘good food’!

The mini mound of roughly chopped apples ready to be dealt with, I reached for butter, because darlings, irrespective of what it does to your arteries and your hips, it makes the world right. In went all the goodies into the pan and with a little bit of this and that thrown in, I had this apple chutney which eventually got a huge thumbs up from the parents. It has now been made twice, is being used to slather on butter-toasted sourdoughs sprinkled with sumac powder or smoked cheese shavings. It is also being used generously on rotis and parathas to make rolls for the instant hunger moments.

NOTE: If you aren’t in a rush, then let the apple chutney rest for a day. It tastes so much more deliciouser the next day.

Give it a shot and stick around for when I get the apple relish right! Until then, happy cooking.

Do let me know if you try this recipe! Leave a comment and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram at from.the.corner.table and hashtag it #fromthecornertable. I’d love to see it

For regular updates on recipes, recommendations on things to read and watch and ramblings that make sense, subscribe to the newsletter – you’ll find the form in the sidebar if viewing on a screen and at the bottom if viewing on the phone. Since spamming or flooding your inbox is a huge no for me, these newsletters go out only when I’ve put up a new post or sometimes, once in a month only.

Pillowy tortellini and a velvety tomato-cream broth, enriched with my easy homemade sausage spice mix. Bursting with bold Italian flavors and ready in just 30 minutes, it’s your new favorite irresistible soup.

I got some almond ricotta–stuffed tortellini, so I decided to make an amazing soup with it. This is a hearty, delicious, and easy tortellini soup recipe. It uses the usual suspects of an Italian-flavored soup: aromatics, carrot, celery, Italian herbs, and vegan sausage. Those flavors pair up with the tortellini, tomato purée, and some non-dairy cream. 

It turns out absolutely delicious.

I make this spice mix which adds all the flavor of sausage to whatever plant based protein you choose. This spice mix combines smoked paprika, fennel seeds, garlic powder, black pepper, oregano, and pepper flakes, and it’s just so versatile and flavorful!

First make the spice mix, and then decide which protein you want to use for the sausage. You can use vegan sausage, lentils, walnuts, pecans, chickpeas, crumbled tofu, chopped up soaked soy curls, seitan, or whatever else you like. 

Cook your protein of choice with some garlic and the spice mix, then add all the aromatics. Fold in the tomato sauce, tortellini, and some stock, then add non-dairy cream at the end. The tortellini cooks up in the same pan with the rest of the soup.

The soup comes together within 30 minutes in just 1 pan, and is creamy and satisfying!

Why You’ll Love Tortellini Soup

• super easy 1-pot meal ready in 30 minutes
• creamy, tomatoey broth with sausagey flavors and tender, cheesy tortellini
• super versatile! Use whatever plant-based protein you like!
• Easily made gluten-free, soy-free, and/or nut-free.

Continue reading: Creamy Tortellini Soup (30 Minutes!)

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This apple chutney flavoured with butter and star anise is perfect as a dip, a spread and an ideal addition to your grazing plate for parties

Not every kitchen experiment is a success. But it isn’t necessary that the ‘not success’ dish is unpalatable. In fact, some of these end up being delightful, tasty surprises, like this apple chutney.

Inspired by a friend’s superwoman-like ability to make relishes, I’d set out to make an apple relish but with the wrong core ingredient – the apples I’d picked (or rather, found piled on the fruit tray) had a strange texture. Rather than being crisp and crunchy, they were of a soft, brittle variety that started to crumble when peeled. But hey, no one called me a quitter! I forged ahead, determined to make something out of the apples I’d peeled to the tune of Kishore Kumar’s ‘Mere saamne wali khidki mein’ – please note, tunes are important during the act of peeling because ‘good mood is important to make ‘good food’!

The mini mound of roughly chopped apples ready to be dealt with, I reached for butter, because darlings, irrespective of what it does to your arteries and your hips, it makes the world right. In went all the goodies into the pan and with a little bit of this and that thrown in, I had this apple chutney which eventually got a huge thumbs up from the parents. It has now been made twice, is being used to slather on butter-toasted sourdoughs sprinkled with sumac powder or smoked cheese shavings. It is also being used generously on rotis and parathas to make rolls for the instant hunger moments.

NOTE: If you aren’t in a rush, then let the apple chutney rest for a day. It tastes so much more deliciouser the next day.

Give it a shot and stick around for when I get the apple relish right! Until then, happy cooking.

Do let me know if you try this recipe! Leave a comment and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram at from.the.corner.table and hashtag it #fromthecornertable. I’d love to see it

For regular updates on recipes, recommendations on things to read and watch and ramblings that make sense, subscribe to the newsletter – you’ll find the form in the sidebar if viewing on a screen and at the bottom if viewing on the phone. Since spamming or flooding your inbox is a huge no for me, these newsletters go out only when I’ve put up a new post or sometimes, once in a month only.

Crispy smashed white beans and Cajun veggies roasted on one sheet pan, then tossed in a creamy, tangy chipotle-lime dressing. A versatile meal you can serve in bowls, tacos, or wraps.

This is a super easy and absolutely delicious meal that comes together fairly quickly. You just chop up all of the vegetables and add them to a pan. Smash the beans using a bowl, and add them to the pan as well. Add some spices, oil, and lime juice, toss well, and then bake until the veggies are tender and the beans are lightly crisp.

Meanwhile, you make this creamy, delicious, spicy, lightly sweet, and tangy dressing. It goes amazingly well over these roasted veggies. I mean, this is a dressing you can use on any salad, wraps. burritos, or any which way. It’s just fantastic with all of that smoky chipotle spice flavor, the tang from the lime juice, the creaminess from the non-dairy yogurt, and some cheesiness from the nutritional yeast. It’s just fantastic.

You can serve this roasted bean and veggie mixture as a bowl, in wraps, stuffed into pita bread, or over a baked potato or rice. There are so many ways to serve this! Do let me know in the comments how you served it as well, because I love hearing from you guys, and many times you surprise me with the creative ways you serve the recipes.

You want the beans to be sort of lightly flattened but not entirely smashed. You’re just trying to increase the surface area, so they can bake up nice and crispy in the oven.

If you don’t want to smash them, that’s fine, too. Just add them directly to the veggies on the sheet pan and bake. The beans on the edges will still get crisp. If you want all of the unsmashed beans to get crisp and act like croutons, then bake them on a separate sheet so that they crisp up nicely.

This dish is spicy, smoky, creamy, and tangy. It’s just an amazing blend of flavors! It has protein from the beans, nutritional yeast, and yogurt.  You can up the protein by adding hemp seeds into the dressing or as a topping.

Why You’ll Love these Smashed Bean Veggie Bowl

• easy meal all cooks on one large or two small sheet pans
• amazing textures from crispy smashed beans, tender roasted veggies, and creamy dressing
• incredible tangy, smoky, savory, slightly sweet flavors
• versatile! Serve as wraps, in pita, in bowls, or over rice, baked potato, or quinoa
• naturally gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free

Continue reading: Smoky Cajun Veggies & Smashed White Beans (All on One Sheet-Pan)

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Lentil trail mix is a super delicious snack, and here I will show you three ways to make it! Peanut gochujang, Indian Chivda, Doritos Nacho flavor! This high protein, savory granola is easy and fun to make and a perfect breakfast or snack. (16 grams of protein and fiber per serving!)

When I shared my red lentil granola recipe, quite a few of you asked for a savory version, and today I’m sharing three different ways to make savory lentil granola/trail mix! Make all three flavors of this delicious lentil trail mix, or triple your favorite flavoring and make one big batch.

Why three ways? Because I just couldn’t decide between these amazing flavors: Indian-spiced, peanut gochujang, and nacho spice. So, I decided to let you choose for yourself!

This trail mix/savory granola recipe uses split red lentils (aka masoor dal) as the base. You cook the red lentils on the stovetop until they are just al dente, and they roast up to be light and crisp in the oven with your seasonings of choice. 

The result is a protein-packed snack that is absolutely full of flavor, no matter which seasoning mix you choose! A serving of this trail mix has around 16 grams of protein and 16 grams of fiber. You can amp up the protein even more by folding in hemp seeds into the granola once it has finished roasting.

The Indian-spiced lentils are inspired by Indian chivda, which usually uses rice flakes or other flaked or puffed grains. It is spicy savory with some balancing sweet from raisins or dates and is fantastically delicious! 

For the nacho spiced savory lentil trail mix, a took inspiration from my nacho cheese granola bars. It’s your favorite snacking chip in crisp trail mix form! you can adjust it to your flavor preference. Add more cayenne for more heat or more nutritional yeast for more cheesiness.

If you love gochujang, definitely try the peanut gochujang lentil trail mix which has an amazing savory-spicy flavor with a hint of sweetness. It pairs so well with the crunchy peanuts! Comment below on which one will you try first!

Why You’ll Love Lentil Trail Mix

• protein- and fiber-packed breakfast or snack with 16 grams each of protein and fiber per serving!
• make all three flavors or choose from 3 amazing flavors: Indian-spiced, peanut gochujang, or nacho cheese
• deep flavors and incredible textures
• naturally gluten-free with soy-free and nut-free options included

Continue reading: High Protein Lentil Trail Mix, 3 Ways Peanut gochujang, Indian Chivda, Nacho cheese flavors

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Indian Chaat meets Tostadas! Cilantro mint lime chutney marinated beans on crunchy tostadas with sweet maple lime sauce and cooling yogurt, are an Indian fusion dish that’s a perfect starter, snack, or even entree! No cook (Options for soy-free nut-free gluten-free)

These no-cook tostadas use canned beans, prepared tostadas, and lots of delicious sauces – no cooking needed! The only cooking you’d need to do is if you are making your tostadas from tortillas. Prepared tostadas are readily available in most grocery stores.

I wanted to make a fun dish with beans, and I took inspiration from chaat, which is a family of Indian snacks or street food characterized by these awesome combinations of different textures and flavors. Especially papri chaat which has crisp crackers paired with mashed potatoes or chickpeas or both and chutneys, sauces and yogurt for a fantastic salad like hearty nachos if you will. Many chaat recipes have crispy, spicy, sweet, and tangy all together. They’re great as snacks or can be a refreshing meal.

I took inspiration from those flavors and textures. Usually, I make this chickpea potato chaat with small crackers, where you take some cooked chickpeas and cooked potatoes, toss them with some spices and chutneys, and layer them with yogurt, more chutneys, and some chopped crunchy veggies.

I turned that dish into this tostada, where we take crispy tostadas and make marinated beans that are soaked in a delicious green chutney, instead of chickpeas, along with cucumber and onion. We top the tostadas with these beans and then add a good drizzle of seasoned non-dairy yogurt and this sweet, tangy, maple-lime sauce to bring all of those flavors together. It’s absolutely fantastic and delicious! The maple lime sauce is a sub for tamarind date chutney. If you have tamarind chutney, use that for more Indian chaat flavor.
Try more Indian salads- Mango Zucchini chickpea Indian spiced oil salad and my Kachumber Salad !

This recipe is very versatile. If you want to control the heat, use less of the green chili, and choose a milder chili.  If you don’t have tostadas, you can make your own! Those instructions are in the recipe notes. If you don’t like cilantro, you can make a mint chutney with more mint leaves instead of the cilantro.

Chutney bean tostadas are just fabulously crispy, zesty, refreshing, and hearty. They are a perfect summer meal!

Why You’ll Love Chutney Bean Tostadas

• perfect warm weather meal or snack – no cooking required!
• incredible combination of flavors and textures! marinated beans, sweet and savory chutneys, creamy cooling cumin yogurt drizzle, on crunchy tostadas
• soy-free and nut-free with easy gluten-free option

Continue reading: Cilantro Mint Chutney White Beans over Crispy Tostadas (no-cook! Papri Chaat inspired)

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High protein and fiber. Mix everything right in the pan meal, this Sheet pan roasted veggies and beans with Creamy Lemon Yogurt sauce, has amazing flavor and texture! Wrap it, bowl it, swipe with bread! So good! Gluten-free, options for soyfree, Nutfree

This is an easy, refreshing, spring and summer meal that you can put together within minutes. You make this amazingly refreshing lemon yogurt sauce and pair it with savory roasted veggies and crispy, crunchy beans that have been tossed in spices like paprika, coriander, black pepper, and garlic. They are crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.

The warm veggies and the cooling yogurt sauce are just fabulous together.

This is a veggie-heavy recipe rich in fiber, with over 14 grams per serving. It contains 15 to 25 grams of protein per serving, depending on the garnishes and non-dairy yogurt used. The protein in these sheet pan roasted vegetables comes from the beans, yogurt, sesame or hemp seeds, and even the vegetables. For an even more filling meal, serve with whole grain flatbread, pita, or naan.

You can pair them with the sauce in any way you like. You can put the sauce on a plate, top it with the roasted veggies, then top with some seeds and sprouts and a good squeeze of lemon juice. 

Or make a wrap with pita bread or naan bread. Just warm the bread, add the yogurt sauce, the roasted veggies, some more sauce, sprouts, cucumber, and a squeeze of lemon, then serve.

Sheet pan veggies and beans are absolutely delicious any which way you serve it. You can even make small tacos out of it!

Why You’ll Love Sheet Pan Veggies and Beans

• super easy 1-pan meal celebrates delicious spring and summer veggies
• tender-crisp roasted vegetables with crunchy roasted white beans
• creamy, vibrant, 1-bowl lemon yogurt sauce
• naturally gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free

Continue reading: Sheet Pan Veggies and Beans with Lemon Yogurt Sauce

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Marry me tofu bake is like a high protein plant-based lasagna style bake. Tofu, creamy smoky sauce, spinach sun-dried tomato tofu ricotta, and no pasta! Lasagna meets tofu parmigiana meets marry me tofu, minus pasta. Easy to make all in one baking dish. Over 20 gm protein! Options for gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free

My husband loves my tofu parmesan bake, and so did you guys, because lots of you have made that one and variations of it since I first posted it. It’s basically like a lasagna with this delicious spinach ricotta filling and some pasta sauce, all layered up but with tofu slices instead of lasagna noodles. It’s a hearty dish that’s easy to make and can be served in various ways.

For this marry me tofu bake, I changed up the fillings. I used the flavors from my marry me pasta and made this creamy smoky sauce and the an umami filled ricotta filling to create something new and delicious. It has this incredible, smoky rose-style sauce. Then, we make the spinach ricotta filling, but we also add sun-dried tomato and some heat to it for a richer deeper umami flavor.

Together, all of these flavors create a sort of a marry me pasta flavor profile, but in a parmigiana kind of format. This bake is hearty, delicious, and everybody’s going to keep going in for seconds. And thirds!

It is a high-protein dish, because we use tofu layers instead of lasagna noodles, add tofu to our spinach ricotta filling and even in the creamy pasta sauce. The pasta sauce gets its creaminess from protein-rich cashews and tofu. So, there’s protein in each element of this dish. If you don’t want to use cashews for the sauce, you can use hemp seeds or silken tofu as another source of protein. There’s also nutritional yeast in the sauce, which adds even more protein to each helping, making each serving super satisfying and delicious.

You can serve this with some sourdough or whole grain bread for even more protein, or over lentil spaghetti or lentil pasta for an extra protein boost.

Why You’ll Love Marry Me Tofu

• super simple, 1-pan, weeknight meal
• Lasagna meets tofu parmigiana meets marry me tofu, minus pasta!
• bakes in the oven, so very little active cooking time
• tofu in creamy, smoky, marry me cream sauce
• high protein dinner
• easy gluten-free, nut-free, and soy-free options

Continue reading: Marry Me Tofu Bake (Lasagna style)

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This apple chutney flavoured with butter and star anise is perfect as a dip, a spread and an ideal addition to your grazing plate for parties Not every kitchen experiment is a success. But it isn’t necessary that the ‘not success’ dish is unpalatable. In fact, some of these end up being delightful, tasty surprises, like this apple chutney. Inspired…