Seven dinners we’d happily cook on a weeknight.
Four of them are soup, because soup is what happens in our kitchen when nobody wants to think. Most are one pot, and none of them are difficult. Two are ours; the rest come from cooks we read, and the links go straight to them.
None of them need oil. Where a recipe lists it, we’ve said what to use instead.
Seven dinners worth making
avirtualvegan
Black Bean Soup
Four cans of black beans, thirty minutes, serves six. You blitz part of the pot with a stick blender so it turns thick without losing the chunks, lime goes in at the very end, and it wants avocado and green onion on top. The recipe already offers water in place of the oil, so there’s nothing to swap.
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Healthy Vegetable Tofu Stir Fry | Oil-free
This one’s ours. A proper weeknight stir-fry, and over rice it stops being a side and becomes dinner. A splash of water in a very hot pan does what the oil normally would.
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pipingpotcurry
Easy Vegan Sushi for Beginners
More of a project than a Tuesday dinner, and worth it. Sushi rice with cucumber, avocado and mango, and the mango is what makes it. Forty-five minutes for four rolls, and you’ll want a bamboo mat. The rolling gets easier by the third one, so don’t judge yourself on the first.
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platesbynat
Quick and Easy Red Lentil Dahl
One pot, thirty minutes, six servings. Smoked paprika, turmeric, cumin, ginger and five cloves of garlic, with a whole can of full-fat coconut milk, which is where the richness comes from. The lentils collapse as they cook, so it thickens itself. It’s better on the second day, over rice.
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Vegan Potato Salad | No Mayo
Our own recipe, and the one on this list that travels. No mayonnaise means there’s nothing to split, so it holds up in a lunchbox overnight.
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veeatcookbake
Vegan Sauerkraut Soup
The most unusual thing on this list. Sauerkraut with paprika, marjoram and tomato paste, and a cream blended from cashews and white beans that goes in at the end. Thirty minutes, serves four, and it’s properly sour, so have some bread alongside.
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greenheartlove
Easy Chickpea Soup
Two cans of chickpeas and orzo in a lemony broth, with miso and nutritional yeast for the savory depth and kale and dill going in at the end. Twenty-five minutes. The chickpeas stay whole, so it’s a soup you chew. Swap the vegan butter for a splash of the broth.
Check Out the RecipeMore dinners from our kitchen
Everything we cook is oil-free, so the seven above are only a small sample. These are the ones readers come back to most often.
- Gluten-free Baked Chickpea Balls
- Creamy Vegan Mushroom Soup
- Red Lentils Peanut Butter Casserole
- Creamy Kale Potato Soup
- Vegan Chickpea Meatloaf
- Sweet Potato Lentil Curry
And, always, seek health consciously.
