Are you doing Veganuary?
Or perhaps you are a new vegan and haven’t really got to grips with what it means yet, many people are turning to plant based eating. Do you need or want some ideas of what to eat? I did this post a couple of years ago, and have updated it with new recipes posted since then.
Trawling through the Thrifty Lesley archives, where I knew there were loads of ideas that just happened to be vegan, I extracted some in the hopes that you might like them, or maybe give you inspiration.
Breakfasts
Bean and Spicy Katjan Sauce Sandwich Paste on 2 x toast, or use in a sandwich for lunch. Or use the drained baked beans and flavour them with many other things eg brinjal pickle, any pesto that is vegan, horseradish, miso paste, jaggery and dates. See the post for more ideas.
Fruit & Nut Case Paste, made using nuts and raisins, use a vegan spread for the butter
Breakfast Bhaji’s
Broccoli Pesto on toast
Carrot & Sultana Loaf
Cinnamon Toast
Granola – use a non-dairy milk
and the classic – Raisin Pancakes
Granola Breakfast Bars, I love these! Substitute a vegan spread for the butter
Apple Curd, replace the butter with coconut spread or other vegan spread
Overnight Oats, using nut milks, soya milk or fruit juice
Jammy Oat Bars, a good grab it and go breakfast. Any jam can be used in the middle, or value marmalade or lemon curd. Or a paste made from dried fruit or dates.
many other ideas on the Recipes tab under Breakfasts are also vegan
Lunches
Most of the soups on the Recipes tab are vegan. A chunk of this Tomato and Chive Soda Bread would be lovely with a warming bowl of soup.
Roasted Vegetable Soup with a Scone and Roasted Onion Topping
Carrot Hummus, change the honey to another sweetener
Hummus and Carrot Sandwich, this was one of the favourite lunches of my girls
Individual Lunchtime Pies
Rocket and Watercress Pesto, use a vegan cheese instead of Parmesan
some Stuffing Rolls would go very well with a lovely, warming bowl of soup
A hummus can be made very cheaply using drained basics baked beans and flavoured with a great many things, giving loads of options for sandwiches, toasty lunches or breakfasts, or with veggie dippers
Dinners
Avocado, Orange and Tomato Salad
Butter Bean & Vegetable Curry
Chickpea Crumble
Vegetable crumble (omit the cheese in the topping)
Christmas crumble which uses stuffing mix in the topping for something different
Chickpea, Coconut & Mango Curry
Green Lentil Cottage Pie
Lemon Dahl
Olive Drop Scones, Crispy Fried Onions & Carrot Ribbon Salad
Peanut Butter Noodles
Puchka Tart – you will need to replace the thick yogurt with something vegan, coconut cream perhaps
Sag Aloo
Chow Mien, use rice noodles rather than egg ones, and add tofu for some protein
Beetroot Burgers, omit the egg
Raw Chickpea and Carrot Falafel
Pea Crumb Fritters, omit the egg. Very, very cheap!
Goan Curry, add a vegan protein
Fiery Potatoes
Stuffed potato cakes, the perfect example of ordinary vegetables made into something interesting
Barley salad
Bean and quinoa, lemon and herb salad
Gajar matar
Sweet bean curry
Vegetable and hummus pie
Tomato pasta
Gnocchi
Green Thai Curry
Vegetable Casserole & Dumplings
Toasted Nan & Dhal
Chickpea, Coconut & Mango Curry
Green Lentil, Mushroom, Raisin & Cucumber Salad with a Brinjal Pickle dressing, use a vegan yogurt or cream
Butter Bean , Pepper & Carrot Salad, with a Lemon & Coconut Dressing
Lentil Dumplings and Tomato Sauce
Sweetcorn Fritters, Wedges and Peas (or Pea Fritters, Wedges and Sweetcorn)
Panzanella
Roast parsnip &, apple salad, with carrot & peanut & raisin salad and jacket potato
Spicy Cabbage, Lentils & Nan
Spinach Dumplings with Spicy Tomato Sauce
Oaty Fritters, use vegan yogurt
Butter Bean & Vegetable Curry
Tomato Dhal
Lemon Dhal
Coconut Dhal
Spinach & Coconut Dhal
Parsnip Dhal
Sag Aloo
Dahl Sambar
Chole & Nan
Peanut Butter Noodles
Peperonata
Beetroot Burgers
Courgette Pasta
Chole & Nan
Tapas – Patatas Bravas, Spinach Dumplings in Tomato Sauce, Lemony Butter Beans with a touch of Honey.
To liven up something plain, try
Gingery, Soy, Sharp Apples
Cipolline Agrodolce (Sweet and Sour Onions)
Spiralised Roots
You can make many bready things very cheaply using Magic dough – pizza dough, flatbreads and wraps, pittas
A good hollow leg filler, 3 ingredient cake
Nut butters can be made with any nuts or mixture of nuts you have available and can be flavoured with things like raisins or miso
Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding, because we all like a cheeky pudding now and again
Got any mulled wine leftover? Try Mulled Wine Apple Crumble
Home made Nutella is divine, much healthier than shop bought, without any palm oil, and can be made vegan
Tomato scones, a very popular recipe
Muffins can be made vegan by simply leaving out the egg, using vegan spread or oil and using a vegan milk. No other adjustments are necessary
There are lots of other vegan ideas too on the Recipes tab. I’m not vegetarian or vegan, although my sister is, it’s just that meat, fish and dairy are the expensive ingredients quite often and when I twiddle a recipe, or find one that prices up, it often works out to be vegan.
So there’s a sample of delicious (I hope you think so too) food, that just happens to be vegan. If you aren’t normally vegan, it might be proving a bit difficult to do Veganuary and these recipes might just help you get through
I’m linking up with the UK Vegan Bloggers for the Veganuary linky.
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All sounds very scrummy! Will have to try some out! I am sure I have seen some on your food plans which I am going to look at doing these coming weeks 🙂
Thank you, just what I needed!
I meant to join in with me but January started before I was ready for it 😉
I am determined to have a Vegan month at some point this year though, thanks for the list of ideas.
wonder if I should do a vegan week? Veganism seems to be getting very popular of late
Hello again Lesley,Thank you for the recipe ideas, I started at Slimming world this week as I have LOADS of weight to lose and your recipes easily fit into their plan if I cut down on the oil and if husband feels deprived I can throw him a sausage or 2 or pork chop or fish to go with!
This dieting lark is not much fun but I love jiggling about with recipes and hope to see some results ( would kill for a veggie pasty! )
Happy New Year.
Meal Plan 4 is very nearly vegan apart from some milk.
Looking forward to hearing more about your fitness training. Good luck!
I too have loads of weight to lose. Don’t know about yo-yo dieting, a bit of yo would be very nice thank you
Have a wonderful mental picture now of your throwing husband a sausage
So it is. So, if you want it vegan, you could sub in a vegan milk then. Result!
And week 2 is vegan apart from soft cheese, so maybe replace that with hummus or any other ideas, anyone?
In fact Lesley, I think you could do a vegan version of your first 4 plans fairly easily although you may need to add marmite or something.
Well, how about that! I knew I didn’t use much meat, dairy etc, but not quite how close they were to vegan
First weigh in today,7.5 pounds gone and have used some of your
recipes!
Woohoo! Well done you! Bet you really notice than much!
Think mostly water but very pleased, gives me a boost and makes me want to carry on.Also turning into a fruit bat but finding that so expensive
so now thinking of 101 things to do with a carrot!
Have been Pinning recipes and ideas for carrots, cabbage etc, might be something useful on there
Saw an idea last week that was chopped white cabbage, one of the cheapest veggies, stir fried in a tiny bit of butter and soy sauce. Thought that sounded good and I’ll be trying it at some point
Oh wow! Look at all those ideas, this is a fantastic post – especially for the new vegans joining for Veganuary.
Thank you so much for sharing with the UK Vegan Bloggers.
Glad you like it. So many recipes turn out to be vegan by happenstance once they’ve been frugalised. Meat and dairy are so expensive!
They all sound delicious x
Hey Lesley,
We eat plant based so I really appreciate that you took the time to compile these recipes.
Some people think it is expensive to go Vegan and it can be if you buy all the expensive Vegan products.
Thank you again!
Marisa, I’m finding that more and more of the recipes I write are plant based. I’m definitely finding it cheaper! We aren’t vegetarian or vegan, and I may have a meat splurge soon, but meanwhile, I’m enjoying all these plant based things
So many fab ideas, hopefully some people doing Veganuary can find some inspiration here!
Thanks Natalie
This is such a useful resource! I’m going back to university in March and our income is going to take a massive hit!
Are you vegan Charlotte? If not, take a peek at the recipes tab, even more ideas there