Fresh 15 Minute Lunch Ideas | Vegan and Healthy

Hi everyone, I hope you're all well. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Malin and today I want to share some really easy and quick lunch ideas that you could either eat at home or pack into a lunchbox and take with you to work. I know that a lot of us are working from home right now though so I thought it would be a good idea to share some of these quick and easy lunch ideas that you can make in less than 15 minutes at home in between your tasks. The first thing we're going to make is a great pantry staple meal and it's a pasta dish with a sun-dried tomato and roasted pepper sauce. Before we get into cooking I want to thank Skillshare for sponsoring this video. Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes on creative topics as well as classes to support your freelance creative business. You can learn everything from practical skills within lots of different fields like photography, videography, illustration and many other art forms but also learn about productivity and organization so that you can put those skills to use in the best way possible. I've learned many useful hints and skills from other creatives on Skillshare having used it now for over a year. I've had a little break from the platform but I'm back and learning again and I'm really looking forward to starting off with video for Instagram tell an engaging story in less than a minute. Being used to the long format that we do here on YouTube I think it will be really interesting for me to explore a shorter format and seeing how it can work for me on my platforms and if you would like to learn more about Skillshare I will leave a link in the description box and the first 1000 of you to click that link will receive a free trial to Skillshare premium membership as well. But now let's get into cooking. For ease I'm using roasted peppers from a jar and I'm just gonna pop those into my food processor along with some sun-dried tomatoes and a little bit of the oil that they were soaking in. Next I'm adding in some walnuts and if you wanted to you could toast them beforehand for more depth of flavor. I add a pinch of chili flakes for heat, some balsamic vinegar for some acid and soy sauce for a savory umami flavor to the sauce. To add to that umami flavor I'm sprinkling in some nutritional yeast. I season with some salt and black pepper before I pulse all the ingredients in the food processor until I reach a thick pesto like consistency. While I'm using this sauce for pasta today it's also really good as a spread or dip with bread and when I'm happy with the consistency of the sauce I set it aside and I toast some pine nuts until golden in a dry pan to top my dish with later. Once that's all done I bring some water to a boil and I cook the pasta. I'm using a variety called Mafalda Corta and I'm cooking it until al dente then I drain it and I'm ready to assemble the dish. So I pop the pasta into a bowl and then I simply combine it with the sauce. To add a touch of green to this dish I'm adding some handfuls of rocket or arugula that I'm just gonna toss through the pasta. This makes this a little bit into like a pasta salad but it's nice to eat warm or cold. If you wanted to make it cold you can always rinse the pasta after cooking in cold water. I like to top this dish off with some cherry tomatoes or mini tomatoes of some variety that I just cut in half and then pop on top of my dish. Finally I sprinkle those toasted pine nuts over the top but really you could use any type of seed maybe pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds and that concludes this first dish. As always you'll be able to find the full recipes linked in the description box in case you want to refer back to them and next up we're gonna make some pitta pockets with some hummus, some fresh veggies for crunch and some warm spiced chickpeas. This lunch is super easy to make let me show you how to do it. This dish really is the simplest out of the bunch and I start off by just chopping up a few veggies. I'm starting off with some cucumber then I grab a few radishes and I cut the cucumbers into little chunks and I slice the radishes but really you could cut the veggies any way you like. I'm also going to chop up a few cherry tomatoes and I'm just halving or quartering them but again it's really up to you any way you like will work. Then I'm going to cook the chickpeas. I add a little bit of oil to a pan and once it's hot I am sautéing a little bit of harissa paste. This is a spicy Tunisian paste that adds lots of flavors to the chickpeas that I then add to the pan. I cook these for a few minutes and then I add some garlic powder and coriander powder as well as salt and I cook it for a couple of more minutes until it's a little bit golden. Then I'm ready to pop all of this into bread and I'm using these pitta breads that I bought from the store. I like to half them and then open them up so I can fill them. First up I like to add some hummus and I'm using some that I made ahead of time but of course store-bought works just as well and then I'm adding in some greens. I've got a mixture of rocket and romaine. Then I add in the chickpeas, some alfalfa sprouts and all the veggies that I just cut up and really that's the dish. That's how easy it is. This final recipe is inspired by Vietnamese boon chai which is a noodle salad that's super fragrant and fresh. There's going to be rice noodles, fresh veggies, fragrant herbs and I'm also serving it with some smoked tofu. Out of the three this is the recipe that has the most steps but don't worry it's pretty simple and I start off by boiling a pot of water while I prep some other ingredients for the salad and this is to cook the noodles later. When that's on I start preparing the sauce by adding some rice vinegar to a small bowl. I'm also adding in some soy sauce or tamari as well as some maple syrup for a little bit of sweetness. Then I slice a lime in half and I squeeze that into the sauce as well so as you can tell it's quite a sour sauce but it's really yummy and I'm sure you're gonna like it. I give it all a mix with a spoon and I leave it to the side while I prep the veggies. First up I'm slicing up a little gem lettuce and you could use any crunchy lettuce you like in this. Then I'm slicing up some radishes again and yeah you could cut them in any shape you like but I think they look so pretty in slices. Then I'm going to use this julienne vegetable peeler to deal with the carrots and cucumber and you can buy this in many stores these days and Asian supermarkets usually have them. As you can see it just slices the vegetables into these thin strips which are really nice in this salad but if you don't have one of these peelers of course you can just slice or chop them or use a mandolin to make the cucumbers and carrots any shape you like. Now that the veggies are all chopped up I'm going to prep some crushed peanuts and I do this in a pestle and mortar really simple and then I just set them aside. As a good protein source for this dish I've chosen some smoked tofu and I just chop that into some cubes before I fry them off in a pan with a little bit of oil until they're sort of a little bit golden a little bit crispy on the outside. For this you need a little bit of patience and leave them cooking on each side for about a minute or two before you flip them so don't flip them too early because then they just stick to the pan. I take the tofu off the heat and the final step before assembling this dish is to cook the noodles. I'm using rice vermicelli noodles they're really thin and they cook really quickly they literally only need a couple of minutes in the water before you drain them. I drain mine in a fine mesh strainer but you could use a colander as well of course. I like to also rinse them to get rid of any residual starch and then I pop the noodles into bowls and start adding my prepped veggies into the bowl all around the noodles which makes this beautiful arrangement of colors and textures and in addition to the veggies that I prepped I'm also adding in some fresh bean sprouts. Something else that adds lots of flavor to this dish are fresh herbs and here I'm going for some fresh coriander as well as fresh mint and I'm also going to add in some fresh basil which is really fragrant in this and you could definitely use Thai basil if you can get your hands on it. Then I add on my crushed peanuts and my bowls are assembled. Of course you would also drizzle the sauce on there before you eat and if you were going to try just one of these dishes I truly recommend this it really is so delicious. That concludes my three lunch ideas for you today. I hope you enjoyed the video and that you find it helpful. Remember that you can always find the full recipes linked in the description box in case you want to refer to them and please subscribe to the channel if you haven't yet and give me a thumbs up if you like the video it really helps me out. Now I wish you all a good day and I look forward to seeing you in the next video. Take care, bye!