Easy weekly vegan menu for beginners

An increasingly common January resolution is to transition to veganism. Some people take advantage of January to try this month, since this is when Veganuary is organized. This annual, non-profit movement aims to help anyone who wants to with that transition.

Planning is one of the best weapons to make the transition to veganism and adopt a vegan diet. You may have never thought about planning all the meals and dinners for the week, but thanks to that you won’t run out of ideas. Another advantage of have a weekly vegan menu with everything already thought of is that you can review what you have at home and easily make a shopping list. It will help you a lot.

One of the advantages of introducing new foods into your diet is that you will try new things and discover new favorites. I recommend introducing new ingredients little by little, since we may also have to learn how to cook them.

My main advice is Do not try to change the ingredient of animal origin for that of plant origin without further ado.. If we try to change a beef steak with potatoes for a grilled tofu steak, without further ado, it’s going to be a fiasco.

If we buy ultra-processed to make these changes, the purchase will be much more expensive, and we will be displacing other more nutritious and interesting foods.

Let’s start with the weekly menuan easy and simple vegan menu, and then let’s see some tips to make the transition to the vegan diet easier and more pleasant, knowing What vegan foods to have in the pantry, what alternatives to meat we have and what products should not be abused if we want our vegan diet to also be healthy.

Easy vegan weekly menu to start

A vegan menu for beginners must be as simple and appealing as possible. This implies that there are those who may find it somewhat repetitive, or not very varied.

My bet on this menu to start is with legumes and seasonal vegetables, without varying too much so that it is not difficult for you to make the shopping basket and see that With simple ingredients you can always make vegan and healthy recipes easily.

Download the vegan menu for beginners here.

In this case, when choosing legumes, I have decided to use mainly chickpeasbecause it is a complete protein, low cost and highly accessible. Then, so that the recipes do not become too repetitive, I propose changing the format in which we will use the chickpeas and using different seasonings. They would be equivalent in complete protein kidney beans, kidney beans, soybeans and azuki beansin case you want to make any changes.

The vegetable meat that I propose to use to complement the week will be seitan. Below I tell you which are the main vegetable meats that we can use as alternatives to meat and why seitan is ideal for beginner vegans. If you are on a low gluten diet you can change it for tofu. On this blog you have many simple recipes with tofu, like these three not at all boring recipes with tofu.

Finally, we will use textured vegetable proteinwhich can be soy (already sold in many regular supermarkets), pea or sunflower (in specialized stores).

Once a day, at any meal, there will be one or two servings of fresh vegetableswhich can be in a salad, as a vegetable carpaccio, spiralized or as a cream or raw soup.

What can’t be missing in your pantry?

Both to follow the weekly vegan menu that I have proposed and to follow a vegan diet in general, you will need your pantry to be well stocked with the basic foods in the vegan diet:

Seasonal vegetables and fruit.
Legumeswhether cooked or dried. Legumes are the best source of protein available to vegans.
Vegetable oat or soy drinks fortified in calcium, as well as natural soy yogurts. They are good options to replace those of animal origin on a nutritional level.
dried fruitslike walnuts, for their contribution in omegas, and almonds.
Seeds. Seeds are nutritional bombs and a world to discover in the kitchen. In some cases they are a source of protein, such as hemp seeds; In others, we find that they are a source of omegas, such as flax seeds.
Whole wheat flour-based pasta and bread. Whole grain versions are much more nutritious.
spices. Seasoning your dishes well will take them to another level. There is no need to look for exotic combinations, many times the ones you usually use or Mediterranean herbs will be enough.

«Plant-based» meat alternatives to meat

Vegetable meats, which is what we usually call certain sources of vegetable protein, are also a kitchen staple. However, in most cases it’s easier to start with legumes and gradually introduce some vegetable meat.

He tofu It is, without a doubt, one of the most versatile and nutritious. It provides us with protein and calcium, in addition to other micronutrients, and few carbohydrates, so it is very easy to introduce into the diet if we want to make a «change.» However, it is not the easiest to cook and we can be disappointed if we do not season it or cook it well.
He tempeh It is another soy derivative, like tofu, but in this case instead of being curdled, it is a fermented product. It has a peculiar flavor and is not to everyone’s taste, so if you find it too strong, that’s okay. We still have legumes and hemp seeds as a source of protein.
He seitan deserves separate mention, since it is a gluten-based productalthough if you make homemade seitan I recommend that you enrich it with cooked chickpeas or beans. The protein in seitan is of a lower quality than that of tofu, tempeh or the preparations that we can make with legumes, but it is still a very good option for beginners.
He Homemade seitan made from bulk gluten and legumes Cooked, it can be used to make steaks, nuggets and other recognizable formats, at a very reasonable price.
Lastly, and also a great basic to start with, we have the textured proteins.

Be careful with…

Vegetable analogues of meat and cheese, since some are ultra-processed. Now we can find a wide variety of Ultra-processed vegan food in supermarkets and large storesas well as in online stores. These products should only be for occasional consumption in most cases.

We must remember that a product does not have to be considered recommended for daily consumption simply because it is plant-based or vegan.

While a jar of cooked chickpeas or a block of natural tofu are healthy processed foods for everyday use, a packaged vegan burger with the texture and flavor of animal meat is ultra-processed. In any case, these products also fulfill a function, since They help us in the transition and at a social level they give us options outside the home.so they should not be demonized either.

A simple and realistic proposal, but not boring!

If we don’t want to get overwhelmed in the kitchen, we will have to use simple preparations and repeat ingredients. That is why we must not forget that we have resources to give variety to the dishes and make them more surprising:

Remember that the dressings and spice mix They are our allies to change the flavor of an almost identical dish and break the routine.
We also have the option of add nuts, green sprouts, seeds, fresh seasonings like cilantro, mint or parsley…

And yes, the options that we can give you to start, taking into account that it is also convenient for them to be quick and easy recipes, may seem repetitive to you. However, What we don’t want is for the menu to be complicated and result in a long and unrealistic shopping list.. It is also not advisable to buy unknown ingredients that we do not know if we will like and really use.

A trick to make balanced dishes

The trick is assemble a single plate. To make a balanced plate it is not necessary to assemble a single plate, but it is a simple way to find out what to eat. In reality, it will usually be that we have two plates or two containers, especially if we eat, for example, a salad, because we will not want the flavors to mix.

A good guide is the Harvard plate, which can help us Good for creating weekly dishes and menus based on simple preparationsthings that we buy already cooked or from our weekly batch cooking.

We divide our imaginary plate into 4 and the portions look like this:

Half of the plate would be for vegetables, without counting the potato, always giving priority to them being in season.
A quarter of a plate for whole grains in all its varieties and also for potatoes, sweet potatoes or cassava.
The other quarter would be vegetable protein: tofu, legumes, nuts such as walnuts or seeds such as hemp.

In the case of legumewhich also provides us with carbohydrates, it is important that we find a balance with the amount of cereals or potatoes. In fact, we can add a little more legumes and eliminate other carbohydrate contributions if we want.

It will also be important cooking and seasoning with quality oil.

And, although it has not been mentioned fruitthis can be integrated raw into many preparations, as well as dessert or at any time of the day. There is no maximum number of pieces.