10 Vegan Recipes You Won’t Realize Are Missing Meat

As a meat lover, I know how hard it can be to give up some of your favourite things. But going meatless has been proven to reduce one’s carbon footprint by 50%! Not everyone can go meatless or even vegan (no dairy products, eggs, or meat involved in the making ) and sustain that lifestyle for a long time but what some of use can do is try being vegan for a couple days out of the week. 

If you’re new to being vegan, we’ve got recipes that are simple and most of the ingredients can be found at your local grocery store. But most importantly, you’ll actually be full!

1. Macaroni Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

12 ounces of pasta (I prefer rotini)

1 pint sun dried tomatoes

2/3 cup of green and black olives

1/2 red onion

1/2 cup vegan feta cheese

Vinaigrette Ingredients:

1/4 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 tablespoons of vinegar

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/2 squeezed lemon

Directions:

Cook the pasta and strain. Dice the red onions and chop the olives into halves. Add the sun dried tomatoes, olives, red onions, and feta cheese to the pasta. Mix the Vinaigrette ingredients in a clean bowl. Add the vinaigrette to the pasta salad and mix.

2. Summer Rolls

Ingredients:

1 large carrot

1/4 red onion

1/3 large cucumber

1/4 large orange bell pepper

1/2 cup tofu

6 rice paper wraps

Peanut Sauce Ingredients:

2 tablespoons peanut butter

1 tablespoon coconut milk

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce

Directions for Summer Rolls:

Cut the stem off of the large carrot, cut the carrot in half and then into 6 even, long skinny strips. Peel the cucumber and cut into 6 even, long and skinny strips. Cut the bell pepper and tofu into 6 long and skinny strips. Peel the red onion and dice it. Dip a rice paper into warm water and place onto smooth surface. Place one of each ingredient horizontally onto the lower half of the paper. Sprinkle red onions to taste. Wrap rice paper like burrito. 

Directions for Peanut Sauce:

Place peanut butter into microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 10-15 seconds. Add coconut milk and stir until even. Add soy sauce and red pepper flakes. Stir and serve with rolls for dipping.

3. Peanut Ramen

This one is great if you have leftover peanut sauce from the recipe above!

Ingredients:

1 pack of ramen (or other preferred pasta)

2 tablespoons of green onion

1 teaspoon of sesame seeds

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

leftover peanut sauce

Directions:

Cook ramen al dente. Add leftover peanut sauce to ramen. Mix well. Add sesame oil to mixture and mix well. Top with green onion and sesame seeds.

4. Pesto Zoodles

Ingredients:

1 large zucchini 

2 tablespoons of pesto

handful of kale

salt

6 cherry tomatoes

Directions:

Chop the tips off of the zucchini and spiralize it. Steam the zucchini noodles for 2 1/2 minutes and save the excess water. Sauté the kale and season with salt. Chop the cherry tomatoes in halves and add to pan with kale on low heat for 2 minutes. Add the zucchini noodles to the pan along with the pesto. Stir and add the leftover water until the sauce is of desired thickness.

5. Lettuce Wrap tacos

Ingredients:

1 cup of black beans

taco seasoning

1/2 cup corn

1 tbsp red onion

1/4 green bell pepper

romaine lettuce 

Directions:

Dice green pepper. Sauté black beans, corn, and pepper with taco seasoning. Dice red onion. Peel romaine leaves. Put black bean, corn, and pepper inside romaine leaves. Add red onion on top.

6. Quinoa Bowl

Ingredients: 

1 cup quinoa

1/3 large cucumber

1/2 large tomato

1 cup spinach

1/2 hass avocado

1/2 cup chick peas

1 cup garlic hummus 

Directions: 

Cook quinoa and season with salt. Dice cucumber and tomato. Place quinoa in the bottom right half of the bowl. Place spinach in bottom left half to he bowl. Sprinkle cucumber and tomato on top of quinoa and spinach. Top with garlic humus. Garnish with thin slices of avocado.

7. Portabello Burger

Ingredients:

1 portabello mushroom

1 tbsp teriyaki sauce

1 jalapeno

1 pineapple ring

1 slice of vegan cheese

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Burger buns

Directions:

Cover the mushroom and pineapple in teriyaki sauce and then grill or sauté. Place mushroom on bun and place cheese on mushroom while it is still warm. Add the pineapple and sliced jalapeños (to taste).

8. Halloumi Fries

Ingredients: 

1 pack of vegan halloumi

1 medium pomegranate 

1/2 cup of greek yogurt

2 tablespoons of honey

Avocado oil

Directions: 

Cut halloumi into thin, long strips. Fry in shallow oil until golden brown. Place on paper towels to soak up extra oil. While the strips are drying, remove the seeds from the pomegranate. Mix the greek yogurt and honey in its own bowl. Plate the halloumi, top with pomegranate, and drizzle with greek yogurt sauce.

9. Udon Soup

Ingredients:

1 pack of udon noodles

vegetable stock

1/2 carrot

2 tbsp green onion

1 cup mushrooms

1 cup tofu

handful of spinach

1/3 clove of garlic

sesame oil

soy sauce

Directions: 

Warm veggie broth in pot. Cook noodles in separate pot. Add udon to warm broth and remove from heat. Chop carrots. Sauté carrots, mushrooms, garlic, and tofu in sesame oil. Season with soy sauce. Add sautéed veggies and garlic to udon and broth. add spinach and stir. Plate and top with green onions.

10. Vegan Nachos

Ingredients:

Bag of tortilla chips

1 cup black beans

1 cup tomatoes

1 cup red onions

2 jalapenos

1 large avodcado

shredded vegan cheese

Salt

Directions: 

Spread out tortilla chips on a large plate. Warm black beans in a pan with a sprinkle of salt and layer on top of chips. While the beans are still warm, add cheese. While cheese is melting, dice tomatoes, red onions, and jalapeños. layer tomatoes, red onions, then jalapeños. Mash avocado in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Top nachos with avocado mix.

Let us know in the comments below if you’ve tried any of these vegan recipes and how it went!

Featured image courtesy of: superdrug.com