Tag Archives: vegetarian

Oil-Free Vegan Lobster Rolls

vegan WFPB lobster roll

Years ago, before I ate plant-based, I visited San Francisco on business and stayed in a hotel by the fisherman’s wharf. If you haven’t been, I recommend it. It’s a beautiful area!

Anyway, on my downtime, I explored the area, including sampling the fresh seafood, which is very plentiful as you can imagine. Of the dishes I sampled, the fresh lobster rolls were among the best. And ever since I switched to a plant-based lifestyle, I’ve wanted to recreate a vegan version.

After a few attempts, I was able to bring the flavors of the San Francisco wharf back home, in a WFPB way, with these Oil-Free Vegan Lobster Rolls!

vegan WFPB lobster roll

Oil-Free Vegan Lobster Rolls

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Total Time: 45 minutes
Servings: 4

What you’ll need

  • 2 14 oz cans hearts of palm, drained
  • 1/4 cup Oil-free Vegan Mayonnaise
  • 1 tsp Old Bay seasoning
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup celery, diced
  • 2 tbsp chives, diced
  • celery leaves (optional)
  • 4 New England-style or sub rolls, toasted

How you’ll do it

  • Soak hearts of palm in water for 30 minutes. Drain well.
  • Chop hearts of palm into lobster-like chunks.
  • Add hearts of palm to medium bowl with remainder of ingredients. Stir well to coat and combine.
  • For best results, let mixture marinate in the fridge for a couple hours.
  • Scoop some "lobster" salad into one of the rolls, top with celery leaves if desired. Add a final sprinkle of Old Bay on top and serve.
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Flavor-Packed WFPB BBQ Sliders

WFPB vegan BBQ sliders

Plant-based burgers are all the rage right now, but the ones getting the most attention are those that “mimic” the taste and texture of beef. And yeah, they’re great but they’re not great for you. They’re packed with oil and saturated fats to help imitate the juiciness and flavor of beef burgers. So while they may be plant-based, they’re far from whole food plant-based (WFPB).

And I get it. I’ve been known to have one or two of those trendy burgers as a treat, and they’re really good. And many of the WFPB burger recipes leave a lot to be desired — they can be dry, flavorless, and downright unappetizing. Until now! I found this recipe in one of my cookbooks and then altered it to make it oil-free, then converted it into sliders to make it more fun!

These sliders are so flavor-rich and delicious! My kids loved them, and I’m sure your meat-eating friends and families will love them too!

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The WFPB School Lunch Dilemma

WFPB school lunch

Well, it’s back-to-school time and if you’re like me, you’re starting to plan for school lunches and realizing options are extremely limited. At my son Ryan’s school, he has the option of buying lunch or bringing it on any given day. The school provides a menu for us to review each month, and wow is there a ton of unhealthy crap on there!

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What do you eat on the whole food plant-based diet (WFPB)?

WFPB whole food plant-based diet

When my wife and I decided to change the way we ate, we had a hard time explaining to friends and family what the hell we could eat. Were we vegetarians? Yeah, but stricter than that. Were we vegans? Sort of, but not really. We follow the whole food plant-based diet (WFPB). That’s indeed a mouthful, and to your average meat-a-saurus, it’s eyeroll-inducing. To them it sounds weird and complicated.

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Summertime Avocado-Lime Linguine

Here’s another versatile dish where you can swap out veggies for really whatever you like. I found this to be best when kept simple with some broccoli and spinach, allowing the sauce and avocado to be the stars of the show.

I love this in the summertime, when you’re not looking for something super heavy, but of course it’s great year-round!

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Better-For-You Vegan Bibimbap

vegan oil-free bibimbap

The first time I ever had Korean food I was on my way to the Phillippines on a business trip. I was on a flight from San Francisco to South Korea, and the flight attendant handed me a dinner menu. One side of the menu was American food and the other side was Korean (in English, thankfully). I saw something called Bibimbap on the menu and it sounded intriguing, so I thought, “why not?”

What was put in front of me was the best food I ever ate on an airplane. I’m sure as far as bibimbap goes, it sucked (I mean, it was on an airplane after all). But after that, I was obsessed. The sweet and savory flavors together with the spice of the gochujang paste mixed in… I was hooked.

But then we went plant-based and bibimbap was out of my life. Until now. While this doesn’t use a traditional bibimbap marinade (that would contain sesame oil), a good oil-free teriyaki glaze will do the trick.

Change out the veggies for anything you prefer. This is a versatile dish.

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How to Make Delicious Garlic Bread with no Butter or Oil (WFPB)

garlic bread

I very often see questions about garlic bread in social media posts.

“How do I make vegan garlic bread?”

“I miss having garlic bread. Is there any way to do it WFPB?”

Unfortunately many answer with, “use xyz margarine,” or, “use olive oil.”

No.

We can make garlic bread and still eat healthy. Just think outside the box a bit.

I’ve tried a few different things but I’ve found a really simple way to make delicious garlic bread while keeping it plant-based and oil-free.

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The Ultimate Oil-Free Vegan Garbage Plate

vegan garbage plate

For those who weren’t aware (or were thrown off by the Phillies cap), I’m from Rochester, NY. If you’re from the Western NY area or have ever visited, it’s likely you’ve been introduced to, or at least heard of, the Garbage Plate. The dish began at the famous Nick Tahou Hots in Rochester and has become a local delicacy for wobbly patrons stumbling out of local bars at 2am, as well as famished foodies who can’t get enough of this pile of picnic provisions.

While the term “Garbage Plate” is reserved for official menu items from Nick’s, variations exist at nearly every greasy spoon or burger joint in the area — trash plate, rubbish plate, sloppy plate, or just plain “plate.” If you say “plate” here, everyone knows what you mean. There’s even a local vegan restaurant with a Compost Plate and an upscale restaurant with a Plat De Refuse — be sure to stick your nose in the air when you say that one.

Ok so I’m not from there. What the hell is a Garbage Plate?

So glad you asked! A traditional Garbage Plate starts with a thick paper plate or styrofoam takeout container. On it, you’ll find a heap made up of two selections from the following: home fries, french fries, macaroni salad, or baked beans. On top of that, you’ll normally have two hot dogs (red or white), two hamburgers, two cheeseburgers, or any combination of those. There are more options for the protein (sausage, chicken, even fish and more) but those are the most common. Finally and most importantly are the condiments — deli mustard, diced onions, and a ton of Rochester-style meat hot sauce. If you want ketchup, at Nick’s you have to add it yourself. Oh yeah, and you get two slices of stale Italian bread with it — that is literally stored behind the counter in a black garbage bag. Thanks to this awful bread, I’m fairly certain Rochester leads the nation in discarded slices of bread per capita.

So it probably goes without saying that the Garbage Plate is super unhealthy, albeit delicious, so after switching my diet to whole food plant-based (WFPB), I was determined to recreate this local phenomenon as WFPB-compliant as possible.

So after some tinkering and quite a bit of sampling, I present to you the KevCooksPlants version — the Plant-Based Plate!

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Oil-Free Plant Based Macaroni Salad

vegan macaroni salad

If you’re a loyal member of the KevCooksPlants Community, you know by now that I detest most store-bought vegan mayonnaise, dressings and cheese. They’re loaded with oil and terrible for you. So I’ve incorporated my Oil-Free Vegan Mayonnaise into an easy recipe for macaroni salad — a summer favorite and necessity for a proper Rochester-style “garbage plate.”

This is really simple, so feel free to add whatever veggies/spices you’d like to customize this to your personal tastes.

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Zucchini Crabby Cakes

WFPB crab cakes

Despite my oldest son’s claim that he “doesn’t do seafood” (even though he’s never really had seafood), the whole family, including the kids, love these veggie versions of crab cakes. They’re fairly simple to make, healthy, and delicious!

Enjoy these as a main dish or even a side, in a sandwich or just by themselves. I like to dress these up with a dollop of my vegan mayo, while my wife prefers cocktail sauce. The kids go with ketchup, because well, kids love ketchup. There really needs to be a study done on why kids have such a fondness for ketchup…

Anyway… I’ve recently found that after these crabby cakes come out of the oven, they’re even better with a quick sear from the grill (you’ll want to use foil or a grill mat though). Enjoy!

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