vegan

It's been a long time since I've eaten anything fried in oil. But recently I found myself craving General Tso's sauce, and decided I'd treat myself. Since I'm vegan, I obviously won't be eating chicken with that sauce, so I decided to batter and fry tofu instead. This tofu came out so perfect, golden, and delicious that it was worthy of its own recipe. The texture of the coating is very similar to the battered chicken you'll find in many Chinese takeout places, so you can use it with a variety of sauces. It also has enough flavor to be snacked on alone!

Toss out that store-bought frozen vegan lasagna. Scrap all the other vegan lasagna recipes you've tried. Yes, this vegan lasagna recipe is that good.

Before we get to the recipe, I need to mention that the flavor of a good lasagna is highly dependent on the sauce you use. So if you don't make your own, I strongly recommend that you use a high-quality sauce, like Rao's or the Silver Palate. (Although these brands are pretty expensive, I can often find one or the other on sale at Whole Foods, and I stock up when I see them).

When I had my cupcake business more than 10 years ago, my carrot cake cupcakes had a cult-like following. The same people showed up to my little stand religiously to buy the carrot cake cupcakes over and over. My friends even started randomly offering to help me with various things in exchange for more carrot cake cupcakes. So naturally, they were high on my priority list of cupcake recipes to veganize.

Cake recipes are complicated to turn vegan, as they don't usually work by simply replacing a few ingredients. However, the effort was well worth it for these delicious cupcakes.

Sometimes, I create a recipe, and even I can't believe how amazing it turned out. This frosting is one of those recipes.

As I've mentioned in previous recipes, I used to have a cupcake business many years ago. I've been (slowly) working on creating vegan versions of my old recipes. When I created my vegan carrot cake recipe, I wondered how I was going to recreate a cream cheese frosting to go with it. I wanted to avoid using store-bought non-dairy cream cheese because they vary so widely in their taste and ingredients.

Some of my favorite childhood Christmas memories are of the holiday cookies. Each member of my dad's side of the family would make one or two types of cookies each year and bring them to my grandmother's house. In the basement were two long folding tables with endless tins of cookies of all types. After dinner, my grandmother would let us go downstairs and pick whatever Christmas cookies we wanted.

We also got to participate in making some of the cookies. As children, that usually meant roll-out sugar cookies that we got to decorate.

French toast is another one of my Sunday morning brunch favorites. It's pancakes' quicker and easier cousin. But both are equally delicious! It's also a traditional Christmas morning breakfast in the United States.

When I set out to make this vegan French toast recipe, it was important to me to get both the flavor and the texture right. That means I needed a little bit of a savory egg-like flavor, a touch of cinnamon, a firm toasted exterior, and a soft, chewy center. The nutritional yeast in this recipe helps to create the savory flavor, while a flax egg and aquafaba create the perfect texture. (Aquafaba is the liquid from a can of garbanzo beans.)

When I was in college and learning to cook, the first dishes I perfected were Italian pasta dishes, like lasagna, fettuccine alfredo, and of course, stuffed shells. Stuffed shells are a delicious comfort food for me, but they're made with cheese and eggs. Fortunately, I've managed to create delicious vegan ricotta from tofu, and stuffed shells are once again on the menu in my kitchen. A little bit of flour helps to bind everything together in place of an egg.

These vegan stuffed shells are so easy to make, they can be made any day. But they are also perfect for holidays like Christmas and Easter, or family gatherings; the whole family will love them.

My favorite way to prepare pretty much any kind of vegetable, from sweet potatoes to bell peppers, is roasting. Roasted vegetables are so easy to prepare, they're healthy, and they taste amazing. When Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas come around, I like to give my roasted vegetables a little something extra.

This roasted carrots recipe gets some added flair with a glaze made from vegan butter, maple syrup, and lemon juice, and a cashew-tahini sauce with a delicious blend of spices. Rainbow carrots add a colorful wow factor (but plain orange carrots work too!) This is the perfect side dish for the holidays or any special occasion.

Back when I was first teaching myself to cook, in my late teens, one of my favorite dishes to cook was a butternut squash casserole with goat cheese. It was simple, but delicious. Today, my version of butternut squash casserole has morphed into something a little more complex, and 100% vegan. But it's the most delicious version of it that I've ever made.

It's made with butternut squash, kale, leeks, and pecans, and tossed in a creamy sauce made of cashews. It could be described as comfort food, but it gets points for nutrition, too. This recipe has lots of vitamins A and C, plus 8 grams of protein per serving. To get to this masterpiece, I took some inspiration from this Epicurious (non-vegan) recipe, and this recipe from Oh She Glows.

You've planned your entire Thanksgiving feast. But now you're in need of the perfect appetizer for you and your family to snack on while Thanksgiving dinner's being prepared. Don't worry!

In years past, we've snacked on my delicious spinach & artichoke dip. This year, I'm adding a new menu item to the holiday appetizer list: vegan cranberry and cashew goat cheese crostini! (This recipe is also a great option for holiday parties.)

Crostini (an Italian word meaning "little toasts") share some traits with their better-known antipasto cousin, bruschetta. Both are finger foods made from toasted bread slices with various toppings. However, bruschetta traditionally uses larger slices of bread (from a loaf of Italian bread, for example). Crostini are made with smaller bread slices, typically from baguettes. Crostini are also toasted in the oven on a baking tray, while bruschetta is usually grilled over a fire.