This is a place to catalog my healthy plant-based recipes as I create & experiment with them.
Use GitHub's fancy table of contents ( 
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All recipes can be found in the recipes folder!
Ubiquitous and easy to use, but also causes obesity. :(
- 75% as sweet as sugar
Out of all the sugar alcohols, erythritol is the best in my opinion: its combination of being sweet, low in calories, and easy on your digestive system is pretty rad.
Erythritol bakes & carmelizes in a similar way to sugar, but unlike sugar it cools your mouth down quite a bit when it dissolves. Sometimes this is a fun experience, but when switching a recipe over from sugar to erythritol, it's easy to tell that something's off.
Rather than being digested, erythritol is absorbed through the small intestinal wall into the bloodstream, and then filtered by your kidneys into your urine.
However: if you eat a lot of erythritol, some of it can end up in your large intestine. Large intestinal bacteria can digest erythritol, which means it's no longer zero calories, and it can cause bloating/gassiness/diarrhea/nausea 😟
I read on Meritage that there shouldn't be any problems if you eat 18 grams or less per day, and one study found that you can eat over 50 grams (or 0.5 grams per pound of body weight) without issues.
As long as you aren't binge-eating erythritol desserts, you'll probably be fine.
- 75% as sweet as sugar
Allulose is very similar to erythritol, but it doesn't cool you down when it dissolves. This makes it a much more seamless sugar substitute.
But there are 2 downsides:
- It's expensive
- There hasn't been much research done for it yet
Fortunately, the research we do have seems to show that when consumed in moderation, it's really helpful for digestion & for keeping your blood sugar in control.
I bought some Allulose a little while back, and I noticed that for some reason, the grains are much finer than sugar or erythritol—almost a powder but not quite. It probably shouldn't make a huge difference in most recipes, but I still thought it'd be good to mention.
- 200 times sweeter than sugar
There's a lot of bullsh** on the internet about how aspartame gives you cancer and AIDS and diabetes. I'm happy to put my trust in Wikipedia and its sources:
Reviews have found that even the high levels of intake of aspartame, studied across multiple countries and different methods of measuring aspartame consumption, are well below the acceptable daily intake for safe consumption of aspartame.
I found aspartame packets being sold at $13 for 1000 packets. Each packet has the sweetness of 2 teaspoons of sugar and has a small amount of dextrose & maltodextrin mixed in to give it some more volume.
For reference, whether you buy a 4-pound bag of sugar (227 2-teaspoon servings) or use the equivalent amount of aspartame packets, the cost is the same (about $2.95).
This is pretty great, especially considering how 4 pounds of erythritol costs about $16, and 4 pounds of allulose is around $35 (and with both of these, you need to add 33% extra to match the sweetness of sugar).
But there's a huge caveat: aspartame can lose its sweetness if it's heated, so it isn't great for cooking/baking.
- 200 times sweeter than sugar
Sucralose is very similar to aspartame, but it can be used in baking. It's a bit more expensive—the best deal I could find was $40 for 2000 Splenda packets ($4.54 for the equivalent of a 4-pound bag of sugar)—but it still achieves the same sweetness as erythritol or allulose for a much better price.
- 200 times sweeter than sugar
Very similar to sucralose, but it has "monk" in the name, which is pretty cool. It's also a bit more expensive.
If you want a 1:1 sugar substitute and don't mind spending extra money, you could get a monk fruit/allulose blend on Amazon ($40 for 4 pounds).
- 200 times sweeter than sugar
Stevia is known to have an undesirable aftertaste. It's probably best to avoid using it.
The name “dietary fiber” is given to carbs that the human digestive system can’t break down and use for energy. Dietary fiber aids in digestion and lowers your risk of several diseases (read more on Wikipedia).
People with diabetes (and those on a Keto diet) use the term “net carbs” to describe carbs that have a significant impact on blood sugar levels.
Net carbs include sugar, starch, and maltodextrin.
Starch is made by taking hundreds of sugar molecules and bonding them together. Your body is able to use starch for energy just like sugar, but it has to do some work to break the molecules apart first.
Maltodextrin is usually made by processing starch from wheat or corn using enzymes or other chemicals. You get maltodextrin if you have somewhere between 2 and 10 sugar molecules bonded together. It dissolves in water almost as well as sugar does, so it’s often used for thickening & emulsifying; it also can be mixed with oil to convert it into a powder form. Maltodextrin is found in many processed foods, e.g. Cheetos, Doritos, salt & vinegar chips, and Quaker oatmeal squares.
As far as the work your body does to digest maltodextrin, it’s more work than sugar but less work than starch.
Have you tried “Hero Bread”, “Carb Balance” tortillas, or any other keto-friendly wheat products? They have a crazy high amount of dietary fiber, and the amount of net carbs is very low, sometimes even zero.
The secret is “modified wheat starch” (a.k.a. “digestion-resistant wheat starch”). Instead of just using flour, they extract the starch and then process it (usually using enzymes or other chemicals) so that it becomes resistant to the human digestive system.
In theory, it should just pass through your body like any other type of dietary fiber rather than being converted into energy. The reality is that research on digestion-resistant starch is sparse since it’s still pretty new; one self-experiment found that it has an impact on your blood sugar about 50% as strong as regular corn starch. (But that’s still a pretty nice difference!) The running theory is that your gut bacteria can still digest the resistant starch, and then your body is able to digest the bacteria once they die.
I’ve really enjoyed buying & eating these low-carb wheat foods. Recently I’ve been thinking, “how cool would it be if I could use this modified wheat starch in my own baking?” Instead of white flour, I could use a combination of gluten, bran, and modified starch to get the same result with fewer net carbs.
After an enormous amount of searching, the closest thing I could find was King Arthur brand “Keto Wheat Baking Flour”. It contains a lot of gluten and modified starch, along with a few other ingredients. But this stuff is expensive—normally you can get a 5-pound bag of wheat flour for $6 or less, but 5 pounds of this keto flour is over $40. And keep in mind that it’s a combination of a bunch of ingredients, not just pure modified wheat starch.
The good news is that I found a way to get pure digestion-resistant maltodextrin.
Aside from carbs, other nutrients can be grouped into 3 categories:
There have been many claims that fat is bad for your health and that you should specifically avoid saturated fat and cholesterol.
Unfortunately, not a lot of this research is recent, and it’s difficult to untangle the truth from propaganda funded by the sugar industry.
Many animal products are high in saturated fat & cholesterol; perhaps the primary focus should instead be on reducing intake of animal products. (Eating animal products can lead to increased inflammation, from what I've seen.)
Protein is really straightforward: you need it to survive, and the FDA recommends eating 50 grams of protein a day.
Until recently, my understanding was that I didn’t need any sort of vitamin supplements, since there are already plenty of vitamins & minerals in the food I eat.
But then I heard that vitamin B deficiencies are pretty common, and after getting some blood work done, I found out that I have a vitamin D deficiency.
So now I take multivitamins on a regular basis.
The goal of a paleo diet is to mimic the way humans ate before the agricultural revolution (since stuff like obesity wasn't a problem back then.)
The issue is that simply restricting yourself to certain foods doesn’t address the issue of overeating or not getting enough exercise. Furthermore, selective breeding in agriculture is virtually unavoidable—even if you eat fresh fruits and veggies, it’s pretty much guaranteed that the food you’re eating has been selectively bred over thousands of years to taste better. A banana eaten today has a much higher sugar content than a banana eaten during the stone age.
The other issue is that adhering to the paleo diet prevents you from eating whole grains and legumes, both of which (in my opinion) are healthy foods.
The goal of a keto diet is to reduce the amount of net carbs you consume so that nearly all of your energy comes from fat and protein.
This causes “ketosis”, which means that your body is forced to burn fat for energy.
The keto diet is a highly effective way to lose weight, but drastically reducing carbs can have adverse side effects, such as cramps, headaches, fatigue, and digestive problems.
Vegetarians don't eat meat, and vegans don't eat any animal products.
Committing to a vegetarian/vegan means giving up a lot of really good food, but there are multiple reasons to do it:
- reduce impact of animal products on the environment
- mitigate the animal suffering prevalent in factory farms
- avoid negative health effects such as inflammation
“Gluten” is another name for “wheat protein”.
The benefits of a gluten-free diet are obvious for anyone who has coeliac disease or any other gluten sensitivity: it’s a good idea to avoid gluten if your body can’t handle it.
However, many people don’t have an adverse reaction to wheat but still choose to adopt a gluten-free diet. These people generally believe that protein is a good nutrient, which seems contradictory: what’s the problem with gluten then?
Despite the apparent contradiction, there’s a huge benefit to the gluten-free diet: avoiding gluten means you avoid flour and everything that’s made from it.
Wheat bran is high in fiber, potassium, and multiple other vitamins and minerals. Whole wheat flour contains wheat bran, but white flour is processed so that the bran is removed, and you’re basically left with gluten and a lot of starch. Choosing to go gluten-free means that you’ll avoid eating cookies, muffins, bagels, brownies, and other pastries, all of which use white flour and have a lot of sugar too.
This makes gluten-free a great option for healthy eating. But there’s a caveat: avoiding gluten doesn’t have much of a benefit if you buy gluten-free substitutes that are just as bad. Unless you have a wheat sensitivity, you aren’t doing yourself any favors by eating a gluten-free cookie instead of a flour-based one.
It also means that you miss out on healthy foods like whole wheat bread.
This is obviously just my opinion, but I aim for a high-fiber, low-sugar diet. I don't eat meat and try to eat vegan/keto foods as much as possible.
Dietary fiber is found in vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. Fruits are also a good source of fiber, but I don’t eat them as much since they’re also pretty high in sugar.
Some of my recipe ingredients are not very common, so here's a brief overview (including how I feel about each ingredient and where to get it)
- rating: 10/10
- buy it: Amazon, $3.31/oz
- It seems expensive until you realize that it's the equivalent of over 200 pounds of sugar.
- It's kinda difficult to work with a potent sweetener like this, but it's definitely worth it to me.
- rating: 10/10
- buy it: you gotta make it yourself
- or have a friend hook you up
- Literally just a mix of flour and water. 10/10 since sourdough bread is awesome.
- rating: 10/10
- buy it: Amazon, $0.53/oz
- A pure source of dietary fiber and a potent thickener. Pretty much any recipe with guar gum calls for less than a teaspoon of it, so all you need is one bag of this stuff and you're set.
- (Xanthan Gum is pretty common in keto/gluten-free recipes, but it's much more expensive.)
- rating: 9.5/10
- buy it: Amazon, $0.26/oz
- also in grocery stores
- The quintessential superfood. Add it to oatmeal or smoothies to make them healthier.
- You can also use chia seeds in place of poppy seeds or tapioca when you make muffins or pudding.
- rating: 9.5/10
- buy it: Amazon, $0.46/oz
- also in grocery stores, $0.36/oz
- Impossible ground sausage is by far my favorite plant-based meat substitute. Goes great on pizza, spaghetti, and wherever else you usually use animal sausage.
- rating: 9/10
- buy it: in grocery stores
- margarine $0.10/oz
- butter-flavor shortening, $0.19/oz
- coconut oil, $0.22/oz
- Luckily there are plenty of ways to replace butter in a recipe. Coconut oil works great if you need a high saturated fat content; otherwise there are other cheaper & healthier options such as shortening & margarine.
- rating: 9/10
- buy it: Amazon, $40 for 2000 packets
- A combination of sucralose and maltodextrin. Each packet has the equivalent sweetness of 2 teaspoons of sugar, so that's pretty convenient.
- rating: 9/10
- buy it: Amazon, $0.48/oz
- or get it bundled with wheat gluten for $0.29/oz
- A great way to get dietary fiber in a pure powder form.
- rating: 8.5/10
- buy it: Amazon, $0.37/oz
- or get it bundled with oat fiber for $0.29/oz
- Wheat gluten is a great source of protein and can improve bread texture.
- rating: 8/10
- buy it: Amazon, $0.58/oz
- Regular flour but a lot healthier.
- rating: 7/10
- buy it: Amazon, $0.61/oz
- Pure “digestion-resistant maltodextrin”. Not a lot of research has been done into this stuff; it's probably best to assume that it has half the calories of starch or sugar, and that it does a good job of promoting gut bacteria growth.
- rating: 7/10
- buy it: Amazon, $0.25/oz
- 75% as sweet as sugar, cools your mouth down when it dissolves
- rating: 7/10
- buy it: Amazon, $0.56/oz
- 75% as sweet as sugar, muy expensivo
- rating: 7/10
- buy it: Amazon, $0.58/oz
- also in grocery stores
- A nice (albeit expensive) 1:1 powdered sugar replacement, made with erythritol.
- rating: 7/10
- buy it: Amazon, $0.45/oz
- Some food (like dinner rolls) can taste better with a bit of potato.
Natural and artificial flavors (milk)is one of the ingredients in the potato pearls that I've linked, so it might not be 100% vegan but IMO it's close enough.
- rating: 6.5/10
- buy it: Amazon, $0.80/oz
- also in grocery stores
- In theory, this is supposed to be an easy cheese substitute for vegans. In reality, the taste is kinda weird, but it works pretty well in some recipes.