Easy, healthy, non-weird vegan recipes for chronic fatigue. 👩‍🍳🥕🛌

[danny la rouge]

I have chronic fatigue and chronic pain. I need to be able to feed myself using recipes that don’t require me to stand over a chopping board or stove for ages.

I require them to be healthy. Not full of over-processed meat or cheese substitutes.

I also don’t want weirdness like soaking cashews and blending them to make cheese replacement sauce. There's nothing wrong with cashews, but just put cashews in the recipe. Don’t make them into cat vomit.

And not full of sugar, and all the other evilness of modern, poisonous industrial “food” production. Just healthy, whole, food.

Are there any books that meet this brief? It can’t be that hard, surely?

(I used to be vegetarian, since 1983, but finally went vegan at the beginning of this year: after a few years or dairy reduction I finally took the plunge).

Oh, and don’t be a dick. I’m not well, and I’m not in the mood.

 

[story]

My favourite fast food is a tray bake:

Preheat the oven as hot as it will go.

Roughly chop onions, peppers, aubergine, potatoes, really whatever you have around. The most onerous part of this is getting the skin off the onions.

Bung them all in the tray with a couple of bay leaves, couple of sprigs of fresh Rosemary, thyme. Or just throw in a handful of whatever herbs you have to hand.

Add a handful or two of unsalted cashew nuts.

Salt and Pepper. Couple of cloves of rough chopped or bashed garlic

Pour over plenty of olive oil and stir it all together.

Bumg it in the oven and turn down the heat. So it’s seared at the high heat, then you turn it down to medium.

Now prepare the garlic. By which I mean remove the cloves from the head and set aside.

In about 20 minutes, check the tray and stir it all about. Add the garlic cloves.

Leafe it for another 20 minutes. If it looks in danger of scorching, loosely cover with tin foil.

Done.


Times may vary according to your oven, and whether you’ve added stuff like cauliflower, broccoli, courgettes etc which needs less cooking. I add them at the same time-ish as the garlic.

Eat with rice, noodles, or alone. Good for left overs. Add vegan cheese, hummus, tahini, hot sauce, brown sauce, whatever you fancy.

Add olives to make it fancy.

ETA
I sometimes add some wedges off untaxed lemons with the skin on to the tray as well.

 

[not-bono-ever]

Tin of mixed beans in water, quinoa ( yes) in one of them ready to eat packs, crumbled shop bought or whatever falafel, any veg you can chop or rip quickly eg lettuce / leaves or soft tomatoes ,oil and mustard dressing

 

[Poot]

Red lentils are very healthy and don't require faff. They can turn any vegetable dish into a good filling dinner as long as you add more stock cubes than you think is necessary. They don't take long to cook and you don't soak them.

Frozen veg, especially spinach, are v helpful.

Sorry, the only books we have are rubbish and exactly as you describe so no recommendations.

I did veganuary while I had covid and found marmite on toast a bloody godsend when you're desperate.

 

[LDC]

Some of the single pot/tray cook books are great. I don't like cooking that much (I didn't mind it before lockdown but months of cooking almost daily bored me senseless) and I find these pretty easy to do, they use easy-to-find, simple, and non-weird ingredients generally, and are mostly a variation on chop stuff and put it in a tray in the oven. I like this one but there's loads like this about (apologies for Amazon link)...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Green-Roasting-Tin-Vegetarian-Dinners/dp/1910931896

 

[Edie]

Vegan curries are the great vegan food. Just eat them constantly. I would. Daal. Saag aloo. Chana masala. Aloo gobi. Aloo matar. All great.

Otherwise loads of Italian dishes. Spaghetti puttanesca etc.

 

[Epona]

Bags of frozen chopped onions sound like a good idea for ease of use, tubes or jars of minced garlic, ginger, chillies, herbs etc. will allow you to add plenty of flavour with next to no effort. Frozen spinach is fantastic and it tends to be divvied up into easily usable portion sizes like hockey pucks.

Pot of red lentils with onion, garlic, chilli, ginger, some spices (cumin, coriander, mustard seeds, turmeric work well) and a bit of spinach, add stock, just let it simmer until the lentils are cooked and you've got yourself a couple of days worth of tasty food that you can have with bread or rice with very little effort other than opening the freezer door and a few jars/tubes. Just check the water level occasionally to make sure the lentils aren't sticking. If you do a big batch you can portion some up to go in the freezer.

 

[iona]

Packs of pre-chopped veg cost more but they aren't all that expensive per portion if you use them to cook big batches of stuff like soup / chilli / curry, bulked out with cheap tinned tomatoes and pulses. Slow cookers are great for this (can often find them on freecycle etc if you don't have one) but you can also chuck stuff on the hob on a low heat and just get up to give it a stir occasionally rather than needing to stand over it. I don't have any recommendations, sorry, but there's probably vegan slow cooker recipe books that would have lots of suggestions that fit your needs.

 

[baldrick]

You can also buy frozen ginger and garlic from big supermarkets - they come in bags like frozen ice cubes. Really helps reduce waste and faff imo.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

Now I don't normally like Jamie Oliver but I saw him make a cauliflower thing the other day that looked really quite wonderful and not much effort at all.

Jamie Oliver's Greek-inspired Cauliflower Stew with Olives, Zingy Lemon, Fresh Tomatoes, New Potatoes and Peas

Jamie Oliver's Greek-inspired Cauliflower Stew with Olives, Zingy Lemon, Fresh Tomatoes, New Potatoes and Peas is a comforting vegan stew.

thehappyfoodie.co.uk

 

[JimW]

I do a soup noodles which varies a bit but one spring onion, salt and bit of flax or sesame oil for base, could add a stock cube, then diced tomato, noodles in, done in two mins, diced white tofu and something leafy like pak choi just long enough to blanch. Splash of sichuan pepper if you have it.

 

[Epona]

Also story's traybake suggestion is an excellent one, I've recently discovered the wonders of the traybake myself, an absolute boon when I am knackered or cba and extremely tasty too. Roasted veggies in some olive oil with some dried oregano/thyme are lovely and you can chuck in some nuts towards the end for protein in a vegan version, I've done one with cashews at some point and it was lovely but just chuck some in with only a few minutes of cooking time to go, other nuts would also work.

I tend towards a traybake when I want something super easy - you could again do a big batch of roasted veggies and portion them up for the freezer for even quicker meals in future (can also use with a tin of chopped tomatoes and some herbs or spices for a basic hearty roast veggie pasta sauce or a quick curry.)

 

[SpookyFrank]

Tinned green lentils are great for quick pasta sauces etc. No pre cooking required.

Fry a chopped onion and a grated carrot for a few minutes with a bit of salt, add a carton of passata and a tin of lentils, simmer for a few more minutes. Takes about as long as pasta takes to boil.

 

[cesare]

Merchant gourmet ready to eat puy lentils are about £2 for a sachet. No cooking or prep. Frozen sliced onions, tin of red kidney beans, couple of teaspoons of jarred minced garlic. Reconstituted dried mushrooms. Tin of chopped tomatoes. Low effort chilli non carne and you can have with microwave rice. It's not the cheapest but it's very low effort and tasty.

Edit: frozen mushrooms are good too. Some of the supermarkets are doing good deals on frozen veg inuding mushrooms arm

 

[SpookyFrank]

Vegan food keeps better than non vegan food so it's easy to make three days' dinners all at once.

 

[Epona]

Good call on tinned green lentils, they only need to be heated through.

 

[furluxor]

Rosie Elliot's Learning to Cook Vegetarian taught me to cook and I still use it a lot as most recipes are vegan or can be made vegan. The recipes are simple yet decent. I do not recommend her more recent vegan book, I bought that and it's very much about making cat vomit and 'fakeaways' and a lot of frustration after two hours of faffing.

Otherwise, here are some ideas:
Soup - I find this leek and pea soup wholesome. If cooking for one, I use less than half of the peas. Just sub veg stock and omit the prosciutto (you can try to replace the smokiness with smoked paprika or smoked water or whatever but it's equally good without). Alcohol is also optional but if you have something knocking about anything dry works - vermouth, wine, sherry, etc. Even easier: gazpacho made with tinned tomatoes.
Pasta - basic pasta al pomodoro. I use half the oil and don't blend. If you need protein, use lentil pasta or chuck some lentils in the sauce or top with falafel balls or similar.
Even easier: pasta with garlic and chilli fried in olive oil, although you won't get much nutrition out of that.

In terms of ingredients, some things that make life easier are:

• frozen ginger and garlic mush (as mentioned by baldrick )
• dried onion granules (they're ok, no additives)
• the kind of veg stock that doesn't need dissolving separately and can be just added to the pot (I use 9meals but there are cheaper options, albeit with palm oil)
• if you're really struggling, even tinned potatoes are ok for roasting etc.
• it's near impossible to make a bad sauce for any veg out of a fried onion and some peanut butter;
• I also get tired easily when cooking and I find that keeping some snackery around for helps (just knowing I can stop and have a break if I need to); Finn Crisp wholemeal sourdough crispbreads are bomb at £1.20, at least to me.

 

[cesare]

I'd buy as much decent oil as possible now because I think the price is going to skyrocket.

Nice big jacket potatoes on the horizon if they've survived the drought. Scoop out, add some oil and roasted/traybake veggies and put back in oven with some vegan grated cheese until toasty.

 

[JimW]

Would you count savoury porridges as weird? Got a slow cooker with a timer and can set that to do a three bean porridge or millet gruel for breakfast and have that with pickles or fermented tofu for spice. Sets you right up, but maybe acquired taste!

 

[cesare]

Many people won't be able to afford utility bills in the future - canned and dried might be better than frozen.

 

[Epona]

Many people won't be able to afford utility bills in the future - canned and dried might be better than frozen.

True, if you're going to do away with a freezer entirely to save money on the leccy bill - but if you're still going to run one, better to have it full.
I think the freezer would be the last thing I'd consider not running

 

[cesare]

True, if you're going to do away with a freezer entirely to save money on the leccy bill - but if you're still going to run one, better to have it full.
I think the freezer would be the last thing I'd consider not running

Oh yeah for sure, if you have one run it full!

 

[RubyToogood]

Hm, maybe some of Anna Jones's more simple recipes. She always tells you how to veganise them.

 

[BristolEcho]

Partner has ME so I can understand how hard it.

We use the slow cooker a lot as you don't have to worry about standing over it. Also a big shout out to the people who mentioned frozen onion, ginger and garlic etc. Also things like sweet potato.

We have our own recipes we have picked up and adjusted. African Peanut Stew which I can send you the recipe for and also a couple of Currys that can be done in the slow cooker They make quite a few meals so ideal for when you're not doing so good.

 

[QueenOfGoths]

These are some I've tried and enjoyed. One does have cashew nuts but not soaked or blended

Chilli-spiked greens in coconut milk recipe

A creamy vegan traybake of summer vegetables with a spicy and zingy kick, perfect with noodles or rice.

www.bbc.co.uk

Chickpeas with harissa and yoghurt recipe *substituting diary free yoghurt

Chickpea curry recipe

Just five ingredients and one of them’s rice! Have this easy vegan chickpea curry on the table in less than 10 minutes.

www.bbc.co.uk

Spicy tofu and edamame beans recipe

A great veggie way to load up on calcium and protein, this spicy stir-fry is ready in minutes. Each serving provides 188kcal, 10.5g protein, 6g carbohydrate (of which 4g sugars) 13g fat (of which 2.5g saturates), 1g fibre and 1.9g salt.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Sue]

Tbh, I'd look for a student vegan cookbook.(right time of the year for it too). They've generally got cheap and easy recipes which sounds like the kind of thing you're looking for.

 

[moose]

Have you got a Kindle, Danny? This is a book about veganising you favourite Italian food. The walnut lasagne gets rave reviews from my mates.
Anna Jones has some nice vegan dishes, some of which are one-pot.

 

[Skim]

I love making this aubergine/chickpea/harissa bake:

Aubergine, tomato and chickpea traybake

Food writer Elly Pear's aubergine, tomato and chickpea traybake is one of her favourite recipes from her vegetarian cookbook Green.

www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk

The prep’s really easy, with lots of opportunities for rest breaks while the traybake progresses. Not too much chopping. I don’t bother with the tahini at the end: just serve it up with toasted pitta and humous. Delish.

 

[WouldBe]

Know what you mean danny la rouge as I have CFS as well. I just use ready meals but not much use if you don't want highly processed foods.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Do you have a pressure cooker too danny la rouge? Some recipes in a book I've got more or less involve minimal faff - sometimes just chucking everything into it in one go, and letting it cook.