Lightened Up Family Favorites

Vegetarian Taco Salad and Soup

I hope that you love this vegetarian taco salad and vegetarian fall soup. This post is all about comfort food at its finest, updated for modern times! Let’s talk. Have you ever taken an old-time family recipe passed down from generations and lightened it up?

I have made several of my family’s recipes for our current lifestyle with excellent results. These recipes can be transformed to work for a variety of health conditions. One of my favorite activities with clients is to take an old recipe they love and make it new, improved, and delicious while better meeting their dietary needs!

I also have to be honest that sometimes you can’t change a special family recipe, and we talk about how to work it in while eating mindfully, savoring it, and enjoying it even more than ever. Some recipes should not be changed to keep their integrity. A good example is a holiday cookie that is eaten and shared once a year, so if the texture and flavor are affected a lot by changes, I think they need to stay as they are.

However, the recipes that have been adapted are often better than before. I wanted to share two family recipes that have been passed down from our families that I have lightened up. I think you will love the changes that I have made!

Here are a few tips that I use to update a recipe:

1. Choose a healthier fat in your recipe instead of the old one listed.
   
2. Reduce sugar & fat in a recipe by about 25 % in many recipes.
   
3. Add herbs, spices, dried fruits, fruit peels, and flavoring extracts in savory recipes.
   
4. Try making some of my favorite meat recipes plant-based by including more vegetables and meat alternatives.
   
5. Reduce salt in recipes and increase the flavor with herbs, spices, vinegar, and citrus juice.

It’s soup season! And soup is a great way to get some additional vegetables in your day and warm your heart and soul on a cold day! With all the extra veggies, it is excellent cancer prevention, builds a healthy immune system, and keeps you full so you don’t overeat to help maintain and achieve a healthy weight! Soups are also an excellent way for seasonal eating because you can use what’s available at the local farmers’ markets!

Recipe for Vegetarian Soup and Vegetarian Taco Salad

Grandma Ida’s Famous Vegetable Fall Soup

I adapted my great-grandmother Ida’s recipe to make it vegetarian. Growing up, it has been one of my son’s favorites, and he even asked to have it on his birthday! This recipe went from fatty hamburger meat that Grandma Ida used to make during the Depression and beyond. She used canned veggies also.  Next came my mom’s changes when she started using beef stew and fresh carrots, potatoes, and frozen vegetables. And then to my latest plant-based, vegetarian version!

46-ounce tomato juice or tomato and vegetable mixture

2 1/2 cup vegetable broth

One stalk of chopped celery

1/3 cup chopped onions

1 ½ cup sliced carrots

16-ounce frozen mixed vegetables

3-4 potatoes, cut into ¾-1 inch chunks

One teaspoon of dried thyme

1-2 large bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon salt

15-ounce can of tomatoes

½ teaspoon pepper

½ head cabbage cut into wedges and chunks

In a large stock pot, saute onions, potatoes, and carrots until softened. Add 2 ¼ cups water and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add frozen vegetables, ¼ teaspoon salt, 15-ounce tomato sauce, and pepper. Simmer 30 minutes longer.

You can also add seasonal greens or even beets to it! You can also use fresh herbs!

Wanda’s Taco Salad Recipe

I want to share this family favorite from my husband’s family. His Aunt Lillian made it every Christmas Eve for their family gathering and celebration of her husband’s birthday. My mother-in-law Wanda started making it, and later, I started making a version. Wanda’s recipe uses hamburger and flavored taco chips; mine is now a vegetarian version!

Makes six meal-size servings

One can of rinsed and drained kidney beans (try garbanzo beans or lentils if kidney beans are an IBS trigger)

1/2 cup chopped red onion (or if onions are an IBS trigger, use chopped chives or the green portion of scallions)

One package of soy or pea crumbles (you could even use cooked, seasoned crumbled tempeh)

One large tomato, chopped

One medium-sized head of iceberg lettuce (I use iceberg if I make it ahead of time or if I think there will be leftovers; however,
if I make small individual servings to be eaten immediately, I might use any dark green lettuce)

Salad dressing Simply Vinaigrette Italian Dressing | Ken’s Dressings (kensfoods.com) or for a garlic onion-free version Low FODMAP Garden Herb Salad Dressing | Fody Food Co. – FODY Food Co. – USA (fodyfoods.com)

Garlic oil

Taco Salad Seasonings

Freshly ground cumin (1 teaspoon)

One tablespoon chili powder (Fody Foods and Spices | Penzeys make an onion and garlic free)
Garlic oil

Toppings for Taco Salad

Shredded cheddar (or vegan alternative)

Corn Chips

Salsa Mexican Salsa | Frontera (fronterafoods.com) or for an onion and garlic free Low FODMAP Ketchup & Salsas – Onion & Garlic-Free! – FODY Food Co. – USA (fodyfoods.com)

Sliced avocados, chopped cilantro, sliced jalapenos

Cook the meat alternative crumbles in garlic oil and add seasonings. Allow to cool. Wash lettuce and tear it into small pieces. Chop your choice of onions.

Wash and chop the tomato. Add lettuce, onion, and tomato. After the meat alternative has cooled, add that and top with cheese or cheese or cheese alternative.

If you will serve all the salad at once, add salad dressing and salsa and toss. Serve in bowls and top with chips and avocado.

If not ready to serve the entire salad, serve the amount needed, add salad dressing and salsa, each individually, and then add salsa, dressing, and toppings.

Here are Some Additional Recipes that You May Enjoy Also

Here are a few additional tasty ideas:

Vegetarian Lunch Ideas for Work

Ways to Swap Vegetarian Substitutions for Meat Ingredients in Your Favorite Recipes

To make vegetarian favorite recipes, try these best vegetarian meat alternatives. And don’t forget that some of these are more highly processed than others.

I also love adding roasted winter squash, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, and mushrooms instead of meat (watch portions and make vegetable substitutions if you are sensitive to a few of these fodmap foods).

9 Best Vegan Meat Substitutes – Clean Green Simple

Make Some Veggie Taco Salad and Vegetable Soup

I hope you enjoy my lightened Veggie Taco Salad and Vegetable Fall Soup versions. These are two very sentimental recipes. I hope you get a chance to make a few of your own recipes. Here is a bit of plant-based eating inspiration!

I love giving my recipes a little facelift, whether to freshen them up or make them a little healthier. As a registered dietitian nutritionist working in Asheville, I love to help my clients find healthy ways to eat that they will enjoy! Recipe makeovers can be one of the ways that we can do it! I hope you feel inspired to make a few changes in the kitchen to make your favorites even better! You can find some ways I work with my clients on the Vine Ripe website! What recipe have you lightened up, and how did it work out?