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    What Vegans Eat: Polar Vortex Edition

    Published: Feb 1, 2019 · Modified: May 6, 2021 by Cadry Nelson
    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please see my Privacy Policy for more details.

    Hand holding three chickpea tacos on plate.

    Bare trees in a snowy yard during Polar Vortex.

    Hello from the Polar Vortex!

    As you’ve no doubt heard, this week much of the country was gripped with record-setting cold temperatures. We were getting warnings that going outside was to be avoided.

    (Spoilers: At its coldest, it got to -22 with a wind chill of -51.)

    They warned that being outside for just 5 minutes threatened frost bite to exposed skin, and could make it feel like your eyeballs were freezing!

    Branches and snow covered yard during Polar Vortex.

    So David and I planned to hunker down. In the preceding days, we stocked up on the essentials. We geared up for all-day pajamas, kitty cuddling, and keeping a blanket close at hand.

    I even bought a new basket for the blanket that lives on the couch. After watching her show, Marie Kondo inspired me anew to give things that bring me joy a proper place to store them.

    Avon sitting in basket that says home on the front.

    Avon jumped into it the second I got it in the door. Obviously, he knows who really brings me joy.

    Since we wouldn’t be leaving the house, I figured I’d have free time to document my meals for the day. For a long while, documenting my vegan breakfast, lunch, and dinner was a monthly occurrence here on the blog.

    You can see a year of easy vegan meals here.

    But it had been quite a while since I showed my regular, everyday meals – what I eat when I’m not creating a recipe for the blog. In fact, the last time was way back in May 2018 in this post called, What foods do vegans eat?

    Bird feeder covered in snow during Polar Vortex.

    So onto today’s topic: What vegans eat during the Polar Vortex. (Hopefully this won’t be a recurring theme!)

    For breakfast I started with one of my regular favorites – avocado toast.

    avocado toast with Everything But the Bagel seasoning and sriracha tofu on plate.

    I topped it with nutritional yeast flakes, Everything But the Bagel seasoning, and a few slices of baked sriracha tofu. 

    (Some of my favorite vegan Trader Joe’s products! If you don’t live near TJ’s, Susan also has a recipe for making your own Everything But the Bagel seasoning at home.)

    Avocado toast with tofu in front of window.

    When I’m not using prepared baked tofu, I also like topping my avocado toast with eggy tofu and/or seitan bacon for an extra punch of protein.

    (It’s pretty self-explanatory, but here’s a vegan avocado toast recipe for more info.)

    A few hours later, I was feeling snacky. So I pulled out some chips and salsa to tide us over until lunch.

    Chips and salsa on plate.

    It really wouldn’t be a What Vegans Eat post without tacos, right? It seems like they show up in about 50% of this series.

    Tacos can be made so many ways. Black bean tacos, sweet potato tacos, jackfruit carnitas tacos…

    But this day I went with a classic – chickpea tacos. I’ve been making chickpea tacos since I was a brand new vegan. 

    Chickpea taco mixture in skillet.

    I sautéed chickpeas with onions, garlic, and red bell pepper. Then I added my favorite seasonings.

    They went inside hard corn shells with spinach, onion, avocado, non-dairy cheese, and a drizzling of Truff sauce, my preferred hot sauce of the moment.

    Hand holding three chickpea tacos on plate.

    Around dinnertime, David and I were talking about how meal preferences seem to go in waves. For a while, you make the same thing week after week. And then one day, you stop.

    Years later, you look back and go, “Oh, yeah. We used to have that all the time!”

    It got us thinking about one such meal that we had weekly when we first went vegan – greens sautéed with onions & garlic with added seitan sausage.

    Sometimes we’d have it on its own.

    Other times I’d serve it with potatoes and/or sauerkraut.

    Sometimes I’d add a drizzle of horseradish mayo, like I have in my vegan French dip sandwich recipe.

    I even used it as a pizza topping on a cornmeal crust!

    Over time and for no particular reason, I stopped making it. So we decided to have that for dinner.

    Sauteed greens with seitan sausage in skillet.

    This time I did a mixture of curly kale and collard greens with onions and garlic.

    Instead of sautéing in plain oil, I used Ethiopian spiced infused oil that I always have on hand. It adds additional yum to any dish. The recipe is in one of my all-time favorite cookbooks, Teff Love.

    I had some leftover garlic sausage in the freezer from the Herbivorous Butcher Valentine’s Day pack. (You can see how I used the rest of it in my vegan risotto & vegan arancini.) So I browned that and added it to the greens.

    Sauteed greens with seitan sausage and tater tots.

    Then we had it with tater tots that I cooked in the air fryer, because tots up the cozy quotient by at least 20%.

    So that was our breakfast, lunch, and dinner from the worst day of the Polar Vortex. Although, we didn’t get through unscathed!

    Cally sleeping on the hammock.

    The next morning we woke up, and the pipes were frozen. So we were without water. We set up a space heater to blow on the pipes in the basement.

    But what really got them going was David using a blow dryer on them. The water is back… And the pipes look so fancy with their new ‘do! 😉

    David blow drying frozen pipes in basement.

    Thankfully, the weather is turning around already. This weekend we’re looking at temperatures in the 40’s.

    Phew! As nice as it is to stay cuddled up at home, it will be even nicer to go out and see the world again.

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    About Cadry Nelson

    Cadry Nelson is the writer, photographer, and recipe creator behind Cadry’s Kitchen, a vegan food & lifestyle blog started in 2009. Through approachable recipes, vegan travel guides, and down-to-earth discussions on the social aspects of being vegan, Cadry shows that living a vegan lifestyle is deliciously uncomplicated. Cadry has been featured on NBC News, Mashable, Today, Reader's Digest, Yahoo, Delish, Shape, and Huffington Post.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Kari

      February 01, 2019 at 2:23 pm

      Can’t wait till my hubby gets home and we get to lock ourselves in and let the snow fall! Now you have me in a toss up between tater tots and tacos. Lol

      Reply
      • Cadry

        February 01, 2019 at 3:11 pm

        Oh, the nice thing about that decision is that you’re a winner either way! Enjoy your cozy weekend.

        Reply
    2. Susan

      February 03, 2019 at 6:19 pm

      I am still horrified that you had to blow dry the water in your pipes! Such coldness, does not compute. But what an excellent day of snug, cozy food. I am glad that you were well stocked up. And had kitties to keep you warm.

      Avon is a joy for everyone!

      Reply
      • Cadry

        February 04, 2019 at 9:28 am

        Yes, that was waaaaaaay too cold! I’d never experienced anything quite like that in terms of the warnings we were getting to basically just stay indoors for a day and a half. Thankfully, it has passed now! This weekend I was walking around outside without a coat. It felt terrific! Aw, I’m glad Avon is a joy for everyone. He’s such a special boy. 🙂

        Reply
    3. Shell

      February 04, 2019 at 8:19 am

      We were recently introduced to Everything But the Bagel seasoning and it is a hit in our house. Our favorite way to use it is on popcorn. And you know I love anything with chickpeas – the tacos look great. I’ll have to keep the blow dryer technique in my bag of tricks. I wouldn’t have thought of that.

      Reply
      • Cadry

        February 04, 2019 at 9:31 am

        That’s a good idea to use Everything But the Bagel seasoning on popcorn! I bet that tastes delicious. The blow dryer idea was a stroke of genius. David mentioned on FB that our pipes were frozen, and Teri suggested that. It worked like a charm!

        Reply
    4. Penny

      February 18, 2019 at 6:20 pm

      That photo of Avon is perfect! It looks like y’all had a cozy and yummy polar vortex (I have a hard time even imagining weather that cold as a Texan lol.) I’ve been on an avocado toast kick lately too–it’s so simple but so good, and tacos are always a win. 🙂

      Reply
      • Cadry

        February 19, 2019 at 10:09 am

        I totally agree on the delicious simplicity of avocado toast. I just don’t seem to tire of it! I can’t wait until this weather is just a thing of my imagination too. 🙂

        Reply

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    I’m a longtime vegan. (15 years!) But I grew up eating a Standard American Diet. I know that all of us crave foods that are familiar, comforting, and delicious.

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