‘3 Iron-Rich Vegan Meals I’ve Been Making On Repeat’

Shakayla Felice is a plant-based content creator who shares recipes focused on nourishment, ease, and balance. Her YouTube channel features simple meal ideas made with everyday ingredients. In her latest video, she shows how to build iron-rich vegan meals that also taste great.

Felice explains that she recently discovered her iron levels were low. That led her to rethink how she eats and to start paying closer attention to nutrients. The recipes in this video are ones she’s been making often – because they’re packed with iron, fiber, and vitamin C (which helps iron absorption).

The meals are all colorful, filling, and easy to prepare. Felice gives tips for swapping ingredients and explains the role of certain nutrients along the way. It’s a practical guide for anyone who wants to improve their iron intake with whole, plant-based food.

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Beet greens and carrot top pesto pasta

Felice starts with a bright pasta dish built around a homemade pesto. She uses beet greens and carrot tops – two ingredients she admits she used to throw away. “I didn’t know that you could even cook with them,” she says. After trying them sautéed, she realized they would work well in pesto.

She blends the greens with basil, garlic, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, salt, black pepper, and cashew butter. A splash of olive oil brings it all together. “This just smells so good,” she says while pulsing the ingredients in her blender. She tastes it straight from the spoon and adds: “I could literally just grab a cracker and eat this.”

The pasta itself is made with a high-fiber, iron-rich brand. Felice cooks shallots, zucchini, and frozen peas in a pan before tossing everything together. She finishes the bowl with black pepper, chili crisp, vegan Parmesan, and a squeeze of lemon juice. “Between the pesto, the additional veggies, and the pasta, I got about 6.5 milligrams of iron and almost 30 milligrams of vitamin C per serving,” she says.

Kale and white bean salad with pan-fried tofu

The second dish is a hearty kale salad topped with beans, avocado, and crispy tofu. “I could seriously eat this every single day,” Felice says. She starts by marinating cubes of super firm tofu in coconut aminos. While it soaks, she preps the rest of the ingredients.

The base is made with dino kale (also known as Tuscan kale), which she washes and dries thoroughly before massaging it with avocado, lemon juice, black pepper, nutritional yeast, and a little Dijon mustard. “By doing this to the kale, I’m essentially softening it, which is going to help it be more digestible,” she explains.

She seasons the tofu with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and a dash of umami seasoning. Then she pan-fries it until golden. For extra texture and nutrition, she adds cucumber, shallots, hemp seeds, roasted sesame and pumpkin seeds, and white beans. “The salad has about half, or a little over half, of the iron that I need on a daily basis,” she says. She finishes the bowl with a spoonful of sauerkraut for gut health.

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Marry me chickpeas

Felice wraps up the video with one of her go-to comfort meals. “This is my take on Marry Me chickpeas,” she says. “It is definitely a recipe that I continuously go back to.” The dish is rich in flavor and packed with nutrients – including iron and vitamin C.

She starts by sautéing red onion and red bell pepper in a pan. Then she adds cooked chickpeas, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic powder, smoked paprika, and a Greek seasoning blend. To build the sauce, she pours in coconut milk and vegetable broth. Once everything simmers together, she folds in fresh spinach and a spoonful of nutritional yeast.

At first, Felice considers skipping the cream cheese. But after tasting, she changes her mind. “Girl, what the heck – just throw it in there,” she says, adding a heaping tablespoon of dairy-free cream cheese.

She serves the chickpeas with quinoa and extra spinach. “Each serving had about six milligrams of iron and close to 63 milligrams of vitamin C,” she says. It’s a warm, comforting way to end her list of iron-rich vegan meals.

Find more recipes on the Skayala Felice YouTube channel.

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