15 Healthy Plant-Based Recipes

Trying to cut down on your meat consumption with a meat Monday or cut out meat completely to go vegan or vegetarian? Start with these easy, healthy plant-based recipes! We’ve got mains and sides to keep you satisfied all week long.

There are a lot of benefits to filling your diet with more plant-based foods. It could lower your blood pressure, help you lose weight, improve your heart health, and more.

But does this mean you have to completely cut meat out of your diet to see benefits? Nope! Simply cutting back a bit on meat and increasing your intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and other plant-based foods (with the help of the easy recipes below) will allow you to reap huge health benefits while still keeping your normal go-to recipes in circulation.

To make it easier to find what you need, we split the plant-based recipes below into two categories:

• Plant-Based Meals – Full dinner ideas that the whole family will enjoy.
• Plant-Based Sides – Smaller dishes, perfect for lunch or side servings.

Healthy Plant-Based Meals

These plant-based meals are will keep you full and satisfied for hours!

1. Crockpot Vegetable Soup

This vegetable soup is super easy to make in the crockpot (it’s instant-pot friendly too), and it’s loaded with healthy vegetables. Not only that but you can freely change up the seasoning and veggies you use to make a soup that perfectly fits your tastebuds.

2. Air Fryer Korean Fried Cauliflower

You’d typically want to avoid fried food if you’re going for healthy plant-based recipes, but that’s one of the beauties of air fryer recipes! The air fryer gives you that similar, delicious crispy food, but with way less fat.

3. Southwest Quinoa Power Bowl with Honey Lime Dressing

There’s a reason this is called a power bowl! As you can see from the image above, it’s packed with healthy plant-based ingredients like quinoa, black beans, red bell peppers, avocado, and sweet potato. And then on top of that, you have a super tasty honey-lime dressing to top things off.

4. Veggie Burger

I often hear people complain about store-bought veggie burgers, either because the flavor is off or the ingredients aren’t as healthy as you’d expect. Well, this homemade veggie burger solves both of those problems. You’ve got great flavor and simple, healthy ingredients!

5. Lentil Shepherd’s Pie

We recently posted a healthy shepherds pie recipe of our own, but it definitely wasn’t plant-based. This shepherds pie is completely meat-free, packed with lentils, potatoes, carrots, and more.

Just look at those beautiful crispy golden brown potatoes in the photo above. Yum!

6. Thai Pineapple Fried Rice

If you enjoy Thai food, you’ll definitely want to try this recipe. It really packs a punch! You’ve got papaya in there, pineapple chunks, garden peas, bell peppers, onion, scallion, garlic, and more.

The recipe creator, Charla, also suggests some potential topping ideas like raisins, tofu, or cashews. All in all, this is an easy and versatile recipe. It takes just over 30 minutes to make and can be done in on pot. Love it!

Related: Healthy Grilled Pineapple Recipe

7. Broccoli and Mushroom Stir-Fry

This simple stir fry recipe is packed with several healthy ingredients, but there are three main stars: broccoli, mushrooms, and cashews. Each of these three ingredients adds their own health benefits, flavors, and textures, to create a super satisfying meal.

Oh, and it’s a 30-minute meal too, which makes things even better.

8. Plant-Based Ground Beef Recipe

Last but not least for our plant-based meals, this is a recipe you can use over and over again in so many different meals. Just pick your favorite ground beef recipes and substitute this healthy plant-based ground beef in there instead!

I can already imagine the delicious plant-based tacos you could make. (Be sure to use our homemade taco seasoning if you try that idea out.)

Side Dishes

Serve these sides with the plant-based meals above, or enjoy them on their own for a quick snack, breakfast, or lunch.

9. Grilled Ginger Lime Corn on the Cob

Grilled corn on the cob is one thing, but with the ginger-lime glaze, this recipe becomes addicting. The ginger-lime isn’t too strong or overpowering but it adds a really nice flavor and eliminates the need for extra butter, salt, or pepper.

10. Grilled Lemon Asparagus

While we’re on the topic of grilled veggies, this grilled lemon asparagus is another fantastic plant-based recipe that you can cook up on the bbq. Topped with a bit of grated parmesan, this tasty vegan side dish will take you directly to flavor town!

11. Honey Lime Fruit Salad

I absolutely love a good fruit salad first thing in the morning, but it also makes for a great side dish. In this recipe we used strawberries, nectarines, kiwi, grapes, and blueberries, but you can use your favorite fruits or whatever is on sale at the time. The real star of this recipe is the refreshing honey-lime dressing.

You can also turn these into kebabs if you’d like which are perfect for a BBQ party, and they’re just fun to eat 😉

12. Orange Glazed Grilled Carrots

Being that carrots are super nutritious and delicious, they’re one of the go-to vegan snacks for many. They can get a bit boring though if you’re just eating them raw all the time.

Making these grilled carrots doesn’t take a lot of extra work, makes for a great side dish, and the orange glaze adds some awesome flavor.

13. Lemon Herb Potato Salad

For a simple potato salad recipe, this one is an all-time favorite. The lemon herb dressing is refreshing and flavorful, and it’s potato salad! What’s not to love?

14. Berry Quinoa Salad

If you love fruit salad but you want something with a bit more protein, this berry quinoa salad is perfect. It’s refreshing, nutritious, and really easy to make. 

15. Instant Pot Lemon Parsley Rice

I love to make rice in my instant pot. It’s easy and fast, and this lemon parsley rice can be served alongside almost any recipe. The lemon flavor isn’t too overpowering either, and the parsley adds a nice refreshing touch.

Final Thoughts

This list of healthy plant-based recipes should make cutting back your meat consumption a whole lot easier! They’re easy to make, extremely versatile (don’t be afraid to experiment), and all have their own unique set of flavors and textures.

Make it easy to find these recipes again by pinning the pin below or bookmarking this post! You can also follow me on Prepear to see all of Fabulessly Frugals recipes in one place!