Go-To Vegan Recipes for Hungry Ultrarunners

 
abby-cordis-hall-blog-ultrarunner-vegan-recipes.jpg
abby-cordis-hall-blog-ultrarunner-vegan-recipes.jpg

Two truths and a lie:

  • Cordis’ Whole Foods hot bar dinner once weighed in at $36.

  • We once finished off the most expensive, lovely dinner of our lives with onigiri from 7/11.

  • An older man once approached me at a dinner party while I was eating pizza rolls and said, “I have never seen someone eat with such passion.”

Just kidding, these are all truths.

We both have big appetites, even for ultrarunners. Before we even met (and honestly before we were even both running ultras) we were both dinner-out-of-salad-bowl kinda people. I have a hunch many of you tuning in here might be, too. When the training volume gets high, the food volume does too. That’s a rule.

The vegan part, well - there’s lots to unpack there, and you can expect a future post on how we both arrived to that decision. In the meantime, lots of you have asked me on Instagram for recipes! I always want to circle back to DMs and remember to share that cake recipe or how we came up with that stroganoff, but often it gets lost in the shuffle. Truth be told, the interest level in it to begin with was one of the reasons I wanted to start this site: some running stuff, some trip reports, some home improvement, some vegan food.

I probably try around 5-6 new recipes a week, and to be honest, most of them don’t stick. But the ones that do meet the following criteria:

  1. Vegan.

  2. Very filling.

  3. Colorful. Or comforting. (Doesn’t always have to be both.)

  4. Adaptable ingredients. (Not gonna buy, say - mirin - for a one-time recipe, but if it proves itself as a staple and easily pivots to other Japanese food, count me in.)

TLDR; these are some of our favorite go-to recipes, are all vetted by me (write to me if they fail or you hate them) and are core to keeping us up and running!

Breakfast: It’s Oats, Avo Toast, or Any of the Following.

  • Power Hungry Chickpea Frittata - protip: use any sauteed vegetables. Make it easier by chucking in any you might have leftover from the night before.

  • Minimalist Baker Cinnamon Rolls - worth the time. Prep on Friday night for decadence the next morning. Good for either procrastinating on your long run or rewarding yourself after.

  • Kimchi rice bowls - Kimchi + Instant Pot rice (3 min) + Bitchin’ Sauce + avocado + sesame seeds. Once the kimchi is rolling, it makes quick nutritionally dense meals so easy.

  • Love & Lemons French Toast - This one is the best because it uses nutritional yeast (or as we call it, Nutty Ye, as in KanYE). Gets that tang.

  • Kelly Wolf’s Sweet Potato Pancakes - Kelly is always so inspiring with her nutritionally dense meals ‘round the clock! This one makes me feel like I’m getting the good stuff, while eating pancakes. Win win.

Lunch: Make It The Easiest Meal of the Day.

  • Run Fast Eat Slow Moroccan Lentil Salad - (scroll down on the link, or better yet just get the book). Pulse everything but the lentils and couscous in a food processor to make it quick.

  • Feasting at Home Asparagus Salad - You can make a lot of substitutions here based on what’s seasonal near you. I made some last week with green beans which was great! Sub in Violife vegan feta FTW.

  • Sweet potato + rice + avocado + hummus + leftovers. No recipe for this, but man - I’ve probably eaten for 75% of my work lunches over the past four years. Cook your sweet potato in the office microwave, just not at peak time or they’ll start to give you weird nicknames. We were getting the rice packets from Costco, but were bumming about all of the plastic. Maybe the move is pre-made rice scooped into a to-go container for work? Anyone have ideas?

Dinner: Top Off the Stores.

Snacks: Everywhere.

Dessert: Every Day.

*Rolls up sleeves.* Let’s gooooo.

Let me know in the comments below what you think, if you try any of these and what you’d like to see more of!

 
Abbyrecipes, vegan, ultrarunningComment