Welcome to John’s Kitchen

Mayonnaise on everything is as close to Peanut Butter and Jelly in the heart of most in the USA. Unfortunately, it is not a heart-friendly product. I grew up (and hated) the Kraft mayonnaise alternative of Miracle Whip. My mother’s love for the product made me believe I hated mayonnaise. When I took cooking classes for my Hospitality degree, we had to learn how to make mayonnaise from scratch, and I fell in love with it. 30 years later, as plant-based, I had given it up. Sure, there are plant alternative versions, but they suffer from the same problems as non-plant versions in that they are mainly oil (bad fats) based.

With this recipe, I take a traditional non-WFPB product that is a great protein source. By blending it with simple ingredients (and one strange/unique one), it produces a good alternative to unhealthy mayonnaise.

Ingredients

1 pkg Firm Organic Tofu

1/2 cup Organic Distilled White Vinegar
1/4 cup Organic Lemon Juice

1 tbsp Organic White Miso
2 tsp Nutritional Yeast, My preference is NOOCH from Well Your World
1 tsp Ground Mustard Seed
1 tsp Druids Grove Lactic Acid (helps increase the acid without adding liquid)
1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Directions

Blend all in a high-speed blender and chill.

Once chilled, use as you would mayonnaise.

I have been working on several flavors to make an enjoyable white sauce. I finally returned to one of my favorite flavors, rosemary. Once I hit on this combination of flavors, I could not help but smile ear to ear. One of the best items used is the sweet corn broth from Plantstrong Foods. New Low-Fat version of recipe updated 6/22/2023

Ingredients

1 large head of Organic Cauliflower
1 box Plantstrong Sweet Corn Broth
8-10 oz Pressure Steamed Whole Potato
1 box of No Sodium Cannellini Beans with liquid
½ cup Nutritional Yeast (recommend Well Your World’s Nutritional Yeast)
2 tbsp Tapioca Flour
2 tbsp Granulated Garlic
1 tbsp Granulated Onion
1 tbsp White Miso Paste
1 tbsp Organic Dried Rosemary
1 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Plant-Based Lactic Acid
1 tsp Ground Mustard
¼ tsp Cayenne Pepper
¼ tsp Fresh Grated Nutmeg

Directions

Day(s) before pressure steam potatoes. I do this for 12 mins in Instant Pot, then let it rest for 1 hour. Chill overnight to help the potatoes for resistant starches.

Trim the green parts off the cauliflower and place it with broth in a pressure cooker setting it for 3 minutes with a 10-minute natural release period.

Combine all ingredients in 64 ounce high-speed blender container. Blend at maximum speed until smooth. When the sound changes, the sauce is thickened and is ready to transfer to storage containers.

Ingredients

1 cup Cashews
1 box Garbanzo Beans with liquid
1/2 cup Well Your World Nooch Nutritional Yeast
1/4 cup Water
2 tsps Lactic Acid
1 tsp Ground Mustard
1/4 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Green Salt
1/4 tsp Turmeric
1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika

Directions

Soak cashews for 3 hours to overnight. Drain and rinse.

In high-speed blender all all ingredients and blend until smooth. Transfer to storage container and chill and enjoy.

Growing up, one of my favorite meals was spaghetti and meatballs. I spent time in my meat-based life developing a flavorful and tender meatball. I feel that I have been able to transfer what I learned in that process and have developed a plant-based solution. Updated 5/15/2022

Ingredients

1 Can No Salt Added Kidney Beans
1 Can No Salt Added Lentils
24 oz Portobello mushroom
2 Medium Onion
2 Stalks Celery
1 Large Carrot
5 – 6 Cloves Garlic
½ Cup Chick Pea flour
2 Cup Oats
1 Cup Nutritional Yeast
3-4 Luv Beets
3 tbsp Ground Flax Seeds
1 tbsp White Miso Paste
1 tbsp Tapioca Starch
1 tsp Marmite
1 Bunch Parsley (tops only)

Directions

Chop Onion and sauté using water to prevent sticking. Chop Celery and Carrots add to Onions. Lightly brush portobello mushrooms to clean them. Chop the mushrooms add onions, and cook until all moisture is gone.

Drain and rinse the can of beans, drain and rinse lentils, adding 1/2 of the lentils to the food processor bowl (reserve the rest for later). Pulse bean/lentil mixture. Add 1 cup of oats and the remaining ingredients besides the mushroom blend and Parsley Pulse quickly to incorporate flavors.

Pour the mixture into a bowl with the remaining lentils and oats. Mix all to incorporate.

Process the mushrooms blend by pulsing it to a nice chop. When done, add to the bowl along with chopped Parsley. Mix all to incorporate. Transfer to the storage container to chill.

Using the scoop of your choice, scoop out the balls to pan and bake until done. I use an air fryer.

Growing up, one of my favorite desserts was always chocolate pudding. I enjoyed it in every form possible. I have struggled to find a store-bought one I wanted in my plant-based journey. I started playing with ideas on making a luscious version and came upon the idea of using a sweet potato. My new favorite dessert came into creation. My final addition to the recipe was the salt character I got from the Green Salt. I hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients

1 ½ lb Cooked Sweet Potatoes
1¼ cup Unsweetened Plant Milk
½ cup Cocao + Reishi or any Organic Cocoa Powder
½ tsp Powdered Vanilla
½ tsp Green Salt
8 Seeded Medjool Dates soaked (please add more or less to your desired sweetness)

Directions

Peel the sweet potato and wrap it in foil. Bake until tender.

When the sweet potato is done, add it and the remaining ingredients all together in a blender. Blend until smooth, and then chill for at least 1 hour.

Links provided for unique ingredients are not sponsored.

I have been working on several flavors to make an enjoyable white sauce. I finally returned to one of my favorite flavors, rosemary. Once I hit on this combination of flavors, I could not help but smile ear to ear. One of the best items used is the sweet corn broth from Plantstrong foods. Recipe updated 5/15/2022

Ingredients

1 large head of Organic Cauliflower
1 box Plantstrong Sweet Corn Broth
1 box Organic Cannellini Beans
1 cup Organic Raw Cashews
¼ cup Water
½ cup Nutritional Yeast (recommend Well Your World’s Nutritional Yeast)
2 tbsp Tapioca Flour
2 tbsp Granulated Garlic
1 tbsp Granulated Onion
1 tbsp White Miso Paste
2 tsp Organic Dried Rosemary
1 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Plant-Based Lactic Acid
½ tsp Ground Mustard
¼ tsp Cayenne Pepper
¼ tsp Fresh Grated Nutmeg

Directions

Soak cashews for 3 hours to overnight. Drain spent water.

Trim the green parts off the cauliflower and place with broth in pressure cooker setting it for 3 minutes with a 10 minute natural release period.

Combine all ingredients in 64 ounces high-speed blender container. Blend at maximum speed until smooth. When the sound changes, the sauce is thickened and is ready to transfer to storage containers.

Living in North Carolina, I have been looking for new options to make a mock pulled style sandwich. I found a good starting idea at Kathy’s Vegan Kitchen where she uses sweet potatoes for the mock meat. I loved the idea. While her recipe seemed solid, I thought it might lack some of the slow-smoked goodness of what we are replacing. I came up with a spice blend to fix that and changed to air frying the sweet potato. It is not often I make something for the first time and say to myself, wow, I have to make that recipe again.

Ingredients

Pulled Sweet Potato

1 medium Sweet Potato
1 medium Red Onion
5 cloves Garlic

Pulled SP spice blend

2 tsps Nutritional Yeast
2 tsps Garlic Powder
1 tsp Onion Powder
½ tsp Ground Cumin
½ tsp Cracked Black Pepper
½ tsp Smoked Paprika
¼ tsp Ground Mustard
¼ tsp Ground Coriander
⅛ tsp Cayenne Pepper

BBQ sauce of choice

Coleslaw

1 bag Coleslaw Mix
1 Lemon plus grated zest
2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
2 dollops of John’s WFPB Rosemary Dream Sauce
1 tsp Cracked Black Pepper
½ tsp Dill
½ tsp Dijon Mustard
⅛ tsp Cayenne Pepper – optional

Directions

Pulled Sweet Potato:

Preheat the air fryer.

Blend the dry spices for the potato portion.

Clean sweet potato, then grate it with skin. I use my food processor to make this easier. In the bowl, mix grated potato with the spice blend.

Air fry until cooked through and primarily crispy.

In a pan, saute onions until tender. Add garlic during the process, but avoid burning the garlic when tender; add grated and cooked sweet potato. Top with BBQ sauce and stir.

Coleslaw:

Put coleslaw mix in a bowl. Blend remaining ingredients together, add sauce to coleslaw mix and make sure it is well coated.

This part can be made ahead.

The Sandwich:

I use the Ezekiel Sprouted grains sesame seed version. Warm a hamburger bun. Add pulled sweet potato mix, then top with coleslaw.

As I grew up every year my mother always made a batch or two of chocolate fudge for the holidays. I looked online and found many suggestions for producing a plant based version, but they all used sugar. In my effort to product a more WFPB version I blended several recipes and added my own twist.

Ingredients

1 box chickpeas, drained, not rinsed
2 cups vegan chocolate chips
½ cup natural peanut butter
10 pitted and soaked dates
½  cup homemade almond milk or any plant-based milk
3 tbsp Cocao + Reishi
1 tsp vanilla powder
Pinch sea salt (+/-) * optional

Directions

Soak dates for at least 30 mins.

Add drained dates, chickpeas and almond milk to food

processor and blend until smooth.

Melt chocolate chips on low heat.

Add melted chocolate and remain ingredients to food processor and blend again. 

Place in your container and chill for a couple of hours to overnight.