Vegan Meal Prep Guide

Two hours on Sunday. Delicious, nutritious meals all week. Here's the system — and why it's especially powerful for vegans.

Why meal prep works particularly well for vegans

Vegan staples — legumes, grains, roasted vegetables — are ideally suited to batch cooking. They reheat well, improve with time as flavours develop, and can be mixed and matched throughout the week in different combinations.

The core system

Don't try to prep full meals for every day — this gets tedious and limits variety. Instead, prep components that can be combined in multiple ways:

• One grain — a pot of rice, quinoa, or cooked pasta
• One legume — a big batch of lentils, chickpeas, or beans
• Roasted vegetables — whatever's in season, cut and roasted in bulk
• One sauce or dressing — tahini, peanut sauce, or tomato base

From these four elements, you can construct grain bowls, wraps, salads, soups, and pasta dishes throughout the week without eating the same thing twice.

A Sunday prep session

A well-organised Sunday prep session can run in parallel across oven, hob, and passive time:

1. Start the oven — cut and season root vegetables; put in oven at 200°C / 400°F.
2. Put rice or quinoa on — hands-free while other things cook.
3. Start the lentils or beans — a simple spiced dal requires about 15 minutes of simmering.
4. Make the sauce — blender sauces take 5 minutes.
5. Wash and chop raw vegetables for the week — store in containers.
6. Portion and store — use glass containers with lids.

Storage guide

• Cooked grains — 5 days in fridge, 3 months frozen
• Cooked legumes — 5 days in fridge, 6 months frozen
• Roasted vegetables — 5 days in fridge (don't freeze)
• Sauces and dressings — 1 week in fridge
• Chopped raw vegetables — 3–5 days in fridge
• Soups and stews — 5 days in fridge, 6 months frozen

The freezer bank

A well-stocked freezer is insurance against busy weeks. Dishes that freeze brilliantly:

• Dal and lentil soups
• Chilli and bean stews
• Curry (chickpea, tofu, vegetable)
• Pasta sauces (without the pasta)
• Cooked rice and grains (freeze in portions)
• Bean burger patties (pre-cooked or raw)
• Cookie dough and muffins

Quick assembly ideas

The grain bowl

Brown rice or quinoa + chickpeas + roasted sweet potato + tahini dressing + fresh herbs. Assembly: 3 minutes.

The quick soup

Sauté garlic and ginger (1 min), add prepped vegetables and vegetable stock, simmer 10 minutes. Stir in cooked lentils. Done.

The loaded wrap

Tortilla + hummus + prepped roasted vegetables + baby spinach + hot sauce. 2 minutes.

The dinner rescue pasta

Boil pasta (12 min) while heating any leftover sauce from the freezer. Dinner in 15 minutes.