7 Easy Vegan Simple Recipes for Healthy Eating | Beginner Vegans (2024)

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In this article you will find simple vegan dinner recipes for beginners, aka easy vegan recipes for beginners no tofu! (Not that tofu is gross, I love it and so do my girls who have been eating it since babies, but it can be an acquired taste.)

Have you ever wanted to have a vegan diet, but didn’t know what type of meals you could eat? You just wanted an easy vegan simple recipe for healthy eating.

Well, I’ve been there, too! Vegan meals may seem intimidating to make at first, but they’re really not that difficult to make, I promise.

It’s not easy to change what you eat. And, when it comes to making sure you are getting enough of the right vitamins and minerals; that’s even trickier.

It takes time, persistence, and discipline to change your diet.

But, I’m going to help you out since I’ve already been through the struggle and don’t want to see you having to struggle, too!

Keep reading to find the 7 best quick and easy vegan meals! (In mine and my girls opinion, that is, mother and child approved! YAY!!) Because sometimes when you search for vegan meals, they don’t always look the yummiest.

And, for even MORE Meal and Snack ideas, be sure to subscribe to receive Stress Less Be Healthy Newsletters and get access to over 100 healthy meal and snack ideas in a single PDF!! Sign up HERE!!

Need some help easing into eating healthier? Grab this FREE 7 day meal plan [includes grocery list for all recipes!]

Want to Remember This? Pin 7 Easy Vegan Simple Recipes for Healthy Eating | Beginner Vegans to your favorite Pinterest Board!!

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Why I Know You Need Quick and Simple Vegan Recipes as a Beginner

My goal with you reading this is to help you find delicious looking, and delicious tasting meals that the whole family will love!!

I have been trying to change my diet towards a healthier vegan diet, or plant based, for over 5 years. So, I’m not going to tell you it’ll be easy, but hey everyone is different, so it might be for you!

Since I’ve started my journey, I have taken a nutrition course and sociology of food course in college, watched quite a few documentaries on the subject, been given half a dozen vegan cookbooks, and have been a little obsessed with eating healthier.

I may have had a little advantage over others when trying to cut all animal products out of my consumption; I’ve been a vegetarian since I was a kid. Not because I was made to or told to. It was my own decision, and I’ve kept it up for 20 years.

This vegan thing becomes even trickier when you have a family to feed, and when not everyone is willing or wanting to change their diet. But, if you’re the one who cooks, they don’t really have much of a choice, plus it’s better for them. The best tip I can give you for feeding a family that isn’t used to ‘vegan’ meals is to start with vegetarian meals and then start swapping out some of the ingredients to make them vegan.

Or, better yet, find some new ‘vegan’ meals everyone loves.

Kids may not care so much, unless you’ve already introduced them to cheese and they go without cheese for quite some time. (My 5 year old is like that.) Do you have any idea how addictive cheese is; it’s ridiculous how addictive it is. If you’re not already vegan, try cutting cheese, or better yet dairy, from your diet for a week. Let me know how it goes!

Finding the right meals for your family could take some experimenting.

It’ll take some time and patience; and, I’m going to tell you right now that you may not even like everything you cook.

But, it doesn’t mean you should give up. It’s good to try new foods and introduce new things into you diet. Especially when it’s new fruits or veggies, beans or rice, or maybe even tofu!The first like 10 times I tried making tofu, I hated it. About 6 months ago, I found a recipe I love, and now I eat it every week!

Whenever we try new things in my home, my 5 year old reminds us all of the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood episode when they try new foods. Then, she’s ok with trying it.

But, to get to what you came here for, here’s 7 Easy Vegan Simple Recipes for Healthy Eating and beginners (and just so you know, they aren’t in any particular order; they’re all awesome). These recipes are also family friendly and won’t make you hate eating healthy! Many of them are pretty quick to make, too. And, we all know how valuable our time is.

Need some help easing into eating healthier? Grab this FREE 7 day meal plan [includes grocery list for all recipes!]

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So, I might be a little biased with this recipe. I created this burrito recipe on a whim with inspiration from Moe’s (Southwest Grill). I only ate from the restaurant once, but I loved the food I had from there! So, I had to try to recreate what I had. And, after my family moved from the east coast to the west coast of the U.S., this restaurant is no where to be found.

Plus, this mealcontains complete protein (with the beans and rice combined), which is what most non-vegans complain about vegans not having enough of. Even my nutrition professor from when I was in college said to make sure you combine food together like this to get complete protein. What most non-vegans don’t understand though, is that there is protein in more than just meat and dairy products!

Click here to check out the recipe!

2. Easy Quinoa Stew

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If you have never had quinoa before, this is a must try!

Quinoa boasts about being a complete protein all by itself. I know some people who have tried quinoa and didn’t like it, but I’m pretty sure the only way that can happen is if it’s completely plain.

This quinoa stewhowever, is anything but plain! It’s super simple to make! And, it’s filling! My husband even loves this recipe, and he’s not a vegan (and doesn’t appreciate that I try to make healthy food).

3. Pasta Salad

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My first time ever making pasta salad was about two years ago. I don’t even know if I’d had it before then. I didn’t follow a recipe or anything like that. But, I wanted pasta salad. So, I made it.

I cooked some rotini pasta. Mixed together some fruits and veggies, a little olive oil and a little lemon juice. Then cooled the pasta and mixed it in. My husband even liked it; it was that good. And, if you haven’t read any of my other articles, one thing you should know is that getting my husband to like something, or even try something, I make isvery difficult. Check out the recipe here!

For even MORE Meal and Snack ideas, be sure to subscribe to receive Stress Less Be Healthy Newsletters and get access to over 100 healthy meal and snack ideas in a single PDF!! Sign up HERE!!

4. Avocado Tomato Sandwich

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This is my alternative to a grilled cheese!

Whenever I crave a grilled cheese, I make one of these instead! It’s super simple and can be made in about 5 minutes or less. 2 pieces of toast, half an avocado to spread on both pieces of bread, 1 tomato thinly sliced, and some garlic and sea salt. Put it together, and it doesn’t even compare to a grilled cheese anymore; it is so much better, plus healthier!

My girls (2 and 5 years old) will eat these, as well. Sometimes my younger daughter will just pick the avocado and tomatoes out and eat those and leave the bread. But, she’ll also eat half an avocado plain and ignore a cookie on her tray, too. I’ve even tested this theory! Find the Recipe here

5. Minestrone Soup

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If you’re trying to add more veggies into your diet but don’t know how; try this simple soup. You pretty much just add in any veggie you want, somepasta, beans, veggie stock orbullion cube and a few other items; it’s done when it’s warmand the pasta is soft.

It’s usually only myself and older daughter who eats this when made, so I usually cut all the veggies up for a full recipe and freeze half of them. Or, I make a full recipe of this soup and freeze half of the soup for a week, for sometime in the future. This soup usually lasts all week, or at least 5 days, with half the recipe.

For even MORE Meal and Snack ideas, be sure to subscribe to receive Stress Less Be Healthy Newsletters and get access to over 100 healthy meal and snack ideas in a single PDF!! Sign up HERE!!

6. Vegan Pizza

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How can you go wrong with pizza?!

It’s a favorite in many households and there are so many different ways to make it. I know, one of the main ingredients to pizza is cheese. But, guess what. I replaced the cheese on my pizza with nutritional yeast (yay! now it’s vegan and full of the nutrients I need! Hello vitamin B12!) and it doesn’t taste too bad, either!

Actually, the only difference I really tasted was that there’s not as much grease. With adding veggies as toppings, it also gives you more nutrients than the regular cheese pizza that I used to crave. You could make it even better for you and add some beans on top. Maybe next time. I’m currently eating what you see in the picture below, and it is delicious!

(My 5 year old helped make it, she put the toppings on the left side.)

7. Vegan Mac and Cheese

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This may bethe last meal listed, but that does not mean that it’s not the best!

This mac and cheese is one of the reasons it has been possible for me to stay vegan; I can still eat the comfort foods I grew up with, just with different ingredients.

This recipe was not the first vegan mac and cheese recipe I have tried. I’ve tried so many different mac & cheese recipes over the years, some that required tofu or squash in it, and they just didn’t taste like something I could enjoy, long term.

Then I created this super simple vegan mac & cheese recipe, that’s literally two ingredients. It was soo good, Iimmediately placed it on my meal list (the listI use when coming up with meal plans).

Check out these posts Quick & Simple Vegan Recipes for Beginners and Busy People (AKA Parents).

  • 12 deliciously healthy kid friendly breakfast recipes for easy school mornings
  • 12 Healthy Vegan School Lunch Ideas
  • 11 Family Friendly Quick and Easy Vegan dinner recipes for Hectic Weeknights
  • 22 Mouth Watering No Guilt Vegan Desserts Recipes
  • 55 Easy Vegan Kid Meals (For When You’re Too Tired to Cook!)

(And, no, you don’t have to be a kid to enjoy the recipes in those posts; I simply find meals designed for kids are more appealing to us adults, as well!)

For even MORE Meal and Snack ideas, be sure to subscribe to receive Stress Less Be Healthy Newsletters and get access to over 100 healthy meal and snack ideas in a single PDF!! Sign up HERE!!

I hope this list of the 7 awesome meals for beginner vegans has inspired you to love the food you make and eat.

And, hopefully you have at least one new recipe to try and love, no matter which recipe it is!

All of these are some of my favorites, and like I said, I even got my husband to eat some.

So, good luck on your journey to becoming vegan or enjoying a vegan lifestyle the healthy way!

If you didn’t notice, one thing all these recipes had in common (other than being vegan) was that all contained 2 or more fruits and veggies in them! With the Standard American Diet (SAD) severely lacking in this area, this is so important!

Need some help easing into eating healthier? Grab this FREE 7 day meal plan [includes grocery list for all recipes!]

Also, check out my meal planning guides;

How to Make a Healthy Meal Plan on a Budget

and

How to Meal Plan (when you have no motivation to do so)

Please share in the comments which of these easy vegan simple recipes for healthy eating is for your favorite!

Want to Remember This? Pin 7 Easy Vegan Simple Recipes for Healthy Eating | Beginner Vegans to your favorite Pinterest Board!!

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7 Easy Vegan Simple Recipes for Healthy Eating | Beginner Vegans (2024)

FAQs

What are the basic foods for vegans? ›

Healthy eating as a vegan

base meals on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates (choose wholegrain where possible) have some fortified dairy alternatives, such as soya drinks and yoghurts (choose lower-fat and lower-sugar options) eat some beans, pulses and other proteins.

What are the best foods for a healthy vegan diet? ›

Protein from beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, tofu, tempeh and seitan, along with healthy fats from avocado, nuts, seeds, and coconut and olive oils, can also keep your blood sugar stable. High-protein vegan diet: Protein is one of the nutrients often lacking in a vegan diet.

What is the 7 day vegan challenge? ›

How does it work? No meat, poultry, seafood, dairy or eggs for 7 days (any 7 straight days). Announce to your friends, family, followers that you're doing the challenge.

How to eat vegan for beginners? ›

  1. Make Vegetables the Stars of Your Meals. ...
  2. Eat a Variety of Foods. ...
  3. Choose Whole Grains. ...
  4. Discover New Plant-Based Proteins. ...
  5. Don't Assume Vegan Food Products Are Healthier. ...
  6. Focus On Fish-Free Omega-3s. ...
  7. Don't Forget About Vitamin D. ...
  8. Pump Up Your Iron.
Sep 30, 2022

What foods are 100% vegan? ›

These natural plant-based products are at the heart of a vegan diet. Fruits like apples, bananas, and oranges, as well as vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, and carrots, are excellent choices for a vegan lifestyle.

Is peanut butter vegan? ›

The bottom line. Most types of peanut butter are free of animal products and can be enjoyed as part of a vegan diet. However, some varieties are made in facilities that also process animal products or contain refined sugar that was produced using bone char or non-vegan ingredients like honey or fish oil.

What not to eat when going vegan? ›

Bottom Line: Vegans avoid eating animal flesh and animal by-products. These include meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs and foods made by bees.

What to eat for lunch as a vegan? ›

Vegan lunch recipes
  • Vegan leek & potato soup. A star rating of 4.3 out of 5. ...
  • Vegan banh mi. A star rating of 4.8 out of 5. ...
  • Butter bean curry wraps. A star rating of 5 out of 5. ...
  • Tomato & black bean taco salad. ...
  • Vegan salad bowl. ...
  • Roasted teriyaki veg bowl. ...
  • 'Cheesy' vegan scones. ...
  • Vegan chickpea curry jacket potatoes.

What is the vegan golden rule? ›

The Golden Rule simply states that we should act towards others as we would wish them to act towards us.

How many pounds do vegans lose a week? ›

This gradual calorie reduction can lead to a sustainable weight loss of about 1-2 pounds per week. Optimize Protein Intake: Ensure adequate protein consumption by incorporating various plant-based protein sources such as legumes, tofu, tempeh, seitan, and plant-based protein powders.

What is the 80 20 vegan diet? ›

Tom Brady said he follows the 80/20 rule, meaning 80% of his plate is plant based and 20% is meat. This is one of Brady's lifestyle habits that have allowed him to play in the NFL at the age of 44. Nutritionists say that following the 80/20 rule might be even healthier than being fully vegan.

Where do vegans get protein? ›

Some plant-based foods, such as soybean products, seitan, beans, and lentils contain high amounts of protein. You can also find protein in nuts, whole grains like quinoa and amaranth, and hemp seeds. People following a vegan diet may need to plan in order to reach their daily protein goals.

Do you lose weight fast as a vegan? ›

Studies have shown that a vegan diet can reduce your weight by an average of 5.6 pounds in 18 weeks, or less or more than a third of a pound per week! In theory, you can lose up to 63 pounds in a year. However, the amount you lose depends on several factors.

What happens first week of vegan diet? ›

At the start of a change to a vegan diet, you could experience a variety of differences to your body. These may include being hungrier, getting gassier, a change in your skin or body odor, weight loss or gain, better or worse sleep, headaches, tiredness, or having more energy. As you can see, it can go many ways!

What are vegans most deficient in? ›

Intake and status of vitamin B12, vitamin D, iron, zinc, iodine, calcium and bone turnover markers were generally lower in plant-based dietary patterns compared to meat-eaters. Vegans had the lowest vitamin B12, calcium and iodine intake, and also lower iodine status and lower bone mineral density.

Can vegans eat cheese? ›

On the other hand, vegans avoid all animal products or animal byproducts, including dairy and milk. Because most cheese is made from cow's or goat's milk, most types are not vegan-friendly. Most vegetarians avoid products that require the slaughter of an animal.

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