Top 5 Vegan Lunch Recipes

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As a huge fan of vegan recipes and lunch recipes, I've decided to list my all-time top 5 favorite vegan lunch recipes here completely free for you to enjoy! The following recipes are featured in my brand new cookbook full of 200 different vegan recipes - The Vegan Cookbook: 200 Healthy & Delicious Recipes for The Beginner Vegan.

When you grab a copy of my book, you'll not only get 200 delicious recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert, but you'll also get full listings for the calories, fats, protein and carbohydrates in each recipe! If that's not enough, you'll be able to quickly see how long each recipe takes to prepare, so you can plan ahead.

If you're wondering what arepas are, they're essentially corn pancakes that are commonly eaten in the Venezuelan and Colombian regions of the world. They are usually served with avocado and various fruit spreads. I'll let you be creative on what else you want to serve them with!

Ingredients:

• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 minced jalapeno
• 1/4 cup diced onion
• 1 large mango, peeled and diced
• 1 peeled and pitted avocados, sliced
• 1 cup black beans, undrained
• 2 bananas, sliced lengthwise
• Olive oil
• 16 oz. Tube prepared polenta
• 8 oz. Tofu, drained

Directions:

1. Fire up your oven's broiler and allow it to preheat.
2. Position your oven rack about 6 inches away from the heat source.
3. Grease a cookie sheet.
4. Slice up your polenta as well as your tofu into slabs equal in terms of thickness. Coat in olive oil (with a baking brush or however else you choose to) and space them evenly apart on your cookie sheet.
5. Leave your slabs of tofu and polenta in your preheated broiler, allowing them to cook for approximately 5 minutes. You'll know they are finished when the tops of them become crispy. Once finished remove them from the broiler and set them aside.
6. Place a skillet over medium-high heat and heat up your olive oil, coating the surface of the skillet in it. Cook the bananas in the olive oil until they become crispy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside. This should be about 5 minutes. Remove the bananas from the olive oil and set them aside.
7. Pour the full cup of black beans into a blender and blend however long you need to until they become a thick sauce.
8. In a bowl, combine and stir the salt, jalapeno pepper, diced onion and mango together.
9. To put your arepas together, place a single slice of the polenta on each plate and cover each with about a ¼ of the total bean sauce you created into step 7. Then place a slice of your tofu on top of the layer of bean sauce. Then a few slices of the prepared banana, a bit of avocado and topping it all off with a ¼ of the total mango salsa on each.

The delicious curry seasoning that plays out in tandem with turmeric, cayenne pepper, ground coriander, cumin, garlic and even crushed cinnamon sticks creates a bold taste in this exciting lunch recipe! Chickpeas are rich in Vitamin K, zinc, manganese and calcium which make them an essential part of a balanced vegan diet. If you enjoy dishes with curry, this is one you absolutely must try.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 x 15 oz. Cans of garbanzo beans
• 1 tsp. Ground turmeric
• 1 tsp. Cayenne pepper
• Salt
• 1 tsp. Ground coriander
• 1 tsp. Ground cumin
• 2 x 2" cinnamon sticks, crushed
• 6 whole cloves
• 2 tsp. Fresh ginger root, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 onions, minced
• 2 tbsp. Vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Heat your vegetable oil in a skillet on medium heat.
2. Throw in your onions and allow them to fry until tenderized.
3. Mix in your turmeric, cayenne pepper, salt, coriander, cumin, crushed cinnamon sticks, cloves, ginger and garlic and stir for 1 minute.
4. Add in your garbanzo beans and the liquid they came in. Continue stirring as the ingredients cook until everything is blended well and completely heated through.
5. Remove the skillet from the heat.
6. Add cilantro right before you serve!

This recipe proves that black beans and white rice really can live together in peace and harmony! This racially diverse dish hails from the southern region of Mexico and is incredibly popular amongst the vegans there – you'll see why when you take your very first bite. This lunch is so good it could probably cure someone of racism!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups uncooked instant white rice
• 1/2 tsp. Garlic powder
• 1 tsp. Dried oregano
• 14.5 oz. Can stewed tomatoes
• 15 oz. Can black beans, undrained
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp. Vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Place a large saucepan on medium-high heat and spread oil to cover the surface of it.
2. Add in your onion and stir while allowing it to cook until tender.
3. Pour in your beans, garlic powder, oregano and stewed tomatoes.
4. Bring the contents of the saucepan to a boil and stir in your white rice.
5. Cover the saucepan and lower the heat down to a low simmer. Let sit for 5 minutes.
6. Remove the saucepan from the heat source and let sit an additional 5 minutes before you serve.

Despite what you're probably thinking, this is not another tofu recipe. Instead, it relies on the delicious texture and flavor of barbecue-style tempeh! The combination of barbecue sauce, chopped bell peppers and onion create an exquisite blend of seasoning and flavor that really makes tempeh taste better than you ever thought it could.

Ingredients:

• 4 Kaiser rolls, cut in half and toasted
• 1 medium-sized onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped and seeded
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped and seeded
• 1 tbsp. Vegetable oil
• 8 oz. Package of tempeh, crumbled
• 1 cup of barbecue sauce

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine the barbecue sauce and the crumbled tempeh. Let sit to marinate for 10 minutes.
2. Place a skill on medium heat and coat with oil.
3. Add the chopped peppers (both green and red) to the skillet as well as the onion.
4. Stir frequently will allowing to cook until tenderized.
5. Pour the barbecue / crumbled tempeh sauce into the skillet and mix well with vegetables to coat. Allow time to heat through completely.
6. Scoop the mixture out and spread over on Kaiser rolls to create your sandwiches.

These delicious tofu wedges are sweet and spicy at the same time! They are bathed in red pepper flakes, ginger, soy sauce, chili pepper and even orange juice. It may sound like an interesting combination and one you hadn't thought of before, but trust me when I say they taste a whole lot better than they sound. No description I give can ever do these tofu wedges justice, but your taste buds can!

Ingredients:

• 2 dried chipotle chili peppers
• ¼ cup chopped cilantro
• 1 green onion, cut into 1" strips
• ¼ tsp. Red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp. Minced fresh ginger root
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 tsp. Dark sesame oil
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• ¼ cup rice vinegar
• 1 cup fresh orange juice
• 1 pound firm tofu

Directions:

1. Position your tofu on its side and slice it into 4 thin pieces.
2. Reposition the tofu flat on its surface again and cut it in a diagonal fashion to create 8 different wedges.
3. While carefully still holding the pieces together so they do not separate, place your tofu on a cutting board and cover it with a paper towel. Set a heavy skillet on top of it and allow it sit on its own for 30 minutes, to allow the extra water to be drained from the tofu.
4. Whisk your oils, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, vinegar and orange juice together in a bowl.
5. Separate your tofu wedges and nicely and evenly arrange them together in a baking dish forming only one layer.
6. Cover the layer of tofu wedges with the marinade you created in step 4 and garnish them with cilantro and your green onion.
7. Remove the stems from your chili peppers and place them in the dish with the tofu.
8. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator for at least about 30 minutes or up to as long as overnight, if you have the time. The longer you allow them to sit, then the more they will marinate.
9. Set your oven to 350°F (175°C) for preheating.
10. Drain a bit of the excess marinade from your dish to allow the tofu to only be covered about half way.
11. Bake for 45 minutes, without turning, at 350°F (175°C).
12. You will know it is finished, when the tofu becomes golden and the majority of marinade is absorbed.

I hope you've enjoyed this quick peek at my personal preference of five favorite lunch recipes! If any of these recipes appeal to you, they are only a glimpse of the 200 different recipes you can find in my cookbook, The Vegan Cookbook: 200 Healthy & Delicious Recipes for The Beginner Vegan.

More than just a cookbook, however, The Vegan Cookbook also contains a built in weight loss plan as well as 170+ testimonies of how eating a vegan diet has healed people of countless diseases and changed their lives. If you are a committed vegan, this book is a must-have.