It is easy to create a vegan or vegetarian version of most of your favorite dishes and improve them by choosing healthier ingredients. Peas, beans and many other protein-rich vegetables are a great substitute for meat, poultry and fish.
The sauces
Sauces are particularly important, especially for rice dishes, couscous or pasta dishes. For all your sauces, split green peas and chickpeas are the perfect substitute for meat, chicken or fish.
Split Peas
It will only be necessary to pre-cook the split peas and the chickpeas before starting the sauce in which they will be integrated. Simply cook them in water. Split peas can melt if you cook them for too long. Stop cooking them when you notice signs of crushing peas.
Chickpeas
Chickpeas should be tender, but not fully cooked. Some people prefer them skinless. For this, you can use a colander to separate the juice and save it for the sauce. Then, with clean hands, gently rub the peas against each other and put them in a large bowl filled with water. All the skins will rise to the surface. Get rid of them and save your peas for the sauce. If you are using precooked and frozen chickpeas, put them in just enough water to cover them in a bowl and heat them for two or three minutes in the microwave oven, depending on the power setting of your microwave oven and you can proceed to remove the skins.
Black Eyed Peas, Large Kidney Beans and Black Beans
Black eyed peas are excellent prepared on the side and served with all types of fried rice with vegetables or added to salads. As for large kidney beans, they are perfect in stew served with pasta, especially “farfalle” pasta. Black beans are perfect in stew served alongside many dishes or added to salads.
