When I’m in the kitchen I often improvise meals. Making food from scratch can lead to delicious meals, but for some creations we do need recipes. When you think of recipes, you might visualize a long formula of complicated procedures that you’d better not even try ;-), right? There are, however, many easy vegan dishes, simple recipes to follow.
Let me share a few here, I’ll cover breakfast, lunch, dessert, and dinner.
Breakfast
For breakfast today I had a quick, improvised meal. Ingredients are few and inexpensive.
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
- 1/4 red onion
- 5 mushrooms
- 1/2 small Saladette tomato
- Vegan shredded cheese of your choice ( I often use Heartbest, Follow Your Heart, and Daiya)
- Herbs: dried parsley and dried celery
Instructions
- Heat a few table spoons of olive oil in a frying pan
- Chop the onion into small pieces
- Add onions to the pan and fry for 1 minute
- In the meantime, chop mushrooms and add them to the onions
- Heat for two minutes on low heat and add soy sauce
- Add herbs and stir
- Sprinkle vegan cheese on top
- Heat a little longer until onions are glazed, cheese is melted, and mushrooms are browned
Note: salt is not necessary, soy sauce contains a high Umami content which gives a salty flavor. So, you’ll make your recipes more flavorful, using less salt.
For more breakfast ideas, feel free to check the following recipes (each will open in a new window):
Easy Vegan Breakfast Recipe (With Tofurky Vegan Sausages)
Vegan Egg Substitutes (Breakfast Recipe Included)
And more Veggie Breakfast Ideas
Lunch and Dinner
When I don’t have much time or I’m so hungry I can’t wait another 20 minutes before my meal is done, I usually make a quesadilla which is ready in less than 2 minutes. With quesadillas, you can add your own preferences, such as mushrooms, fresh basil, tomato slices (great combination with veggie cheese), and more.
For a quesadilla, all you need is the following:
- Tortillas
- Vegan cheese of your choice
- Whatever you like to add:
- If you want to add mushrooms, then there is a little more prep time involved, since they’ll add more flavor when they’re fried first.
Preparation
- Heat tortillas on a comal for a minute
- Turn them around and sprinkle shredded cheese or lay a slice of cheese on one side
- Top it off with your choice, mushrooms, sliced tomatoes, or fresh basil
- Fold the tortillas and heat on both sides until they are slightly browned
This is a comal ↓
In the following articles you can find more lunch/dinner recipes:
Easy Stuffed Peppers Recipe – Vegan and Gluten Free Stuffing
Healthy Vegan Burgers – Black Bean and Soy Chorizo Pattie
Dessert
My favorite part of the meal. I usually eat some chocolate, but I love all kinds of dessert.
Raw Vegan Chocolate Pralines and Banana Ice Cream Recipes
And for a nice after dinner drink: Vegan Baileys, very easy to make.
Final Thoughts
All recipes I shared above are easy to make. The only one that may be a little more elaborate is the triple chocolate cupcake recipe, but the instructions are clear, they are easy to follow, and the end result is worth it. There are also several cookbooks that feature simple recipes, perfect for those busy days when you don’t have much time to cook but still want to eat cruelty-free.
I really liked the triple chocolate cupcake recipe. I’ll give it a try tomorrow.
I was wondering, is pasta vegan? Most packaged pasta—including spaghetti, rotini, and any other type— are 100 percent vegan.
I imagine that those in which “egg” is listed as an ingredient in “fresh” pasta, aren’t vegan. So I’ll avoid those—but generally, pasta contains no animal-derived ingredients.
Hi Ann,
True, there are many pastas that are apt for vegans. Not all of them contain eggs. It’s best to always check the ingredients first 🙂
Thank you for these very yummy recipes! Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, and I have been told it is the most important one as well. I wonder, with these recipes, is there a lot of protein? I am in the military, and we constantly need to make sure our protein intake is enough to build muscle. That is my biggest fear with vegan meals.
Hi Jessie,
There is a lot of plant protein. Many body builders build their muscles on a plant-based diet. Have you heard of Patrick Baboumian? In 2012 he won the title for the strongest man in the world, and he is vegan. Check out the documentary “The Game Changers” on Netflix, it will show you how athletes thrive on vegan food.
Thanks for your comment!
Let me start by saying that I’m not a vegan, but reviewing this website – the content, the layout and the general information provided, would certainly make me consider the vegan lifestyle! I love the links to recipes, the tabs provide a lot of information that would be valuable to both seasoned and new vegans. The easy recipes in particular I think would be a top draw and the simplified information on the vegan lifestyle is concise and easy to grasp. Well done!
Thank you! I hope you try one of the recipes 🙂
I absolutely love that these recipes are all seemingly easy to make and at the same time they are nutritious and appeals to the appetite. Thanks for sharing.
I love quesadillas, so I will give your recipe a try. Can you please say more about a “comal?”
Hi Josephine,
A comal is a hotplate. Many families use the hotplate on their stove to heat tortillas, but you can also buy a round one, like in the photo above. I am using a round hotplate as is shown in the photo.
Thanks for your comment!
Hi Christine,
Thank you for these great recipes! It looks yummy, I am not vegan but do like to eat vegan foods as they are tastier and healthier.
I’m from Mauritian origin and here we say comal as ‘tawa’. We used it too to heat tortillas but also to make farattas which are like some sort of flat breads.
Hoping to get more yummy recipes from you
Cheers
Hi Arno,
I’d like to try farattas one day. My father travelled to Mauritius once, he said it was very beautiful. 🙂
Thank you for your comment!
Hey Christine, these are great recipes, especially because they are so simple, easy, and quick to make! Fixing myself dinner after work is the hardest thing for me to do because im so hungry and have to wait at least 20-30 mins for anything to be ready. This is why I meal prep on Sundays for the entire week. Now I can just use the recipes you mentioned here instead. I quickly popped over on to your other recipes and loved them too- I will definitely be bookmarking your site for future ideas!
Do you think I can substitute fresh basil for baby spinach for the quesadillas?
Hi Sasha,
Baby spinach is a great substitute. I also often use it for my quesadillas 🙂
Thank you for your comment!
Hi Christine,
This article is definitely for those who have no time cooking for themselves but hungry as hell for each meal. It’s cool that you have written so many vegan recipes already, and each one seems so easy to cook at home. I must start making one vegan meal for myself during the weekdays.
I am interested in the quesadilla because it seems that we can do some experiments on the stuffing, right? I think I will put some soy chorizo, corns, vegan cheese, and miso paste for my quesadilla, and I hope it tastes nice. 🙂
Cheers,
Matt
Hi Matt,
Yummy, miso paste sounds great, that will give it a lot of flavor! I am going to try that out too.
Thanks for your comment and the wonderful suggestion!
Thank you Christine for this wonderful article.
I am not vegan but I’m highly tempted to try out a few of your recipes especially the quesadillas for lunch as they look so yummy and are also nutritious. I am also going to share this with my vegan friends who sometimes struggle to make a quick meal when they are overwhelmed with work and need to eat as well. I also like the fact that these ingredients used for these meals are easy to get which is plus. Simple meals like what you’ve shared with us goes a long way to save time and also allows you to eat good meals and that’s a win win situation.
Hi Femi,
The quesadillas are easy to make and not time-consuming at all. You can add ingredients of your preference. 🙂