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

[Kevbad the Bad]

One thing I have taken a liking to is vegetarian haggis. Cold weather food really. lovely with Marmite gravy. Not sure if it's vegan.

 

[danny la rouge]

Nothing Scottish then?

It’s actually worth a thread. It’s not easy to find the grocery items I grew up with. Even tattie scones are often called “Irish potato cakes” or similar in supermarkets. My dad (who is staying with us) wanted some typical Scottish bakery products yesterday, but there’s no traditional bakery nearby. There’s Gregg’s, and a Gregg’s Outlet (near sell by products). But it doesn’t sell bread.

You can find artisan bakers on Great Western Road if you want sourdough rye bread for a week’s wage, though.

 

[pug]

It might be worth looking at your kitchen arrangements and the equipment to see if theres some changes that could make things easier. Maybe a smaller lighter knife or new sharp peeler that sort of thing.

I think that herbs can be useful if you can get a supply, sage is full of flavour, parsley minerals, mints can be easy to keep and good for loads of stuff. The Vietnamese, Chinese or other shops might have some good fresh herbs in decent sized bundles.

 

[A380]

I live in Glasgow, so everything. Near me there are supermarkets, grocers and greengrocers of the following varieties: Chinese, Afro-Caribbean, African, South Asian, Vietnamese, and more….

And all deep fried…

 

[danny la rouge]

And all deep fried…

If you can’t fry it, don’t buy it.

 

[8ball]

I do sometimes wonder what it is about the phrase "vegan recipes" that makes some people want to say "bacon". But I suppose that's just one of the mysteries of life.

I think it’s partly bumholery and partly because a lot of vegan recipes look to meat eaters like they’d be lovely with a wee bit of bacon in there.

Eg. a lentil soup is liable to make meat eaters think of lentil and bacon soup, and many saladdy things seem to scream out for a sprinkling of diced crispy bacon.

 

[danny la rouge]

I think it’s partly bumholery and partly because a lot of vegan recipes look to meat eaters like they’d be lovely with a wee bit of bacon in there.

Eg. a lentil soup is liable to make meat eaters think of lentil and bacon soup, and many saladdy things seem to scream out for a sprinkling of diced crispy bacon.

I grew up with home made lentil soup. Never heard of adding bacon until seeing tins in recent times.

 

[l'Otters]

New experiment for me: just made some soup with a kilo of frozen mixed veg and a block of silken tofu. Never thought of it before but the silken tofu blended and thinned down a bit makes creamy vegetable soup.

Roughly, that recipe was:
One onion chopped small
3 cloves garlic chopped small
Some olive oil
A stock cube
Bag of frozen peas carrots cauliflower & broccoli
About 4tbsp miso
600g pack of silken tofu
2tbsp cider vinegar

Fry the onion til it’s translucent
Add the garlic fry for a couple of minutes
Add the stock cube
Add the vegetables and cover with water
Let it come to the boil and cook a couple of minutes / until the vegetables are done
Meanwhile:
Drain the tofu
Put it in a bowl, add vinegar, dash of olive oil, the miso, maybe some extra seasoning
Blend that with a stick blender
When the soup is cooked:
Blend it a bit then stir in the tofu mix.

Obviously fresh vegetables would be better, but this was quick and low labour intensity after a long day. So I thought it might be good for this thread

 

[RubyToogood]

I live in Glasgow, so everything. Near me there are supermarkets, grocers and greengrocers of the following varieties: Chinese, Afro-Caribbean, African, South Asian, Vietnamese, and more.

No, miso isn’t weird.

Chinese supermarket is a good source of vegetable dumplings to put in your miso soup along with some greens. That's my ultimate quick dinner. Boil a saucepan with garlic, ginger and wakame if available, maybe a dried mushroom or two, chuck in dumplings and veg, 5 mins, stir in miso at the end.

 

[spanglechick]

As someone with another chronic illness that leaves me much less able to stand in the kitchen doing stuff, I found the purchase of a high step stool transformative. I can pull it up to the sink, or the counter/hob, and actually do stuff for a good ten minutes or so.

I have an old school 1960s one with the fold out steps a bit like this one:



So it doubles as a height boost to actually get things down from high shelves and cupboards.

 

[Epona]

As someone with another chronic illness that leaves me much less able to stand in the kitchen doing stuff, I found the purchase of a high step stool transformative. I can pull it up to the sink, or the counter/hob, and actually do stuff for a good ten minutes or so.

I have an old school 1960s one with the fold out steps a bit like this one:

View attachment 340845

So it doubles as a height boost to actually get things down from high shelves and cupboards.

That's awesome, I have EDS and a bit of arthritis and on and off fatigue as a result - as much as I love cooking I have to take breaks, I need to look into getting something like that.

 

[moonsi til]

I grew up with home made lentil soup. Never heard of adding bacon until seeing tins in recent times.

I grew up in Glasgow & with homemade lentil soup & it often had ham hock. I became veggie aged 16 & had an almighty row with my sister when she tried to pass hers off as veggie.

My sis makes a veggie version now which I adore with plain bread. My own attempts have never quite been so good.

 

[danny la rouge]

I grew up in Glasgow & with homemade lentil soup & it often had ham hock. I became veggie aged 16 & had an almighty row with my sister when she tried to pass hers off as veggie.

My sis makes a veggie version now which I adore with plain bread. My own attempts have never quite been so good.

Ham stock was the norm as I grew up.

 

[Epona]

Ham stock was the norm as I grew up.

Yeah, ham stock or bits of ham hock also seem to end up in leek & potato sometimes, OH has to be on the lookout for that sort of thing.

And while pea & ham is a thing, sometimes bacon fat or ham is in soup that is just called "pea soup", chicken stock in various other soups too, so you have to be a bit careful with soups where you aren't sure of the ingredients.

 

[8ball]

I was trying to buy some chocolate or wine for a vegan friend the other day and even that is a bloody nightmare.

(which will be no news to vegans obv)

 

[moonsi til]

There are plenty of good vegan chocolates now & not at silly prices. Co-op are good & from B&M I got Cadbury plant salted almond big bar for 50p.

Sainsburys are good for vegan red wine.

 

[8ball]

There are plenty of good vegan chocolates now & not at silly prices. Co-op are good & from B&M I got Cadbury plant salted almond big bar for 50p.

Sainsburys are good for vegan red wine.

I was looking and looking on the Co-op shelves and couldn’t find anything suitable.
Managed to find some wine after poring over labels for a bit, though.

A clear check-mark on the front of the label would be handy, rather than “suitable for vegans” squirreled away amongst the small print.

 

[l'Otters]

Used to get a pocket sized book which listed all the products that were vegan. It got updated every 6 months. Products which aren’t marketed as specifically vegan change the ingredients around so eg after eights were vegan some years, not others. It had a section for wine. It’s probably an app by now, if it still exists.

 

[porp]

I am sorry to hear of the OP's condition and pray for ease.

Here is the healthiest, tasty vegan dish I make when I need easy and tasty.

The amount of chopping may be a deal breaker for you, but let's see.

Take one tin of broad beans that looks like this


Take a tin of chick peas. Warm both tins through on the stove. They are cooked anyway.

In a bowl, at a minimum
Diced half onion.
Chopped tomato
Chopped coriander or parsley depending on your preference.
Lemon juice.
Olive oil.
Salt and pepper.

Add anything else you fancy.

Stir warm beans into veg etc and serve warm. It's good warm or cold, keeps well and goes well with any carb you fancy. I love meat but this tickles my meat senses if you know what I mean.

 

[PaoloSanchez]

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.

If you have a slow cooker/instant pot type kitchen contraption, you may find some good ideas here...

40 Fantastic Vegan Instant Pot Recipes

40 fantastic vegan Instant Pot recipes, including Instant Pot recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, sides, dessert, and how-to guides.

rainbowplantlife.com

I don't really use recipes myself that much as I'm more of a "just wing it" type (when I do cook), however I do have an Instant Pot and find it very handy. I would also recommend a decent quality blender and food processor if you don't already have these.

I have Gaz Oakleys book, Plants Only Kitchen, which looks pretty decent and has a reasonable number of whole food "easy" and relatively healthy recipes covering the following...

Breakfast
Soups
Light bites
Perfect Pasta
Powerful Curries
Big Plates
Big Bakes
Burgers
Vegetables, Side Salads
Deserts.

and a handy recipe icon guide...



Hope this helps.