Maria's Favorite Plant-Based Recipes

When I wasn’t eating meat..I had to come up with lots of alternatives. Luckily my mom taught me so many recipes. Most are in our cookbook- the every girls guide to cooking. My anemic ways brought me back unfortunately, but I still enjoy these yummy plant-based recipes and anyone who is vegetarian will too! 

Beyond Burger Meatballs

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of Beyond burger meat

• 1 white onion (chopped)

• ½ cup chopped parsley

• Salt to taste

• Pepper to taste

• Garlic powder to taste

• 2 tbsp olive oil

First, mix your beyond meat in a bowl with all of your spices and chopped up onion and parsley (add as much or as little as you want) until consistency is smooth. Then form that into meatballs of your desired size. Next, heat olive oil on medium-high in a pan (you can use coconut oil or any other oil of choice here) until hot enough that when you drop one of the balls into it it sizzles loudly once or twice before settling down again. Add meatballs to the pan and cook until browned on all sides — about 12 minutes total (turning once). Remove from heat and serve however you’d like!

Lima beans

(Friends this is such a great meal prep meal. Make a ton of it and enjoy it all week!) 

Ingredients:

• one 10 oz box of frozen lima beans

• 1 zucchini, finely diced

• 1 large yellow onion, diced

• 2-3 cloves garlic minced

• ½  cup chopped fresh anise or dill

• ½  cup well-chopped parsley

• one 10-oz can tomato sauce

• ½ cup olive oil

• salt and pepper to taste + a pinch of crushed red pepper (optional)

• 1 pack of frozen spinach (optional)

Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Take your bag of frozen lima beans and pour into a baking dish. Add frozen chopped spinach (or chop fresh spinach) and chopped celery, parsley, dill (if fresh) to the dish. Next, dice your onion and zucchini, then mince 2-3 cloves of garlic. Pour in ½ cup of olive oil. Take one can of tomato paste and add it to your dish. Fill the can with water and pour into the mix. Add your spices to taste and mix all the ingredients together. Bake for 35 min (or until lima beans are soft) and serve!

WATCH PART 2 HERE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m81zvevPeI

Black bean burger

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of white beans

• 1 large read onion, diced

• 3 garlic cloves, minced

• Jalapenos

• ½ cup of breadcrumbs

• Chili flakes to taste

• Salt to taste

• Pepper to taste

• Olive oil

Smash or blend the white beans and place them in a bowl. Chop up your onion, garlic, and jalapeños (optional) and add to the bowl. Then begin mixing the ingredients together with your hands (ideal to put gloves on for this step). As you mix, pour the breadcrumbs slowly to help the ingredients bind together. Pour olive oil into your pan or spray onto your flat top on medium heat. Then form the bean mixture into patties. Heat until brown on each size, then dress it up however you’d like. I prefer to wrap it in lettuce and keep it more on the plain side, but make it your own!

I hope you enjoyed this roundup of recipes! I wrote this post to inspire you to get creative in the kitchen, so if there’s something on this list that sounds good but isn’t quite right for your lifestyle, feel free to make it your own by swapping out ingredients or adding something new.

Check out more of my favorite recipes on my blog!