Vegan meals can be as simple as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or as elaborate as the fanciest dish at a gourmet restaurant. To get a sense of everything that’s available, you can start by visiting our breakfast, lunch, and dinner pages.
Quick-and-Easy Vegan Meals
If you’re new to eating vegan, begin with the simplest recipes possible. You want to spend minutes in the kitchen rather than hours. Here are some choices that are ready in a jiffy:
- Toast or English muffins with jam or vegan butter
- Canned vegetarian chili
- Pita bread, sliced vegetables, or tortilla chips with hummus
- Toasted bagels with vegan cream cheese
- Soup served with a slice of bread
Our recommended cookbooks page has a separate section of titles that focus on meals you can make in no time.
Core Foods
Before you start learning recipes from a cookbook, master these essential basics. They’re all quick and easy to learn, and you can prepare them in an endless variety of ways:
- Stir-fried vegetables
- Salads
- Roasted vegetables
- Sandwiches and wraps
- Soups and stews
- Bowls
Fancier Meals
When you’re ready to branch out from the simple meals suggested above, you’ll get a lot out of reading my vegan cooking guide. In less than an hour you’ll not only learn the basics of vegan cooking, you’ll also become acquainted with the basics of grocery shopping. Plus, I’ll take you through the kitchen essentials that are of special interest when it comes to vegan cooking.
Want to explore vegan cooking further? There are hundreds of excellent cookbooks available. Start with easy titles that are devoted to recipes intended for everyday cooking. You can’t go wrong with 15-Minute Vegan Meals or Easy Vegan Home Cooking. There are dozens and dozens of more ambitious offerings crowding the vegan cookbook market. These cookbooks cover every conceivable cuisine. Visit our vegan cookbooks page to get started.
Finally, if you like to finish your meals with something sweet, you’ll be excited by the extraordinary assortment of vegan desserts you can make or purchase.
Vegan-Friendly Cuisines
As you think about making vegan meals, keep in mind that most cuisines are based on foods that are either always vegan or can easily be prepared that way. Think of the beans, rice, salsa and guacamole in Mexican culture. Or the pasta, grilled onions, and tomato sauce in Italian culture. Or dive into Middle Eastern cooking and enjoy some falafel, hummus, tahini, and baba ghanouj. The more you explore traditional cuisines, the more fantastic vegan recipes you’ll discover.
Vegan Restaurant Meals
Vegetarian and vegan restaurants are increasingly widespread. To expand your vegan horizons, visit as many vegan-friendly restaurants as you can. And if you’re seeking vegan fast food, you’ve got all sorts of delicious possibilities. Likewise, any natural foods store deli will offer terrific vegan options.
Eating Vegan Meals Every Day
You can eat a better, healthier, and more diverse assortment of meals as a vegan than you ever consumed as an omnivore.
If you focus on trying new foods at every turn, you’ll rapidly incorporate a number of delicious vegan meals into your diet. My Guide to Eating Vegan will speed your transition and help you to discover some of the tastiest vegan foods on the planet.
