Cold-weather vegan recipes

A basic lentil soup is hearty and tastes good. I'm not sure your cooking skill level, but the short version I have below.

Note, pre-soaking the lentils overnight means you will only have to cook them 10-15 minutes instead of what I outline below. I cook them from dry, in the pot.

1. Chop a small onion relatively fine.

2. Chop your other veggies ( I use carrots and celery) into 1cm cubes.

3. In some olive oil soften the onions, maybe a little brown, but nothing super carmelized.

4. Toss the rest of the veggies in, cook 2-3 minutes. A little soft, and some darker color.

5. A tablespoon of tomato paste. Cook until it sticks to the pot and starts to darken.

6. Deglaze with red wine or red wine vinegar

7. Add you lentils, stock, and a jar of tomato sauce/puree. Get it up to a boil, turn it down to a simmer, and cook until lentils are soft. I use dry lentils to start so it takes me extra water, and 3-4 hours on a low simmer until it's done.

8. Season last! The lentils absorb a bunch of liquid, so if you salted it to taste earlier, it might be oversalted at the end.

For soups and stews, there are a plethora of options! I'd recommend just googling and following ones that would be aligned with what your family typically likes.

For my thought process on this topic, I tend to ad-lib my cooking, but look into options like these:

• Taco soup (base should be tomatoes and black/pinto beans. Not corn!)
• To go along with the taco theme, burritos and tacos are super easy. Make sure you have vegan-friendly tortillas (corn!), then load up with pinto beans, black beans, rice (cooked up with garlic and tomatoes), sauteed onions and peppers (bell, jalapeno/chipotle, whatever works!), cilantro, pico de gallo, and most Mexican dishes have side options that will work awesomely. I once did vegan fajitas with the seasoning and peppers, zucchini, and onions, and it worked well for my half-Mexican spouse
• Pumpkin chili (sadly, this one is amazing with pork sausage, but skip that. Also, I never like "fake" options for vegan/vegetarian, so don't get some soy weird stuff unless he's okay with it! But I'm pretty sure the non-vegans will notice and it will make it weird)
• Butternut squash and spaghetti sauce. You can do pasta with vegan spaghetti sauce, but I feel the squash adds a hearty layer, since you'll be skipping the sprinkles of parmesan/romano
• Stir fry: can be done with either rice or noodles, load up on the veggies, and just make sure whatever sauce you're using (no fish sauce, obvs) is vegan friendly.

Sorry I'm not handing any actual recipes over, but I've been cooking stuff similar to this (with and without vegan options) for a while, so I can't really offer that. But hopefully that helps!

https://rainbowplantlife.com/lentil-soup/

https://smittenkitchen.com/2019/08/black-pepper-tofu-and-eggplant/ (This recipe is vegetarian, just have to sub butter)

https://www.budgetbytes.com/african-peanut-stew-vegan/

3 favorites of mine

Another good option is chili, I like to use a plant based ground meat substitute with it