Delicious Vegetable Vegan Recipes Made with Ingredients Easily Found at Home!

HEALTH and DIET

Vegan Teriyaki Meatballs and Japanese-Style Vegan Curry

These vegan recipes just need a few ingredients and can be made quickly with vegetables. They can be made with vegetables in the fridge or ingredients on hand, so you may want to add them to your daily rotation. They may be handy when you don't have time to go grocery shopping.

There are many ways to satisfy your appetite with just vegetables!

To avoid the dissatisfaction that "vegetables alone are not filling enough," we will introduce creative ways to cook vegetables, such as seasoning them well with teriyaki sauce or steaming them to bring out their natural sweetness.

The recipes introduced this time are by Izumi Shoji, a vegan cuisine expert. "Veganism was only known by a few people before, but now it has spread. Many people start following a vegan diet because it is environmentally friendly or healthy, but if it doesn't taste good, they won't continue. I want many people to continue veganism, so I am always thinking about how to make delicious recipes. These recipes are easy for beginners who want to try vegan cooking for the first time or for those who want to try vegan food once a week." says Shoji.

Vegan Teriyaki Meatballs

A vegan dish using the globally favorite teriyaki sauce for everyone to enjoy

Teriyaki sauce, which contains soy sauce, is a staple of Japanese cuisine and is famous worldwide. Tsukune are minced chicken balls, a popular Japanese dish seasoned with teriyaki sauce. This recipe is a vegan version inspired by tsukune. The main ingredients are potatoes, onions, and oatmeal. Since these ingredients are pantry staples, you can easily make this dish whenever the occasion strikes. The teriyaki sauce has a robust flavor, and the oatmeal boosts its nutritional value, making it a satisfying dish.

Let’s try this recipe! Please click below:　
Vegan Teriyaki Meatballs

Cooking Tips: Use oatmeal as a binder for tsukune

Mix grated potatoes, onions, and oatmeal and round the mixture into balls to make tsukune. The oatmeal binds the potatoes and onions, so we recommend using fine quick oats, but you can use regular oatmeal in a pinch. Before using it, grind it in a mortar and pestle or process it finely in a food processor. Oatmeal retains a lot of water, making the tsukune moist and juicy. It is also highly nutritious, abundant in vegetable protein, dietary fiber, iron, and calcium.

Cooking Tips: Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

One of the attractions of teriyaki sauce, loved worldwide, is its savoriness. The recipe is straightforward. Combine equal parts soy sauce, sake, and mirin in a saucepan, add a small amount of sugar, and simmer until thickened. Kikkoman Soy Sauce, a fermented food product, contains about 300 different aromatic ingredients due to the yeast. Heat causes the chemical reaction between the amino acids and sugar in soy sauce, creating a mouthwatering aroma. The delicious aroma of teriyaki sauce is from soy sauce. Glaze the tsukune with the teriyaki sauce and serve.

Japanese-Style Vegan Curry

A quick and straightforward recipe for daily meals made with pantry ingredients

The main ingredients are onions, curry powder, soy sauce, garlic, and olive oil. You can prepare your favorite curry whenever you want. I added broccoli and bell peppers for color and nutrition, but you can swap them for any vegetables, such as pumpkin, bell pepper, or eggplant.
It is light and perfect for a weekday since it is seasoned with curry powder and soy sauce and omits the heavy curry roux and flour. Its mild flavor makes it easy to eat even when you don’t have an appetite.

Let’s try this recipe! Please click below:　
Japanese-Style Vegan Curry

Process 1 for Japanese-Style Vegan Curry

Cooking Tips: Draw out the flavor of onions and use them as a soup stock

The water from the onions is used as broth instead of water. Half of the onions are chopped into chunks. The other half is used as a substitute for water and is finely minced in a food processor. Put the onions in a pot, cover with a lid, and steam to make a tasty onion-based broth. This technique will calm your concerns that vegetables alone may not be enough to fill you up.

Another point is to soak the onions in water before cooking to remove the pungency. Some onions are more pungent than others, so don’t forget this extra step to make the curry delicious.

Process 2 for Japanese-Style Vegan Curry

Cooking Tips: Use soy sauce as a secret ingredient

The secret ingredient in this curry is soy sauce. Soy sauce has a good balance of the five tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami) and pairs well with curry powder, which contains a variety of spices. You can create a vegan curry that harmonizes the flavors by adding soy sauce and curry powder. Japanese home cooks often combine curry and soy sauce to create a light, easy-to-eat curry.

Izumi Shoji

Shoji is a vegan cuisine expert. She is a member of the Japanese Society for Vegetarian Research and is a Japanese dried foods maestro. She has showcased 100% plant-based vegan cuisine in various media. Her many published books include "Casual Vegan Recipes that Regulate the Body” (by Sekaibunka-sha) and "Vegan Washoku" (by Shufunotomo-sha). She runs "Izumi Shoji Vegetable Cooking Studio," where she collaborates with top chefs from Japan and abroad. She is also active in product development and recipe supervision to spread awareness of vegan cooking.