Anti-Inflammatory Recipes

This salad is as healthy as it is beautiful. The mixture of textures and colors makes it a fantastic choice for special meals. With legumes, nuts, and fiber-filled fruits, it would also work for several days worth of filling lunches. You get an extra anti-inflammatory boost from red apples, dark grapes, pomegranate seeds and juice, walnuts, beans, celery, and dark leafy greens.

This delicious no-oil, no-sugar plant-based fruit crisp gives you a delicious summer treat any time of the year with fresh or frozen berries. A two-stage baking approach ensures that the fruit is well cooked and the topping doesn’t burn. The recipe works for all berries, not just blueberries — you can make it your own.

This plant-based chili’s flavor runs deep, a tough challenge for vegan chili recipes. You might not taste the cocoa powder or cinnamon, but they contribute to the complexity of this flavor profile. A little tahini lends it some creaminess, and cilantro and limes add bright notes at the end. As a bonus, this chili freezes well and makes at least 8 servings, meaning “Leftovers!,” one of my favorite words.

Since everyone likes different combinations and has different ingredients on hand, I created a template for chopped salads that last for days — just the proportions for the salad, a list of possible ingredients in each category, and links to recipes for delicious plant-based salad dressings.

This plant-based, oil-free puree is great as a side dish, but has so many other possible uses: on baked potatoes, crackers, bread, pasta, or pizza, or as part of a bowl or quesadilla, or snuggled next to stewed tomatoes, mashed potatoes, or rice pilaf. During the early summer when I get a lot of greens in my farm share, this is my go-to recipe. I used to make it with collard greens only, but I’ve found more recently that it works with any combination of dark leafy greens.

Recipe for a light, smooth, creamy frozen treat without sugar or cream—gluten-free, oil-free, sugar-free. Other nice-cream variations are provided as well.

The Waldorf salad was created for the first time over 125 years ago, but its appeal endures. In this version, fresh cherries add welcome contrasts in texture and taste to the apple, celery, and raisins. Additional variation ideas are provided.

Enjoy the indulgence of mascarpone cheese without dairy! This plant-based, oil-free version achieves its rich, silky texture from cashews, which are blended until they are completely dissolved. The maple syrup lends sweetness, and the lemon juice and zest provide the tang. Small amounts of nutritional yeast and miso give it just a hint of cheesiness. Suggestions for ways to use this vegan mascarpone are included.

This post includes a recipe for oil-free crisp tortilla shells and a list of plant-based, oil-free toppings, including beans, crumbles, sauces, and garnishes. Use your imagination and customize your approach depending on what you feel like and what you have on hand.

This thick lentil soup, oil-free and plant-based, takes “comfort food” to a new healthy level. The layered flavors and textures make the soup interesting and satisfying. Combine it with a salad and baked potatoes, rice, or whole grain flour tortillas, and you’ve got yourself a delicious meal.

This delicious plant-based sauce is a core ingredient for healthy vegan tacos, tostadas, nachos, and burritos at our house. No one misses grated cheddar cheese any more. The cashews and carrot give this sauce creaminess and heartiness. Goodbye, gummy vegan cheese sauces — hello, heavenly, creamy, drizzly Nacho Cheese Sauce.

This gluten-free, oil-free, plant-based burger has the two characteristics most needed in a good veggie burger: the right texture and an interesting flavor combination. Homemade vegan burgers with beans can be mushy, a real turn-off. These burgers get their structure from sturdy legumes, ground chia “eggs,” oatmeal, and seeds. The flavor comes from ketchup, mustard, and a good dose of dry spices.

This salad takes advantage of freekeh, a grain derived from young wheat that cooks relatively quickly, it has a nutty flavor, and it’s a whole grain. In this salad, which could serve as the main dish of a meal, and would be lovely at a summer picnic, freekeh is tossed together with roasted vegetables, currants (or other dried fruit), lemon zest, and a light dressing. It can be served cold or at room temperature, can be customized, and goes well with many foods.

The filling is a snap to make in the air fryer ( oven directions provided too). It’s oil-free with delightful contrasting textures between the crispy chickpeas and the tender cauliflower. The swoon-worthy crema brings lime and cilantro flavors forward, all against the creaminess of blended raw cashews. Top this with a cabbage slaw and hot sauce, and you have a party in your mouth.

This delicious plant-based stew comes from the unexpected combination of green lentils and millet. The curry flavoring here is on the mellow side, and softened even further by the miso. From a health standpoint this stew checks all the boxes: legumes, whole grains, and leafy greens. With a salad and optional bread, this stew makes a brilliant winter meal.

This lovely plant-based curry is a snap to make in the Instant Pot. Pre-soaking the black-eyed peas means that all the ingredients will reach the right texture, without getting over-cooked, in 12 minutes of pressure. This method avoids the need for oil, which saves on fat and calories. Seasonings and heat level can be adjusted to taste. The curry freezes well.

Soy curls are a great substitute for chicken in this plant-based recipe. They’re chewy, roasted on the outside, soft on the inside, and they soak up the wonderful flavors of the marinade-sauce. Even without oil, the roasting method works perfectly and yields a lot of color to the soy curls and vegetables. My favorite part is the peanuts!

Mushrooms and lentils share the spotlight in this stew, with support from tomato and vinegar flavors. The result is a protein-packed, deeply flavorful plant-based stew that tastes great on its own or with spaetzle, rice, or other grain.

These plant-based fajitas have layers and layers of flavors and textures. Roasting brings out the best of all the ingredients, including bell peppers, soy curls, onion, tomatoes, and zucchinis. These are oil-free, but you wouldn’t know it from the flavor and caramelization. If you haven’t tried soy curls yet (a very healthy protein made from soybeans), this would be a great recipe to start with. You control the level of spicy heat.

These plant-based cookie bars are bursting with flavor. They contain no sugar, no butter, or other processed ingredients, but you wouldn’t guess that. The cardamom, orange, and cranberry complement each other deliciously well. These would be especially good for a healthy winter holiday treat.

These nuts make any salad more special and impressive. The sweet-salty-spicy (not necessarily fiery) flavors add an outsized impact to salads of all kinds. These clusters would be great for a salad served as an entree, perhaps a green salad with added roasted butternut squash. Plant-based and made without oil, these nuts are also good for your health.

This slaw tastes a bit like cold sesame noodle appetizers with its peanut sauce dressing. The gorgeous colors of the vegetables make this as attractive as it is delicious.

What’s not to like? That gorgeous deep orange color, the subtle chai spices, the creaminess of the (nondairy) milk. Finding some of the ingredients might be challenging if you don’t already have them, but once you’ve found them (locally or online), you’ll have them for many cups thereafter. Powered spices just won’t do.

These delicious vegan cheesecakes melt in your mouth, with berries inside and on top to complement the lemony filling. This is a dessert that taste so good you can’t believe it’s so healthy. Who says you need butter, coconut oil, and sugar for a tasty dessert?

For this summer entree salad, you can use whatever cooked grain you like, whatever kinds of grilled vegetables, and your choices of greens and dressing. The smokiness of the grilled vegetables and the roasted red pepper dressing give this its unique character. This plant-based salad ticks all the boxes on nutrition as well: healthy grains, vegetables, protein (from quinoa), seeds (from tahini), and dark leafy greens.

At only 29 calories and 2 grams of fat per 2 tablespoons, this dressing is a fantastic part of a healthy diet. It also happens to taste great, and its color is magnificent! You can use jarred red peppers and be done in 10 minutes or less! Or use up those red peppers from the garden or farmers market.

This simple-to-make plant-based black bean soup is the epitome of the saying “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” So few ingredients, so much tasty satisfaction. Plus, it’s low in fat (no oil used) and very high in fiber, which has been shown to offer many health benefits.

This tasty noodle bowl contains no oil, meaning it’s healthy and lower in calories than most noodle recipes. The simple sauce packs a ton of flavor, and the variety of textures from the noodles to the vegetables (cooked and raw) makes for a dish that satisfies.

With the Instant Pot, you can have a piping hot batch of apple-cinnamon whole-grain cereal ready in less than 30 minutes from stepping into the kitchen. There are countless ways to customize this recipe: choose different whole grains, your own apple type, and fun toppings.

A potato and a bit of cashew cream give this vegan version of cream of spinach soup some heft and creaminess. A whole pound of spinach is used here, but it quickly shrinks in bulk after it hits the hot broth.