Vegan bean recipes

Summer is sandwich season. They’re easy to put together, require little to no cooking, are packable, portable, and aren’t too gut-busting. I’ve always loved sandwiches, although my past version of a sandwich was always pretty much a few basic ingredients slapped between some sandwich bread. But there are so many varieties of sandwiches if you think about it - on traditional sandwich bread, gyros, stuffed pitas, wraps, quesadillas… the list goes on and on.

I was definitely thinking about piccata when I put together this recipe. That flavor combination of lemons, capers, and artichokes… YUM. Lemons may be in season in winter, but summer weather makes me crave that bright acidity that lightens up vegetable centric meals. Using farro instead of pasta ensures that whole grains play their part in the healthy diet.

I’m really feeling the bowls lately. What’s great about them is that you get whole grains, beans, and veggies all in one meal. They’re full of flavor, filling, and easy to make. My go to bowl “formula” is grains + beans and veg sauteed together (with seasoning and flavor-adds, of course).

Introduction This chickpea pizza recipe is dedicated to my cousin Liz, a wonderful mom who recommended this delicious vegan pizza cheese. The pizza has homemade dough (the key to a truly superb pizza) and is loaded with vegetables and chickpeas. The So Delicious mozzarella shreds melt into perfect cheesy creaminess. (This is not a sponsored post - she really did recommend this when we were reminiscing about our past love for cheese.)

I had some extra chocolate ganache from making the last batch of almond chocolate macarons, so I had to figure out what to do with it. (Make more macarons, obviously.) These chocolate raspberry vegan macarons have bright pink raspberry flavored shells with chocolate ganache and a dab of raspberry preserves in the middle. I think they’re my favorite batch so far!

Rich chocolate ganache sandwiched between almond shells in these almond vegan macarons. The ganache is creamy and delicious - it’s hard to believe there’s no dairy or butter in this frosting. The classic almond chocolate flavor pairing is delicious!

Ahh, macarons. After making my first batch of pistachio macarons, I knew I wanted to try more flavors tout suite, so next up are these blueberry cardamom vegan macarons. A purple blueberry flavored vegan buttercream is sandwiched between pale blue cardamom shells for a sweet dessert with a hint of exotic flavor.

I miss barbecue chicken pizza. It was never the chicken or cheese I most looked forward to though - it was the barbecue sauce. I love that stuff. I think the perfect pizza is made with just barbecue sauce and no tomato sauce (why would you mix them??). I used to order mine with extra sauce. It wasn't a big leap to create a recipe for barbecue chickpea pizza to satisfy my cravings. I cheated here and didn’t make my own barbecue sauce because I have my favorite brand that I love - I know, terrible! But I totally bet you do too. The good news is that makes this is a super easy, super quick recipe to put together.

You might have noticed that I have a dessert category. And you might have thought to yourself, “a bean based dessert.. what the what? How can that possibly taste good?” And the answer is - to a large extent - aquafaba! (To be fair, there are also black bean brownies, which I haven’t attempted yet...) Aquafaba is the liquid from a can of chickpeas, and it whips up into a fluffy meringue just like egg whites do. This means it’s just as versatile - think chocolate mousse, meringue cookies, lemon meringue pie - anything you would use egg whites for. And there are no raw eggs in it, which makes taste testing the batter not scary.

One question we get a lot as vegans is “Where do you get your protein”? An even meat to beans swap is easy to explain, and easy to execute for new vegans. This vegan Caesar salad is a perfect example. Caesar salad consists of just three main building blocks - dressing, lettuce, and croutons - which means the key to a great one is super high quality (read: homemade) ingredients. The chickpeas in this recipe are cooked in vegetable oil until the outside is just crispy, and then tossed in savory spices - onion, garlic, and some nutritional yeast to add depth and umami.