Creamy Vegan Potato Salad

I haven’t had potato salad in forever! It used to be one of my favourites growing up, but because it is made with mayo I haven’t been able to eat it since turning vegan. Now with the discovery of Vegenaise I am able to make homemade potato salad and enjoy one of my favourites again.

I have been wanting to make this for a while, but I wasn’t ever in the mood to whip it up. With this lovely summer weather and bbq season upon us, it was time to try out this new recipe and see how it held up to my memories of ‘regular’ potato salad. Other than cooking and letting the potatoes cool it was really easy to make, and it turned out great! Devon, Ashley and Chelsea all thought it was delicious, except Devon thinks the potatoes should have been cut smaller.

 

This recipe isn’t just for people who are vegan, it is also great for people who have egg allergies. If you have an allergy to eggs and haven’t heard of Vegenaise I strongly suggest you go down to your local health food store and pick up a jar. They have many variations of mayo, such as Soy Free, Grapeseed oil, Reduced Fat, and Organic. All of their Veganaise products are Vegan, Gluten Free, Non GMO, Dairy Free, and Kosher, which is nice because its able to reach a number of people with food allergies. 

Ingredients - 4-6 people

2 golden potatoes

3 stalks of celery

2 green onions

Dressing

2 tbsp fresh/dried parsley

2 tbsp fresh/dried dill

1/2 cup Vegenaise

2 tbsp mustard

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 lemon juiced

1 tsp of maple syrup

salt and pepper to taste

Mix the dressing together and let sit in the fridge while potatoes are cooking. Cube your potatoes and cook until they are fork tender. You want to avoid over cooking them because they will turn to mush when you mix the salad together. Let them cool completely. Mix the dressing, celery and onion together. Stir until completely covered and refrigerate until cold.

Other recipes I have used Vegenaise in
* Killar Vegan Ranch Dressing
* Chick*n Salad Wraps 

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N

Killar Vegan Ranch Dressing

If you know my sister Chelsea at all, you will know that one of her favourite things to eat is ranch. She was one of those kids that would put it on everything from mashed potatoes, rice, corn, even meat. So when she cut out dairy from her diet she was heartbroken that she wouldn’t be able to eat ranch anymore, what was she going to put on all of her food?

Well being the wonderful sister that I am I decided to make her vegan ranch dressing for her 22nd birthday this past weekend. I love the idea of making gifts for people, especially food, because people love food and they usually aren’t expecting it so it’s a total surprise! And boy was Chelsea surprised! The look on her face was priceless, it was like I told her that she could go live in a village with elephants (another thing she loves).

However it had to pass the taste test, I had the scales tipped in my favor because she hasn’t had it in a while but I was still a little nervous that it might not measure up. Luckily I was wrong! She and (unfortunately) her boyfriend Taylor loved it, to the point that Chelsea had to tell him to stop eating it!

This was a super simple dressing to make and I find that the longer it sits the more the flavours are developed. I would strongly suggest using fresh herbs when available, but dried would work too! This will last in your fridge for around 2 weeks ish, use your judgment on the freshness of the dressing, basically if it smells weird don’t eat it.

 

Ingredients:

1 cup vegan mayonnaise, I use Vegenaise Soy Free

1/4 cup rice milk

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley, minced

2 tbsp fresh chopped dill, minced

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tbsp cider vinegar

Preparation:

Put all ingredients to a bowl and stir until well combined. If you have a food processor you can use that, but it’s not necessary. Now you can enjoy a rich and creamy dressing on all of your fresh veggies and salads!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N

Lasagna Inspired Layered Salad with Avocado 'Cheese' Sauce

I thought of this salad while lying in bed Sunday morning. I was surfing Pinterest and saw a couple of recipes for avocado mac and cheese. I have been seeing a lot of this recipe lately so I clicked on the link to check out the ingredient list. The one I looked at was not vegan but it had the great idea to use avocado in the cheese sauce. PING! An idea light bulb popped in my head. An avocado cheese sauce would be great on lasagna! But.... I didn’t want to cook it, so the next best thing came to mind. A salad! Which is perfect because I can use all of the ingredients that my cooked lasagna calls for, I just won’t cook any of it!

This past month or so, I have been addicted to the homey flavours that lasagna provides: I have made it 3 times!! YUMMMMM. So I am not surprised that this idea sprouted from my brain. Now I can satisfy my homey lasagna craving with this and feel a little better about eating something that is traditionally seen as ‘unhealthy’. 

This salad is pretty easy to whip up, its just all about timing! First you have to put the cauliflower on the stove to get it steamed. While this is steaming I cut up all of my veggies for the salad and layer them in the bowl. Then I pop my sauce ingredients in the blender, blend for a couple minutes and pour that into a jar and rinse my blender out. By then the cauliflower is usually done, so I take it off the stove and run it under cold water to cool it off (we don't want hot cauliflower mixed with avocado, yick). When making the avocado sauce in my Magic Bullet Blender I had to stir it quite a bit to get it all mixed together. I just didn’t want to add any more liquid to the mixture because I wanted it to be a thicker sauce. I already had the tomato sauce, which was already watery, so two watery sauces wouldn’t have jived well in the bowl. Totally worth the extra effort!

Tomato Sauce Dressing – For 2- 4 servings

2 tomatoes

1 sun dried tomato

½ clove garlic

1 lemon, juiced

¼ cup of oregano

¼ cup basil

3 dates, soaked in water for ½ hour

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth!

Avocado Sauce – For 2 - 4 servings

1 whole avocado

1 cup of cooked cauliflower

½ clove garlic

1 lime, juiced

¼ cup parsley

¼ cup cilantro

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth!!

Layer spinach, tomatoes, orange bell peppers, mushrooms and zucchini, top with the avocado sauce and tomato dressing!!

I was so excited about this dish I just had to call my sister Ashley over to try it. Luckily she wasn't busy and was able to stop by to sample my latest creation. Her verdict?..... She loved it! and because of that she decided to make this lovely post on Facebook! Thanks Ash for the pretty picture collage! 

Thanks for reading!

xoxo- N