8 Plant-Based Recipes to Maintain Healthy Blood Pressure During the Holidays

High blood pressure can be very dangerous. It can cause heart disease or stroke. The foods that we eat play a very important role in how high or healthy our blood pressure is. High blood pressure is often caused by a diet rich in processed meats like bacon, sausage, and lunch meat, salty foods, fatty meats, fried food, whole milk dairy products, and an excess of butter and margarine.

Plant-based foods are much healthier for maintaining your blood pressure, so we put together a list of eight recipes from our Food Monster App that will help you maintain healthy blood pressure during the holidays. Enjoy!

1. Roasted Beet Noodles with Pesto and Baby Kale

Source: Roasted Beet Noodles with Pesto and Baby Kale

A creamy vegan pesto sauce over Roasted Beet Noodles with some baby kale for a bit of crunch and earthiness. This recipe by Alissandra Maffucci comes together so effortlessly and can be easily customized, depending on your appetite. The beet pairs well with the pesto here and the kale ties everything together for more texture and flavor. Plus, it’s elegant, whole, unprocessed, and fresh.

2. Power Bread with Sunflower Seeds, Flax, Sesame, and Pumpkin Seeds

Source: Power Bread with Sunflower Seeds, Flax, Sesame, and Pumpkin Seeds

You do not need to be an experienced baker for Selva Wohlgemuth‘s delicious nutrient-dense Power Bread, and you will not have a kitchen covered from head to toe in flour. All you need is a food processor, a bowl, your baking tins, and just 15 minutes of your time.

3. Roasted Veggie Moroccan Tagine

Source: Roasted Veggie Moroccan Tagine

What’s not to love about perfectly roasted veggies, delicious rich tomato, and harissa gravy in the theatre of the Tagine? Susie Garden‘s recipe was inspired by my travels in Morocco, and it’s super easy to make back home, with or without a tagine to cook it in.

4. Nutritious Chili Salad

Source: Nutritious Chili Salad

Most vegetables can be eaten raw for maximum nutrition. But there are exceptions, like tomatoes. One key nutrient of tomatoes is lycopene, which is one of the rare antioxidants that happen to increase when heated. Therefore the tomatoes are heated with the beans in this Nutritious Chili Salad, but everything else is raw. Ida Hemmingsson-Holl‘s recipe has lots of greens (the healthiest one can eat), lots of heated lycopene (tomatoes), good fats from the avocado, inflammation-busting raw onion, garlic and ginger, and good proteins in the beans.

5. 4-Ingredient Pistachio Nice Cream

Source: 4-Ingredient Pistachio Nice Cream

In a world of chocolate and vanilla, Pistachio ice Cream can be tough to come across. Luckily, you can make your own at home using only four ingredients! This recipe by Aryane Héroux-Blais is made using vanilla non-dairy milk, frozen bananas, avocado, and raw pistachios, but you would never guess that because the texture is strikingly similar to gelato. Finally, for a cute soft-serve ice cream shape, use a pastry piping bag to make swirls!

6. Kale Salad With Chili Lime Roasted Squash and Garlic Sriracha Vinaigrette

Source: Kale Salad With Chili Lime Roasted Squash and Garlic Sriracha Vinaigrette

Plenty of veggies make the dish so much more interesting and fun. Linda Wagner‘s Kale Salad has a lot of components and will take a little prep time but it is so worth it. The flavors complement each other so nicely!

7. Veggie Quinoa Bowl

Source: Veggie Quinoa Bowl

Jesse Jane Lee‘s Veggie Quinoa Bowl is so yummy and filling it will leave meat lovers without room for seconds. It contains a mix of crunchy raw veggies, protein-packed nuts, seeds, tofu, and quinoa and is topped off with an addicting creamy vegan sauce. You can play around with the recipe by mixing up the veggies, grains, nuts, and seeds, with whatever you have on hand.

8. Mexican Black Bean Soup

Source: Mexican Black Bean Soup

Jesse Jane Lee‘s Mexican Black Bean Soup is packed with veggies and Mexican spices that warm you up on a chilly day. It is full of fiber from the black beans and is vegan and gluten-free.

Related Content:

• 5 Food and Wellness Habits to Follow if You Have High Blood Pressure
• 10 Plant-Based Foods to Encourage Healthy Blood Pressure
• How a Plant-Based Diet Can Naturally Lower Blood Pressure
• How a Plant-Based Diet Can Reduce High Blood Pressure and Cognitive Decline
• 15 Plant-Based Recipes with Blood Pressure Lowering Ingredients