As someone who is not vegan, the notion of vegan cooking can be a little daunting when cooking a vegan meal for the first time. I remember that one of my biggest concerns was cross contamination, as I was preparing a non-vegan meal at the same time, and whilst I’d put together plenty of vegetarian dishes before, vegan wasn’t something I’d focused on. Although that was easily fixed with separate work surfaces and utensils for each meal.
I’ve slowly expanded my list of recipes since, to a fairly reasonable, although still small selection. Then when we found out said friend required surgery on her spine, and would be laid up in bed for at least 2-3 weeks I decided to expand further.
Whilst her partner will obviously need to do all of the cooking, he unfortunately only knows how to make chickpea curry, which whilst tasty, can’t be her sole meal for 2 weeks. So, to help out I decided to put together some meals that can simply be reheated in a microwave. Not only to make it easier for her partner, but also, to enable my friend to be able to get a hot meal quickly with minimal moving or standing.
Given that I myself still only have a handful of meals, I decided to reach out to the Twitter community for help, and help came in the form of a fantastic app; Vegan Recipe Browser.
Along with having hundreds of different dishes to choose from, Vegan Recipe Online has a function that allows you to select ‘good’ ingredients and ‘bad’ ingredients. So, for example, I know my friend doesn’t like mushrooms, and that they are a common substitute. Using this feature, I can label mushrooms as a ‘bad’ food, which will filter the recipes I get to those that don’t contain them.
Likewise, if you have a food that you do want to include, for example if you were using up various things from your cupboard or fridge, you can add these as ‘good’ foods and get suggestions that contain whatever it is that you have selected.
You can also filter by where the recipe has come from, so if you’ve used the app a few times and find that you are enjoying the recipes of one chef in particular, you can filter to see what else they have to offer.
Once you have chosen what you want to cook, you simply click on the photo and you will be taken to a screen that lists out what you will need. From there, simply click the link provided and you will be taken to the original post for that recipe, where you can find more information, photos and the method.
Using this app, I’ve managed to find inspiration for loads of meals, and have included a few of them within my food based care package. I’ll be sharing some of my favourites at some point on the future, but for the time being just wanted to share this handy discovery!
Where do you go for inspiration or to find new recipes?
No comments
Post a Comment