Vegan pumpkin pie. I don't know the quantities because I'm bad at measurement; as a mathematician, it's all a matter of scale, innit? I mean 1tsp and 1T are the same thing, using Fermi Estimation techniques. Anyway. Get some pumpkin. The canned kind is fine, and easier. If you get an actual pumpkin and gut it and bake it and all, that works too and you have bigger bragging rights. Don't use 'pumpkin pie filling' but the straight-up pumpkin if you go the canned route. Mix the pumpkin with an equal amount of silk tofu. Or maybe use a little more pumpkin? That's up to how you feel about pumpkin - and about tofu, I suppose, but if you're making a vegan pumpkin pie to begin with you probably are feeling pretty good about them both. Add some sweetener. Your hardcore vegan will have some issues with white sugar (could be filtered with bone) and brown sugar (could be white sugar with coloring added). Maybe stick to agave or guaranteed vegan sweetener. Maple syrup is nice, but pricey, and adds a distinct maple flavor. Put in some molasses too to deepen the flavor. I certainly hope molasses is vegan because otherwise I've compromised some diets. And then spices: cinnamon and ginger are required (and fresh grated ginger is much better). Nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, and cloves are also good. If you get the 'pumpkin pie spice' thing from McCormicks I suppose that will work too. Now add a dash of vinegar, a pinch of salt, and a spoon of coffee. Yes, for reals. When you cook the way I do it's more about alchemy, and so we add some of each of the five main flavors - sweet, salty, bitter (coffee) and sour. Umami comes from roasting the pumpkin and from balsamic vinegar. You can add a dash of turmeric too to deepen some of the mid notes. Now if you're still with me I've tried other recipes - I generally do search for a recipe when I cook, I just don't follow them so well. The thing about pumpkin pie, traditionally, is it's a baked custard, which involves eggs and milk. Tofu is just one of the substitutions I've tried (and the one I've liked the best). Here are some others: Coconut milk and corn starch (a bit of the coconut flavor bled through, which my wife likes, but I found competed with the flavors) Tapioca flour and Almond milk (the texture just felt a bit off - like too slippery. I don't know how to describe it better than that.) Almond flour - tapioca flour - flax seeds - coconut oil - coconut milk - almond butter - tapioca starch. WAY too complicated and not that great. Cashews (soaked and pureed) and vegan cream cheese. This was gross. Cashews, pumpkin, maple syrup, and spice. This was okay, not as good as tofu. Maybe better for a paleo diet pie? I've seen people add an apple with the cashews too. That seems like gilding the lily. If you want to enhance the sweetness add molasses and vinegar. Anyway. The internet is full of recipes for the various pies - I would stick with eggs-and-milk, or tofu for vegans, or MAYBE cashews if you had to. Yum!
My Grandmother had a cookbook like this from a Lutheran Ladies' League in Minnesota (their name was something like that, anyway). There was a Goulash recipe I remember that called for 'One can of diced tomatoes - not the biggest can but the next one'. An exercise in qualitative, not quantitative, cooking!
Snacks, not meals: I am not a fan of boiling vegetables. Been baking my broccoli with whatever meal I place in the oven. Cauliflower with tumeric is another nice baked bit for noshing. My recent discovery is microwaved corn. Leave the husk on the corn and stick it in the microwave for 3 minutes - add a minute for every extra ear of corn. The husk traps the moisture and steams the corn. After the 3 minutes (or more) are up, shuck the corn and enjoy (or prepare with any other meal).
Old-school Louisiana red beans & rice. Cut out the andouille sausage, replace with tofu if you feel like it. Soak your beans overnight, boil them. Throw in a bell pepper, 2 onions, 1-3 cloves of minced garlic (to taste). Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, cumin, thyme & sage. Simmer for a few hours, and throw in some tofu if you want. Steam your rice and serve the beans etc over it.
Saag Paneer is one of my favorite vegetarian dishes (Indian/Himalayan cuisine is a great place to look for vegetarian food). There a number of good recipes on the internet, this one is pretty simple and tasty.
I absolutely LOVED him on Mind of a Chef. He really opened my eyes to what Southern cooking is, beyond fried chicken and grits and chitlins. I'm incredibly jealous of the Husk visit, that's on my list of restaurants worth traveling for. I make succotash at least once a week all summer because of this video.
Shakshouka with Feta. Super easy, delicious, and quite customizable.
Moong Dal is one of my favorites. It's amazingly simple, cheap as hell, freezes well, and so delicious. I recommend not omitting the hari chutney, but if you don't like cilantro, parsley works pretty well too. We usually pair it with rice of some kind. We also like using TVP instead of ground meat in lots of applications. It makes awesome tacos and chili, and is a fairly decent pizza topping if you season liberally and keep it under the cheese so it doesn't get too crispy. Unless that's the kind of thing you're into, in which case go for it.