Top 5 Vegan Starter Recipes (that'll leave you full and satisfied)

Salad, not included!

Today, I had a friend ask me for my top 5 vegan recipes.  That question is harder than it looks 

because the answer hinges on who is asking and what they hope to discover. 

If you are a newbie vegan, then it means I have to give my favorites at all 3 meal times so you have a full days worth of food.  If you are a vegetarian looking to cut out cheese and eggs, then I want to include things with cashew cream or flax eggs to make it seem like nothing is missing.  If you are a seasoned vegan looking for meat 

substitutes to grill, then I can get into the nitty gritty of seitan or veggie burgers.  The degree of kitchen skill also plays a role too, as you don’t want to scare anyone off from trying a plant-based diet with complex techniques or obscure ingredients.

My friend today was looking for  my favorite vegan starter recipes.  I thought about this long and 

Stir Fry, not included!

hard and have come up with a list, including 2 breakfasts, a sandwich, a soup and main dish as my top 5.  (Honestly, spinach chickpea salad and stir-fry are my go to dishes for lunch and dinner respectively, but since I make it different every time and there is no wrong way to do it, I didn’t include these in the top 5).  Enjoy!  

THE TOP 5

1.    Kale Strawberry Banana Smoothie
2.    Loaded Oatmeal
3.    Spinach Mushroom Hummus Panini
4.    Lentil Soup (with Field Roast)
5.    Black Bean Brown Rice Bowl

Recipes after the jump...

VB (Veggie Burger) Sneak: Lentil-Mushroom Burgers with Peanut Butter Relish Slaw, Roasted Garlic Aioli, and Whiskey BBQ

Week 6: Browns vs. Bengals

Veggie Burger Cook Off, 2012 edition (Note: There were two other entries into this year's cook off and I will have one of the other recipes posted later this week).

I wouldn't sneak a veggie burger or any vegan dish on anyone.  But I think this recipe is so good that meat eaters will have no idea they are eating a burger made entirely of whole, plant-based foods.  It comes from Scott Jurek, a vegan ultramarthoner and author of Eat & Run.  He is role model for all vegan (and non-vegan) athletes who look for an extra edge by eating a plant-based diet.

The most common question I get is "what holds this together?" Scott's recipe holds up well on the grill, which is key for any homemade veggie burger recipe.  A lot of cooking is trial and error.  Just like athletic events or anything challenging in life, if you fail, dust yourself off and try again.  The Browns winning today after dropping 11 in a row is a testament to that.  Making a veggie burger is similar, and you might fail the first couple of times.  However, if you follow the directions below, it will stick together very well on the grill.