5 Cozy Vegan Weeknight Dinners

Hey everyone, it's Caitlin and our special guest Dave is joining us today and welcome to another video. Today we are talking about all things cozy. So I guess it's kind of appropriate that you're in here, huh? So we can get some nice kitty cuddles. But we're talking about food, not cats, and I'm going to show you five cozy and delicious vegan recipes that are simple enough to make for a weeknight dinner, but also fancy enough that they actually taste good and it's not just, you know, like plain rice and beans. I think Mr. Dave is over being held, so I'm going to place him down. But yeah, that's basically the gist of it. I love the fall season because it feels like a big exhale from summer and I also get to use all of my favorite cozy and warming spices and ingredients, which is definitely my forte and I feel the most inspired when I'm working with them. So let's just cut to the chase. All of the full recipes will be linked below and now let's get on to cooking. First up, we're going to be making a dump and bake teriyaki tofu rice casserole. I've made a ton of dump and bake recipes, but this is actually my first Asian inspired one and one using tofu. So this recipe is made from really simple ingredients. First, we're going to bring our liquid ingredients to a boil. So we have some soy sauce, some mirin, see my blog post for substitutions, a little bit of coconut sugar, ginger, and garlic. Then we'll just add some water to thin this out a bit and whisk everything together and bring it to a boil. And this is sort of like a diluted teriyaki sauce, so we're not using actual teriyaki sauce, but we're infusing the flavors into our dish. So now for our dump and bake casserole, I love how you just plop everything in here and then bake it and let's work for you. So we're adding some broccoli, shiitake mushrooms, some chopped carrot, and then I like to use super firm tofu here, plus some green onions. We're going to mix all that up until it's evenly combined and then we'll sprinkle our white rice over the top until it's nice and evenly distributed. And then once that liquid mixture comes to a boil, you're just going to pour it over the casserole and give everything a good mix. The most important thing here is to make sure most of the rice grains are submerged so that way you don't have any dry rice on the top of your casserole, but they kind of naturally sink in as the liquid is poured on top. So now you're just going to cover this and bake it in the oven for about 45 minutes and then it should look something like this once it's done. The broccoli gets nice and tender as well as the carrots and I love how the tofu absorbs the flavors of the teriyaki sauce plus the rice. It's like already pre-seasoned. So I like to give everything a mix because like I said, the rice does kind of sink to the bottom and then once it's all well combined, you can top it with some more green onions and some sesame seeds or maybe even a drizzle of sesame oil or chili oil if that's your thing. I love this dish because it's cozy and comforting but it's also really packed with veggies and a perfect weeknight meal. Next up we are making the classic one pot mushroom stroganoff. If you've been following me for a while, you've probably seen this recipe before. It's one of the most popular recipes on my blog for good reason. It's cozy and comforting, super simple, you only need eight ingredients and about 20 minutes. So first up we're going to be doing some prep work. I'm using cremini mushrooms for this recipe and I like to cut them into quarters like you can see here. They're kind of imitating beef chunks in this recipe so that's why we want to keep them nice and big. And then for our onion, we're also going to slice this into thin wedges. You can dice it if you like but I like the texture that the thin slices provides. So now for our one pot pasta, you're going to start by adding some oil or vegetable broth to a pot and then we'll saute the onion until it gets nice and translucent like you can see here. Then we'll just dump everything else in. So we have rotini, some mushrooms, some nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor, black pepper, and then the key to the most authentic flavor here is to use imitation beef vegetable broth. So it's still vegan, it's a nice paste. I have it linked in my blog post if you want to see the exact one I used. So now you're just going to give everything a good mix and bring this to a boil over high heat and then you're just going to simmer the pasta down and the great thing about the pasta is it's going to release starch and make the sauce nice and creamy and it will cook in the mushrooms so it gets even more flavor. So once the pasta has cooked down to your liking, the sauce that's left over should be slightly thinner than what you'd want for your final pasta dish. We're going to add some lemon juice for acidity to help brighten the dish up and then the other key ingredient here is adding in some cashew butter. This is sort of like my hack to making a cashew cream. If you don't have a blender or you just would rather do it the more convenient way, you just mix that into the pasta and it becomes a nice and creamy almost alfredo like sauce. This pasta is so good you can make it with regular noodles or gluten-free noodles, whatever you have on hand in your pantry and I like to top mine off with some fresh parsley and a little extra black pepper for a nice kick. This is so comfy and hearty and you just really got to try this one guys, trust me. All right, next up we are doing a endeavor and making some easy vegan meatballs. I tried this recipe like six times and I think this is as good as it's gonna get. I wanted these meatballs to have a lot of flavor but also a really good meaty texture. So first we're going to start with our base layer of ingredients. We're going to pull some onions, soaked sunflower seeds, cremini mushrooms, and parsley together in a food processor until it's nice and fine. The sunflower seeds help add a meaty texture like walnuts but I wanted to keep this nut-free and also make it more budget-friendly. So then you're going to warm some oil in a dish and add that mixture along with all of our spices. So we've got some nutritional yeast and then a bunch of classic Italian seasoning spices plus some smoked paprika which I find adds a lot of heartiness. You can get the full details on my blog. So we'll add that in with some tomato paste and then we're just going to cook this down and the reason that we're cooking this mixture down first is because mushrooms have a ton of extra liquid in them and if we didn't cook it down we would have really really mushy meatballs. So as you can see this will darken in color and the mushrooms reduce dramatically in size so once it looks a little something like this you can take it off of the stove and we'll move on to the next step. So now in that same food processor first we're going to add some rolled oats to it and blitz it until they form the consistency of breadcrumbs. So I also wanted to keep this recipe gluten-free so we're just using oats instead of breadcrumbs. So then we're going to be adding in some chickpeas for texture, some grated firm tofu for texture and also more protein content, and then some flaxseed which is going to help absorb some of the extra liquid from our mushroom mixture which we'll toss in now. I've seen a lot of vegan meatballs just use beans but I wanted to add in the tofu because I thought it had some extra fun texture and again protein content. So then now we're just going to top everything off with a vegan Worcestershire sauce. I'll link the one that I am using in my blog post as well as below and you're just going to combine everything until you get a nice even mixture. As you can see it is a good amount of meatballs so you may have to scrape the sides of your food processor a few times and the key here also is to try to combine this so you still get a slightly chunky mixture and it's not a total mush so then you have more texture in your baked meatballs. So now you're going to take a cookie scoop and scoop out all your meatballs. I'm using about one and a half tablespoon sized scoop. So here I just put them all on a tray and then I greased my hands a little oil and rolled them into nice uniform balls. So you can cook these balls in three different ways. You can bake them, you can pan fry them, or air fry them. First with baking I recommend spraying them with a little bit of cooking oil and popping them in the oven and then flipping about halfway. This I think has the most realistic texture of the meatball on the inside but the outside does get a little dry. If you're putting this in sauce though I really don't mind and it's the most fuss-free hands-off way to cook the meatballs but if you want to go a more traditional route you can pan fry your meatballs. So here I'm just greasing the bottom of a pan with some oil. You do need a good amount if you want to pan fry because you don't want those meatballs to be sticking that's just a hot mess. So warm the oil up and then you're going to add your meatballs to the pan and then the key here is to rotate them about every two minutes or so so you get all of the sides cooked. You need to do this about five or six times so it does take a while. You can obviously put more than five meatballs in your pan too. I was just sort of testing it with this batch and they come out looking pretty good juicy and delicious. I thought this had the best flavor because obviously of that extra oil the extra fat and creaminess and I would recommend it as well. It's just a little bit more work. Then last but not least we can air fry our meatballs. I would either grease your air fry pan or spray on top of the meatballs and again you want to shake the pan every few minutes. These have a really nice browned coating and the texture is great on these as well though not as hearty as the baked version. So now that we've made our meatballs it's time to actually serve them and enjoy them. The great thing about this is it makes around 50 meatballs so you can freeze some to have later and have some to enjoy now. So here I'm just doing the classic preparation you can just add your meatballs to some pasta sauce stir them around and simmer them a bit until the meatballs and the sauce flavors get nice and infused. Then you can eat this as is you can top it with roasted veggies even have it with rice. I don't know if that's a normal thing but I think it would be a delicious thing or you can take the classic route and put it on top of some pasta with some freshly chopped parsley or basil. I thought this was really hearty and delicious and Dylan and I loved this with a side of garlic bread. The other thing that you can do which I would also highly recommend is make a meatball sub. So this is kind of a not really recipe recipe basically you're just going to take some bread I'm using french bread and slice it almost in half so the one side is still kind of connected. Then load up your bread with some meatballs and some sauce. I like to spread mine around a bit and then top it off with vegan cheese and I just broiled this in the oven until the cheese got nice and melty. It's vegan cheese so it doesn't get totally deliciously melty like cow cheese but you know less animals have to suffer so we're here for that. Anyways just sprinkle it with some parsley or basil and then you can dig in and enjoy. Next up we are going to be making some chipotle black bean chili. So this is sort of a hearty smoky twist on a vegan black bean chili. It's made from really simple ingredients and has a few secret ingredients too. So first we're going to start by sauteeing some onion in oil again until it's translucent because you know we're building flavor. And now for our spices we're using one tablespoon each of cumin and cocoa powder. Yes cocoa powder or cacao powder it adds a lot of deep flavor. We're also adding garlic and a finely diced chipotle pepper plus some tomato paste. So both the tomato paste and the cacao powder really add umami to this and I promise you cannot taste the chocolate but it just adds an extra creaminess and depth of flavor to this chili. Then the black beans and some fire roasted tomatoes come in and we'll top it all off with some veggie broth and then mix it all up and bring it to a boil and simmer it down until it reaches your desired consistency. Now my secret chili hack is to blend a small portion of the chili because the beans help make it even creamier which I really like. It's not just like a chunky thick stew. I feel like this makes it more of a chili consistency if you know what I mean. So then you can put your black bean chili in a bowl and top as desired. Today I topped mine with some avocado and cilantro since we do have some Tex-Mex vibes going on here. Tortilla strips are also great and then you just dig in and enjoy. And then last but not least we're going to be making a creamy coconut and red lentil curry. I love this recipe because it's super budget friendly made from various scale back ingredients so you don't need to have a ton in your pantry. Again we're going to saute some onion. You can do this in vegetable broth or oil. Just cook it up until it's translucent. Then we're going to add in some garlic and ginger for flavor as well as finely chopped cilantro stems. They have just as much the leaves so you don't need to throw them out. They add a lot of great flavor. And then we're keeping things really simple here. I'm just adding in a store-bought curry powder blend with some cayenne pepper to make things spicy so that way you don't need to have a ton of spices in your pantry if you're newer to Indian inspired cooking. And then now for our plant-based protein and creaminess we're going to add in some red lentils. Just make sure to rinse them well first because they can be a little bit dirty. And then we'll go in with some vegetable broth to give this more volume but we're also going to add some coconut milk to make things nice and creamy. And then again we'll just mix everything together until it's nice and combined and then bring this to a boil. And you want to simmer it stirring occasionally until the red lentils absorb and become a nice creamy delicious dish. I like to serve mine over some basmati rice with some peas. This is definitely inspired by an Indian doll but my spices are not as complex but it's still really tasty and delicious and I think you should try it out. All right friends and there you have it. Leave a comment down below and let me know which one of these recipes you are most looking forward to trying first if you haven't already. As I said in the intro all of the recipes are linked below and also feel free to follow me on other social media. Well first you can subscribe to this channel if you want but you can also find me on Instagram, on TikTok, on YouTube, wait this is YouTube, on Pinterest, and even Facebook if you still go on Facebook. I hardly ever go on Facebook but I still post there occasionally. But anyways I hope the fall or autumn season is treating you well. I hope you try out these recipes they are so nourishing and delicious and yeah I really think you would love them even if you're not vegan so that's just my two cents. But thank you for watching again and I look forward to seeing you in a future video. Bye! You didn't run too far mister. Look at this nice belly. Bye! As he bites me.