Plant Bae’s Kitchen

My name is Brandy. I grew up in a small town in Ohio surrounded by cornfields and dairy farms where veganism was not very prevalent. When I was 18 years old, I was diagnosed with disorders of the heart which lead to being prescribed pharmaceuticals to keep it at bay.

I made a solo move to Florida in 2017, I was 24. I felt a strong pull to leave all that I had know to begin a new life for myself. Later that year, I made the conscious choice to shift to a vegan lifestyle - not only for the animals but for my health. During that time, I stopped taking all of my medication (I recommend if you do the same thing to consult with your physician). Within a short time of choosing the vegan lifestyle, I had noticed an increase in energy, sharper mind, and no more episodes of syncope being caused by the heart condition I was diagnosed with. My mind, my compassion, and my physical body had changed for the better.

The vegan world has evolved so much since then in such a short amount of time. I was living in St. Augustine at the time and there was only 1 fully vegan restaurant in the entire city. This led to having to teach myself how to not only cook but cook without using all of the ingredients that I spent 24 years of my life consuming.

Over the years, I’ve found a passion in cooking and creating delicious meals has become therapy to me from learning how to make vegan chz to homemade oat milk to full entrees and desserts. Organically, I am a nurturer (hence my career as a registered nurse) so it brings me joy to share recipes and to cook for the people I care about. I’ve decided to share my recipes on a larger platform for those who are new to veganism and for those who are just looking for a tasty meal to create. Thank you all ♥️

Keep up with me on Instagram!

Vegan Charcuterie

Life is gouda - plant based of course!

One thing I love about a plant based charcuterie board is that you can customize it to be whatever you’d like! One of my go-to vegan chz brands are Miyokos Creamery and a local fav - Catalyst Creamery. Both of these brands have so many different amazing flavors to choose from. A couple of my favs is the winter truffle chz wheel from Miyokos as well as the truffle & ash from Catalyst. I recommend experimenting with them both (I’ll link them) and as always I encourage you to support your local vegan makers in your area if that’s an option for you.

I love to add berries, olives, nuts, and crackers to satisfy the pallet with a variety of sweet and sour. Another go-to addition I include is hummus that I make homemade! It is so easy and quick.

•Classic Hummus
•15 oz chickpeas
•2-4 garlic cloves
•1/3 cup of tahini
•2 tsp lemon juice
•1/2 tsp cumin
•2 tbsp EVOO
•2 tsp water (I use 9.5 pH Kangen water)
•Salt to taste
Side note: if you want to create a dessert hummus, add cacao or PB and remove the cumin!

Throw all of the ingredients in a high powered mixer - I use a Vitamix - and blend until smooth. I usually put it in a recycled glass jar so it’s easily ready to be stored in the refrigerator and drizzle more EVOO over top. Easy right?!

I wanted to share a website with you that I have found to be a huge help - I am not sponsored - I just have found it to be a great resource for those who like to indulge in vegan wine every now and again. We love to drink Moscato D’asti while snacking on a charcuterie or with a sweet treat. I use Barnivore.com to ensure that the wine I am purchasing is vegan friendly. Tintero is a crowd fav for us!

Catalyst Creamery
Miyoko’s creamery
Barnivore

Miscellaneous staples

Pickled Onions

•1 red onion sliced
•1 cup apple cider vinegar
•1 cup 9.5 pH Kangen water
•1/2 tsp sugar of your choice (optional)
•2 garlic cloves minced
•1/2 tsp whole coriander
•2 tbsp salt
•2 bay leaves
•2 tsp pepper

Mix all of the ingredients in a jar - cover & give it a little shake. Store it in the refrigerator, the longer it sits the more flavorful it gets! I use my juice over and over until there’s not enough left in the jar to cover all of the sliced onions.

You can add pickled onions to salads, avocado toast, sandwich’s, or however you wish to!

Quick Eats

Mushroom & hummus naan

3 things that I love all placed in one recipe 😍
1. Mushrooms, 2. Hummus, & 3. Naan!

I was inspired to recreate this at home from a local restaurant because I enjoyed it so much.

•16 oz chanterelle mushrooms (more or less depending on how much you like them)
•PB hummus spread (see charcuterie post for the hummus recipe, I add about 1-2 tbsp of PB to that)
•1 tsp pepper
•Vegan naan flatbread - I found at Costco, I haven’t perfected a from scratch naan yet!
•drizzle sweet syrup of your choice -maple syrup, agave syrup, and date syrup are great options

First and foremost, if you do not have an air fryer then invest in one ASAP! It’s a game changer and time saver. Place the naan in your preheated air fryer (or oven) at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. I like mine to be a little crispy but not too much.

In the meantime, start sautéing your Chanterelles on the stove over medium/high heat with your pepper. I try to avoid using oils if necessary, when cooking with mushrooms they kind of release their own juices so using oil really isn’t necessary unless you’d like to! Cook until the juices have evaporated.

After making your PB hummus, spread as little or as much as you’d like on the naan and cover with the peppered Chanterelle mushrooms.

Drizzle with syrup of your choice and it’s ready to be enjoyed!

Desserts

Paying homage to my partner’s grandmother, Patty.

My life partner is Dorian and throughout the years, his grandparents have supported us by sending vegan recipe books, cooking/kitchen gadgets, and have gone out of their way to accommodate our lifestyle by preparing vegan meals for us while visiting Pennsylvania. Patty was a restaurant owner and sous chef. She has sent us some really amazing recipes that I plan on sharing on this platform later.

One of my favorite desserts to make is what we call the “blueberry cobbler”. This recipe was created by Patty and the first time I tried it, I thought it was one of the tastiest desserts I’ve ever had. Sweet with a little bit of tang. I wanted to share this with you all because it’s so easy and pretty guilt free. Everyone I’ve made this for has loved it!

Blueberry mixture:
•24 oz fresh blueberries (frozen will work too)
•3 tbsp Maple syrup
•sprinkle of cinnamon

Fill an 8x11 dish halfway full of blueberries
Pour maple syrup over top to taste
Sprinkle with cinnamon

Dough:
•3/4 cup GF all purpose flour (regular works too)
•1/4 cup coconut flour
•1 tbsp baking powder
•1 tbsp potato starch
•1 tsp coconut sugar
•1/4 tsp salt
•1/4 cup of vegan butter of your choice
•1 cup of coconut milk

Mix all of the dough ingredients until slightly chunky and then blend with 1 cup of coconut milk

This will create a yummy dough that you will drop by tablespoon evenly over top of the blueberry mixture

Add the blueberry cobbler to a preheated oven at 450 degrees for 5-10 minutes

Thank you so much Patty & Hannes for always being so kind and supportive, it is appreciated beyond words and we love you ♥️

Anti-inflammatory Juice

Let food be thy medicine & medicine be thy food - Hippocrates

It’s true, food is medicine. Oranges encourage a healthy immune system due to being rich in vitamin C - lemons too! Vitamin C reduces chronic inflammation in the body. Oranges & lemons are high in antioxidants and are alkalizing fruits. When your body is in an alkaline state, no disease can exist in it (there are studies to support this). I met a very kind woman who owned a restaurant in St. Petersburg, FL that cured her breast cancer by going alkaline vegan. No other treatments, just keeping her body in an alkaline state. I think that’s pretty amazing what our food can do for our health. Curcumin is the component in turmeric that contains anti-flammatory properties. Research has shown that curcumin may help prevent the formation of tumors as well as slow the spread of cancerous cells. Ginger has active compounds that are antioxidants and anti-microbial. Personally, I have used ginger in tea to decrease nausea too!

There are so many other positive benefits that these ingredients possess but I wanted to focus on the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits. A quick life hack that I’ve learned is to be able to tell of a fruit is high in antioxidants or not, is to think about a banana or an apple. When you cut them and leave them out for 10 minutes, you’ll start to see oxidation or in layman’s terms, browning. If you cut open a lemon or an orange, you can leave it out for extended periods of time and you will see no change. This is why we use juice from a lemon over sliced apple pieces to prevent the oxidation when making a fresh salad with apples or an apple pie - because let’s be real, brown apples aren’t pretty.

Black pepper should be used every time you’re consuming turmeric because piperine which is a compound in pepper, enhances curcumin absorption and these two compounds combined together will increase their benefits.

One other KEY ingredient in this recipe and in majority of my recipes is Kangen water. 9.5 pH Kangen water is not just an alkalized water but possesses some very impressive benefits. I will be creating a post explaining this water in depth but for what’s relevant to this recipe is that 9.5 pH Kangen is REAL alkalized water by using electricity. It’s not the store bought bottled water that is “alkaline” because the company used sodium bicarbonate. Kangen water is highly anti-oxidative & have tons of testimonies of healing chronic diseases like dementia, colitis, arthritis, and more.

•1 cup 9.5 pH Kangen water
•2 fresh lemons, peeled & seeds removed
•5 fresh oranges, peeled
•1-2 inch piece of ginger, peeled
•2 inch piece of turmeric, peeled
•1 tsp of black pepper

Juice the lemons, oranges, ginger, and turmeric
Place in a jar or glass container of your choice
Add water & black pepper, mix your juice and enjoy the amazing anti-inflammatory benefits of our natural medicine

Vegan Desserts

Blueberry puff pastry

This quick & easy plant based dessert isn’t the healthiest, but I'm just trying to bake the world a better place 😜

Once in a while I love a good pastry, it’s not easy finding delicacies like this if you live in a city that’s not vegan friendly. That’s okay, I can give you the tools to be able to make it at home!

What you need:
•6 oz. fresh blueberries
•1 can of vegan friendly flaky biscuits
•8 oz. vegan plain cream cheese
•1/2 cup powdered sugar

Icing (optional):
•1/2 cup powdered sugar
•2 tbsp plant based milk

-Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
-Place your biscuits on a cookie sheet, I take a small round jar & press an indentation in the center of the biscuit for the cream cheese and blueberries to sit.
-Begin mixing the softened cream cheese and powdered sugar together to prepare to place in the center of the biscuit
-Bake the biscuits for about 5-7 minutes, remove from the oven (you’re going to see that the biscuits will start to expand, once again you will press the jar in the middle of the biscuit again - it has more foundation & form doing it this way)
-Before placing back into the oven, fill the indentation with about 1 tbsp of cream cheese and then top it with blueberries
-Place pastries back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes until golden brown

-For the optional icing topping: mix the plant based milk and powdered sugar in a small bowl. One the pastries are finished baking, allow them to cool down and drizzle the icing over top

Enjoy!

Quick Eats

Spring rolls with Thai Peanut sauce

One thing I’ve learned is that if you are in an area that have little to no vegan options, go to a Thai restaurant and I can almost always bet that they will have an option for you. I love to get a Thai peanut or cashew nut dish when I go to Thai restaurants, but I never forget to order Spring Rolls as an appetizer. They are light, fresh, and delicious. Here is a rendition of my own version of spring rolls for you to try!

Ingredients:
•6 sheets rice paper
•2 oz. vermicelli noodles
•1 cup red cabbage, chopped
•1 large carrot, shredded
•1 cup butter lettuce, chopped
•2 garlic cloves, minced
•1/4 cup green onions, chopped
•1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
•1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, whole
•2 tbsp maple syrup or your sweetener of choice
•2 tbsp amino acids
•1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
•2 tbsp water (I use 9.5 pH Kangen)
•3 tsp sesame oil
•2 tbsp rice vinegar
•pinch of salt to taste

-Bring a pot of water to boil, stir in vermicelli noodles and reduce heat to a simmer for 5 minutes or until noodles are al dente (may need to follow instructions on the box). Once finished, stir in a splash of water and sesame oil and set to the side.
-Set up all of your spring roll fillings in an area that is easily accessible (noodles, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, green onions, cilantro, & mint leaves).
-Fill a shallow pan with about 1-2 inches of water. Place 1 rice paper in the water for about 15-20 seconds or until the paper is easily foldable. Then place on a clean napkin or tea towel to get ready to fill.
-Lay down a thin line of butter lettuce, noodles, carrots, cabbage, and cover with herbs. Remember not to over fill & to leave a 1 inch radius around the filling because you’ll need that space for folding.
-Roll up the lower edge (like a burrito) so that the filling is secure then fold over the short sides, and then the last side to roll it up. I splash a little bit of water to secure the roll from opening up and falling apart. & then repeat with your next roll!

*Note - you can add other items to the spring roll & be creative with it if you’d like!

Thai peanut sauce:
-Mix the peanut butter, amino acids, rice vinegar, maple syrup, sesame oil, & garlic. Stir in about 2 tbsp of water to make sure the sauce is thin enough to be easily dip-able.

*If you are allergic to peanuts you can always substitute with a different nut butter. There are also options on the market that are nut free!

Serve spring rolls with Thai peanut sauce on the side!

Soup

Roasted Tomato & Basil soup

Despite what people who live up North think, it DOES get cold in Florida! Although I’d settle for a Florida winter day than any cold and gloomy day up north. This from-scratch hearty soup is sure to give you a homey feel.

Ingredients:
•8 fresh Roma tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
•2 tbsp EVOO
•4 garlic cloves, minced
•14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
•Dash of salt & pepper to taste
•2 tsp garlic salt
•2 tbsp vegan butter
•1 cup fresh basil, chopped
•2.5 cups sweet onions, chopped
•1/2 cup all purpose flour
•2 tbsp coconut sugar
•1 cup plant based milk
•6 cups veggie broth

-Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
-Coat the fresh sliced tomatoes with oil, salt, pepper, & garlic. Place on baking sheet to roast for 25-30 minutes. Once removed from oven, let cool before removing skin
-Purée roasted tomatoes with canned diced tomatoes and basil in a food processor for a few seconds
-In a large pot, sautéed chopped onion with vegan butter for 5 minutes on medium heat until translucent
-Stir tomato purée, flour, garlic salt, veggie broth, plant based milk, and coconut sugar in with the sautéed onions and cook in pot in medium high heat for 15-20 minutes until cooked thoroughly
*May garnish with more fresh basil & can be enjoyed with a vegan grilled cheese sandwich 😚

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