WEEKLY VEGAN MEAL PLAN WEEK 2 (FREE)
Vegan Prepper’s Weekly Meal Plan
Let’s do another week of tasty, nutritious and healthy food.
| Day | Lunch | Dinner |
| Monday | Lemon Basil Pasta Salad | Vegan Asparagus Soup with Crispy Baked Tofu |
| Tuesday | Avocado-free Frijoles Salad | Elaborate Preppable Vegan Panzanella u |
| Wednesday | Veggie Sticks with Pea Mint Dip | Vegan Garbanzo Flour Falafel served with rice and Avocado-free Frijoles Salad |
| Thursday | Vegan Spinach Waldorf Salad | Hummus Mashed Potatoes with Eggplant Meatballs and Gravy |
| Friday | Vegan Rice Paper Summer Rolls with Hot Sweet Peanut Sauc | Coconut Curry |
You will find yourself doing a bit of cooking on Thursday night and on Friday night in order to effectively use up all the leftover veggies and leftover dishes. If you see that you have quite a bit of leftovers from the individual dishes, I recommend skipping the Friday night dish all together and doing leftover day instead.
WHAT TO DO ON MEAL PREP DAY
| Fully Prepped on Prep Day | Partially Prepped on Prep Day | Prepared on Eat Day (or Thursday) |
| Lemon Basil Pasta Salad | Elaborate Preppable Vegan Panzanella | Coconut Curry |
| Vegan Asparagus Soup with Crispy Baked Tofu | Avocado-free Frijoles Salad | Vegan Rice Paper Summer Rolls with Hot Sweet Peanut Sauce |
| Vegan Garbanzo Flour Falafel served with rice of your choice and Avocado-free Frijoles Salad as side salad | Vegan Spinach Waldorf Salad | |
| Veggie Sticks with Pea Mint Dip | Hummus Mashed Potatoes with Eggplant Meatballs and Gravy | |
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What’s to do on prep day with the partially prepped meals?
| Dish | Prep Step on Prep Day | Steps on Eat Day with Time Estimate |
| Elaborate Preppable Vegan Panzanella | Prep dressing Prep salad | Roast pumpkin Add bread |
| Avocado-free Frijoles Salad | Prep salad | Add avocado-free guacamole |
| Vegan Spinach Waldorf Salad | Prep vinaigrette Prep millet Add dry ingredients | |
| Hummus Mashed Potatoes with Eggplant Meatballs and Gravy | Prepare eggplant balls. |
Prep Day Action – Assembly Line Style
Be aware that in order to proceed quickly, you will be needing quite a lot of dishes. But trust me, it will save you lots of time working like an assembly line in your own kitchen. Assembly line style means that you will be using one “machine” e.g. colander, food processor etc. in one step processing ingredients for various dished setting them aside until they are needed again.
As the required amounts of each ingredient vary depending on the amount of people you cook for, I don’t put them in the checkboxes. Simply click on the link provided in the headline to see how much of the specific ingredient you need to put when finishing a dish.
Once your food processor has done the job, you will have lots of onion, garlic and so on. So, in order to add the right amount at each step of the list, keep in mind the following:
- 1 medium-size clove garlic equals 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic, this is around 5 g / .18 oz. So for 2 cloves you should add 2-3 teaspoons.
- A small onion should weigh around 4 ounces, should fit pretty easily in your hand, and should yield about 1/2 cup once chopped.
- A medium onion is about twice as big as a small one, weighing it at roughly 8 ounces and yielding 1 cup once chopped.
- Large onions are three times larger than small onions (12 ounces), and should give you about 1 1/2 cups of chopped onion.
You might feel that there will always be a little to much left of certain ingredients, but an extra ounce or two of onion isn’t going to ruin your soup or balls or whatever. Extra onion never ruined anything. The same holds true – even more so – for garlic.
Before getting started:
Pre-Prep
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Print| Green Asparagus Pea Soup: | Wrap tofu in a clean, absorbent towel and press (e.g. by putting underneath books or a chair) in order to get out moisture. Let it be pressed for about 15-20 minutes. | |
| Green Asparagus Pea Soup: | Drizzle asparagus with oil of choice and season lightly with salt and pepper. | |
| Pea Mint Dip: | Prep ice bath to stop boiling process for peas |
Roasting:
As a rule of thumb, always roast veggies using a high temperature. More specifially, the best temperature for roasting vegetables is between 400°F (200°C) and 450°F (230°C). This applies to all vegetables regardless of being fresh or frozen. and stays the same whether they’re fresh or frozen. Check after about 15 minutes, and keep roasting until you see charred bits.
In order to roast asparagus, eggplant and veggies all at once, set your oven to 400 °F/200° C.
Set on timer to 15 minutes. Set another timer to 30 minutes.
Roasting
| Veggie sticks: | Veggies for dipping in pea mint dip | 15 min | |
| Eggplant balls: | Eggplants carved diagonally | 30 min | |
| Green Asparagus Pea Soup: | Asparagus | 15 min |
Draining and Rinsing: Grab your colander and drain and rinse
Grating:
Squeezing:
Squeezing
| Pea Mint Dip: | Lemon | |
| Lemon Basil Vinaigrette | Lemon | |
| Green Asparagus Pea Soup: | Lemon | |
| Avocado-free Frijoles Salad: | Lemon |
Peeling: Grab a potato peeler and peel
Peeling
| Avocado-free Frijoles Salad: | Garlic | |
| Green Asparagus Pea Soup: | Garlic | |
| Avocado-free Frijoles Salad: | Shallot | |
| Pea Mint Dip: | Garlic | |
| Panzanella: | Squash |
Mincing (e.g. with food processor)
Mincing
| Avocado-free Frijoles Salad: | Garlic | |
| Green Asparagus Pea Soup: | Garlic | |
| Avocado-free Frijoles Salad: | Shallot | |
| Green Asparagus Pea Soup: | Shallot | |
| Falafel: | Garlic |
Boiling
Use a stovetop pot with boiling water and start with boiling the peas. Drain and plunge in an ice bath after 3 minutes max. I use the same pot for cooking pasta. While water is coming to boil, I place rice and water in a rice cooker with a little salt and rice vinegar and press start. In the meantime, the water for the pasta should have started boiling and I can add the pasta in there. Again, it’s best to set a timer for both the pasta and the rice to approx. 6 – 8 minutes (depends on the brand of your pasta) and 10 minutes (depends on the brand of your rice). After pasta and rice are fork-tender remove from heat resp. rice cooker and drain. Set aside.
Boiling
| Pea Mint Dip: | Cook peas for 2-3 minutes (no more!) and plunge into ice bath. | |
| Lemon Basil Pasta: | Cook pasta al dente according to package instructions. | |
| Falafel dish: | Cook rice until tender according to package instructions (I use a rice cooker for that). |
Chopping:
Chopping/Marinating
| Green Asparagus Pea Soup: | Cut pressed tofu into 3/4-inch cubes and add to a large bowl. Pour in sauce, chili sauce, sesame oil, and maple syrup. Use a spoon or hands to combine. Let marinate 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. | |
| Avocado-free Frijoles Salad: | Cut corn kernels of the cob | |
| Avocado-free Frijoles Salad: | Cut bell pepper | |
| Avocado-free Frijoles Salad: | Cilantro | |
| Panzanella: | Slice the sourdough bread into 1-inch cubes until you have 4 cups. Place into an airtight container and leave it on the counter. | |
| Panzanella: | Slice each pumpkin down the middle, lengthwise. With a spoon, scrape out all of the seeds. Slice the pumpkin into thumb-thick “half-moon” slices, and place them into an airtight container. Season with rosemary and thyme. |
Vinaigrettes:
Vinaigrettes
| Panzanella: | Place the balsamic vinegar, garlic, maple syrup, Dijon mustard, olive oil, salt, and pepper in food processor. Process until combined. Pour into a mason jar/food container for the Panzanella. | |
| Waldorf: | Place basil, garlic cloves, lemon zest, fresh lemon juice ⅓ cup olive oil extra virgin in food processor. Process until combined. Pour into a mason jar/food container for the Waldorf Salad. ½ tsp salt plus more to taste ¼ tsp red paper flakes |
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| Lemon Basil Pasta: | Place basil (slapped against your hand a couple of times), garlic and lemon zest in a food processor. Pulse repeatedly until uniformly chopped. Then add lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper. Pulse a couple more times to combine being careful not to overprocess. Pour into a mason jar/food container for the Lemon Basil Pasta. |
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| Hot Sweet Peanut Sauce: | Place peanut butter, lemon juice, soy sauce, maple syrup, ginger, garlic, sesame oil and red pepper flakes into a food processor. Process to combine. Add water by a tablespoon until desired consistency is achieved. Taste and adjust flavors as needed. Pour into mason jar or food container and refrigerate. |
Finishing a dish:
Vegan Asparagus Soup
Finishing on Macadamia Hummus
| Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil along with and shallot and garlic. Season lightly with salt and pepper and stir to coat. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until fragrant and translucent. Reduce heat if garlic begins browning. | |
| Add peas, vegetable broth and almond milk and season with salt and pepper once more. | |
| Transfer soup to blender along with asparagus (reserving some for garnish). Blend soup until creamy and smooth. Transfer back to pot and bring to medium heat and simmer. | |
| Transfer tofu to a large freezer bag. Add 1 tbsp arrowroot at a time and toss to coat. Continue adding more arrowroot and tossing until tofu is coated in a gummy, white layer. |
Mixing:
Mixing
| Falafel: | Add garbanzo flour, baking soda, ground cumin, salt, minced garlic clove, ground cilantro, dash of cardamom and pepper to a large mixing boil and combine. Then add parsley, water (starting with half a cup) and oil and combine using a wooden spoon. Let sit for 10 minutes. Then check the consistency of the batter. You’re not looking for a moldable dough. If that is not yet the case, you should add more water. |
Finishing a dish: Vegan Meatballs
Vegan Meatballs
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Heat a large (oven-safe) skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add water (or oil), garlic, and onion. Sauté for 2-3 minutes, or until slightly softened, stirring frequently. Remove from heat (and keep pan for later use). |
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Add pinto beans to a food processor along with garlic, onion, sea salt, oregano, red pepper flake, and fennel and pulse into a loose meal being careful not to overprocess. Then add cooked and completely cooled pearl barley, vegan parmesan cheese, tomato paste, fresh cilantro, and Worcestershire. Pulse to combine until a textured dough forms (being of a semi-tacky texture). |
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Taste and adjust flavor as needed. |
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Scoop out heaping 1 1/2 Tbsp amounts (I love my ice cream spoon to do so but a tablespoon will also work) and gently form into small balls using your hands. Add to a plate and refrigerate or freezer until cook day. |
Finishing a prep day part of a dish :
Pinto Bean Sauce for Zucchini Noodles:
Prepare the pinto bean sauce according to the steps listed below. I recommend stopping before adding spinach and sundried tomatoes because spinach is a vegetable with high amounts of nitrates. These nitrate rich vegetables when heated again can turn toxic, releasing carcinogenic properties, which are generally cancerous in nature. Moreover, spinach contains high amount of iron, hence heating and reheating spinach may oxidize the iron present in spinach.
Pinto Bean Sauce
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Place the cooked and drained pinto beans into the food processor along with 1 garlic clove, lemon juice, cumin or garam masala and vegetable milk. Process until it forms a homogeneous puree. Set aside. |
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Chop the onion and remaining garlic cloves. Place the onion in a non-stick pan with 1-2 tablespoons of water (or vegetable broth or olive oil). Simmer until translucent (3-4 minutes), stirring frequently. |
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Add the chopped garlic and continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes. |
Finishing a dish: Lentil Mushroom Walnut Balls:
Lentil Mushroom Walnut Balls
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Add the oil to a large pot and turn heat to medium. Add chopped mushrooms to the pot along with minced garlic and a pinch of salt. Stir until combined. Sauté for about 6 to 8 minutes, until the water from the mushrooms cooks off, reducing heat to low if necessary to prevent burning. |
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To the processor (no need to clean it out!), add the rolled oats. Process the oats until they’re finely chopped and resemble coarse flour, about 30 seconds. |
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Add the drained lentils and walnuts to the processor bowl with the oat flour. Pulse the mixture, stopping to check on it every few pulses, until it’s coarsely chopped. Be sure not to overprocess it into a paste as you still want a lot of texture and crunchy walnut pieces. Set aside. |
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To the pot with the mushrooms and garlic, add the herbs and sauté for 30 seconds until fragrant. Stir in the kale, then turn off the heat. |
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Stir the psyllium husk fibre and water together in a small cup (no need to let it sit). |
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Now add all of the food processor contents, vinegar, and psyllium husk fibre mixture to the pot. Stir until thoroughly combined. The dough should be heavy and dense. Add salt and pepper to taste. |
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With lightly wet hands, shape and roll about 14 to 15 balls, roughly 3 to 4 tablespoons of dough each (I use a big ice cream spoon to do so). Refrigerate or freeze until use on cook day. |
Finishing a dish: Mushroom gravy:
Mushroom Gravy
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In a large skillet and heat oil over medium heat. Add in chopped onions and garlic and sauté for about 5 minutes. |
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Add the sliced mushrooms and sauté for about 12 minutes longer, stirring as necessary. Now stir in the rosemary, nutritional yeast, and tamari. Cook for a few minutes. |
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In a small bowl, whisk together the broth and cornstarch until clumps are gone, and then stir into the mushroom mixture. Cook for another 5-6 minutes or so, until slightly thickened. |
Finishing a dish: Hummus mashed potatoes
Hummus mashed potatoes
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Mash the potatoes with a potato masher. Mash in the hummus and oil, followed by the salt and pepper, to taste. |
Finishing a dish: Pea Mint Dip
Pea Mint Dip
| Put whole clove of garlic in a food processor and pulse to mince. | |
| Add the remaining ingredients (peas, lemon zest, lemon juice, mint leaves, olive oil, tahini and sea salt and blend on high to puree. |
Comprehensive Shopping List for Meal Plan Week 2
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