I had this insanely delicious, insanely healthy salad at a friend's house and demanded the recipe. It's from an Atlanta chef who goes by "Souper Jenny." I use the apricot jam. You have to try it. I find quinoa kind of a pain to cook (I hate the rinsing) but will happily do it to make this salad. The combination of ingredients make it sound weird, but honestly this is my new favorite food ever.

Recipe: Super healthy red quinoa with sundried cherries, kale, edamame, and ginger vinaigrette
"Souper Jenny Does Salads"
Ingredients
Vinaigrette
1/4 cup rice vinegar
4 tablespoons cherry or apricot jam
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled
1/2 shallot , peeled
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
Salad
2 cups red quinoa
4 cups water
2 cups Lacinto kale, leaves removed from ribs, julienned
1 cup shelled, cooked edamame
1 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup scallions, chopped
1 cup toasted slivered almonds
Preparation
To make the vinaigrette, put vinegar, jam, ginger and shallot in a blender and whirl, slowly adding oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

For the salad, bring 4 cups of water and 2 cups quinoa to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes. Check quinoa. It should be firm, but cooked through. Drain and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine quinoa, kale, scallions, edamame, cherries and almonds. Slowly add dressing and combine until well mixed.

Serving Size
Serves 6

I love this recipe for Cauliflower, Potato and Pea Curry: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/cauliflower-potato-and-pea-curry

I use the dressing from this recipe. I steam broccoli, dice up tri-color peppers (red, orange, yellow), sometimes add bean sprouts, snap peas or snow peas, grated carrots, (e.g whatever I'm in the mood for) and then some whole wheat rotini pasta. It's been hugely popular at home and at pot-lucks: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/asian-pasta-salad-with-beef-broccoli-and-bean-sprouts/

I like these recipes:

http://veganyumyum.com/

I think there's even an app

also

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/

A lot of Indian food is vegan, if you like Indian food I can share some easy recipes with you.
There are also tons of blogs out there which have fantastic vegan recipes.
This one is really good
http://www.veganricha.com/
Let me know if you would like more.

Also a huge bean slow cooker family here. We rotate between chick peas, black, white, and pinto beans in the slow cooker, and do red and puy lentils on the stove. What we eat that week is based on what beans we have.

We also do a lot of protein-based "grains" like millet, quinoa, and amaranth.

But then again, we also do processed fake meat, but we have kids (not sure if you do) so it's pretty helpful to do some millet with spaghetti sauce, frozen spinach, and fake meat balls. And embrace daiya cheese so we can do black bean quesadillas/burritos with veggies. And buy boxed tofu scramble for breakfast. If you have kids, you may want to consider SOME processed foods for convenience (and if you don't have kids, weird to ask for advice here).

The Professional Vegetarian is a GREAT cookbook and is vegan. Also love The Passionate Vegetarian which is heavily vegan and has vegan options.

I love Vegan with a Vengeance (the cookbook), and her website: http://www.theppk.com/recipes/

Search pinterest

I bought "how to cook everything vegitarian" which also has a lot of explanation for vegan modification.

We do Lentil soup, black beans and rice, quinoa dishes, tofu. I alternate between about 10 types of legumes in my pantry.

Sorry, seems that you are leaning toward Vegan, can't help I do a ton of Vegetarian, not sure what I would do without my eggs and dairy! Not to mention, I run about 35miles a week and my body aches for protein.

So, I am moving towards eating vegan, for healthy reasons. I am not super-strict. E.g., my favorite brand of breakfast cereal has some animal products, and I am not ready to switch brands, but I have switched to rice milk, I am not eating eggs, but I'm still using eggs in some recipes (like baking), and so on. I am trying to avoid buying a bunch of processed stuff, and I'm not a big meat eater anyway, so I'm not really interested in veggie burger brands, etc.

I am starting to get bored with my standard fair. Any recipes or ideas from more experienced vegans/vegetarians?