I have a sister who is vegetarian & a brother-in-law who's vegan. My go-to place for recipes when I need to cook for them is Post Punk Kitchen. They actually recommended the site to me. It's a cooking blog for (mostly) vegan recipes. So far all the recipes I've tried there have been good (even pleased my meat & potatoes DH).

Give it a look!

Here is a link that might be useful: Post Punk Kitchen

I eat vegan a lot. With shephard's pie, which is starchy as all get out, I'd do a big beautiful salad with sunflower seeds and pepitas for a topping. Maybe some little crusty rolls on the side with my tofu pesto as a spread. For dessert, pears belle helene! Or cranberry bars. Hummus and crackers as an appetizer, along with a dish of roasted marinated red peppers mixed with artichokes. Wine and spiced cider and a bowl of grapes.

Sorry, here's the recipe for tofu pate (not pesto, but that's kind of splitting hairs when its tofu, lol!). Great as a cracker or brushetta spread.

Tofu Pate - 8 servings
3 large cloves garlic, minced (I use the jarred roasted kind)
1/4 cup EVOO
12 oz. firm tofu, drained
1/2 tsp. salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup sliced kalamata olives
2 TBLSP chopped capers

Process in a food processor. Serve on a bed of lettuce with crackers.
Note: you can add some fresh or dried basil to this for the flavor if you like.

Sounds great! Thanks y'all! This should get her started.

If you start going through your cookbooks with a new eye, you will find lots of recipes appropriate for vegans and vegetarians. Many cookbooks even have a vegetarian section these days. Look at pasta dishes, soup/stew/chili recipes, pilaf, polenta, vegetable manicotti, vegetable calzone, vegetable curry with couscous, roasted harvest vegetables....

I'm serving this salad for Thanksgiving as a healthy change from traditional gooped-up sweet potato casserole. The spinach in the cold frame should be ready by then and the sweet potatoes were recently harvested. -Grainlady

Spinach, Sweet Potato & Shiitake Salad
(Source: Fight Back With Food - Reader's Digest)

1-pound sweet potatoes, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices
1/3 c. walnuts
1 T. plus 4 t. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, slivered
12 oz. fresh shitake mushrooms, stems discarded and caps thickly sliced
1/2 t. salt
12 cups spinach leaves
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
1 T. Dijon mustard

1. Preheat the oven to 400-degrees F. Place the sweet potatoes on a lightly oiled baking sheet, and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until tender. Toast the walnuts in a separate pan in the oven for 5-7 minutes, or until crisp. When cool enough to handle, coarsely chop the nuts.

2. In a large skillet, heat 1 T. of the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, and cook for 30-seconds, or until fragrant.

3. Add half the mushrooms, sprinkle them with 1/4 t. of the salt, and cook for 4 minutes, or until they begin to soften. Add the remaining mushrooms and 1/4 t. salt, and cook for 5 minutes, or until all the mushrooms are tender.

4. Place the spinach in a large bowl. Add the sweet potatoes and walnuts. Remove the mushrooms from the skillet with a slotted spoon, and add them to the bowl with the spinach.

5. Add the vinegar, mustard, and remaining 4 t. of oil to the skillet, and whisk over high heat until warm. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine. Yield: 4 servings.

NOTE: To save some time, instead of baking sliced sweet potatoes, you can microwave whole, unpeeled potatoes and then peel and slice them after cooking.

SPICY CORN CHOWDER
with Coconut and Lime
(revised from vegetarian cookbook)

1 qt vegetarian broth and 2 cups water
two 1-lb bags of frozen white corn, preferably C&W brand
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2/3 of a can of coconut milk, stirred well (freeze the remainder for other uses)
1/4 cup vegetarian oyster sauce, optional
1/4 tsp lemon pepper (if oyster sauce is not available, increase to 1/2 tsp and add 1/4 tsp honey)

- Hot sauce to taste (we use Busha Browne's Pukka hot sauce, but standard Tabasco sauce can be subbed)
- 1/4 cup lime juice (you may not need all of it; season to taste only)

1. Bring broth and water to a boil. Add the corn and red pepper flakes.

2. Cover and bring back to a boil, then simmer for 4 minutes. Uncover, turn off the heat and let cool to lukewarm.

3. Add all other ingredients, being careful to add the hot sauce to taste.

4. Puree in blender, and reheat to serve.

This makes 3 qts of soup: enough for 6 as a meal starter, or as a main course for 3-4.

Check out Chef Chloe's blog. She has a lot of yummy recipes that are all vegan. I've tried the pumpkin penne with sage and it was delicious. I have her cookbook so I'll look through it and see if I can find anything that would be good for the holidays.

I also second the Post Punk Kitchen. The forums are also really helpful. They have tons of cooking threads and ideas. I read there all the time.

One thing I would recommend is sticking to real plant-based foods. Things like vegan sour cream or vegan cream cheese aren't very tasty in my opinion!

Here is a link that might be useful: Chef Chloe's Recipes

Check for receipes from the 7th Day Adventist Church. Many of them have cookbooks with a excellent variety of meals, reclipes, including desserts and drinks.

A cow-orker of mine has told me several times of a vegan "macaroni and cheese" recipe that she makes, that she says is really good, and she is not even a vegetarian. She is out of the office for a couple of months on maternity leave, I'll try to contact her and get the recipe.

sounds good. These ideas are making me want to go vegan!

I don't dabble in vegan cooking as rule but decided to make this soup (more or less) when I discovered a sizable stash of mung beans in the pantry. I purchased them to sprout but my sprouting efforts were not particularly successful. Bulk bin dispensers being what they are, filling the bag quickly got away from me and I came home with a large bag of these little green bbs.

Curried Mung Bean Soup

1 medium onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 rib of celery, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 serrano, minced
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. coriander
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 cup dried mung beans
4 cups vegetable broth
salt to taste
1/4 tsp. garam masala
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1. In a thin laryer of water, saute the onion, celery, and carrot until they are just starting to get soft. Add in the garlic and serrano. If mixture starts to stick, add some more water.

2. Add in spices and the tomato paste. Stir constantly and let the spices cook for a few minutes. The vegetables in step #1 should be coated with the spice/tomato paste mixture.

3. Add in mung beans and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, cover, and lower to a simmer. Let cook for 45 min., or until mung beans are cooked.

4. I like my soups to be thick and blended, so I used an immersion blender to blend approximately half of the soup. If you don't have an immersion blender, just add half of the soup to a regular blender, blend, and then add it back to the pot. Feel free to skip this step, it's a texture-preference.

5. Taste the soup and add salt to taste. Add in lemon juice and garam masala.

MY CHANGES: I doubled the recipe. I added a small can of coconut milk, also a pantry find, and 3 teaspoons of curry powder. I added 2 pods of ground cardamom and 1/2 cup of chopped bell peppers. I reduced the serrano amount to a hint of serrano. A whole is too much heat for me. I didn't have vegetable broth and just used water. I used a small amount of olive oil to saute the vegetables.

I also soaked them in water overnight in the refrigerator before cooking them - a step not mentioned in the recipe.

I was pleased with the result. I definitely prefer mung beans to lentils.

Eileen

Here is a link that might be useful: Curried mung bean soup.

My favorite vegan recipes are those which are naturally vegan instead of those which try to immitate or approximate a non-vegan dish.

So off the top of my head, here are a few go-to vegan ideas of mine:
Guacamole
Hummus
Apple pie for dessert (make crust with crisco and no butter)

Also, did you know Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry is vegan? I just used it to make pinwheels stuffed with a jarred eggplant garlic spread I bought at Trader Joe's for a party honoring a vegan friend last weekend. E-Z and delicious.