Top 3 diabetes vegan recipes

Diabetes is one of the more common diseases in the United States of America and worldwide. Numbers in the US are around 30 million cases, with 25% of the persons with the disease not even realising it. We think these numbers are quite alarming. Luckily, a vegan diet can have great beneficial effects on your life when you have diabetes. So today we will help you with our top 3 diabetes vegan recipes, that are not only delicious and healthy, they also help you gain control over your diabetes.

Diabetes, or in full Diabetes mellitus, is the disorder where you have too much sugar in the blood. This causes a malfunction in the body to maintain steady blood sugar levels.

There is a distinction between the most commonly known varieties of diabetes: type 1 and type 2.

Type 1 is also called ketoacidosis, where the body becomes more acidic. This is where the pancreas can’t produce any insulin and thus a pump or needle is required to administer extra insulin to the body.

Type 2 is where the body doesn’t produce enough insulin itself, or your body reacts poorly to insulin. This is the most commonly known variety of diabetes and can be found in people of all ages.

Symptoms of diabetes are for example:

• being very thirsty,
• have the urge to pee a lot,
• experience a dry mouth,
• feeling (very) tired,
• experience eye inflammation,
• losing weight without explaination,
• suffer from infections.

We recommend seeing a medical specialist when you suffer these symptoms and can’t really place their origin. We all feel tired every now and then, so that is no reason to see a doctor right away. But when you keep feeling that way, something might be wrong and an expert opinion can help you out.

Lifestyle is of the utmost importance for people that suffer from diabetes. A healthy diet plays a large role.

This study shows that a vegan diet stimulates a healthy gut flora, which in turn is linked to loss of weight, reduction of body fat and healthier blood sugar. Basically, what this study shows is veganism reduces the risk of diabetes. The author says there are evident positive effects on the risk of diabetes by changing your gut flora.

So, a vegan lifestyle might result in more healthy blood sugar and insulin levels. This in turn will help blood sugar to enter cells. It is important to keep your meals low carb, as carbs will result in weight gain. A vegan diet is actually pretty perfect for that. Much research has been done on the effect of veganism on body weight and it seems that many people with a vegan lifestyle have less excess body weight or obesity.

Yes, at this moment, we see a shift in the perception of the general public. But a vegan lifestyle is still associated with negative feelings, or being very unhealthy. Many people think a vegan diet will cause you to miss out on a lot of essential nutrients and thus life an unhealthy life. As soon as you start talking with these people however, they quickly realise that a vegan diet is nothing short of spectacular when it comes to choices of what to eat. They also soon realise that a vegan lifestyle is very different than what they thought it was and see that you basically don’t lack anything.

In the last couple of years, we see a clear shift in the way veganism is treated by the main stream media and shops. Where in the past, there were hardly any vegan products besides fruit, veggies and nuts, nowadays there are whole shelves filled with new vegan products. More and more companies aim to win over vegans with a wide range of products like vegan burgers, vegan cheese and vegan milk. This also shows in the amount of commercials and promotions for vegan products.

This is great news, as it opens up a whole lot of possibilities for exciting and delicious recipes. Today we will show you our top 5 diabetes vegan recipes. Although you will mostly need “oldskool” vegan products to make them, they are proven delicious and super healthy. We personally like the pure and unprocessed vegan products better than all the new kind of vegan meat and dairy products. That being said, they can be a welcome change to any diet though.

Mac and cheese is one of the all-time classics, for non-vegans as well as vegans. Vegan macaroni and cheese is pretty simple to make, delicious and pretty low on fat. This dish is great if you want to lose some weight and control some of the diabetes side effects.

Here is what you will need for 1-2 persons.

• 50 gr (1,75 oz) of macaroni.
• 130 ml of almond milk.
• 1 table spoon of corn starch.
• 2 table spoons of nutritional yeast.
• A bit of pepper.
• 60 gr (2,12 oz) of vegan mozzarella.
• 70 gr (2,46 oz) of veggies like courgette or cauliflower, we use cut up courgette for this recipe.
• To top off the dish, another 20 gr of mozzarella and 2 table spoons of bread crumbs.

How to prepare the vegan mac and cheese.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C or 392F. Meanwhile cook the macaroni until its slightly undercooked (about 1-2 minutes shorter than al dente according to the package). Rinse the macaroni with cold water.

Mix the almond milk, corn starch, yeast and pepper. Heat the mixture on a medium fire. Once the mix has thickened, turn off the heat. Add the vegan mozzarella, the macaroni and the courgette and mix it all through the warm mix. Then put the whole mix in a dish and top it off with the extra mozzarella and bread crumbs. Put it back in the heated oven for another 10 minutes, until the top is nice and crispy and golden brownish in colour.

You’re all set to enjoy your very own vegan mac and cheese. We are sure you won’t be disappointed!

Pizza is one of the favourite meals in the world nowadays. Ask a random person what they like best and there is a good chance they say pizza. However when you suffer from diabetes, or are vegan, your options get a bit more limited. Luckely we’ve got you covered with this delicious vegan pizza with cauliflower and pesto. Cauliflower is a great replacement for many high carb foods and can be considered for a lot of dishes.

This is what you need for 2 persons.

• 2 cups of cauliflower rice. You can make it from fresh cauliflower by cutting up a cauliflower and grate the pieces down using a box grater with medium sized holes.
• 2 tablespoons of flax seed meal.
• 5 tablespoons of water.
• One third of a cup of almond flour.
• 2 teaspoons of dried oregano.
• ½ teaspoon of onion powder.
• ½ teaspoon of salt (sea salt).
• Some fresh basil leaves.
• Your own favourite toppings, like paprika and mushrooms.

You can make the pesto yourselves, or buy it directly as vegan basil pesto. Making it yourself is more work, but also more rewarding.

Here is what you will need:

• 250 g of fresh basil leaves.
• 50 g of fresh parsley.
• 80 ml of olive oil – extra virgin.
• 3 cloves of garlic.
• 50 g of pine nuts.
• 2 tablespoons of walnuts.
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.
• A bit of pepper and sea salt.

How to prepare the pizza and the pesto?

First turn on the oven, as this will have to pre-heat to 190°C, or 375 F.

Let’s start by making the pesto, as this is super easy and quick. Basically put everything in the blender or food processor and mix until you have a smooth blend. You will know what pesto has to look like, so that won’t be difficult.

The pizza itself starts with making your cauliflower rice. This can be done with a box grater. After you have the needed rice, you will have to cook it for 5 minutes. After cooking, dry up the rice as much as possible with a strainer or towel and put it aside for about 5 minutes.

Next, mix the flax seed meal and water and form it into a ball. Next get a bowl and put the dried cauliflower rice, the meal ball, the almond flour, oregano, onion powder and sea salt in. It’s time to get your hands dirty and make a smooth mix of all the ingredients in the bowl. Once this is done, get a piece of baking paper and spread the dough to make the pizza bottom and crust. Bake this bottom for about 30 minutes in the pre-heated oven.

After 30 minutes, take it out and put your favourite toppings, like tomato sauce, paprika and mushrooms. Bake the whole pizza for another 15 minutes.

Finally, take the pizza out of the oven and spread your freshly made pesto, plus some fresh basil leaves onto it. You are now ready to enjoy your delicious, homemade vegan pizza with fresh pesto.

Is this the ideal breakfast? Well, tastes differ, but this one is super tasty, low carb and thus super diabetes-friendly. It’s super healthy too, as berries are loaded with anti-oxidants, nice and creamy and – very important for many people – easy and quick to make! This vegan smoothie is made with any topping you like. You can use blueberries, strawberries, raspberries or something else. It is completely up to you.

We love smoothies. You can read more super healthy smoothie recipes here. This smoothie can be used for breakfast, or afternoon snack.

Here is what you need to make this smoothie bowl for 2 persons.

• ½ cup of almond milk. We prefer unsweetened for obvious reasons.
• 3 cups of ice cubes.
• A scoop of vanilla vegan protein powder.
• 1 tablespoon of coconut oil.
• 1 teaspoon of phyllium husk powder for your fibre intake.
• About 10 drops of sweetener, like liquid stevia.
• Your own choice in topping, like mentioned above.

How to make your vegan smoothie bowl with berries.

It really can’t be any simpler. All you will need is a blender and a 2 bowls. First add the ice cubes to the blender and mix it for 5 minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients and make a smooth blend. All you need to do is put the smoothie blend in the bowls, add some more fresh berries onto the smoothie and voila; you are ready to enjoy a super nice and healthy smoothie!

In this recipe, we have used berries. If you like to change things up a bit, you can also use other fruits, like pine apple, mango or banana. We love smoothies because the only limit to what you can do is your own imagination.

Today we have given you 3 great vegan recipes that are super diabetes-friendly. A vegan diet is great for your body and has many health benefits. Everybody can give it a try and see what it does for your own body.

We will keep scouring the web for more and new diabetes vegan recipes and test them out. The best ones will be posted on our website, to give you a full recipe book before you know it.

If you have any questions concerning going vegan or vegan recipes, please contact us, subscribe to our newsletter or leave a comment below. We are happy to help you via our own experience!