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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Vegan Chicken 555 reimagines a beloved South Indian street-style appetizer. Crisp golden tofu is coated in a richly spiced sauce infused with fennel, ginger, garlic, coriander, and peppers,  and enough heat to make you reach for seconds (and maybe a cold drink).  gluten free, nut free. soy free option.

This is another one in my series creating vegan versions of these amazing, meat-heavy, regional Indian appetizers. There’s just so much variety in all of these super delicious snacks and appetizers, and sometimes you don’t find those flavors and that spice in the vegetarian appetizers.

You can use this recipe with tofu, soy curls, chickpea tofu, chickpeas, or vegetables, like cauliflower. Basically, you coat your protein or vegetables of choice with this amazing, flavorful batter, and either pan fry or bake it. 

Then, we make this easy, spicy, and delicious sauce mixture. It’s kind of a dry sauce, and you toss the crisped tofu “chicken” in it. Oh my god, it’s so incredibly delicious and also pretty spicy!

You can adjust the spice level to your preference. There are four kinds of chilies in this tofu 555: Kashmiri chili powder in the batter, and green chilies, cayenne, and red pepper flakes in the sauce. To get the flavor with less heat, reduce any or all of those. The combination of peppers adds a ton of flavor, so you definitely want to use some of each, even if you don’t use the full amounts. You can use a milder green chili to manage the heat, too,  if you prefer.

Basically, adjust the heat based on your preference, but definitely try this vegan chicken 555. It’s just so fabulously delicious!

Tofu 555 is great on its own or in crunchy salads with juicy fruits like apples, pears, or mangoes, or with roasted or fresh vegetables. A cucumber salad with a simple lime, salt, and pepper dressing also pairs wonderfully with this Indian appetizer. Or, you can make wraps with lettuce, creamy dressing, and fresh green chilis or pickled jalapeños. 

No matter how you serve it, you have got to try vegan chicken 555!

Why You’ll Love Chicken 555

• crispy tofu in thick, spicy sauce with flavors of fennel, ginger, garlic, coriander, and 4 kinds of peppers
• easily adjust the heat to your preference
• use your plant based protein or use veggies of choice.
• naturally gluten-free and nut-free with easy soy-free option

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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 hearty bean salad features chickpeas, sweet mango, fresh veggies, and sweet roasted corn in a cumin lime toasted chili oil dressing. Mango chickpea salad is a perfect, one-bowl summer lunch! (gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, oil-free option)

I wanted to make a quick salad that was hearty and not very salad-like. That means not too many leafy greens, because my niece doesn’t like to eat those, but she loves chickpeas. That worked out really well because we added some lime, cumin, and cayenne to give it that Indian chaat-style flavor profile.

This salad is perfect for making the most of ripe, summer mangos and fresh corn on the cob.

It turned out magnificent as is, and then we leveled it up by toasting some red pepper flakes in oil, creating a spiced oil that brought everything together. If you want to make it oil-free, just omit the oil and add the red pepper flakes directly, but the oil definitely adds a nice, smoky, spicy flavor to the salad.

There are three types of heat in this salad: 

1. green chilies
2. cayenne
3. red pepper flakes.

You can adjust the heat by using milder green chilies and reducing the amount of cayenne and red pepper flakes to your preference.

Serve this mango chickpea salad with pita chips, Indian papri/crackers or toasted pita bread for dipping.

Why You’ll Love Mango Chickpea Salad

• easy, 1-bowl salad
• sweet mango, earthy chickpeas, fresh veggies, and sweet, roasted corn
• delicious cumin-lime dressing and red pepper spice oil bring out the flavors
• quick and easy summer lunch
• naturally gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free
• easy oil-free option

Continue reading: Mango Chickpea Salad with cumin lime toasted pepper dressing

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Umami-packed puttanesca sauce pairs beautifully with hearty butter beans! Puttanesca beans are a versatile, 1-pot meal that is absolutely full of flavor. Gluten-free Nutfree soyfree

I loved the incredible sauce that I made with my orzo puttanesca, so I decided to add some butter beans to it to make it into a one-pot bean dish. This is a fantastic and delicious pot of beans!

The puttanesca sauce has umami from the mushrooms, the sun-dried tomatoes, and the olives or capers, and it is just so flavorful. It also has Italian herbs and is slightly spicy from the red pepper flakes. All in all, it has a fantastic flavor profile.

Then you add some butter beans to that amazing sauce and simmer them together to meld the flavors. There’s protein and fiber from the butter beans, and it’s just a hearty and delicious stewy bean dish that you can serve with some garlic bread, sourdough or naan. You can also serve it over cooked pasta or a baked potato.

However you dish it up, it’s just fabulously delicious.

Puttanesca beans are also flexible! Use whichever ingredients you have on hand. There are different ways to add that umami using sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and capers. Even if you have two of those instead of three, it will still taste amazing.

If you can’t find butter beans, use other beans, like cannellini beans, other white beans, or use chickpeas. Or add some cooked lentils into the sauce to make it more like a puttanesca bolognese!

Why You’ll Love Puttanesca Beans

• super easy 1-pot 30 minute meal
• packed with protein, fiber, veggies, and FLAVOR!
• umami-filled, tomato-based sauce with tender butter beans
• versatile! Serve with bread to dip or over pasta or a baked potato
• naturally gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free

Continue reading: Puttanesca Butter Beans

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