Everything is plant-based. Filter to what you can make tonight.
136 recipes
South Asian · 10 min · Easy
A no-cook chickpea chaat that's tangy, fresh and ready in ten minutes. Chickpeas tossed with red onion, cucumber and tomato, brightened with lemon and chaat masala.
South Asian · 35 min · Easy
The classic dry curry of potato and cauliflower — steamed gently under a lid with turmeric and coriander, then finished uncovered so the edges catch and crisp. The side dish that quietly steals the plate.
Caribbean · 22 min · Easy
Pineapple cut into rings, dried, dusted and dropped through a thin sparkling batter into hot oil, so the outside shatters and the fruit inside turns hot, syrupy and startlingly sharp against the sugar.
North American · 40 min · Easy
Game-day wings, baked not fried. Cauliflower florets dipped in a simple seasoned batter, baked until crisp, tossed in buffalo sauce and returned to the oven until sticky. Served with celery sticks and vegan ranch.
North American · 17 min · Easy
Blueberries cooked down with maple and thyme until they slump into a loose jam, spread under melting vegan cheese and griddled in butter until the edges go lacy and brown. Sweet against salt, the way fruit and cheese have always worked.
Latin American · 15 min · Easy
Dried hibiscus steeped briefly, sweetened while hot and chilled hard — tart, cranberry-deep and an almost unreasonable red. The most common agua fresca in Mexico.
South Asian · 30 min · Easy
Green mango simmered soft, pulped, and spiced with cumin and black salt into a pale, tart-savory cooler. Drunk across North India specifically to survive the summer.
Tamarind loosened in hot water and sweetened into a sour-brown cooler with a long, mouth-watering finish. Sharper and more savory than it looks.
Latin American · 45 min · Easy
Two crumbling cornstarch cookies with caramel between them, edges rolled in coconut. They dissolve rather than crumble.
European · 65 min · Easy
Sharp apples baked under a thick, buttery oat rubble until the juices bubble up the sides. The one everybody actually wants.
Latin American · 40 min · Medium
Griddled corn cakes with a crisp shell and a soft, steamy middle, split open and stuffed with cumin-spiked black beans and mashed avocado.
Middle Eastern · 50 min · Easy
Eggplants burnt black over a flame until the flesh collapses, then beaten with tahini, lemon and garlic. Smoky, loose and nothing like a puree of raw eggplant.
Middle Eastern · 45 min · Medium
Herby, crisp-edged falafel baked instead of fried, piled into a bowl with salad and a swoosh of tahini. All the flavor, none of the pan of hot oil.
East Asian · 60 min · Easy
Chewy, dense squares of glutinous rice flour and coconut milk, baked rather than pounded, with a clean bitter edge from good matcha.
Caribbean · 20 min · Easy
Very ripe bananas mashed into a spiced batter and fried into soft, craggy rounds. Ten minutes, and the blacker the bananas the better.
The peels people throw away, scraped clean, forked into strands and cooked down with smoked paprika and barbecue sauce until they go dark, sticky and unnervingly meaty. It costs nothing and it convinces almost everybody.
North American · 45 min · Easy
Shredded jackfruit cooked down in smoky barbecue sauce until sticky, piled into a soft roll with a sharp vinegar slaw. The slaw is what stops it being too rich.
North American · 5 min · Easy
Chia seeds left to swell in vanilla-sweetened plant milk until thick and spoonable, layered with crushed berries. Five minutes of work the night before.
Latin American · 26 min · Easy
Mashed spiced black beans and corn folded into tortillas and pressed in a dry pan until crisp. Fifteen minutes and mostly from the cupboard.
Latin American · 40 min · Easy
Smoky roasted sweet potato, spiced black beans, and enough lime to wake it all up. The roasting tray does most of the work.
European · 22 min · Easy
Black garlic mashed into miso and butter until it becomes a dark, jammy paste, then loosened with pasta water into a glossy sauce that clings. Sweet, deeply savory, and on the table in the time it takes the water to boil.
Mediterranean · 45 min · Easy
A cheap, batch-friendly workhorse: mixed peppers cooked down until silky with sweet onions and tomato, then folded through chickpeas and finished with red wine vinegar and parsley.
Southeast Asian · 25 min · Medium
Shan tofu: chickpea flour whisked into water, cooked until it thickens like polenta, then poured out to set into a silken, faintly yellow block. No soy, no coagulant, no pressing. Sliced and dressed, it is nothing like the tofu you know.
Caribbean · 40 min · Easy
Greens stewed down with coconut milk, thyme and okra until soft and glossy. Mellow, rich and green — the Caribbean answer to creamed spinach.
Red lentils collapsing into coconut milk with Caribbean curry powder, thyme and sweet potato. Ready in half an hour and thick enough to eat with a fork.
A fierce, unfermented ginger beer: fresh ginger blended, steeped and strained into a syrup, then topped with soda water. All of the heat, none of the waiting.
Rice cooked in coconut milk with kidney beans, thyme, allspice and a whole chili left in for perfume rather than heat. The side dish that turns any plate Caribbean.
South Asian · 45 min · Medium
The Punjabi chickpea curry that earns its place in every weeknight rotation — deeply spiced, made almost entirely from the store cupboard, and better on day two.
Mediterranean · 30 min · Easy
A revithada-style chickpea stew — soft, warming and quietly spiced with cumin and smoked paprika. Ready in half an hour and lovely spooned over rice.
North American · 10 min · Easy
Five minutes, one blender, no cooking — ripe avocado and cocoa whipped into a mousse so dark and silky nobody will guess the base. Chill it and it sets like the real thing.
North American · 30 min · Easy
Crisp at the edge, soft in the middle, with seams of melted dark chocolate. Chopping a bar instead of using chips is what gives you the puddles.
East Asian · 15 min · Easy
Dried chrysanthemum flowers and goji berries steeped into a pale gold, honeyed-floral tea, served cold with the softened berries still in the glass.
Choux-style dough piped straight into hot oil, rolled in cinnamon sugar and dipped in thick drinking chocolate. Crisp ridges, soft middle.
Middle Eastern · 10 min · Easy
Chickpeas, tahini, garlic and lemon blended smooth, loosened with aquafaba (the liquid from the chickpea can) so it stays creamy without extra fat. Served with carrot, cucumber and pepper sticks.
Caribbean · 25 min · Easy
Chickpeas simmered in coconut milk with thyme and allspice, finished with spinach. Mellow, quick, and entirely from cans and a bag of leaves.
Caribbean · 45 min · Easy
Chunks of fresh coconut boiled in ginger sugar until the syrup thickens, then dropped in spoonfuls and left to set hard. Chewy, sticky and very Jamaican.
Short-grain rice simmered slowly in coconut milk until it collapses into something thick, creamy and barely sweet, scented with cinnamon and vanilla.
European · 45 min · Easy
Sweet, slowly-sweated leeks and floury potatoes blended into a thick, comforting soup. No cream needed — the potato does all of it.
European · 25 min · Easy
Canned tomatoes and white beans simmered with garlic then blended smooth, so the beans do the work of cream. Fifteen minutes of cooking and almost nothing to chop.
Mediterranean · 35 min · Easy
A crunchy swap for chips: chickpeas dried hard, roasted until deep golden, then tossed hot with smoked paprika, cumin and garlic powder. Protein and fiber for very few calories.
North American · 35 min · Easy
Firm tofu pressed and torn — never cut — into craggy nuggets, dipped in mustardy plant milk and coated in seasoned panko. Fry them or bake them; either way they're built for dipping.
Smoky, garlicky and thick enough to stand a spoon in. Cheap store-cupboard beans turned into something that tastes like it simmered all day.
South Asian · 40 min · Easy
Cauliflower roasted with curry powder until the edges char, then folded through warm lentils and yogurt. One tray, one can, very little attention.
South Asian · 45 min · Easy
Soft yellow lentils finished with a tadka — whole spices bloomed in hot oil and poured over at the last second, so it hits the surface and sizzles.
Fudgy, properly dark brownies with ribbons of tahini swirled through the top. The sesame cuts the sweetness and makes them taste grown-up.
East Asian · 8 min · Easy
Frozen edamame pods boiled for five minutes and tossed with flaky salt, chili flakes and a little toasted sesame oil. One of the highest-protein snacks you can make from a freezer bag.
African · 65 min · Medium
Egypt's national dish: rice, lentils and pasta layered together under a sharp spiced tomato sauce and a heap of crisp fried onions. Carbohydrate on carbohydrate, and completely justified.
European · 5 min · Easy
Elderflower cordial cut with lemon, cucumber and mint over a lot of ice. Barely a recipe, and the most refreshing thing in the book.
Latin American · 20 min · Easy
Everything good about Mexican street corn, taken off the cob and into a bowl — charred kernels, a tangy lime dressing, chili, and a shower of herbs.
African · 40 min · Easy
Collards braised slowly with onion, garlic, ginger and turmeric until they turn silky and sweet. Mild, garlicky and green — the calm dish on an Ethiopian plate.
African · 35 min · Easy
Chickpea flour whisked into a spiced onion base until it becomes a thick, smoky, deeply savory stew. One of the fastest genuinely great things you can cook from a cupboard.
Middle Eastern · 30 min · Easy
A crunchy chopped salad of tomato, cucumber and herbs with shards of toasted pita, dressed in lemon, sumac and pomegranate molasses. Sharp and refreshing.
North American · 30 min · Medium
Torn oyster mushrooms dipped in a quick plant-milk buttermilk, dredged in seasoned flour and cornstarch, and fried until shatteringly crisp. The texture lands somewhere very close to fried chicken.
Green beans blistered in a hot pan until they wrinkle and char in places, then tossed with garlic, soy and sesame. Ten minutes, one pan, and they disappear.
European · 35 min · Easy
Warm waxy potatoes, sliced into thick rounds and dressed while still hot in a sharp mustard-and-vinegar dressing loosened with stock, sharpened with finely diced yellow onion. No mayonnaise anywhere near it.
Mediterranean · 65 min · Easy
Giant white beans baked slowly in a sweet tomato sauce with dill and plenty of olive oil, until the top catches and the beans turn to cream. Greek taverna cooking at its simplest.
East Asian · 35 min · Easy
Tofu roasted until firm and coated in a sweet-hot gochujang glaze, over rice with quick cucumber. Sticky, spicy and mostly hands-off.
Mediterranean · 50 min · Easy
Fakes — the Greek lentil soup that's the gentlest way back to solid food. Brown lentils simmered soft with tomato, oregano and bay, then lifted at the end with a slug of red wine vinegar and good olive oil.
Milk-powder dumplings fried dark and drowned in cardamom-rose syrup, served warm so they are still drinking it in. Sticky, floral and completely over the top.
African · 25 min · Easy
Peppers and onions softened down with harissa and white beans until jammy. One pan, big flavor, and almost entirely from cupboard and freezer.
Latin American · 10 min · Easy
Rice and cinnamon soaked overnight, blended and strained into a cloudy, faintly sweet, milky drink. Served very cold, it is the standard partner to anything spicy.
European · 55 min · Easy
A deep red paprika stew of mushrooms, peppers and potato, finished with a swirl of plant cream. The paprika goes in off the heat, which is the trick nobody mentions.
A dark, herby, aggressively savory spiced water — mint, cilantro, tamarind and roasted cumin. Drunk as an appetiser, and it genuinely works as one.
Curry powder bloomed in oil until it perfumes the whole kitchen, then chickpeas and potato simmered in coconut until soft and golden. Warming, cheap and quietly fiery.
Hibiscus steeped with ginger, clove and orange peel — the Caribbean Christmas drink, deep red and warmly spiced rather than simply tart.
East Asian · 55 min · Easy
A thick, glossy, faintly sweet curry sauce over rice, with soft potato and carrot. Mild by design and deeply comforting — Japan's favorite home dinner.
Caribbean · 45 min · Medium
Roasted jerk-spiced jackfruit shreds like slow-cooked meat, over coconut rice and black beans. Big flavors, mostly from a jar and a tin.
African · 55 min · Easy
Plaited dough fried gold and plunged straight into ice-cold syrup, so the outside stays crisp while the inside floods sweet.
Southeast Asian · 30 min · Easy
Bananas simmered in coconut milk with palm sugar and pandan until the syrup goes thick and caramel-brown. A bowlful of warm comfort.
East Asian · 20 min · Easy
Boricha — roasted barley simmered into a nutty, toasty, faintly sweet brown tea, drunk cold all summer instead of water. No sugar at all.
Mediterranean · 25 min · Easy
Twenty-five minutes, one pan, mostly cupboard. The beans break down just enough to make the sauce creamy without a drop of cream.
Mediterranean · 20 min · Easy
Orzo cooked risotto-style in stock so it comes out creamy without cream, finished with frozen peas, lemon and a lot of mint. One pot, twenty minutes.
Southeast Asian · 25 min · Easy
Bruised lemongrass and ginger simmered into a fragrant, faintly citrus syrup, then chilled and lengthened with lime. Clean and grassy rather than sweet.
Lemon juice and a whole bunch of mint blitzed with ice into a pale-green frozen slush. The drink of every Levantine summer street.
Buttery semolina shortbread stuffed with spiced date paste. Traditionally pressed in carved wooden molds; a fork and a steady hand do fine.
A dark, spongy apricot-jam pudding that has hot cream sauce poured over it the moment it leaves the oven and drinks the lot.
South Asian · 5 min · Easy
Ripe mango blended with plant yogurt and a pinch of cardamom into a thick, cold, barely-sweet drink. The traditional partner to anything fiery.
Southeast Asian · 50 min · Easy
Warm coconut-sweetened glutinous rice with cold ripe mango and a salty coconut sauce poured over. The salt is what makes it.
Mediterranean · 15 min · Easy
No cooking, one bowl, fifteen minutes. Chickpeas, cucumber, tomato and kalamata olives tossed in a sharp lemon and red wine vinegar dressing, with plenty of parsley and mint. Holds its own as a light lunch or shrinks to a side.
European · 50 min · Easy
A generous vegetable soup with beans and small pasta, built on a slowly softened base of onion, carrot and celery. The kind of pot that improves every time you reheat it.
African · 50 min · Easy
The Ethiopian red lentil stew. Almost nothing in it, and yet — the berbere and a genuinely long onion cook do all the heavy lifting.
Mushrooms browned hard, then a quick miso broth poured over thick udon. Deeply savory for something that takes twenty minutes and five ingredients.
A clear, savory broth with silken tofu, shiitake and seaweed. The one rule is never to boil it once the miso goes in — that is what turns it flat and grainy.
A fragrant tomato, lentil and chickpea soup thick with herbs and finished with lemon. Traditionally eaten to break the fast during Ramadan, and restorative at any time.
African · 15 min · Easy
Gunpowder green tea brewed strong over a fistful of spearmint, sweetened hot and poured over ice. Bracing, fragrant and very sweet, as it should be.
Mediterranean · 55 min · Easy
Lentils and rice cooked together under a heap of deeply caramelized onions, warmed with cumin, coriander and a whisper of cinnamon. The most filling plate in the set — the lentils make it stick with you far longer than rice alone.
European · 75 min · Project
A proper Sunday project: a dark, savory lentil and mushroom base under a mash lid, browned hard on top. Feeds six and reheats beautifully.
Latin American · 60 min · Medium
Flaky hand pies filled with deeply browned mushrooms, onion and olives. The filling must be cold and dry before it goes near the pastry, or the parcels burst in the oven.
European · 40 min · Easy
Deeply browned mushrooms in a creamy, smoky, mustard-sharpened sauce over pasta. The whole dish turns on getting real color on the mushrooms first.
Indian lemonade, made savory with black salt and roasted cumin. Sweet, sour, salty and faintly smoky — the fastest cure there is for a hot afternoon.
Chewy, hearty and heavily cinnamoned, with the oats left whole so they keep their bite. Better on the second day.
Mediterranean · 60 min · Easy
A plain, damp cake carried by good olive oil and a lot of orange zest. Keeps for days and is better with coffee than with cream.
A silky, deep green spinach curry with cubes of golden pan-fried tofu folded through it. All the comfort of palak paneer with none of the dairy.
Whole pears simmered in spiced red wine until stained crimson to the core, then served in their own reduced syrup. Almost no work and looks like a great deal of it.
Latin American · 55 min · Easy
A thick, gently spiced lentil stew softened with squash-sweet carrot and finished with a hard squeeze of lime. Everyday Peruvian home cooking — cheap, filling and quietly excellent.
Caribbean · 10 min · Easy
Fresh pineapple blended with ginger and lime into a thick, golden punch. Sweet, sour and hot all at once, and it takes ten minutes.
Latin American · 55 min · Medium
A tangy green broth built from blistered tomatillos and chilies, poured over chewy hominy and white beans. The raw garnishes — cabbage, radish, lime — are half the dish, not decoration.
The North Indian kidney bean curry that's built for batch cooking — onions taken deep golden, tomatoes cooked until the oil separates, and a few beans mashed against the pan for a thick, creamy gravy without a drop of cream.
European · 60 min · Medium
The Provençal summer-vegetable stew, cooked the honest way — each vegetable browned so it keeps its character, then folded together to melt into a glossy, herby whole.
Red lentils collapsed into coconut milk with cumin and ginger. No soaking, no technique, and it thickens itself while you set the table.
Middle Eastern · 40 min · Easy
A tray of vegetables roasted hard, spooned over shop-bought hummus with lemon and parsley. Assembly more than cooking, and endlessly adaptable.
Middle Eastern · 15 min · Easy
A pale, fragrant cordial of lemon, sugar and rose water, diluted to order. Floral and cold and old-fashioned, and it keeps for weeks.
South Asian · 25 min · Easy
Thin, lacy gram-flour pancakes studded with onion, tomato, chili and cilantro. High-protein, naturally gluten-free, and on the plate in twenty-five minutes.
East Asian · 50 min · Medium
Chewy, flaky layered flatbreads shot through with scallion, fried until blistered and served with a sharp dipping sauce. The rolling technique is what makes the layers.
European · 25 min · Medium
Thick discs cut from king oyster stems, scored in a crosshatch so they drink up a nori and miso brine, then seared hard until the cut faces caramelize. The sea flavor comes from the brine, not the shape, which is the step most versions leave out.
East Asian · 45 min · Easy
Glutinous rice dough wrapped around sweet red bean paste, rolled in sesame and fried until they puff hollow and crackle.
Cold buckwheat noodles in a nutty sesame dressing, loaded with edamame and crunchy raw vegetables. Fifteen minutes, and it is better after an hour in the fridge.
Middle Eastern · 45 min · Easy
Cauliflower roasted hard with shawarma spices until the edges blacken, piled into warm pita with pickles, salad and a garlicky tahini sauce.
European · 30 min · Easy
Shop-bought gnocchi roasted straight from the packet with cherry tomatoes until the gnocchi crisp at the edges and the tomatoes burst into a sauce. One tray, no boiling.
Mediterranean · 10 min · Easy
Cannellini or butter beans forked into a chunky, garlicky spread with olive oil and lemon, piled onto good toast and topped with sliced tomato, herbs and chili flakes. Ten minutes, and far more filling than it looks.
North American · 60 min · Easy
Whole carrots roasted buried in salt until they collapse to a silky, translucent texture, then peeled, sliced on a long diagonal and steeped in smoke, oil and vinegar. The salt crust does the work: it seasons and dehydrates at once.
East Asian · 17 min · Easy
Soba, edamame and broccoli in a light soy-sesame dressing, served warm or cold. About as fast as dinner gets.
A spicy vegetable relish of onion, pepper, carrot and beans in a curried tomato base. Served hot or cold alongside almost anything, and better the next day.
European · 50 min · Medium
Soft olive-oil-poached potatoes and onion set in a chickpea-flour batter, cooked slowly until the middle is just custardy. Good hot, better at room temperature.
North American · 15 min · Easy
Strawberries crushed into lemonade with a handful of basil. The basil sounds odd and is the entire reason to make it.
Caribbean · 15 min · Easy
Very ripe plantains fried until the sugars caramelize into dark, sticky edges and the middles turn to custard. Three ingredients and about ten minutes.
A hearty one-skillet breakfast: sweet potato diced small and browned until tender, then folded through smoky paprika, cumin and black beans. High-fiber, high-protein, and it holds you well into the afternoon.
Caribbean · 80 min · Easy
Grated sweet potato baked slowly with coconut milk and warm spice into a dense, sliceable pudding with a dark, sticky top.
Middle Eastern · 25 min · Easy
A parsley salad first and a grain salad second — bright, lemony and green, with just enough bulgur to give it body. The kind of thing that makes everything else on the table taste better.
Cornflour-dusted tofu fried until the edges shatter, then tumbled in a glossy teriyaki glaze that thickens around it in seconds. Steamed broccoli and rice make it dinner.
North American · 20 min · Easy
Twenty minutes from fridge to foil. Black salt is what makes it taste unmistakably of eggs — don't skip it.
Middle Eastern · 20 min · Easy
Couscous steamed in a spiced tomato and chickpea broth in the same pot. No draining, no timing, and it is done in twenty minutes.
Latin American · 50 min · Easy
A plain sponge drenched in three milks until it is barely holding together, topped with whipped cream. Soaked, not soggy — the distinction is everything.
A smooth, golden lentil soup finished with paprika butter and a hard squeeze of lemon. Cheap, fast, and one of the most comforting bowls there is.
Jackfruit braised in a dark, spiced tomato consomé until it shreds, then folded into tortillas that have been dipped in the braising liquid and griddled until the edges crisp. Serve the consomé alongside for dunking.
A one-pot Louisiana classic, plant-based. The "holy trinity" of onion, celery and green pepper softened in oil, then rice toasted with Cajun seasoning and smoked paprika and simmered with tomatoes, kidney beans and stock until every grain is tender. Optional vegan sausage pushes the protein higher.
East Asian · 30 min · Medium
Numbing, savory and fast. Mushrooms stand in for the pork and nobody misses it — the chili bean paste and Sichuan pepper are doing the real work.
North American · 35 min · Medium
Buttered rye griddled around a plant burger, melting vegan cheddar, deeply caramelized onions and a tangy special sauce. Full indulgence — the diner classic, done plant-based.
Oat-flour pancakes built on a scoop of vanilla plant protein and soy milk, sweetened by a mashed ripe banana rather than sugar. Cooked as small rounds so the soft batter flips cleanly. Light to eat but genuinely filling — batch a pile of them and reheat through the week.
Soft-centered, crisp-edged and rolled in sugar rather than iced, with lemon zest cutting the sweetness. Pale is the point.
Southeast Asian · 5 min · Easy
Soda chanh — lime juice and sugar syrup in a tall glass, topped with soda water and stirred at the table. Three ingredients, correctly assembled.
Ripe watermelon blended with water and lime into something lighter and more drinkable than juice. Five minutes of work and it tastes like the middle of summer.
Watermelon and mango cut small and salted early so they give up their water in a colander rather than in the bowl, then tossed with red onion, chili, lime and cilantro. Sweet, sharp and hot at once, and it stays a salsa instead of collapsing into juice.
Gnamakoudji — raw ginger blended, steeped and strained, then sharpened with lime and sweetened. Sold ice-cold on every roadside from Bamako to Abidjan.
Garlicky white beans wilted down with kale and lemon in a single pan. Substantial, cheap, and on the table in twenty minutes.
European · 120 min · Easy
A whole celeriac scored deep, rubbed with oil and thyme and roasted slowly until the outside goes mahogany and crackling and the inside turns sweet and custardy. It comes to the table whole and gets carved like a joint.
