Vegan Recipes For Every Occasion

Introduction | Vegan recipes quick finder | Vegan breakfast ideas | Vegan lunch ideas | Vegan dinner ideas

These vegan recipes will ensure you have a healthy dish for every mealtime. With the following menu, you can start the day with a super-nutritious bowl of berry oats (my personal favourite) and finish with a flavoursome veggie curry.

The vegan recipes require minimal prep time and most promise pan to plate in 30 minutes or less. As well as their culinary simplicity, many of the recipes can be batched for future fuss-free meals (fast-food that’s healthy!) or potted for packed lunches.

But most importantly, all the recipes are full of fresh, nutrient-rich ingredients. So, in addition to tasting great, they can help support a healthy lifestyle. With that said, either get cooking or discover more benefits of a vegan diet.

Vegan recipes

Vegan recipes #1: Wholesome oats

Vegan recipes #2: Breakfast rice pudding

Vegan recipes #3: Quinoa, watercress and avocado on toast

Vegan recipes #4: Mexican salad

Vegan recipes #5: Spanish bulgur

Vegan recipes #6: Penne with broccoli rabe

Vegan recipes #7: Sweet potato enchiladas

Vegan recipes #8: Vegan risotto

Vegan recipes #9: Vegan curry

Bonus vegan recipe: Beautiful banana and walnut bread

Conclusion: How to cultivate a healthy diet quick tips

vegan breakfast ideas

Start your morning on a healthy footing with these vegan breakfast ideas. Each one will fuel both body and mind for the day ahead. They are packed to bursting with essential nutrients and insoluble fibre.

Essential reading: How Not To Die

Vegan recipes #1: Wholesome oats

After your morning workout, you can replenish the body and refuel for the day with this energy-dense breakfast. A bowl of wholesome oats is full of fibre and slow-releasing carbs, making it ideal for the person on the go.

Serves 2

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup water

1 cup alternative milk (oat, almond, coconut)

½ cup blueberries

1 tablespoon crushed mixed nuts

1 tsp ground flax and hemp seeds (Wholefood Earth Seeds)

2 diced Medjool dates

Method

1. Soak the oats overnight in the water and alternative milk. Best to put the ingredients in the same pan that you plan to cook your porridge in.

2. Bring oats to a boil ensuring to stir continuously. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, prepare the toppings: crush the nuts, grind the flax and hemp, dice the dates, and give those berries a good rinse (dry then set aside).

4. When the oats have thickened up some, equally portion two bowls. Now all that’s left is to add the toppings and serve.

Vegan recipes #2: Breakfast rice pudding

Rice pudding for breakfast? Yeah, why not? It’s tasty, healthy, and, as Dr John McDougal tells us in The Starch Solution, rice is a powerful source of energy that’s loaded with essential nutrients.

Serves 4

3 cups cooked brown rice

2 cups unsweetened almond milk (you could use coconut)

1 cinnamon stick

½ cup diced Medjool dates

¼ cup raisins

Strawberry jam

Method

1. Add together the cooked brown rice, almond milk, and cinnamon stick in a pan. Cook over medium heat for 12 minutes ensuring to stir regularly.

2. Include the dates and raisins in the now-thickened pudding. Set to one side for 5 minutes while you prepare a cup of coffee.

3. Spoon the pudding into four bowls remembering to remove the cinnamon stick. Serve with a generous spoonful of jam.

4. Quick tip to speed up this dish. When you cook the vegan curry, double the recommended quantity of rice and set half aside for the following morning’s breakfast.

Vegan recipes #3: Quinoa, Watercress and Avocado on Toast

Legend has it that the ancient Aztecs considered quinoa the ‘grain of the gods.’ While there’s no proof that the gods played a hand in the propagation of quinoa (some pin that miracle on evolution), contemporary science has shown that it contains all nine of the essential amino acids. Making this humble grain very nearly nutritionally omnipotent.

Of watercress, one leading health website boasts that it is a ‘powerhouse vegetable’ that possesses a ‘plethora of antioxidants.’ They go so far as to suggest that watercress protects against coronary heart disease and contains cancer-fighting properties.

As for avocados, they are a rich ‘source of vitamins C, E, K, and B6, as well as riboflavin, niacin, folate, pantothenic acid, magnesium, and potassium,’ (Medical News Today). In addition, they’re high in omega-3 fatty acids which have been shown to be beneficial for brain health.

And toast, well, it’s just comfort food.

Serves 2

1 cup quinoa (red, black, white, matters not)

2 cups water

1 ripe avocado

A generous bunch of watercress

4 slices of sourdough toasted

4 cherry tomatoes

½ teaspoon curry powder

1 tablespoon olive oil

Method

1. Add the quinoa and water into a medium-sized pan and set on high heat. Once boiling, reduce and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes.

2. While the quinoa’s cooking, prepare the avocado. To do so destone and scoop the soft creamy flesh into a bowl. Dice the cherry tomatoes and add to the bowl along with the curry powder, olive oil, and seasoning. Now mash until all the ingredients are mixed then set to one side.

3. When the quinoa’s cooked drain well and, after forking and fluffing, leave to air for 5 minutes.

4. To serve, place the toasted sourdough slices on plates and either butter with a plant-based alternative (we recommend Vegan Block), or drizzle over olive oil. Spoon the avocado onto the toast and top with quinoa and finally the watercress.

Vegan lunch ideas

These vegan lunch ideas will ensure that you no longer have to rely on the work’s canteen (aka vending machine) or food industry to cure your hunger. Both of which sell substandard, nutritionally deficient processed poison.

A healthy homecooked lunch can curb snacking while keeping you energised through the afternoon. Many of the meals below take minutes to make and can be batched and stored in the fridge for a few days.

Essential cooking: Forks Over Knives

Vegan recipes #4: Mexican salad

This vegan recipe features in the exceptionally well-reviewed nutrition book The Starch Solution, in which Dr John McDougal advocates a plant-based diet high in starchy foods – brown rice, potatoes, and whole grains.

McDougal maintains that transitioning to a ‘starch-rich diet can actually help you lose weight, prevent a variety of ills, and even cure common diseases.’ Start your transition with this super-quick Mexican cuisine-inspired salad.

Serves 4 to 6

2 ½ cups brown cooked rice

1 can (15 ounces) black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup fresh or frozen and thawed corn kernels

1 tomato, chopped

4 scallions (aka spring onions), chopped

½ cup salsa fresca

¼ cup Tofu mayonnaise

Method

1. In a large mixing bowl introduce the rice, beans, corn, tomatoes and scallions. Gently fold the ingredients together until thoroughly integrated.

2. In a small bowl add the salsa and plant-based mayonnaise. Mix well.

3. To serve, separate the salad into four (or six) portions along with the salsa and mayonnaise mixture.

4. Alternative serving options. The salad would work very well with whole-meal fajitas wraps. Also, as a rare treat, spooned over tortilla crisps and eaten nacho-style.

5. And finally, don’t be afraid to expand the list of ingredients. Avocadoes, cherry tomatoes, peppers, and olives would complement this healthy dish.

Vegan recipes #5: Spanish Bulgur

Now that we’ve enjoyed a taste of Latin America, we’re going to hop over the Atlantic and dine in Southern Europe. This recipe was borrowed from Frances Moore Lappé’s Diet for a Small Planet, a book that is attributed to sparking a revolution in the ethics of eating (see Peter Singer's important book Animal Liberation).

Of this dish, Lappé tells us that it’s not as substantial as Spanish rice but just as tasty. In addition, the inclusion of beans and bulgur makes it a ‘whole meal’ that’s perfect for lunches, light snacks, or an accompaniment to a main meal.

Serves 2

2 tsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, crushed or mushed

½ cup chopped green onions

½ green pepper, diced or sliced

1 ¼ cup bulgur

1 cup cooked kidney or pinto beans (rinsed and drained)

1 tsp paprika

2 tins chopped tomatoes

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet and sauté garlic, green onions, and pepper. Add the bulger shortly afterwards ensuring to coat in oil. Cook until the onions have softened. To avoid overheating the oil, which can damage its nutritional quality and increase the proliferation of free radicals, add a couple of tablespoons of water.

2. Now add the rest of the ingredients – beans and tomatoes – including the spices. Mix together until infused. At this point you might want to season with salt and pepper – and maybe mixed herbs.

3. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the bulgur is tender.

4. Serve with a slice of rustic pan basico or barra ciabatta.

Vegan recipes #6: Penne with Broccoli Rabe

Credit for this culinary composition goes to the good folks who brought us the brilliant cookbook Forks Over Knives. Del Sroufe, professional chef, chief contributor to the extensive Forks Over Knives menu, and populariser of the plant-based diet movement, drew inspiration for this dish from simple southern Italian cuisine.

Broccoli Rabe, also known as rapini, is a green cruciferous vegetable that is widely used in Mediterranean cooking. Though bitter to the bite, Sroufe carefully balances the flavours by introducing toasted pine nuts and golden raisins, which offer a contrasting sweetness.

Serves 4

1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 pound broccoli rabe, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces (if your supermarket doesn’t stock rabe, acceptable substitutes include broccoli, tender stream broccoli, purple sprouting broccoli, or asparagus)

4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

Zest and juice of 2 lemons

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

¼ cup golden raisins

¼ cup nutritional yeast, optional

1 pound whole-grain penne, cooked according to package directions, drained and kept warm, ¼ cup cooking liquid reserved

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

¼ cup pine nuts, toasted

½ cup chopped basil

Method

1. In a large skillet, Sauté the onion over medium-high heat for 10 minutes. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to keep the onion from sticking and/or burning.

2. Add the broccoli rabe and crushed garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes.

3. Now introduce the rest of the ingredients – lemon zest and juice, red pepper flakes, raisins, nutritional yeast, cooked pasta and 1/4 cup of the reserved water.

4. Season with salt and pepper, mix well together and then remove from heat.

5. Serve garnished with pine nuts and basil.

Vegan dinner recipes

These vegan dinner recipes will reinvigorate your weekly menu with vibrant, healthy meals. They’re light, nutritious, and comparatively easy to cook. In addition, like many of the recipes in this article, you can cook in bulk and batch for future meals.

Essential reading: The Food Revolution

Vegan recipes #7: Sweet Potato Enchiladas

Dr Thomas Campbell, author of The China Study Solution, a research-driven nutritional plan, observes that ‘obesity, diabetes, arthritic pain, heart-disease risk factors like high blood pressure or high cholesterol – all are related to diet.’ That is, the 'standard Western diet', characterised by large quantities of animal protein, refined carbohydrates, and processed foods.

This recipe, along with the 50 others that feature in The China Study Solution, offers a healthy, whole-food, plant-based alternative.

Serves 4

½ cup vegetable broth

1 medium onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2 cups chopped fresh spinach

2 cups black beans, partially mashed

4 tablespoons soy sauce

3 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes

Sea salt to taste

10 large tortillas

1 jar of your favourite salsa (or make your own – see below)

Method

1. Heat two tablespoons of vegetable broth. Add the onion and garlic. Sauté until the onion is soft. Add the coriander and cumin. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

2. Add the remaining vegetable broth, spinach, beans, soy sauce, and sweet potatoes. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and season with salt.

3. Spoon ¼ to ½ cup of the mixture into the centre of a tortilla and carefully wrap your burrito before placing it on a non-stick pan.

4. Once you’ve assembled all the burritos and placed them neatly in line, pour over your salsa and cover with foil.

5. Pop the pan in the oven and bake on medium heat for 25 minutes.

6. Homemade salsa: sauté a small red onion and garlic in a pan with herbs, seasoning, and spices. Once the onion has softened, toss in a handful of ripe vine tomatoes along with ½ tin tomatoes, a tablespoon of tomato puree, two tablespoons of olive oil, and ½ cup of coriander. Cook the mixture until the consistency smacks of salsa. Set aside and allow to cool before spooning over your enchiladas.

Vegan recipes #8: Vegan risotto

Inspiration for this dish was taken from Forks Over Knives. The creative team of cooks that curated the many recipes that comprise the book broke from convention when they conceived this culinary delight.

Mushroom barley risotto, Ray Sroufe says, ‘is a healthier version’ and, as an added bonus, it’s ‘higher in fibre.’

Serves 3 to 4

1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms, soaked for 30 minutes in 1 cup of water that has just been boiled

3 large shallots, peeled and finely diced

8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced

2 sage leaves, minced

3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1 ½ cups pearled barley

½ cup dry white wine

3 to 4 cups vegetable stock, or low-sodium vegetable broth

¼ cup nutritional yeast, optional

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Drain the porcini mushrooms, reserving the liquid. Finely chop the mushrooms and set aside.

2. Place the shallots in a large saucepan and sauté over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add water 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time to keep the shallots from ticking.

3. Add the cremini mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes. Let the mushrooms brown by adding as little water as possible, while still making sure that they don’t stick to the pan.

4. Add the sage, garlic, barley, and white wine and cook for 1 minute. Add 2 cups of vegetable stock and the reserved porcini soaking liquid. Bring the mixture to a boil before reducing to simmer. Cover and cook for 25 minutes.

5. At this stage, you can add more stock if necessary then cook for another 15 minutes. Stir in the chopped porcini mushrooms and nutritional yeast. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Serve immediately.

Vegan recipes #9: Vegan curry

This curry recipe is my all-time favourite. It’s tasty, super-healthy and packed full of nutrients. In addition to a short prep and cooking time, a mere 30 minutes, the ingredients are inexpensive to procure. Once while waiting for the rice to soften, I attempted to calculate the ‘per-serving cost.’ The math was beyond me, but I arrived at a rough estimate of 86 pence (minus the cost of labour and electricity). And who said eating healthy was expensive?

Furthermore, this vegan curry freezes well. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it tastes better the longer it’s left. The recipe below serves 10, making it ideal for large families, food with friends, or batching for future meals.

Serves 10 (2 servings for now, 8 for later)

1 large white onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, sliced

A large nub of chilli, sliced

A large nub of ginger, grated

400g red split lentils

25 ounces of alternative milk (either oat, coconut, or almond)

1 tin chopped tomatoes

8 to 10 fresh tomatoes, chopped

750ml water

3 teaspoons turmeric

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons mild curry powder

2 teaspoons coriander seeds, crushed

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 cup fresh coriander, diced

Salt and pepper

Sweet ‘n nutty rice

1 cup wholegrain basmati rice

1 shallot, sliced

¼ cup raisins

¼ cup of lightly roasted cashews

Method

1. Before firing up the hobs and heating the pan, prepare the spices. To do so, pestle and mortar the coriander seeds then add into a single mix all the other spices. Set to one side.

2. Heat four tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan (preferably 5 litres) and add the onions, garlic, ginger, and chilli. Cook until soft.

3. Now add the spices and mix well for a minute or two before including the lentils, milk, water, chopped and fresh tomatoes. (Reserve 250ml of the water and add in stages.)

4. Bring the mixture to a boil ensuring to stir constantly. Reduce heat and, after adding the fresh coriander, simmer for 25 to 30 minutes – or until the lentils are soft. Stir occasionally.

Preparing the rice

1. Rinse the rice under cold water then add to a medium-sized pan. Pour in two cups of water. Also, pop in two cardamon pods and single star anise. Cook the rice as per the packet instructions.

2. When the rice is soft, drain well, set aside, and cover.

3. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan. Sauté the shallot until caramelised. At this stage, you can include one or more of the spices used in the curry.

4. Into the frying pan include the rice, raisins, and roasted cashews. Fold in the ingredients until evenly mixed.

To serve separate the rice across two bowls. Using a large ladle, gently spoon in the curry. If you have any coriander or nuts to spare, unleash your culinary flare and garnish your dish. Enjoy!

Bonus vegan recipe: Beautiful banana and walnut bread

This bread disproves two prevailing axioms, one about plant-based recipes and the other about cake. The first false axiom is that vegan food is bland fare fit only for farmyard animals, people devoid of tastebuds, and/or emaciated environmentalists. If you bake this banana bread, you’ll soon discover just how incredibly tasty vegan food can be.

The second spurious supposition has it that cake can only ever be unhealthy – because it’s a ‘sweetmeat’ full of sugar and spice and all things bad for our waistline. I scoff at such a sentiment! What’s unhealthy about bananas, whole-meal flour, walnuts, seeds, raisins, and a minuscule amount of unrefined muscovado cane sugar? Glad you agree. Now let’s break out them bananas!

Bakes up to 8 generous slices

3 over-ripe bananas

½ cup raisins

½ cup walnuts, cracked

¼ cup mixed seeds, sunflower and pumpkin

150g white self-raising flour

75g whole-meal self-raising flour

50g muscovado sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon sweet cinnamon

80g walnut oil

Method

1. Gather your ingredients including a large mixing bowl, fork, spoon, and a tin loaf.

2. Peel and dice the bananas into the mixing bowl along with the muscovado sugar and walnut oil. Using the fork, mash and mix together until smooth and consistent. There should be no lumps of sugar.

3. Now your base is ready for the rest of the ingredients. Add in one job lot ensuring to mix well. The consistency should be similar to that of warm dough, just a bit more pliable.

4. Spoon the mix into an oiled tin loaf (use walnut oil to grease the tin). Place the tin in a preheated oven (175 degrees). Cook for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, cover with foil, and cook for a further 20 minutes.

5. After a total of 40 minutes, you need to test the mixture. Again, remove the loaf from the oven and insert a knife into the top. If wet, cover the bread back up and bung it in the oven for another 5 minutes. If dry, place on a baking tray and allow to cool.

6. Serve slices with fresh ground coffee and almond butter.

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Conclusion | Cultivating a healthy diet

Transitioning to a plant-based diet can support a healthy lifestyle while reducing our risk of illness and disease. In the important nutritional book, How Not To Die, Dr Greger and Dr Stone maintain that ‘Our diet is the number-one cause of premature death and the number-one cause of disability.’ Hard though it is to believe but the foods we eat pose a greater risk to our health than smoking, alcohol, or sedentarism.

However, Greger and Stone, along with an ever-increasing number of nutritional scientists and public health professionals, argue that adopting plant-based dietary principles can dramatically reduce disease risk factor. The recipes compiled above can support you in making the single most important step for your health.

But as John Robins observes in The Food Revolution, cultivating a healthy diet consists of more than just eating more vegetables. Robins compiles a list of the constituent components of a plant-based health-promoting diet. They include:

Plant based diet

1. Lots of fresh fruit, primarily berries, and vegetables, especially green leafy cruciferous varieties.

2. Extremely low in refined and processed foods and sugar.

3. The complete absence of hydrogenated fats and trans-fats (which are typically found in many kinds of margarine and white flour pastries).

4. The complete absence of animal protein – including, of course, dairy, poultry, and fish.

5. More clean liquids – water, herbal teas, fresh ground coffees – and a near complete absence of fizzy, sugary drinks.

6. Whole grains such as brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, and non-processed cereals

7. Reduced frying of food.

8. Devoid of msg, artificial preservatives, colours, or other chemical additives.

9. For babies, breast is best – and for infants and adolescents, all of the above.

10. B12 fortified foods: nutritional yeast and plant-based milk alternatives offer a ready source.

For more ways to make positive lifestyle changes, have a look at these 10 Tips to Stay Fit and Healthy.

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