Food

Grab a spoon (yes, a spoon!) and dig into this vibrant and refreshing smoothie bowl. It’s your answer to the 10-minute breakfast and getting in a veggie serving before noon. You can blend in either a raw or cooked beet, with the latter being a better option if you’re using a blender without much horsepower. Granola or muesli is another topping option.   

Our delicious quinoa salad knows no bounds—and it’s a substantial meal in a bowl. Here, we’ve paired it with crisp radicchio, spring radishes, and fresh dill and then topped it all off with sliced avocado and almonds. 

Here’s a smoothie that even Bugs Bunny would go crazy for. This fetching bright orange drink blends a winning combo of sweet veggies and fruit, creamy cashew butter, tangy yogurt, and lime zest into a nutrient-packed smoothie that doesn’t hold back on flavour. Bonus: both orange bell pepper and carrot contain a surfeit of beta carotene, an antioxidant that is converted to vitamin A in the body and functions to improve bone, eye, and immune health.

These are the perfect grab-and-go breakfast, on-the-run snack, or post-workout nosh. This recipe makes a lot of large cookies, but fear not: They freeze beautifully. This means they’ll be close at hand when a cookie craving strikes.

Any of these quick dips would be great on their own. But if you put them together, you have something that’s way more than the sum of its parts. Lentils are a fabulous source of vegan protein. Just 1 cup of cooked lentils has a whopping 18 g of protein. Get ready, set, dip!

This stir-fry comes together in under half an hour, which makes it the perfect fast food after a workout (especially if you serve it over quinoa!). Feel free to customize the heat level in the dish by adding more chili flakes as desired.

Socca is a savory chickpea pancake enjoyed as a street food snack in Nice, France. Here, we’ve repurposed it as a protein-rich pizza base. You could choose to top it like a classic pizza, but this fresh take makes eating your greens a whole lot more interesting.

These satisfying two-bite snacks are perfect any time of day. Feel free to serve them with your favorite dipping sauce. (But hey: The coconut-lime one here is a winner. Just sayin’!). Green peas are one hardworking legume. They’re loaded with vitamins, high in fiber, and a good source of protein.

Skip the drive-thru and turn to everyday pantry ingredients to make your very own plant-based, fast food-inspired burger. Vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike will find something to love at first bite, no matter how you top your patty. Swap the lab coat for an apron and cook up a batch of these crowd-pleasers tonight.

This is a spinoff of a typical borscht soup common in Eastern Europe. It’s perfect for the end of the cold winter season and provides a flavour step into spring while still holding the flavours of winter roots.

Studies are proving that eating plant foods rich in colours of the rainbow—from dark blue and purple to green, yellow, orange, and red—is the key to good nutrition. Take butternut squash as an example. Its brilliant orange colour indicates it’s chock full of carotenoids, bioflavonoids, and vitamin C, essential to decreasing the risk for certain diseases, including cancer and heart disease.

Our rainbow salad pretty much covers all the colours of the rainbow. Chock full of healthy ingredients, it’s a bell ringer that’ll satisfy the fussiest of eaters. Grilled prawns top the dish with a light drizzle of tahini dressing laced overtop. Heart-healthy antioxidants with enormous eye appeal and delicious flavour—what more do you need in a dish?

This dish is a satisfying “bowl-in-one” supper. It’s low in calories, high in fibre, and a valuable source of vitamin C, manganese, and B6—all helpful antioxidants. Bake squash ahead, following our helpful tips, for an easy weekday meal.

Eating a rainbow of colourful foods, including dark blue and purple, is essential to good health. Considered the king of antioxidant-rich foods, the rich blueberries in this delectable tart are especially amazing health givers.

Adding grain to a salad immediately raises salad to a whole new level. It not only adds substance, such as fibre, but also makes a satisfying lunch dish when combined with heart-healthy, delicious greens and fruit. We’ve paired it with a chive dressing. Try drizzling the dressing over grapefruit segments, and you’ll be eating this combo of grapefruit and chives at every opportunity.

There’s nothing more alluring than the scent of garlic emanating from the kitchen. And in winter, garlic-enriched foods are even more important to our well-being. There are a multitude of reasons to embrace the humble bulb. Not just because it adds depth to a dish, but also because of its abundant health kicks. Garlic has been studied for its potential to reduce cardiovascular disease risk; for its antitumour, antimicrobial, and antiviral effects; and for its benefit on high blood glucose concentration.

Two of Mexico’s greatest culinary exports, mole and tacos, come together in a festival of flavour and texture. Tempeh provides a plant-based meaty taco filling. Beer is an unconventional mole ingredient, but along with chocolate, it makes a nice bittersweet companion for the chilies. If Mexican-style cheeses are not available, you can use crumbled feta or dollops of sour cream.

Hot stuff

A chocolate salad dressing? How else would you dress a salad during this month of love? Don’t let the unusual flavour combinations of this salad dissuade you—juicy meat and mellow mozzarella are brazenly balanced with sweet-tart chocolate balsamic vinegar dressing. Blasting strawberries in the oven is a method to coax out more of their inherent sweetness as the flavour of the berries cooks down and concentrates. If desired, you can use chicken breast instead of turkey.

Tip

It’s not the most calorie-conscious dessert, but these silky cakes are the epitome of #epicchocolate. It’s a decadent way to spread the love at the end of the day. If needed, an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend can be used.

Tip

Just as cacao adds depth to mole sauce, it works wonders here too, bringing complexity, richness, and a pleasant, subtle bitterness to this comforting soup. A cool garnish of sour cream and mint provides a stunning contrast.

Tip

A whisper of cacao adds an enticing element to this Moroccan-inspired one-pan dinner. It’s a great dish when entertaining or simply feeding a hungry family. Try serving with whole-grain couscous or freekeh. If harissa paste is not available for the marinade, you can replace it with paprika.

Big bird

I love this dish for its great flavour, but also for its visual impact on the table. It is a perfect example of the senses working in union. You can’t hide the wonderful visual effect of the dish and then the joy of eating the textural contrast between the pieces of beetroot and the smooth yogurt. The chili provides a background lift, while the toasted caraway provides a second tier of bready flavour over the beetroot’s earthy sweetness. Carrot and Lime Leaf Kebabs and Beetroot and Coconut Dip recipes were extracted from Cooking for the Senses: Vegan Neurogastronomy by Jennifer Peace Rhind and Gregor Law, published by Singing Dragon. Order your copy at singingdragon.com.

These are so delicious! They’re ideal hot or cold as a mezze dish, starter, snack, or spicy picnic addition. Kaffir lime leaves are commonly used in Thai, Indonesian, Cambodian, Malaysian, and Vietnamese cooking and can be sourced in frozen form quite easily from Asian grocers. They impart a very distinct citrus note unlike any other ingredient I know—just their aroma makes me hungry. Inevitably, lemongrass goes very well with them, but the sweetness of roasted carrot and the slightly bready caraway seeds just make this dish irresistible. Lime leaves are double-shaped, making them perfect to wrap around things for cooking. Otherwise, wrap a large single leaf around each carrot piece. You don’t eat the leaves, by the way … but you knew that, right?

Tips

• You can leave out the chili if you prefer—these kebabs still work really well.
• For quicker prep, instead of roasting the kebabs at 200 C (400 F), preheat the oven broiler and broil the kebabs for 1 to 2 minutes to get them lightly charred.

This drink gives you the same sensory satisfaction as your usual tall latte from Starbucks, but without the jolt: It’s caffeine free. Dandelion “coffee” anchors this healthy cup of comfort.