This document provides recipes and meal plans for vegan salads and dishes featuring fresh spring and summer vegetables. It includes recipes for Spinach Salad with Mango and Almonds, The Best Caesar Salad Ever (vegan version), Vegan Balsamic Vinaigrette, and several other salads. The document also provides two weeks of vegan meal plans with recipes for dishes like Balsamic Portobello Mushroom Sandwiches, April Showers Pot Pie, and Barbecue Hot Wingz. The plans are meant to make healthy vegan eating easy with balanced, flavorful recipes.

1. Not-Your-Momma's Boring Vegan Salad
Recipes
Vegan Salad recipes don't have to be just limp lettuce with tomatoes and cucumbers with
ranch dressing. There's a whole world of dressings, as well as different lettuces, greens, and
vegetables and fruits that you can put together to make a great salad.
Spinach Salad with Mango and Almonds
I adapted this vegan salad recipe from a few I saw on the
internet. Spinach is super healthy and goes great with a tart
vinaigrette and sweet fruit.
It is completely delicious and absolutely a cinch to put
together.
You can substitute any nuts, and any other fruit with the
same sweet-tart quality of mangoes for this vegan salad
recipe.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup almonds
3.5 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp. maple syrup
2 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. dried tarragon
2-3 tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 mango, peeled and cut into small pieces
1 bunch spinach, rinsed just before using and dried
Directions:
Toast the almonds for 5 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees.
Mix vinegar, maple syrup, mustard, and tarragon in a bowl. Wisk in the olive oil, and then
taste to flavor with salt and pepper.
Combine all ingredients in a salad bowl and toss to mix.
Serves 4.
Variations:

2. This dish is delicious with fresh strawberries, blueberries, or orange slices. You can also
substitute in dried cranberries or blueberries.
The Best Caesar Salad Ever- Vegan or Not
This vegan salad recipe comes from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson. I used to be a big
fan of caesar dressing with anchovies and a raw egg. This dressing is delicious with neither.
A few of the ingredients are harder to find, but are always at Whole Foods and other health
food stores. This vegan salad recipe makes enough dressing for one head of lettuce.
Ingredients:
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tbsp. tahini
1/2 tbsp. mellow white miso paste
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. tamari (soy sauce)
1/8 tsp. Vegan Worchestershire sauce (optional)
1/6 cup olive oil
salt and pepper
1 head romaine lettuce
2 slice Italian bread crusts, baked until toasted and then rubbed with a garlic clove
(optional)
Directions:
Combine garlic, tahini, miso, lemon juice, tamari, and Worchestershire. Wisk in the olive oil
and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Wash and dry the lettuce and cut into bite-size pieces.
Toss dressing over lettuce and cover with toasts if you like croutons.
Makes enough dressing for two large salads.
Vegan Balsamic Vinaigrette
Once you learn to make one vinaigrette, you can make any kind you want for any vegan
salad recipe. I almost never buy salad dressings anymore because it's so easy to make
vinaigrettes at home and they taste so much fresher. I like being able to control the
ingredients, and I like not having all kinds of preservatives in my body.
Again, you can use any other kind of vinegar, and you can also use another acid, like lemon
or lime juice, instead of vinegar.
Ingredients:

3. 2 tbsp. good olive oil
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt and pepper to taste
dijon mustard, to taste and for texture
1 pinch herbes de provence
Directions:
Combine all the ingredients except the olive oil with a wisk.
Here's the [easy] trick to making good dressings-- While wisking the ingredients, slowly
stream the olive oil into the mixture. The oil will combine with the vinegar rather than
resting on the top of it.
Makes enough dressing for 1 large or 2 medium sized salad
The Un-Potato Salad with Lemon-Dill Dressing
I've never been a fan of typical picnic-style potato salad, but I do love potatoes... and salad,
so I made up this vegan salad recipe. You have tons of flexibility with the ingredients. I try
to stick to things that are even tastier when made with lemons. With these fresh
ingredients, they are always better when organic.
Ingredients:
Salad:
1 c. potatoes, preferably small and colorful, steamed
1/2 c. fresh green beans, steamed
1 ear corn, steamed
1-2 small cucumbers, chopped
1-2 green onions, chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Dressing:
2 lemons, zested
1 tbsp. dijon mustard
1-2 tbsp. fresh dill
1/2 tsp. sugar
2 tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:

4. After steaming the veggies very quickly, so they are still crisp, put them in an ice bath to
stop the cooking.
Juice the lemons, and wisk them together with the zest, mustard, sugar, dill, salt, pepper,
and olive oil to emulsify the dressing.
Combine all the ingredients and toss to coat.
Refrigerate and serve cold. This is best if prepared ahead of time and allowed to chill so the
tastes combine.
Serves 4.
Vegan Diet Plan for Spring and Summer
Even people who love to cook find designing a vegan diet plan can
become tedious and monotonous. Stop stressing about what to make
after a long day of work and follow our healthy and delicious preset
menu plan for a month of dinners full of spring and summertime
vegetables.
Looking for more than just recipes, but for an impressive
vegan menu for weekend guests or need a balanced
vegetarian diet plan for your family's busy workweek? Want
to add to your repetoire of quick and delicious meals but
don't want to invest in a whole cookbook? You too can have
restaurant quality meals prepared in under an hour
that are delicious enough to serve to the in-laws.
Nothing is better than fresh vegetables out of the soil of a
local farm. If you've ever wondered how to cook kale, or
what to do with an abundance of squash, you've come to the
right place.
Our lives are so jam packed full of activities nowadays that we rarely have time to think
about nutritionally balanced meal plans for our families, let alone if we're just cooking for
ourselves.

5. With all the activities we juggle, we just can't always dedicate the time to making new
recipes. Most of us can't even dedicate the time to thinking at the end of the day, let
alone designing a healthy meal that actually tastes good.
The internet is full of amazing free recipes now, but I have a hard time finding a full vegan
diet plan with recipes and grocery lists. I don't always have the pleasure of being able to
jump out at a moment's notice to pick up an ingredient that isn't in my fridge. I'd rather
know what I'm making at the beginning of the week so I can make one stop and get
everything.
Hi Cathleen, just wanted to say I downloaded your vegan meal plans book the
other day. It is such a big help. Last night I tried the Caesar Salad. That dressing
is to die for. I'll serve it to company and they will never know it is vegan. Hubby,
who loves meat, says "hey, this is really good. Maybe this vegan thing isn't going
to been so bad after all." Thanks for writing the book. It was very well done.
~Barbara Hooker
People like us need more than just a recipe or a cookbook. We need a vegan diet
plan.
If you're like me and you design your own
meal plans, you've probably gotten bored
with eating the same meals and want to try
new dishes. So after you pick what you
want for the night, you've probably found
yourself bouncing between cookbooks held
open with soup cans trying to time each
dish to come out at the appropriate time.
The process starts again the next day and
yet again, I start rifling through my fridge
to locate what ingredients I actually have, Barbecue Wingz with Hot Sauce
and the cookbook/online recipe search
begins again. Eventually I start feeling like I'm missing out on time spent with the people
I'm cooking for, and I get bored of trying all the new recipes.
Then I get back into the boring rut of the same old food everyday.

6. Vegan Menus to the rescue
There are so few dedicated vegan diet plans on the market right now, so I wanted to make
one to help you. Instead of just using a random shopping list at the start of the week, you
have a list that tells you everything you'll need to buy or have in your pantry for all the
dinners that week.
Instead of rifling through cookbooks to make sure you have a balanced meal planned each
day, you will have a collection of recipes that are naturally balanced. You'll also have
pictures of the dishes, tips on cooking, and a nutritional analysis for each recipe.
I am thrilled (and appreciative) to have your vegan diet plan. I made then
spaghetti sauce and took it to a potluck and three omnivores loved it. The dressing
for the Caesar salad was really scrumptious. I didn't know how much I missed that
flavor. The lasagna was amazing and two other vegans needed the recipe asap.
Being able to make the sauce ahead of time was great. I made the squash and
sweet potato soup last night. It was really amazing. I am making the pizza
tomorrow...so excited. I can't wait to try more recipes.
You really were a life saver for me. I had fallen off the vegan wagon
(simply vegetarian, but also dairy, grease, etc) for a month and a half. All
of the health issues I had when I was omnivorous came back. Blurred
vision (think it is sugar issues), hair less soft, more weight, asthma
worse, etc... Going back to veganism improved my health instantly and
my self esteem. It is lovely to know that I am nourishing my body, while
not torturing animals and helping the environment.
~Nia Garcia
"What in the world do vegans eat?"
People tend to be baffled by a vegan diet plan because they imagine their steak dinner
without the steak and pity the vegan fool who eats potatoes and salad. Even for those who
really do want to take the next step in their health and toward protecting the environment,
the concept of no animal products can be daunting.
Most of us have had the same challenges. I don't personally know anyone who was raised
vegan; we all ate meat and dairy as children, and we all stopped at some point.

7. Your new vegan diet plan doesn't have to be tasteless and boring. In fact, many people find
that getting rid of the heavy meat and dairy flavors enables them to fine-tune their palate
to really enjoy lighter foods like grains and vegetables.
Why Should I Follow A Vegan Diet Plan?
I find that most people really are interested in eating healthy foods, but they get boggled
down by all the information being thrown at them about what is healthy. Should they go
low-carb, no-carb, high-protein, low-protein? What is the truth?
The truth is that a vegan diet plan based on whole grains, vegetables, beans, fruits, and
nuts/seeds as snacks is extremely healthy. Even if you never plan to go fully vegan, you will
find that plant-based meals are easy to prepare, full of excellent vitamins and
minerals, and often less expensive than "regular" meals.
Yes, vegan food is usally cheaper.
Preparing your own homemade meals with fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains, nuts
and beans is about as cheap as it comes. You can buy a lot of the ingredients in bulk, and
then supplement with fresh vegetables and fruits. If you have your own garden, you can
really save some cash!
I will admit that sometimes the "special" ingredients like nutritional yeast, brown rice syrup,
agave nectar will cost more up front than you're used to, but they last for a long time and
pay off dividends in their health benefits. All the ingredients for this springtime meal
plan can be found a regular grocery store or health food store.
You can also take great satisfaction in knowing everytime you eat a vegan meal, you are
living a life of compassion and harming no animals.
Thank you for your website and all the very valuable information you give us, in a
very non-judgmental way. Making someone feel guilty or bad will not make them
change. I have been waivering for years but feel now it is more of a choice than

8. "you have to do this". Thank you.
~Marianne DeRitis
Here are the first two weeks of meals:
Week 1 Menus
Day 1
Balsamic Portobello Mushroom Sandwiches
Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Taco Salad with Lime Vinaigrette
Dessert: Strawberry Mousse
Day 2
April Showers Pot Pie
Steamed Vegetables with Lemon Mustard Sauce
Dessert: Strawberry Shortcake with Whipped Cashew Cream
Day 3
Thick and Creamy Split Pea Soup with Barley
Raw Kale Salad with Cranberries
Dessert: Peanut Butter Cups Bars
Day 4
Portuguese Kale Soup
Arugula and Tomato Panini
Dessert: Brown Rice Pudding with Cinnamon
Day 5
Arugula, Bean, and Barley Salad
Quick Cucumber Pickles
Dessert: Lemon-Basil Sorbet
I made the meatless meat balls. They came out really good. My meat loving
husband even said they were good, and if I didn't tell him they were vegan he

9. would have thought they were turkey. He's even taking some in his lunch. One
step at a time.
~Suzy, Sunnyvale, CA
Week 2 Menus
Day 1
Baked Herb Falafel
Carrot Hummus
Spinach with Cashew Cream Sauce
Dessert: Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Treats
Day 2
Broccoli and Cheese Soup Tofu with Broccoli in Garlic Sauce
Ginger Baked Tofu
Citrus Collard Greens
Dessert: Strawberry Pie
Day 3
Barbecue Hot Wingz
Vegetable Sticks with Ranch Dressing
Quick Fresh Coleslaw
Baked Kale Chips
Dessert: Strawberry Jello
Day 4
Broccoli and Tofu with Garlic Sauce and Brown Rice
Dessert: Summer Berry Parfait with Walnut Cream
Day 5
Curried Chickpea Sandwiches
Strawberry Spinach Salad
Dessert: Berry Popsicles