Quick (Vegan) Cooking Ideas

Many of us lead busy lives and don't have the time to cook intricate meals on a regular basis.  This can tempt many to get fast food or frozen dinners.  These are usually not exactly healthy, and devoid of many nutrients.  It's easy to cook healthy and cook quick meals when you're short on time... and especially easy to cook quickly when the meals are vegan.

Doing prep-work in advance saves a lot of time in the long run.  If you have some free time on Sunday, for example, cook a couple batches of rice or pasta, that can last you a few days.  When you bring home vegetables, wash and cut them all up, so they are ready to go when you start cooking.

The quickest cooking ingredients are onions, peppers, spinach, kale, zuccini, tomatoes, and seitan.  Longer cooking ingredients are tofu, broccoli, carrots, green beans, eggplant, squash, and  potatoes.  A tip for potatoes is to wash and cut them, then microwave them at about 2-3 minutes per potato.  This way, they will be cooked, and brown faster in the pan, or bake faster in the oven.

As far as meal ideas go, using the blender can provide added speediness to your cooking.  When making a salsa or a tomato-based sauce for pasta, roughly chopping the vegetables and then putting them in the food processor saves a great deal of time.  Smoothies can be very filling in the summer, and frozen fruit with a banana and a splash of soymilk or some soy ice cream is very refreshing.  Making a big batch to last throughout the day is handy, but squirt some lemon or lime juice in the concoction to avoid it turning a brownish or green color from oxidation of the fruit.  This also goes for pre-chopped fruits and vegetables: rubbing on a small amount of citrus juice is preventative.  Hummus also goes a long way, as a dip or a spread for sandwiches... just blend chick peas, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, and a blend of tumeric, cumin powder, salt, pepper, and some cayenne pepper.