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These amazing Vegan Lunch Ideas are sponsored by Thrive Market, my favorite website for purchasing non-perishable groceries and household goods. You can shop for thousands of the best-selling organic foods and natural products at 25-50% below traditional retail prices. Use my link to get 25% off your first purchase on Thrive.
It’s that time of year once again. Time to go back to school, and get back to work. Summer is over! I used to dread summer’s end, but as I get older I’ve come to appreciate the cooler temperatures and changing leaves more and more. I especially love this time of year because it represents a chance to start anew. I like to take a look at all the aspects of my life, including my diet, and recharge any goals I have before the end of the year. Now is a great time to start something new, or improve upon something old.
One way I like to refresh my diet is by bringing new life to my meal plan. I’m a creature of habit, and can find myself eating the same thing week after week for months before getting utterly bored. Can you relate? The end of summer is a great time to find a few new vegan lunch ideas. Lately I’ve really been digging the three recipes in this post: BBQ Jackfruit Bowl, hearty Zucchini Quinoa Burgers, and Beet & Sweet Potato Chips. They’re all easy to make, and pack up like a charm.
One way I’ve been refreshing my life this whole year has been to use as few disposable and non-compostable products as possible. For the last 5 or so years I have been composting all of our food scraps, and now that we live in Los Angeles and have our own compost bin, we’ve started composting all of our paper products as well. It’s so satisfying to watch scraps break down and turn to nutrient dense compost that we can use to nurture the soil and grow more plants. It’s a simple process, but it helps us keep hundreds of pounds of waste out of methane leaking landfills each year. By the way, most of the packaging materials from Thrive Market are compostable. Why can’t all online stores be like that?
Another great way to keep trash out of the landfill is to use reusable baggies, containers, and wraps for your food. I ordered an assortment of reusable plastic baggies from Thrive Market that I can use for packing up sandwiches and snacks, and I ordered a few larger ones for keeping food in the freezer. They’re just as convenient as the plastic bags we’re all used to, but far more eco-friendly. You can wash and reuse them for years and years without fear that they’ll fall apart or leach nasty chemicals into your food.
On Thrive Market I also ordered a 2-tier stainless steel tiffin carrier, which is the ultimate in eco-friendly reusable lunch containers. In America you might be one of the only people at school or the office with one of these lunch carriers, but tiffins are the norm in South Asia. They aren’t microwavable, but can keep your meal warm for hours. I love how seamlessly they snap together, and the handle on top makes them so easy to carry. Don’t miss the video below to see how I used all of my new eco-friendly containers from Thrive for these delicious vegan lunch ideas!
Click here to get 25% off your first purchase on Thrive.
Need more vegan lunch ideas? Try these:
• Buddha Bowl Meal Plan
• Back to School Lunch Ideas
• Back to School Snack Recipes
• Tofu Recipes
• Cheap Vegan Meal Plan (under $30/week)
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BBQ Jackfruit Bowls | Amazing Vegan Lunch Ideas
Ingredients
- 2 packages of Upton's original jackfruit from Thrive Market, or 2 cans of green jackfruit in brine, shredded
- 1 cup vegan BBQ sauce
- 1 bunch kale, thinly chopped
- 1 package frozen corn
- 2 cups cooked brown rice
- red onion for garnish, optional
Roasted sweet potato wedges
- 2 sweet potatoes, cut into wedges
- 1 tbsp or less grapeseed oil
Instructions
- Place the jackfruit and BBQ sauce in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir well, cover, and cook for 20 minutes.
- While the jackfruit cooks you can steam or sauté the kale and corn. To steam the kale I placed a mesh strainer over the jackfruit and steamed it for 5 minutes while the jackfruit cooked below.
Roasted sweet potato wedges
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- Toss the sweet potatoes with oil, then spread evenly onto a baking sheet.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until they're tender.
Assemble the bowl
- To assemble the bowl simply fill your tiffin carrier, bowl, or lunch container with a quarter of the BBQ jackfruit, kale, corn, brown rice, and sweet potatoes. Top with some thinly sliced red onion if you'd like.
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Zucchini Burgers
Video
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil, or other neutral oil
- 1 clove minced garlic, minced
- 1/2 yellow or red onion, diced
- 1 1/2 cups grated zucchini, 2 medium zucchinis grated on the largest holes of a box grater or through a food processor grater attachment
- 1/2 cup toasted or raw pumpkin or sunflower seeds, or toasted or raw almonds or walnuts
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, to taste
- 1 14 oz can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup cooked quinoa, or 1/3 cup of dry quinoa, cooked
- 2 tablespoons smooth Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill or parsley
- avocado oil spray, if air frying, or other type of oil spray. If you don't have any, coat the tops of the burgers with any type of oil using a basting brush
- toppings to serve, sliced tomato, avocado, vegan mayo, lettuce, burger or sandwich bread, red onion, and pickles
Instructions
- Warm the oil in a large frying pan or skillet over medium heat.
- Add the garlic and onions to the pan. Sauté for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent and tender.
- Add the zucchini and continue to cook for about 8 minutes, stirring periodically, until tender and the liquid has evaporated. Remove the pan from the heat.
- Grind the paprika, pumpkin or sunflower seeds, salt, and pepper in the food processor until it has a sandy texture.
- Add the cannellini beans, quinoa, mustard, lemon juice, and chopped dill or parsley to the food processor. Pulse to blend with the seed mixture until the mixture is thick and pasty.
- Pour the mixture into the pan with the cooked zucchini. Stir well until thoroughly combined. Remove the pan from the heat.
- Spread out the zucchini and bean mixture in the skillet or on a small baking dish. Chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours until cooled through and easily formed into patties.
- If baking the burgers, preheat the oven to 375°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Form the batter into 8-12 burger patties.
- If air frying, preheat the air fryer to 375° for 5 minutes. Grease the bottom rack of the air fryer with oil spray, then place the patties into the air fryer basket (keep at least one inch between each patty). Grease the tops of the burgers with oil spray, and air fry for 15 minutes. Flip and air fry 5 minutes longer until the surface of the burgers are dry and crispy. Allow the burgers to cool in the air fryer for 5 minutes before removing with a spatula.
- If baking, bake the burgers for 35 minutes, flipping halfway through, or pan-fry them in a skillet over medium heat for 5 minutes on each side, flipping them carefully.
- Serve burgers on buns or sandwich bread and top them with avocado, vegan mayo, sliced red onion, sliced tomato, and lettuce.
Notes
- Refrigeration: Allow cooked patties to cool completely before transferring them to an airtight container and storing them in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. If stacking them, place a piece of parchment paper between the layers to prevent them from drying out.
- Freezing: You can freeze uncooked or cooked patties. Place cooked or uncooked patties on a baking sheet in a single layer, freeze until solid, then transfer to an airtight container and store for up to 3 months.
- Reheating: Reheat refrigerated patties in a skillet over medium heat or the oven at 350ºF until warmed. Reheat frozen cooked patties at 375ºF for about 15-20 minutes or until heated, flipping halfway through. For uncooked frozen patties, cook from frozen in the oven or skillet as outlined in the recipe, adding a few extra minutes of cooking time.
- Properly drain the shredded zucchini. After grating the zucchini, squeeze out as much excess moisture as possible. This step is crucial to prevent the patties from becoming too soggy and falling apart during cooking.
- Toast the seeds. Toasting the pumpkin seeds before adding them to the mixture significantly enhances the flavor and adds a pleasant texture to the burgers.
- Chill the mixture before cooking. Let the zucchini burger mixture chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour before forming the patties. This helps the flavors meld and allows the mixture to firm up, which makes it easier to shape and cook the patties.
- Form uniform patties. Use a measuring cup to portion out the mixture evenly so the patties cook uniformly and are all the same size.
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Baked Beet & Sweet Potato Chips | Amazing Vegan Lunch Ideas
Instructions
- Thinly slice the sweet potatoes and beets into rounds using a mandolin.
- Place in a large mixing bowl, and coat in oil and salt. Toss and set aside for 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 300°, and line at least 2 baking sheets with a silicon mat.
- Remove the veggies from the bowl, and lay them evenly onto the baking sheet. It's okay if they overlap a bit.
- Bake for 45-60 minutes until crispy.
- Remove from oven and allow them to cool completely before eating. As they cool they will crisp up even more!
- Store in a reusable plastic bag or air-tight container for 3-5 days.
Has anyone tried these chips with an air fryer?
Hey Jenné,
I started watching your videos and they come out looking so pretty. I have a question about the zuchinni patties. While I was sauteing the zuchinni, a lot of water was coming out and my patties didn’t hold up as well. Should I have dump the excess water out?
Hi! Thank you 🙂
Yes, next time you can try draining any excess liquid before sauteéing the zucchini. Or if the batter is too thin, try adding bread crumbs or putting it in the fridge to firm for longer.
Thank You! I’ll keep it in mind!
Going to make an amazing vegan lunch burger! I am wondering about step 10 on the Zucchini Quinoa Burger, says served burgers between burgers ( is this suppose to say lettuce?) or sandwich bread. . .
I serve vegan burgers between lettuce sometimes instead of bread or buns! Thank you!
Hi! Thanks for catching that. I mean to serve it between bread. You can serve any way you’d like, of course. Lettuce sounds good to me 🙂
Hi! Love this vegan Zucchini Quinoa Burgers again today! I served it between buns this time but like Ezekiel bread too! I used romaine lettuce the first time and loved it will do it again.
Love it!!!