The @ecotrain vegan recipes on a budget challenge has inspired many new Hivers to share their awesome #plantbased recipes, and this week was very hard to select only a few to share with you all.
This is my (@justinparke) first curation post with the NaturalMedicine.io community, and I love being given the opportunity to sift through Hive's delicious vegan creations to find some awesome gems that stand out from the rest.
A discussion with @riverflows reminded me of a relatively new tag we are trying to curate and encourage, the #plantbased tag. #vegan and #vegetarian are words that unfortunately come with stigma, and plant-based is quickly becoming a hot word on the internet, so I think it's important we change with the times and bring this tag into the fold too.
I have already forgotten to use the #plantbased tag in a few of my more recent recipes, so I am making a note to self to make more use of this. Speaking of plant-based recipes, if you keep reading you'll find all the awesome plant-based recipes I curated this week.
A side note - you may have noticed that we've moved from @lotusshares to @naturalmedicine, and Plant Based will be replacing Earth Healing. Earth healing topics will still be supported, of course, so keep using the tags #ecotrain and #naturalmedicine for any content that nourishes and supports our beautiful planet!
How to Be Curated by PLANT BASED
Use the tags #naturalmedicine #vegan or #plantbased
WE don't mind what community you post in - although we prefer you post in the Ecotrain or Natural Medicine communities!
Ensure your recipes are plant based - although we don't preach any diets, this curation would like to focus on plants rather than dairy or meat additions to recipes.
Use clear, well focussed photographs - and ORIGINAL content!
🌽 MANY USES OF CORN 🌽
The winner of this week's beneficiary has shown us how to prepare three different delicious Venezuelan corn-based recipes. Corn buns, corn pancakes, and arepas are all on the menu in this post. Being from Indiana, I'm no stranger to corn, and was even raised on a popcorn farm, but we didn't eat corn like this.
One thing is for sure, I wouldn't have been so eager to eat corn-on-the-cob everyday had I known about all these awesome corn dishes that @larka prepared for us. There are few ingredients in all the recipes, but it comes down to technique, and this Venezuelan Hiver obviously has the technique down.
🚫 NO IT'S NOT DAIRY 🐄
Any of you plant-based food lovers unfamiliar with @amy-goodrich need to give her a follow, as she is always whipping up some very creative recipes with easy-to-follow instructions and beautiful photos.
Nutritional yeast and cashews are expected ingredients in almost any vegan cheese recipe,but depending on where you are in the world, nutritional yeast and cashews may be impossible to get or very expensive, but one thing this vegan cheese doesn't need is cashews.
This week she has shared her grateable vegan cheddar cheese recipe, perfect for use in many western-style recipes, and the secret ingredient is sweet potato, somewhat taking the place of cashews in the this recipe, and giving this cheddar the an awesome cheesy color.
🍅 FRESH IS THE BEST 🥗
The EcoTrain "Simple Vegan Cooking On A Budget Month!" has spurred a lot of awesome and affordable #plantbased recipe posts. @steemflow submitted this lovely raw salad made from sprouted chickpeas and mung beans, and also provided us with an awesome tutorial.
@steemflow mentioned this is intended as a breakfast dish, and I don't think that is weird at all. I always crave protein in the morning, and don't feel energized unless I get a good amount of it. A bowl of oats or muesli just doesn't cut it for me, and this awesome protein-packed Indian style salad is something I intend to make very soon.
🕵️ TINY GEMS 💎
@bos-giok introduced us to the "forest rambutan," something I know very well from my 10 years in Cambodia. Strangely enough the Cambodian name for this fruit also translates to forest rambutan.
Until this post, I wasn't sure if this plant was common in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, but now I know it's common in Indonesia, and we recently saw a plant here in Suriname for the first time. I suspect the Javanese brought it to Suriname with them.
This plant looks very intimidating from the outside, with its spiky and hairy green protective shell, but after peeling through a few layers, the sweet and sour seeds are revealed, and they are incredibly delicious, although extremely tiny.
🤔 Do You Know Sorghum?
If you are remotely active in the Natural Medicine Community, you surely know @plantstoplanks, but do you know what sorghum is? I am from the USA, and think of sorghum as a southern thing, but many Americans don't even know what it is, and would often confuse the sorghum plant for corn from a distance.
I knew of sorghum syrup as a molasses substitute when I was very young, but don't ever remember eating it in any other way. This salad contains the cooked sorghum grain, something I didn't even know was commonly sold or consumed.
Thanks @plantstoplanks for turning me on to this, although I won't be finding any sorghum in Suriname anytime soon. Also, she prepared some overnight-oat jars with pureed squash, and made an awesome looking loaf of pumpkin bread, so awesome I could smell it through the screen.
🧁 SAVE ROOM FOR DESSERT 🧁
After all this delicious plant-based food, I did save room for dessert, and these crunchy banana-cocoa muffins will surely please the tastebuds. Anything with cocoa powder and bananas already has my attention anyways.
I haven't had a vegan muffin or cupcake in so many years that I can't even remember. These delicious little treats had me licking my lips as I scrolled down through the post revealing more and more pictures.
The biggest hurdle for my baking adventures is that I have never had an oven in any placed I've ever lived, but I do now in Suriname, so perhaps it's time to try and bake these muffins sometime soon.
We hope you get involved with posting lots of yummy #plantbased #vegan #naturalmedicine #ecotrain recipes! Both communities are now also supported by OCD, so good quality posts might also get a little bit of extra love. Stay healthy, stay safe, and stay happy!
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Well done Justin, I love this curation. It's great to see so much more plantbased food being promoted xx I really need to start sharing my recipes, but I always remember after I have already cooked them.
!ENGAGE 25
Me too - I get too hungry to take photos, then I'm like - du'oh!
ENGAGEtokens.Give thanks @trucklife-family.
I'm the same way with recipes, plus I usually make the evening meals, when lighting for good photos isn't as abundant. Also, in the evening, I'm usually exhausted from a day's work, and can't be bothered to bring a camera into the kitchen.
Well, I guess I need to motivate at as well and make some afternoon meals next week, cause I have plenty to share.
great curation justin.. good to see us all band together and share these amazing posts.. and inspire others..
!ENGAGE 25
ENGAGEtokens.Give thanks @ecotrain, I hope to settle into my new role very quickly.
Thanks for the mention! Happy to see so much attention going towards a whole food plant-based diet! Truly the best!
Thanks @amy-goodrich, don't forget we're curating the #plantbased tag now too.
!ENGAGE 15
ENGAGEtokens.Excellent healing! Although I am not vegan, I believe that day by day I will become one, as a result of a process of internal growth. Very good posts. Very good recipes. Many blessings to all.
It doesn't have to be a fast switch, and going vegan doesn't even have to be a 100% switch. Start small with a few extra #plantbased meals per week, and see how you feel. Switching diets can sometimes have some extreme effects on people, sometimes negative and sometimes positive.
!ENGAGE 25
Thanks for the recommendation. In fact, I live in a livestock area and meat is a relatively affordable product (although nothing is affordable in Venezuela), however, days go by and I don't eat it because it doesn't really provoke me. I prefer to eat grains and legumes.
ENGAGEtokens.This initiative is perfect for countries with food shortages, like mine (Venezuela). You can make the most of ingredient limits to create healthy food. Thank you for this article.
Thank you very much @pavanjr.
Yes, depending on your country, a vegan meal can be much more expensive to prepare than a meat or dairy-based dish. We are next door to you here in Suriname, and we have to be careful not to make too many salads, as they super expensive compared to making a bean-based meal, which is also more filling.
I do miss salads so much, hopefully one day we are able to have some land to farm or can get in a better economic situation. Things got pretty bad here and many of the Venezuelans left for Guyana or went back home. The economy has failed, and we do a lot of foraging.
One thing you may be able to use there is cassava leaves, they are full of protein, and it seems South Americans don't make use of them very often. It's become a staple of our pandemic diet, and we can always get them for free.
!ENGAGE 25
The recipe you say with the cassava leaf, how is it prepared? do you have any tips? I haven't heard about it and I'm curious.
Below is a recipe I have shared previously. It is important to pick the young cassava leaves. They are a bit poisonous, so you must boil them and throw away the water before you can use them.
ENGAGEtokens.Here it is easier to get beans or grains, few vegetables but prices are very high. I live on a coast, Cumaná, and we are saved by fish, especially sardines. Red meat and chicken is a luxury, it is what has been most scarce. Unfortunately the crisis made us adapt with imported food, instead of producing. But already part of the people who have the initiative to grow their own food, although we are a very low percentage that do this task.
Survival is key indeed. We have learned many Surinamers don't eat pumpkin flowers, so that is another food we are able to get for free locally, also noni fruit and leaves too.
This is an EXCELLENT curation @justinparke and exactly why I thought youd be wonderful at it. Congratulations @larka for being set as part beneficiary. We hope it inspired you to create more plant based goodness!!!
Thank you @riverflows. I was so nervous putting this together, your kind words have now put me at ease.
These are good posts!
Thanks @sreypov, you're not a bad chef yourself.
!ENGAGE 5
ENGAGEtokens.Delicious food