Cooking plant-based meals is easier than you think! Whether you’re a long time vegan or experimenting with plant-based recipes for the first time, you’re sure to find something you love! Vibrant & hearty veggie bowls, pasta meals, curries - are all on the menu. Read below for a simple guide on how to make a plant-based diet easy & delicious by our founder Richa.
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I’m popping in today to highlight some of my favourite ways to eat more plants - and transform your everyday meals into dishes that are exciting, filling, and fun to eat. These easy tips will help you create healthy and delicious plant-based recipes from what you have in your fridge.
I try and add at least 5 different types of plant food to every meal - it includes vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes and grains. I’ve followed these simple tips for many years, and it has brought me incredible joy.
1. Eat a fruit for a snack or to simply start your day with
It's easy to replace your usual snacks with fruit and vegetables. Fruit is nature's ready-made snack packed with vitamins, fiber, and other nutrients that support a healthy diet. Simply mix berries, apples with 2 table spoons of almond butter. For my breakfast, I usually just slice up a banana, and add almonds, raisins, cashews, walnuts, Brazilian nuts along with some soaked up chia seeds in oat milk or any other milk alternatives.
2. Boost your pasta sauces with vegetables
Getting in your daily servings of vegetables is easy when you feature this veggie-loaded pasta recipe. Sauté peppers, zucchini, onion, asparagus in olive oil with garlic, add your favourite pasta sauce, top with raw or frozen spinach, artichokes and/ or sun-dried tomatoes for a veggie-full pasta dish. You can choose the vegetables you like.
Love the plant-based lifestyle as much as we do? Try our vegan-friendly Whole30 Approved plant-based organic cooking sauces in Indian and Mexican flavours - made with ingredients that you can pronounce and will find in your kitchen.
3. Vegetables love good fat and good heat
You don't always need to convert vegetable into a fry but a little fat goes a long way. Cauliflower, broccoli, sweet potato, potato, carrot, parsnips, rutabaga, brussels sprouts and beets all love being roasted in the oven or air-fryer with some good olive oil or avocado oil. Coat them with different seasonings based on your mood!
Add some cumin, coriander and garam masala for Indian flavours, or cumin and chipotle for Mexican-inspired meal. Alternatively, you can add Italian's herb seasoning to go with anything Italian. These vegetables are great leftovers for wraps and sandwiches too.
4. Add a side salad in summer to make any food veggie-full
Eating a pizza? No problem! Just add a side salad with greens and some chopped fresh vegetables. You can season them with Mediterranean-inspired lemon, olive oil and garlic dressing - nothing fancy but tastes incredible.
5. Try food from different cultures that traditionally eat a lot of vegetables
It's really easy to discover your new favourite plant-based food by exploring different cuisines, from Thai, Indian, Chinese and beyond. Adding cuisine from different cultures can break up the monotony of your go-to dinner routine.
Indian, Thai, Chinese and Mexican cuisines have a lot of vegetable and meat dishes that are loaded with flavour. You can easily replace meat from the curries (Indian or Thai) with vegetables, legumes and vegan meat options without changing the essence of the dish. It still tastes great with or without meat as most of the flavour comes from the sauces.
I’m fortunate to have learned a lot over the years and am pleased to share some tips that I’m confident will help you stay on a healthy plant-based lifestyle for a lifetime. I hope you found these tips helpful, and I wish you the best in your plant-based journey! If you love these ideas, download our plant-based cookbook for Whole30 Approved and vegan-friendly meal ideas here and here.