Vegan Done Real: 52 Favorite Vegan Recipes from Ten Whole-Food Food Bloggers

A collection of favorite vegan recipes, all made without processed food. Fresh, whole and delicious, that's Vegan Done Real.

Vegan Visitors: Please know, Kitchen Parade is not a veg(etari)an website but includes many veg(etari)an recipes as part of a healthy omnivore / flexitarian diet. You might appreciate my food blog about vegetables, A Veggie Venture but please know, it is vegetables, NOT vegetarian, even though heavily vegetarian and mostly vegan, see (Note to Vegetarians).

Regular Readers: No worries, Kitchen Parade is not turning vegan, nor even advocating a vegan diet. What I do want to stand up for is fresh, seasonal healthy food -- real food, not processed food -- whatever our diet choices.

"Oprah Winfrey, who has been on more diets than the rest of us combined, challenged her staff to 'go vegan' for a week. Intriguing, except her idea of surviving without meat and dairy -- no explanation why we should go from too much to none -- is to fill your shopping cart with fake versions of both, like meatless chicken breasts and dairyless cheese. But the goal is not universal veganism, which is pie-in-the-sky; it's health and sustainability. And we get there by preparing real food, vegan or not. (Remember: Coke, Tostitos and Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs -- yum! -- are all vegan.) The answer is not fake animal products, whose advocates argue that they're transitional to a kinder-to-animal diet. Indeed, that's good, but a real food diet is better."

Excerpt from
Is 'Eat Real Food'Unthinkable?
by Mark Bittman in the New York Times,
who famously lost weight with a
'vegan until dinner' diet,
in response to the
The One-Week Challenge
which aired on February 1, 2011.

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Why Vegan Done Real?

By accident, I watched Oprah on February 1, a snow day here in St. Louis, and was horrified to watch one processed food product after another parade across the screen. What? Not a vegetable in sight!

A month later and still unable to forget the opportunity that Oprah threw away, I had to act. So I asked some of my food-blogging friends for help and we put together this collection of our 52 favorite vegan recipes -- a year's worth of recipes for Meatless Monday.

Only two of the bloggers are veg(etari)an, the rest are 'omnivores', that means our diets include both meat and meatless meals. What unites these bloggers is that our vegetarian and vegan recipes are based on whole food, real food, not processed food. We cook fresh, whole and delicious vegan meals with plant-based ingredients, vegetables and grains and beans, all easy to find in grocery stores.

That's Vegan Done Real.

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Andrea Meyers

(omnivore blogger)
~ Michael’s Vegetarian Chili ~
~ Eggplant, Potato & Chickpea Curry ~
~ Mexican Spiced Butternut Squash Soup with Beans and Corn ~
~ Vegan Dosas ~
~ Slow Cooker Squash Stew with Garbanzo Beans and Red Lentils ~
~ Spicy Red Lentil and Tomato Soup ~

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Bistro Katie

(vegan blogger)

Be sure to print out Katie's
~ Plant-Based Shopping List (PDF) ~

~ Colorful Curried Red Lentil Soup ~
~ Black Bean & Mushroom Quesadillas with Guacamole, Roasted Acorn Squash & Spinach Salad ~
~ Winter Warmth Salad ~
~ Nutty Stir-Fry with Collards & Tofu ~
~ Couscous & Kale Salad To-Go ~

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Cookin' Canuck

(omnivore blogger)
~ Mushroom, Caramelized Onion & Cannellini Bean Salad ~
~ Quinoa with Black Beans, Corn & Chipotle Pepper, Lime & Honey Dressing (substitute agave for honey) ~
~ Crockpot Gingered Chickpeas with Spicy Tomato Sauce ~
~ Smoky Black Bean & Corn Vegetarian Chili ~
~ Creamy Zucchini & Coconut Milk Soup (Dairy-Free) ~

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FamilyStyle Food

(omnivore blogger)
~ Quinoa Salad with Smoky Lime Dressing ~
~ Raw Sweet Corn Chowder ~
~ Mediterranean Barley Salad with Roasted Eggplant ~
~ Chickpea Cakes with Cashew Curry Cream ~
~ Roasted Corn Salad with Basil and Tomatoes ~

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FatFree Vegan Kitchen

(vegan blogger)
~ Eggplant and Chickpea Curry ~
~ North African Chickpea and Kale Soup ~
~ Ridiculously Easy Lentil Soup ~
~ Roasted Beet-Tofu Burgers ~
~ Red Bean Chipotle Burgers ~

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In My Own Sweet Thyme

(omnivore blogger)
~ Kale with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Garbanzo Beans on Polenta ~
~ Spinach with Chickpeas ~
~ Kusherie (Egyptian Rice and Lentils) ~
~ Squash and Hominy Stew ~
~ Yellow Pea and Mint Soup ~

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Kalyn's Kitchen

(omnivore blogger)
~ Mexican Red Lentil Stew with Lime and Cilantro ~
~ Stir-Fried Tofu with Scallions, Garlic, Ginger & Soy Sauce ~
~ Southwestern Bean Salad with Black Beans, Black-Eyed Peas, Peppers & Cilantro ~
~ Revithia - Greek Chickpea (Garbanzo Bean) Soup with Lemon & Olive Oil ~
~ Lebanese Lentil Salad with Garlic, Cumin, Mint, and Parsley ~

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Kitchen Parade

(omnivore blogger)
~ Two-Way Lentil Skillet (tofu variation) ~
~ Squash & Carrot Stew ~
~ Eggplant & Bean Thai Curry ~
~ Greens & Grits ~
~ Kitchen Stir-Fry ~

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The Perfect Pantry

(omnivore blogger)
~ Mushroom and Asparagus Paella ~
~ Penne with Roasted Red Pepper Pesto ~
~ Vegan Black Bean & Sweet Potato Stew ~
~ Vegan Barley & Lentil Pilaf with Mushrooms & Spinach ~
~ Chickpea, Quinoa & Spinach Salad with Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette ~

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Wicked Good Dinner

(omnivore blogger)
~ Polenta Cakes with Roasted Mushroom Ragu ~
~ Sweet Potato Soup with Curried Pumpkin Seeds (cream is optional ingredient) ~
~ Red and Black Quinoa Veggie Burgers ~
~ Pan Seared Artichokes with Lemon and Thyme ~
~ Wicked Good Granola (egg white is optional ingredient) ~

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Many Thanks!

Many thanks to my fellow bloggers for sharing their favorite vegan recipes!

Other food bloggers, do you believe in Vegan Done Real too? Please feel free to send me a message via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. Include links to your favorite five vegan recipes, no processed foods, please. Vegan bloggers, please send recipes that include the most accessible ingredients.

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