Easy Vegan Dinner Recipes

These easy recipes prove that vegan dinners can and should be satisfying, flavorful, and easy to make.

While there tend to be endless options for vegetarian dinners, finding vegan-friendly dinner recipes can be a bit more challenging. Often plant-based dinner recipes are made with an extensive list of ingredients that can be expensive or hard to find. Or worse yet, they are an afterthought and lack flavor and substance.

While all of my plant-based recipes are made with simple, wholesome, easy-to-find ingredients, these dinner recipes deserve to be the star of the show! Thanks to the plant-based proteins, you will be left full and satisfied. And because my recipes use common ingredients, you will be left with money in your wallet. Not to mention, most of these vegan dinner recipes come together in under 30 minutes, leaving you time to enjoy things other than cooking!

These vegan dinner recipes are great for beginner cooks, as they are so easy to make, and made with simple enough ingredients that these recipes appeal to everyone.

Vegan Dinner Recipes

Browse through these recipes to find a simple, wholesome plant-based dinner to add to your meal rotation.

From using lentils to vegetables to tofu to beans, these easy vegan recipes are packed with flavor, nutrition, and plant-based protein.

Vegan Recipes Starring Vegetables

These plant-based recipes are made with, you guessed it, vegetables! The trick to creating an entree that is both satisfying and filling when the star of these recipes is vegetables is to choose your produce wisely. Vegetables like potatoes and sweet potatoes are hearty and substantial, while vegetables like portobello mushrooms and cauliflower are robust and add a nice meaty texture to a dish.

Veggie Fajitas: From the sweetness of the onions to the char of peppers to hearty, earthy portobello mushrooms to the bold fajita seasoning, this simple recipe for Veggie Fajitas comes together in under 30 minutes and is full of incredible flavor and texture.

Vegetarian Tikka Masala: Made with cauliflower, chickpeas, and a flavorful spiced tomato sauce, this Tikka Masala recipe can be made on the stovetop or in the Instant Pot for a fast dinner that is ready in less than 30 minutes. And you can find ALL the ingredients for this Indian dish at any grocery store!

Instant Pot Vegetable Soup: This soup is filled with a variety of veggies, like potatoes, carrots, kale, and green beans. It is made with humble ingredients, yet the flavor is extraordinary!

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms: Made with meaty portobello mushrooms that are stuffed with a flavorful veggie and quinoa mixture, this simple recipe packs in flavor and nutrients.

Butternut Squash Curry: This recipe is made with tender butternut squash, hearty chickpeas, kale, and a rich curried broth and delivers rich, impressive flavors with minimal effort.

Vegetable Potstickers: Vegetable Potstickers are easier to make than you may think! Stuffed with seasoned vegetables, steamed to tender perfection, and served with a delicious dipping sauce, these vegan-friendly potstickers make eating your vegetables FUN!

Italian Vegetable Casserole: Made with hearty root vegetables, tender squash, crisp peppers, and fresh tomatoes, this simple vegetable casserole eats like a gourmet meal. The simple seasoning and roasting technique turns simple ingredients into a memorable meal.

Ratatouille: While this recipe does involve more steps than most of my recipes, it is still an uncomplicated recipe and the extra labor transforms humble vegetables into a spectacular stew packed with flavor!

Baked Vegetarian Egg Rolls: Despite the word egg in the name of this recipe, this recipe for egg rolls is not made with eggs or any animal products. Instead, it is filled with crisp tender veggies in a crispy baked vegan-friendly egg roll wrapper.

Butternut Squash Rice Bowl: Filled with southwestern seasoning, roasted butternut squash, and kale, this Butternut Squash Rice Bowl is a simple, wholesome, plant-based meal. It comes together especially quickly when using leftover rice and roasted butternut squash.

Vegan Recipes Using Tofu

Tofu, which is made from pressed soy milk or soy curd, is full of plant-based protein. While you may think of this vegan protein as rubbery, mushy, or lacking in flavor, when prepared correctly, tofu is actually incredibly flavorful and can have an amazing, crispy, or meaty texture.

Copycat Sofritas: Chipotle is famous for its vegan sofritas and you won't believe just how easy (and affordable) it is to make a copycat version at home. It comes together fast, has incredible texture, and is SO flavorful. This is one of my favorite recipes for tofu.

Vegan Lettuce Wraps: Made with crispy tofu, mushrooms, and a flavorful sauce, these Copycat PF Changs Vegetarian Lettuce wraps are not only delicious but fun to eat as well.

Vegan Bean Recipes

Beans are one of my favorite sources of plant protein. They are not only incredibly economical but are also full of fiber and nutrients. While canned beans are not expensive, you can save even more money by preparing dried beans using my method for Instant Pot Beans.

Sweet Potato Quinoa Chili: From the earthy black beans to the sweetness of the sweet potatoes to the richly spiced sauce, this Black Bean Sweet Potato Chili is incredibly economical, easy to make, nutrient-dense, and packs a punch of flavor. It is one of my favorite vegan meals, no scratch that, it is one of my all-time favorite meals ever!

Instant Pot Vegetarian Chili: This recipe is very similar to my stovetop Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili but is made without quinoa--but it is still incredibly satisfying.

Butternut Squash Chili: This Butternut Squash Chili is an easy recipe to prepare and features tender chunks of sweet butternut squash and creamy white beans that contrast perfectly with the rich, thick, and spicy broth. Instructions for Instant Pot, stovetop, and slow cooker preparation.

Sweet Potato Black Bean Tacos: This recipe for Sweet Potato Tacos, this duo is sauteed together with peppers, onions, garlic, and a blend of southwest seasoning, creating a flavorful filling for tacos that is balanced and nuanced in flavors.

Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos: Very similar in flavor to sweet potato tacos, these burritos are a larger, more portable version featuring one of my favorite combinations of flavors ever.

Cauliflower Tacos: Made with seasoned, roasted cauliflower and finished with avocado cream, these Cauliflower Tacos are surprisingly hearty and full of flavor!

Vegetarian Enchiladas: These are my family's favorite version of enchiladas. Made with zucchini, kale, corn, beans, peppers, and onions, these Vegetarian Enchiladas are bursting with flavor and texture.

Vegan Recipes Using Lentils

Lentils are a sort of magical thing when it comes to vegan meals. They have a similar texture to ground meat, are easy to find, easy to cook and take on flavor really well. They also happen to be PACKED with protein, fiber, and nutrients to keep you going strong for hours after you eat.

Lentil Taco Meat: Ready in under 30 minutes and made with simple, affordable ingredients, this Lentil Taco Meat is perfectly seasoned and creates the perfect base for plant-based tacos. Of course, you can use this "taco meat" any way you like!  

Lentil Chili: Another easy, affordable way to use lentils is to prepare this hearty lentil chili. This one-pot recipe comes together in under 30 minutes to create a flavorful, wholesome plant-based chili.

Instant Pot Lentil Chili: This recipe is very similar in flavor and texture to my stovetop recipe for Lentil Chili, but the preparation is a bit easier and I find the flavor to be a bit more intense.

Lentil Soup: Full of earthy lentils and a richly seasoned broth, this vegan-friendly soup is anything but bland or boring.

Lentil Meatballs: These Vegan Meatballs are full of Italian flavor and are a bit crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. They also happen to be gluten-free! While the texture is not an exact replica of meat-based meatballs, these plant-based meatballs won me AND my picky husband and kids over!

Lentil Sloppy Joes: Lentils are simmered in a sweet and tangy homemade sloppy joe sauce in the slow cooker, to create a hearty, picky-eater-approved dinner recipe.

Vegan Noodle Recipes

Pasta, especially whole-grain pasta, is full of protein and is quite filling. These vegan dinners are made with pasta, flavorful sauces, and tons of veggies to create wholesome and filling meals.

Thai Noodles: You will LOVE this recipe! It is ready in just 15 minutes and made with everyday ingredients! Not to mention, it is insanely flavorful! Keep it vegan-friendly by subbing the honey with maple syrup.

Asian Noodle Salad: Made with fresh veggies and a light sesame dressing, this plant-based recipe is hearty enough to stand as a filling dinner.

Kale Pasta: This simple pasta dinner is made with pasta, fresh kale, and chickpeas to create a hearty, healthy, flavorful simple dinner.

Minestrone: Made with noodles, beans, and veggies, this soup packs in a ton of plant protein and flavor. You can prepare it using the Instant Pot, or make Slow Cooker Minestrone if desired.

Tuscan White Bean Pasta: This vegan dinner recipe features seasoned white beans, wilted spinach, and roasted tomatoes tossed together with al dente pasta and light, bright, acidic sauce. It is insanely delicious and ready in under 30 minutes.

I hope you find a few new vegan-friendly dinner recipes to try here! Please leave a comment and let me know your favorite or send a request my way!