3 cheap lazy vegan meal ideas

I recently collaborated with one of my favorite vegan YouTubers, Cheap Lazy Vegan! Rose inspired me to share my 3 cheap lazy vegan meal ideas.

There’s really nothing fancy about these recipes, they’re just my go-to meals during the week. In fact, I always think they’re pretty underwhelming and not up to snuff in terms of hot for food’s normal creativity, so I was always hesitant to publish them. But now that I’ve realized how popular my What I Ate vlogs are, I guess this is in that same vein.

Some of you will know that I eat popcorn for dinner all to often. It’s actually pretty nutritious with all that fibre! And if you coat it with coconut oil and sea salt, there’s really nothing to be alarmed about. I mean, it’s certainly healthier than eating it with butter!

Watch the video below to see how I make popcorn my way, or find the recipe for the best vegan popcorn here.

This recipe for a stuffed sweet potato with nacho cheese was loosely based on this recipe. It’s completely customizable. The version I often crave is a little tex-mex with the black beans and corn sauteéd in taco seasoning. That’s right, you can just buy taco seasoning to make things taste like tacos. You don’t necessarily need to stock 6 to 8 spices in your pantry!

5 from 3 votes

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stuffed sweet potato with nacho cheese

If you’re craving a little tex-mex try this healthy stuffed sweet potato with, black beans, corn, and nacho cheese sauce!

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword black beans, nacho cheese, potatoes, stuffed sweet potato

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Author Lauren Toyota

Ingredients

baked sweet potato

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 tsp vegetable oil or olive oil
• sea salt & pepper, to taste

toppings

• 1 x 15 oz can black beans, drained & rinsed
• 1 C frozen corn, thawed
• 2 green onions, finely chopped
• 2 tsp vegetable oil or olive oil
• 1/2 tsp taco seasoning
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 batch nacho cheese
• 1/2 C salsa
• handful finely chopped chives, as garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. To prepare the sweet potato for baking preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Wash your sweet potatoes and poke the surface of the skin with a fork. Then cover each sweet potato with a 1/2 teaspoon of oil and a pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper and coat it using your hands. Bake on a baking sheet for 60 minutes or until tender and cooked through. You could also do these in the microwave if you have one and it takes 5 to 7 minutes… obviously don’t use the tinfoil!

3. With about 10 minutes remaining in the bake time for the potatoes, heat a pan over medium heat and add vegetable oil, black beans, corn and green onions. Sauté for 2 minutes. Then add taco seasoning, sea salt, and ground black pepper. Continue cooking for about 5 to 6 minutes or until the onions are softer and there might be some browning on the corn kernels.

4. Once the potatoes are baked slice them in half and open them up on your plate. Mash the insides with a fork. Then top with the black bean and corn mixture, diced avocado, warm nacho cheese, salsa and garnish with chives.

I’m not the biggest salad fan, unless the salads are big with lots of variety. Another key component of a great meal salad, in my opinion, is if it has both cold and warm components as well as a creamy dressing!

That’s why my favorite salad to prepare is topped with lots of tasty roasted vegetables. You can use whatever you have lying around like squash, broccoli, potatoes, onions, or zucchini. But the heartier the better.

I also hope you’ll like my cheap salad dressing idea of using leftover hummus!

This recipe really doesn’t have or even need measurements. You can improvise it and add or take away whatever you like, and make as much as you like and pack it up for the week. You won’t get that warm roasted element with leftovers on the go, but roasting the vegetables make them hold up nicely for go-to meal prepping.

I’ve just listed what I used for this recipe without measurements. For the seasonings and dressing you’ll need to adjust to taste.

5 from 1 vote

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roasted vegetable salad

This is an easy go-to cheap lazy vegan meal. It’s just roasted veg of your choice on top of greens. It can be completely customized with any other raw veggies you crave too!

Course Salad

Cuisine Mediterranean

Keyword salad dressing, salads, vegetables

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 2 large servings

Author Lauren Toyota

Ingredients

salad

• cauliflower florets
• diced purple potato
• diced leek
• olive oil
• sea salt
• ground black pepper
• chili powder
• dried oregano
• chopped butter lettuce
• baby spinach leaves
• finely shredded red cabbage
• pumpkin seeds
• sunflower seeds
• finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes

hummus dressing

• prepared hummus
• tahini
• lemon juice
• maple syrup
• water
• sea salt
• ground black pepper

Instructions

1. To roast the vegetables, preheat the oven to 425°F. 

2. Place your diced vegetables on a baking sheet and toss with olive oil, sea salt, ground pepper, chili powder, and oregano or other spices of your choice. Roast for about 20 minutes or until browned and cooked through. Ensure to toss once during bake time.

3. To make the dressing combine the ingredients together in a bowl with a whisk. You’ll need to adjust acidity and sweetness to taste to get it to taste less like hummus. The essence of hummus will obviously be there but add enough tahini to smooth it out! This all depends on how much hummus you start with as well as the type of tahini you’re using. Just add small amounts of water to the dressing to get it smooth and to your desired consistency as well. You can even add in apple cider vinegar if you don’t have lemon juice but I prefer the freshness of lemon with the roasted vegetables. You can also experiment with adding hot sauce and/or fresh herbs as well. 

4. To serve, combine your mixed greens. Add the warm roasted vegetables on top. Add pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and sundried tomatoes or whatever toppings you like. Then drizzle dressing over top. 

Recipe Notes

Only dress what you’ll eat immediately. Otherwise portion out the salads into individual meal sized containers to take to work or school throughout the week and keep dressing in a separate jar or container to add before you eat.