7 Easy Vegan Summer Meal Prep Ideas
Easy plant-based summer recipe ideas you’re going to want to make again and again! I honestly feel that summer is probably the most fun season to prep for the week.
Grills can be used, salads seem more exciting than before, and there is so much fresh vegan bounty it mainly seems hard to narrow down what to choose when we’re at the grocery stores/ farmers markets.
7 Plant-Based Summer Recipes:
Smokey Sweet Tofu Sandwiches - 4 sandwiches
Fresh Honey Mustard Salads - 2 salads
Baked Honey Mustard Sweet Potatoes - 4-6 potatoes
Kale Caesar Wraps - 5 wraps
Vegan Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches - 2 large sandwiches
Arugula, Re-fried Bean & Tofu Breakfast Toast - 4 toasts
Brussels Sprout & Black Bean Tofu Scramble- 2 breakfast scrambles
Here are the key things to prep at the beginning of the week to make your life extremely easy!
Key things that take a few steps to prepare:
Fluffy Tofu Egg
I use medium-firm tofu!
Take the tofu out of the container and wrap it in a clean dry kitchen towel.
I usually cut it in half through the middle so that it is less thick.
I then press it for at least 30 minutes with a couple of heavy cutting boards!
Once pressed, crumble your tofu into a large Tupperware container. For 2 people throughout the week, I would use 2 packages of tofu!
To season throw in turmeric, salt, pepper, black salt, garlic and onion granules, and nutritional yeast.
When frying up the tofu, proceed to add another helping of nutritional yeast, salt, black salt, and fresh cracked black pepper.
Re-fried Beans
To improve on regular refried beans from a can, simply take a heaping tablespoon of vegan butter and put it in a pot on medium.
Saute some diced white onion.
Throw in some oregano and cook until onions are soft.
Throw in the refried beans and add a bit of vegetable broth. You want to be able to see that there is liquid but you don’t want to fully immerse your beans. Start with 1/2 a cup and see if you need more liquid from there.
Mix until you have your favorite consistency! Also feel free to add in some cayenne, paprika, or jalapenos for some kick!
Put in a medium-sized Tupperware and let it cool down before putting it in the fridge.
Vegan Honey Mustard Sauce
1/2 cup vegan yogurt
1/4 cup extra-virgin cold-pressed olive oil
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
3-4 tbsp maple syrup, to taste
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
Black pepper to taste (about 10 twists!)
All you have to do is mix it all for an incredible vegan ‘honey-mustard’ dressing.
Marinated ‘Steak’ Oyster Mushrooms
I recommend buying 2 packs of oyster mushrooms because this stuff is yummy!
Pre-chop the oyster mushrooms and season them with some BBQ rub or Steak rub, salt, pepper, and garlic granules. This way they are ready to go whenever you want to cook them up in your cast iron.
When it comes time to cook these, get your cast iron to medium-high heat.
Don’t move the mushrooms around as they fry on the pan, this allows for better caramelization (browning).
Cook on both sides for about 6-8 minutes.
Tenderize further in the oven at 350 for about 10-12 minutes!
Let cool to room temperature and then store in a container in the fridge.
Pesto
Grab a bunch of kale, olive oil, garlic, nutritional yeast, and any nut you like and blend it up for your desired consistency.
I switch my pesto up by using spinach that is about to lose its good texture, kale, basil, etc.
For nuts, I end up using walnuts and almonds more often than pine nuts since they are so expensive!
Marinated Smokey-Sweet Tofu
So many different ways to do this! This ingredient list is from Thug Kitchen’s marinade. This vegan tofu marinade is definitely a winner.
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water or veggie broth
1 tbsp liquid smoke
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp olive oil
1-2 garlic cloves, roughly sliced
Garlic Collard Greens/ Kale/ Chard or Brussels Sprouts
Honestly, I usually buy at least 2 versions of dark greens.
For this meal prep, in particular, I used Collard Greens and Brussels Sprouts.
Chop them up into bite-sized pieces.
Cook the collard greens with olive oil and 2-3 garlic cloves until slightly wilted.
Cook the brussels sprouts with vegan butter in the pan until tender.
Vegan Caesar Dressing (adapted from the Minimalist Baker, check that blog out!)
1/2 cup hummus
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp capers, crushed or minced
2-3 tbsp lemon juice (to taste)
1 tbsp maple syrup
1- 2 tbsp extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil
1-2 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
Optional - 1 tsp nutritional yeast
Mix, mix!
Now that you have all your key flavorful more complex pieces prepped, these are the vegetables you should have pre-chopped and ready to go in your fridge!
Rinsed can of no-salt black beans
Rinsed can of no-salt chickpeas
A cup or more of corn kernels
Chopped green onions
Sliced red onion
Thinly sliced green peppers
Chopped Thai chilies
A pre-chopped green mix of some kind (arugula, iceberg lettuce, spinach, spring mix, etc)
Pea shoots or Alfalfa (optional, but fun!)
Mini cucumbers (whole to keep fresh longer)
Some tomatoes (whole to keep fresh longer)
Pickled beets in a jar
Avocados (whole, refrigerated if highly ripe)
Brussels sprouts, halved and trimmed.
Now you have your prepped complex pieces and you are ready to go fresh vegetables in the fridge!
I will not list all the other ingredients here but they are fairly self-explanatory.
For instance, if you opt to make the Philly cheese-steak sandwiches you will need to ensure you have some kind of bread and vegan cheese!
Bringing together the Plant-based summer recipes!
Smoky-Sweet Tofu Sandwiches
Use your marinated smoky-sweet tofu, sliced onion, fresh tomato, thinly sliced cucumber, alfalfa, spinach or mixed greens, sliced pickled beets, and avocado! This is an incredibly tasty, fresh, and filling summer vibes sandwich.
Honey Mustard Fresh Salad
Take your fresh mixed greens and add some tomato, red onion, cucumber, small cut brussels sprouts, corn, and chickpeas. As an option, if you have vegan frozen chicken tenders laying around these make a great addition! Drizzle it in your prepared honey mustard dressing!
Baked Honey Mustard Sweet Potatoes
Bake your sweet potatoes until tender (40-60 minutes at 400). Cut them open and add your bitter dark greens, corn, chopped green onion, black beans, red Thai chilis, and drizzle them in a honey mustard dressing.
Optionally, it tastes incredible to add some kind of savory meaty mushroom, such as your meaty marinated oyster mushrooms. I like to chop mine up into really fine pieces for this dish!
Kale Caesar Wraps
Simply slightly wilt your kale in a pan and let it cool down to room temperature. Toss it in your vegan Caesar dressing and wrap it up!
Optionally you can add some kind of protein such as spiced chickpeas or fake chicken.
Pictured here I actually had some buffalo cauliflower bites leftover! If you are curious I used this recipe from “Gimme Delicious”.
Vegan Philly Cheese-Steak Sandwiches
Load your bread, vegan mayonnaise, vegan cheese, your choice of green, fresh tomato, sauteed onion and green peppers, your prepared oyster mushrooms, and optionally some red Thai chilies for some added kick!
Tofu Re-fried bean and ARUGULA Toasties
These are so dang good! Toast some bread, put vegan mayonnaise on top, prepared refried beans, tofu egg, arugula, and optionally some diced pickles.
This option is also amazing for simply having refried beans on toast drizzled in your homemade pesto sauce!! Don’t knock it until you try it! Pesto and refried beans on toast is a total dream.
Brussels Sprout & Black Bean Tofu Scramble
This is pretty much where a lot of your leftovers come together nicely. Using your tofu egg, you can scramble together an incredible brussels sprout, black bean, green onion, chopped tomato, chopped onion, tofu scramble you will love. Top it with nutritional yeast and again, optionally, some red Thai chili peppers.
I am in the process of creating full-on meal prep guides with full ingredient lists and beyond!
Until then I hope these plant-based summer recipes inspire you!
