7 Easy Vegan Family Dinners Made with 10 Ingredients or Less

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Wondering what to cook for your kids (and yourself!) for dinner tonight?

Wish you could whip something up in a hot minute and be done with it?

Yea, me too! 

I battled with what to make for dinner before going plant-based. After we switched, the struggle only got worse!

I started freaking out about what to replace the “main dish” (usually meat) with. I had to rethink our meals.

And after a long day, homework and extracurricular activities, this tired introvert doesn’t have much gas left in the tank to make a fancy, kid-friendly vegan dinner. So limiting the amount of time I spend in the kitchen is a must!

My Requirements for Our Vegan Family Dinners

I knew the vegan dinners we made had to be realistic. In order for us to be successful at keeping animal products off our table and sticking to a plant-based diet, I needed meals that were easily accessible with our busy schedules.

So, to be precise, here were my must-haves:

• Simple
• Quick
• Low ingredients
• Kid-friendly 
• And, or course, plant-based!

I kept that list in mind as we fine-tuned a week’s worth of vegan family meals. And as a result, we came up with these 7 simple vegan dinner recipes for beginners (and vets)!

Here are our 7 easy, go-to vegan family dinners!

NOTE: All recipes are made for a family of 4 or 5. So adjust them according to the number of people you have in your family.

1. Pasta and (Frozen) Veggies

When I said these meals were easy, I bet you didn’t think I’d mean this easy! But this is my go-to Monday-night, kid-friendly vegan dinner. And here’s why.

Monday’s are hard. Getting back into the swing of things after a relaxing weekend is exhausting. Especially when you have Scouts and PTA meetings on Monday nights! 

So, our solution was an easy (and easily reheatable!) vegan dinner of pasta and veggies.

What You Need:

• 16 oz box of pasta
• 32 oz jar of pasta sauce
• 8 oz frozen (or more!) veggies (I like peas, but I’ve also used a veggie mix before)
• Optional: meatless meatballs, Follow Your Heart vegan Parmesan cheese

What You Do:

1. Cook the pasta, sauce, and veggies according to the directions. 
2. Serve, or if you don’t want to serve them separately, put everything into one pot and stir them so the sauce coats the noodles and the veggies. (It seems like our kids eat more vegetables if they’re surrounded by the sauce and noodles.)
3. If you’d like, add meatless meatballs or sprinkle vegan Parmesan cheese on top.

2. Tacos (with Canned Beans)

Where we live, Taco Tuesday is a big deal at local restaurants. Since switching to a plant-based diet, we don’t have as many restaurant options for meatless tacos, so we celebrate Taco Tuesday at home. 

It’s pretty simple and doesn’t require much cooking, so it makes for an easy second-day-of-the-week vegan family dinner.

What You Need:

• 2 cups dried brown rice
• 2 16 oz cans of refried (make sure they’re vegan) or black beans
• Spinach or romaine lettuce (I use spinach because I usually have that on hand)
• Tomatoes
• Avocados
• Tortillas
• Your favorite salsa
• Optional: 1 can of black olives, guacamole, sauteed onions and bell peppers

What You Do:

1. Cook the rice. (I use a rice cooker so I start it and forget about it until it’s done cooking.)
2. Put the beans in a pot and cook on low to warm until the rice is done.
3. Finely slice the spinach or romaine lettuce.
4. Dice the tomatoes, avocado and if you’re using them, the black olives.
5. Warm the tortillas if you’d like.
6. Once the rice is done, fill the tortillas with rice, beans, lettuce or spinach, tomatoes, avocado, olives and top it off with your favorite salsa.

3. Baked Potatoes

Potatoes are one of my favorite comfort foods. Mashed, hashed, fries, O’Briens, baked…. I’ll pretty much eat potatoes anyway they’re made! 

Thank goodness it’s easy to make baked potatoes vegan! This is one of those timeless, simple vegan dinner recipes for beginners. If you loved a baked potato before you went plant-based, you’ll love it even more now! I cook this on a day that’s cooler since the oven has to be on for a while. And I choose a lot of fun and tasty toppings to give the dish some extra flavor!

What You Need:

• 5-6 Russet potatoes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 16 oz can of black beans (or your favorite beans)
• 16 oz frozen broccoli (or another type of vegetable)
• Optional: Earth Balance butter, vegan sour cream, avocados and/or guacamole, salsa

What You Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Wash and dry the potatoes. Then poke them with a fork a few times and toss them in a large bowl with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper until the potatoes are lightly coated.
3. Place potatoes on a glass 11×13 inch oven safe dish and bake for 45-60 minutes until a knife pokes into the potatoes easily. 
4. Place beans in a small pot over low heat to warm on the stove. 
5. Microwave broccoli according to the directions on the bag.
6. Once cooked, slice the potatoes in half and add all the toppings you’d like. We start with butter and sour cream so it melts into the potatoes a bit before giving it a slight mash and adding the beans, broccoli, avocado and salsa.

4. Teriyaki Bowls

This is another simple vegan family meal that I usually save for busy nights. Sometimes, if we’re really short on time, I buy pre-made meatless teriyaki bowls from the freezer section and serve a microwave dinner.

But this meal is easy to make ahead of time and reheat. If you’re tired of rice, replace it with soba noodles. I’ve found my kids get excited when I add tofu or the meatless morsels from Trader Joe’s. So I usually try to add one of those into the dish, but I’ve left it out plenty of times when we have a busy evening. 

What You Need:

• 2 cups dried brown rice
• 4 cups frozen stir fry vegetable mix (or a mixture of your favorite fresh, sliced vegetables)
• Teriyaki sauce, or whatever flavor sauce you prefer
• Optional: Added protein like a 14 oz block of tofu (baked to your liking) or 2 bags of Trader Joe’s Chicken-less Mandarin Orange Morsels (you can bake them without using the sauce)

What You Do:

1. Cook the rice. (Like I said with my tacos, I use a rice cooker so I start the rice and forget about it until it’s done cooking.)
2. Cook the veggies according to the directions on the bag. (Or bake them in the oven if you’re using fresh vegetables. I cook mine for 30 minutes at 400 degrees F.)
3. Cook or bake any added protein like tofu or the chicken-less morsels from Trader Joe’s. 
4. Add everything together and top with teriyaki sauce.

5. Veggie Burgers, Frozen Fries and Zucchini

There’s a tie in our house for the vote of favorite vegan burger. We recently started barbecuing Beyond Burgers and love them. But before that, we tried several meatless patties and enjoyed the Hi-Protein Veggie Burger from Trader Joe’s best. So, it’s a toss up and we rotate between using both patties. 

This is one of our favorite vegan family dinners and is usually eaten (and sometimes barbecued) in the backyard, on a Friday to kick off the weekend! We also ate this for dinner in the What Our Vegan Family of 5 Eats in a Day post.

What You Need:

• 4-6 veggie burger patties (depending on how many people you’re cooking for)
• 4-6 burger buns
• 1 lb bag frozen fries
• 3 large zucchini or 5-6 small zucchini
• 1-2 teaspoons olive oil (or vegetable stock or water if you prefer)
• Salt and pepper to season
• Tomato
• Lettuce, spinach or arugula (I use whatever we have on hand)
• Optional: Pickles, avocado or guacamole, ketchup and mustard, Follow Your Heart American Style Cheese Slices

What You Do:

1. Preheat the oven or grill according to directions on the burgers. 
2. Slice the zucchini. (Since I have younger kids, I slice them lengthwise in half, then slice them in ½ inch sections so they look like half moons and are smaller to eat than full circles.) 
3. If cooking the zucchini on the stove, place a pot on the stove with olive oil over medium heat. Place zucchini in the pot, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put a lid over them and stir occasionally until they’re cooked to the softness you like. (Usually anywhere from 20-30 minutes.) If cooking on the grill, place on the grill for about 30 minutes, turning them over half way through.
4. Meanwhile, bake the fries in the oven according to the package directions. 
5. Cook the burgers in the oven or the grill, depending on which patties you’re using.
6. While everything is cooking, thinly slice the tomatoes and prep the lettuce, spinach or arugula. 
7. If you’re using cheese, place it on top of the burger in the last minutes of cooking. (Our kids like it best when it’s slightly melted.) 
8. Once everything is done, assemble the burgers. We like to spread avocado on the top bun and mustard and ketchup on the bottom bun. Then we put all the toppings on the burgers and serve alongside the fries and zucchini.

6. Chik’n Nuggets, Baked Beans and Brussels Sprouts

When Brussels sprouts are in season, this is our go-to Saturday night meal. My husband offers to cook on the weekends and he and I agree this is a seriously simple vegan dinner recipe for beginners.

Believe it or not, this is our 2-year-old’s favorite meal. He LOVES Brussels sprouts. Hearing him say “Brussels sprouts” each week makes this meal even more enjoyable! 

But I think what my kids like most about this meal is that they can enjoy one of the dishes that used to be their go-to when we ordered kids meals at restaurants: chicken nuggets.

And although they no longer want to eat real chicken nuggets, breaking a craving can be challenging. There are some foods they miss since we went plant-based and this is one of them. Offering meatless options that aren’t so different from the foods they used to eat has helped us gently transition the kids to a vegan diet.

What You Need:

• 2 21oz MorningStar Farms Veggie Classics Chik’n Nuggets bags
• 1 15 or 28oz can of baked beans
• 2lbs of Brussels sprouts
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Barbecue sauce

What You Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place a large baking sheet in the oven to warm while it preheats.
2. Depending on the size of the Brussels sprouts, trim off the ends and slice them in half, or quarters if they’re really large. Toss them in a big bowl with a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper. Once the oven is preheated, take the baking sheet out of the oven and spread the Brussels sprouts onto it. Make sure the Brussels sprouts have a cut-side facing down on the pan. (It ensures that the side will get a nice crispy edge on it that is so tasty!) Put the sheet back in the oven to bake until they are softer and slightly brown around the edges. About 30 minutes. 
3. Once the Brussels sprouts have baked for 10 minutes, get out a separate baking sheet. Spread out the chik’n nuggets so they aren’t touching and bake in the oven for the remaining 20 minutes with the Brussels sprouts (or bake them according to the package’s directions). 
4. Take out a small pot and pour the baked beans into the pot. Put it over low heat to warm. 
5. Once everything is done cooking, serve with a side of barbecue sauce. I actually love dipping my Brussels sprouts in the baked bean sauce!

7. Vegan Chili

I saved the best for last! This is our family’s favorite meal and we look forward to it almost every Sunday. Now, I know from looking at the list below, it seems more involved than the others, but it’s a totally simple and delicious vegan family dinner. We throw a bunch of stuff into a pot, let it do its thing and, voila! Dinner!

We prefer to slow-cook this on the stove on a day when we’re at home and can fix it and forget it until dinner. The longer it cooks, the longer the flavors can merge together. It just gets better with time. But if we want to make it on a weekday night, it can be easily adjusted to cook faster. 

We get creative with the toppings. Our go-to is vegan sour cream. But we’ve been known to add leftover brown rice, diced avocado, chives, or crumbled tortilla chips! 

Sometimes, if we’re feeling motivated, we bake cornbread with this. But the chili fills up our family without it, so we don’t stress if we don’t have time for baking. 

What You Need:

• 1 onion, diced (I use a sweet onion but a yellow or white onion could work, too)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (or about 2 teaspoons from a jar of minced garlic)
• 2 vegan Italian sausages, crumbled (we use Field Roast Grain Meat Co.)
• 1 chili seasoning packet (we use Simply Organic’s Mild Chili Seasoning Mix)
• 2 14oz cans of petite diced tomatoes (if you can’t find petite, regular diced works fine)
• 1 15oz can of lentils, drained and rinsed
• 1 15oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 15oz can of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup of frozen corn
• 1 or 8 cups of water (depending on how long you’re going to cook it)
• Optional toppings: vegan sour cream, sliced chives, crumbled tortilla chips, avocados, leftover rice, and more!

(Recipe adapted from NikkiVegan’s The Best Vegan Chili Recipe)

What You Do:

1. In a large pot, place crumbled sausages, diced onion, and minced garlic over medium-high heat. If you’d like, you can add a bit of olive oil, but it’s not necessary. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally until the onion becomes translucent (3-7 minutes). 
2. Sprinkle the seasoning mix over the sausage, onion and garlic. Stir to combine and cook for another minute or two, stirring so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
3. Next, pour the 2 cans of petite diced tomatoes into the pot. 
4. Then, pour the lentils, black beans, and kidney beans (make sure they are all rinsed and drained) into the pot. 
5. Pour the corn into the pot. 
6. Stir it all together. Then, add the water. If you’re going to cook this in 30-60 minutes for dinner, then only add 1 cup of water. If you plan to leave this simmering on the stove all day like we usually do, add anywhere from 6-8 cups of water. A lot of the water will cook off, so don’t worry if it looks too watery now. 
7. Stir the ingredients together and bring the chili to a boil. Let it boil for about 5 minutes. Then reduce heat to a simmer and cook with the lid off for 30 or so minutes if cooking with 1 cup of water. If cooking with 6-8 cups of water, let it simmer with the lid off for 4-5 hours (or more if you’d like). Check on it from time to time and give it a stir every once in a while. If it starts getting too dry, feel free to add more water if needed.
8. Once the chili is done, you can serve as-is and enjoy, or get creative and add some toppings (our kid’s favorite is vegan sour cream)!

We hope you enjoy these simple vegan dinner recipes for beginners as much as we do! Switching to a plant-based diet was a huge change for us and our children. So we modified some of the meals we loved from our pre-vegan days, and came up with these tasty and dinners.

Having a week’s worth of easy, kid-friendly vegan dinners made meal planning and grocery shopping more manageable. It ultimately helped us stay on track. We even celebrated our veganniversary recently!

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What’s Your Family’s Favorite Vegan Dinner?

Alright, we’ve shared our go-to vegan family dinners with you, but we’re always looking for new recipes. We’d love to hear what vegan dinners your family enjoys the most!

Let us know in the comments below!

Stay mindful, even when your mind’s full.
~Chelsea

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