Making your own recipes is a fun affordable way to use up leftover veggies, or what’s on sale at the farmers’ market. Base meals around cheap staples like pasta or rice (take your own container to the zero waste shop, but eat rice up quickly, as it’s a food poison hazard, if left too long). Eating plant-based recipes is good for animal welfare, the planet and your health. It’s also a good way to replace tasteless and expensive plastic-wrapped ready-meals from the supermarket.
Use palm-oil-free vegan butter. Keep these recipes away from pets due to toxic ingredients (garlic, onion, leeks, chives, mushrooms, grapes, nuts, avocado, dried fruits, nutmeg, fresh dough, green potatoes/onions, chocolate, caffeine, alcohol, jackfruit and xylitol). Homemade Taco Sauce (Crowded Kitchen) comes together in just 5 minutes.
Mexico and the rest of Latin America offers some of the most popular food on earth. Everyone loves a burrito or enchilada, and most are washed down with a chilled beer or margarita (no worm in the bottle of tequila, but watch out as its cousin mezcal may have one).
Avocados are used extensively and there is presently concerns over harvesting for both human welfare and bees (migratory bee-keeping). It’s best to sub out smashed peas instead (if you use them, choose ones from small organic farmers, for the best choice). See more on what’s the deal with avocados?
Plant-Based Latin American Recipes
Mexican Street Corn Salad (Crowded Kitchen) is the perfect summer side dish, ready in less than 30 minutes. A great topping for tacos, the perfect way to use fresh corn (keep away from pets, it obstructs the stomach).
- Instant Pot Mexican Rice & Beans (Rainbow Plant Life) is very cheap and simple to make, made in an Instant Pot.
- Tres Leches Cake (Addicted to Dates) is made by soaking a light fluffy sponge in sweet milk syrup, and topping with fresh berries and whipped vegan cream. Made with oat and coconut milk.
- Vegan Tres Leches Cake (Rainbow Nourishments) is a fluffy sponge soaked in three tyeps of plant milk, and topped with plant-based whipped cream.
- Vegan Churros (The Big Man’s World) are simple to make, with just a few ingredients. Churros are a bit like doughnuts, but with a cinnamon flavour, and served with chocolate sauce.
Plant-Based Latin Recipe Books
Mexican food is very popular, with lots of vegetables and Somerset’s Kinda Co Sour Cream & Chive Spread offers a plant-based alternative to serve alongside your enchiladas and Margaritas! It’s not true that tequila has a ‘worm in the bottle’, but its cousin mezcal could have, so avoid that. If you prefer a healthy local version, Bristol’s Mockingbird Spirit is England’s first non-alcoholic tequila, made from the best organic blue agave.
Provecho: 100 Vegan Mexican Recipes is by a Mexican American chef who became vegan while at college. He has developed versions of recipes passed down from his mother, aunts and grandma, with Salvadora and Colombian influences. Find recipes for slow-simmered soups and stews, empanadas, tamales, tacos and quesadillas, topped with salsa, salad and ceviche. Also find recipes for comforting horchata and spicy tamarind juice. There are also sweet recipes for flan, cakes and sweet empanadas.
La Vida Verde is a book by a Mexican-American caterer in California. Recipes include:
- Queso Fresco (Fresh Cheese)
- Tomatillo
- Handmade Tortillas
- Jackfruit Carnitas Tacos
- Tortilla Soup with Cream
- Mushrooms in Green Mole
Vegan Mexico is by Jason Wyrick, a Mexican-American chef who became the first vegan chef to teach at Cordon Bleu. With lots of food history, you’ll find recipes that capture the essence of:
- The moles of Oaxaca
- The Mayan legacy of the Yucatan
- The smoky chile flavours of Zacatecas
- The fruit-centric Southern regions
- The Spanish influence of Veracruz
- The street food of Mexico City
His other book Vegan Tacos includes recipes for:
- Tacos mole with seared zucchini, wilted chard & pepitas
- Tacos with pintos borrachos & vegan queso fresco
- Tacos dorados with plantains, black beans & roasted garlic
- Baja tacos with lobster mushrooms
- Breakfast tacos with rajas, mojo scramble & pintos
- Cinnamon tortilla tacos with spicy cajeta apples, pecans & agave crema
iSalud! Vegan Mexican Cookbook is by a Mexican chef who teaches people how to cook. Chef Eddie Garza combines his innovative cooking techniques with traditional Mexican staples to offer:
- Spicy Eggplant Barbacoa Tacos
- Jackfruit Guisado Tortas
- Oaxacan Style Mushroom Tamales
- Classic Chile Relleno
- Black Bean & Guacamole Sopes
- Chicken-style Enchiladas with Green Mole Sauce
- Rajas con Crema
- Horchata Mexicana
Plant-Powered Mexican offers over 70 recipes from Kate Ramos’ kitchen. The recipes include many of her family creations, plus her own including:
- Spicy Mexican Gazpacho with Chopped Cucumber Salad
- Cauliflower, Pepita & Rice Salad Lettuce Wraps
- Tomatillo Poke Bowl
- Marinated Vegetable Torta with Serrano-Lemon Aioli
- Spinach & Caramelized Onion Sopes
- Winter Vegetable Enmoladas with Queso Fresco
- Sweet Pea & Potato Empanadas
- Sangria Marinated Veggie Skewers
- Vegan Red Pozole with Mushrooms
- Black Bean & Swiss Chard Enchilada Casserole
