Traditional Eggnog is high in fat because it is made with whole milk, heavy cream, and egg yolks. A significant amount of alcohol is also added. In this article, I will share with you how to make Vegan Eggnog without alcohol for the festive season. I will also include a few healthy additions and variations. This recipe serves 2.

Ingredients

• 2 cups coconut milk – you can use any thick non-dairy milk
• 2 tablespoons chia seeds – presoak them in a little water for 4 hours
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 Banana
• Spices – ½ teaspoon each
• Ground cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil (optional)
• Ice cubes – you can also use frozen bananas instead of ice cubes.
• A pinch of salt

Add all the ingredients in a blender and blend to a smooth consistency.

Serve immediately.

If you don’t plan on consuming the vegan eggnog immediately, blend everything in advance except the bananas. Once peeled, bananas start to oxidize. So right before serving, add the bananas and blend again.

Why Chia Seeds?

For this vegan eggnog recipe, I use soaked chia seeds because of their “eggy” like consistency. Eggnog is all about eggs and milk (with cream of course). Secondly, Chia seeds are the healthiest natural supplements we have. Research proves that chia seeds contain twice more calcium than milk, more omega 3 than fish, more antioxidants, and the list goes on. In fact, for those of us following the Ketogenic diet, chia seeds play a significant role in boosting your health.

If you manage to get chia seeds from a farmers market, they retail very cheap. But if you can’t, buy the commercially packed ones from online stores. You can use the seeds in any recipe but don’t cook them. Add them raw just before serving.

An Alternative Vegan Eggnog Recipe

If you have more people to serve, this recipe works better. You can prepare in advance and chill in the refrigerator. We will use homemade almond milk and homemade coconut cream. If you don’t have the time, just buy some from your favorite vegan store.

This recipe serves 4.

Ingredients

• 2-cups almond milk
• 2-cups coconut cream
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup (whatever sweetener you like
• Spices – ½ teaspoon each
• Ground cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Vanilla extract
• A pinch of salt

Add all the ingredients in a blender and blend to a smooth consistency.

Serving

To serve like a barista, grind some vegan cookies or biscuits. Coat the glass with biscuit crumble and pour in the vegan eggnog. Sprinkle some of that powder and attach a cookie on the glass. Throw in two cinnamon sticks per glass and a hint of the spices you used on the serving plate. This is very important, especially when serving strangers. The hints help them identify the drink with its ingredients.

The Bottom Line

For the best vegan eggnog, make your almond milk fresh at home. It is more creamy and frothy compared to store bought milk. It is easy to extract milk from fresh almonds, but you need to be patient as the nuts soak in water. If this is not your forte, buy high-quality milk. A mark of good quality vegan products is in the list of ingredients. The shorter the list, the better the quality!

Use any vegan eggnog leftovers to make cinnamon rolls or eggnog French toast.

Vegan pumpkin spice cookies are a quick breakfast and dessert addition. They make good use of leftover pumpkins too. In this recipe, I will share with you a simple yet delicious and healthy vegan pumpkin spice cookies recipes that even your kids can make this season. I will also show you how to make healthy cookie frosting the vegan way. Let’s get started!

The Ingredients

For the Cookies

½-cup all-purpose flour – Purchase the gluten-free version

1-tablespoon corn flour

½-cup pumpkin puree

Maple syrup – ¼-cup (optional if you don’t like them too sweet)

½-cup coconut sugar

A pinch of salt

½-cup cocoa butter (you can use coconut oil or any vegetable oil you prefer)

Pumpkin spice mix (1 teaspoon of each):

• Ginger
• Cinnamon
• Allspice
• Nutmeg

For the vegan cookie frosting

½-cup organic shortening

¼-cup coconut sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

½ tsp. almond extract

A pinch of salt

Note

To prepare the pumpkin puree, steam your pumpkin with its skin on until tender. Puree in a blender for silky smooth vegan pumpkin spice cookies or mush with a fork if you prefer tasting the pumpkin chunks in your cookies.

You can use the brown coconut sugar. It’s less refined and, therefore, concentrated with more minerals which makes it healthier.

The Procedure

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 C)

In a wide bowl, sift in the dry ingredients.

Make a well at the center and pour in the wet ingredients.

Mix with a wooden spoon until incorporated but avoid over-mixing. It is ok to have a few lumps.

Leave the mix in the fridge for 30 minutes or so. This allows your mixture to bind properly with the oil. Otherwise, if you bake directly, the two will separate, and you’ll end up with oily cookies.

Also note that with this recipe, the mixture might look a bit wet. Don’t worry. It will thicken once you let it sit in the fridge.

Using an ice cream scoop, portion the mixture onto a lined cookie-baking tray. You can also use a spoon to measure walnut-size batter portions and then shape into neat rounds using your hands. The spoon is rather messy that’s why I prefer using an ice cream scoop.

Bake the cookies for 15 minutes until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, to make the frosting, combine all the ingredients with a wooden spoon until the mixture is light and creamy. Feel free to use food coloring if you prefer colored frosting. Pipe the frosting on your cooled cookies and sprinkle some coconut spice mix.

You can as well add sprinkles or granulated sugar.

In Conclusion

Because of the pumpkin, these cookies will have a softer texture. If you love crunchier vegan pumpkin spice cookies, leave them in the oven for a little longer. For fluffier and spongy cookies, add a tablespoon of cream. I must mention that with pumpkin, don’t try rolling out the cookies as we do with simple cookie dough. The result will be a hard and unpleasant cookie. Scoping a softer batter works best.

Enjoy your vegan pumpkin spice cookies!

Our independence day is almost here. Celebrate freedom with great tasting vegan delicacies. Make this year’s vegan Fourth Of July stand out with diverse cuisine ranging from BBQ burgers, vegan hot dogs, cheesecake, and many more. Who says parties without animal-based barbeques should be boring? With these recipes, even the non-vegan will find it hard to resist.

Thai Quinoa Burger

If you love the Thai flavors of cilantro, lemongrass, and curry paste and you cherish the American burger, then this is for you. The Thai Quinoa Burger combines all these ingredients to give you a spicy finger licking burger rich in protein.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Quinoa

• 1 cup quinoa rinsed
• 2 1/2 cups of vegetable broth
• Two flax eggs
• Three tablespoons ground flax seed
• Five tablespoons of water

For the Patty

• One can of rinsed and drained chickpeas
• 1/2 cup of chopped snow peas
• 1 cup dry oats
• 1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro chopped
• Two tablespoons canola oil
• One tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• One tablespoon red curry paste
• One tablespoon of freshly ground ginger-garlic paste
• 1 cup finely diced red onions
• A pinch of ground black pepper and Kosher salt
• Fresh green chilies
• One tablespoon of agave nectar

To Assemble The Burger

• 6 Burger Buns
• BBQ sauce of your choice (like mayo and hoisin sauce)
• Spinach, fresh carrots, or lettuce
• Mung bean sprouts

Procedure

In a bowl, whisk the ground flax with water and set aside for 10 minutes.

In a small saucepan, boil the vegetable broth with quinoa. Reduce the heat and let it simmer until the broth is completely absorbed. Fluff with a fork and set aside.

Meanwhile, pulse the oats in a food processor until coarsely ground. Add in the flax egg together with the rest of the patty ingredients. Process for a while until the mixture is smooth and thick. For a small serving, measure one cup of the cooked quinoa and add it to the food processor. Refrigerate the rest of the quinoa for future use.

Coat a baking sheet with oil. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, Make at least six patties out of the burger mixture. Heat a large frying pan with vegetable oil. And fry the patties on each side until they are golden brown. Place the fried patties on the baking sheet and bake them for 10 minutes.

Get your six-burger buns and assemble with your favorite BBQ sauce, veggies, and sprouts.

Vegan Hotdogs

Hot dogs are a favorite summer meal. I love grilling mine on the Vegan Fourth Of July while basking in the sunshine. These vegan hot dogs have little or no saturated fat. In addition, they don’t have cholesterol and they are lower on calories compared to the animal-based hotdogs.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 12 pieces of well-drained marinated artichokes
• 12 pieces of sun-dried tomatoes
• 11/2 cups of kidney beans well drained
• One garlic clove – minced
• 1/3 cup of rolled oats
• One teaspoon of smoked paprika
• Black pepper, a pinch of salt, and oil.

Procedure

Drain the artichoke hearts and the sun-dried tomatoes using kitchen paper towels to remove excess oil. Add the artichokes, the tomatoes, kidney beans, clove, oat, and paprika to a food processor. Smear a pinch of salt, pepper, and oil. Blitz the mixture until it is evenly mixed.

Spray your baking tray with oil. Mold the mixture into sausage shapes of the desired size as you line them up on the baking tray. Spray the sausages with oil and bake them for half an hour checking them occasionally to ensure they are firm and golden brown.

Vegan Raspberry Cheesecake

This chilled cheesecake looks very sophisticated yet very simple to make. It has different layers of pink and a beautiful fresh raspberry arrangement on top with a velvety cream perfect for the Vegan Fourth Of July dessert. We use agar powder to make the cake firm even in this hot summer weather.

Ingredients

• 6 Medjool dates
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1 cup raw cashews – soak them overnight and pat them dry
• 3 cups of freshly made coconut cream
• 1/8 cup of lemon juice
• 4 cups of fresh raspberries
• One tablespoon of agar powder
• 1 cup of water

Procedure

Pulse the dates, coconut, and salt in a food processor. Ensure the mixture still maintains its rough texture. Press the mixture firmly on a cake ring to prepare the cheesecake crust. Keep aside.

Meanwhile, blend the soaked cashews and 1 cup of coconut cream, slowly adding more coconut cream until the mixture is well blended. Add the lemon juice and mix lightly without curdling the milk. Divide the coconut base among four separate bowls and keep aside.

Puree the fresh raspberries with the dates to prepare the raspberry base. Remove the raspberry seeds by straining them. You can also use cheesecloth to get rid of all raspberry seeds.

In a small saucepan, add the agar powder, water and the dates-raspberry mixture. Heat the saucepan, and then let the mixture simmer for a minute. Do this quickly before the agar sets.

Get your four bowls of coconut base. In the first bowl, add ten tablespoons of the raspberry mixture. In the second bowl, add seven tablespoons of the raspberry mixture. Five tablespoons in the third bowl, and finally two tablespoons in the fourth bowl. The raspberry mixture shall create different layers of pink in your cake. The first bowl is mostly red whereas the last bowl is the lightest in color.

Use a spoon to mix the raspberry mixture into the coconut base in each bowl.

Get the cake ring. Spread fourth bowl mixture over the crust to create your first layer. Then spread the third bowl mixture on top of the first layer to create your second layer. Do the same with the second and first bowls respectively. Then top up any raspberry-date mixture that remained onto the fourth layer. Swirl it with a sharp knife to create pretty effects.

Chill the cheesecake for three hours before removing the cake ring. Garnish the cake with fresh raspberries or some edible flowers.

The Bottom Line

If you loved these Vegan Fourth Of July recipes, then I’m sure you’ll love our other collection of vegan recipes. The vegan pizza, vegan chicken nuggets, and vegan donuts can also be an excellent addition to your dishes for the 4th of July party. Try the above recipes this Vegan Fourth Of July, and let us know what you think.