Easy Make-Ahead Vegan Lunch Ideas

Lunch used to be my least favorite meal of the day until I learned how to properly prep nourishing, delicious, and filling meals in advance. So if you feel like I used to feel, this video is for you because today I'm sharing three make-ahead vegan lunch ideas perfect for fall and winter. This video is also sponsored by Garden, which is an AI-powered hydroponic system that allows you to grow your own personal garden with minimal effort, all from the comfort of your own home. Garden just released their new Garden Studio, which is even more compact than their previous model and allows you to grow 16 different plants in only 1.4 square feet, which is roughly the size of a regular house plant. The system itself is easy to set up, and once you have it assembled, all you have to do is insert your Y-pods and occasionally fill the water tank and let Garden's LED lights, cameras, and AI technology do the rest of the work. It's so cool watching tiny sprouts grow into a full garden just like the one I have right here. Isn't the change so crazy? It's so fun to watch too, and I love having fresh and crisp produce available in my home whenever I want it, and because all these plants are still being grown hydroponically, this produce lasts way longer than anything you'd be able to buy at the grocery store and then take to your house. Right now, I'm growing a mix of different lettuces and herbs and some peppers, but Garden offers over 100 different pesticide-free plant varieties for you to choose from, so you can customize it to your own eating habits. I'm going to be showing you how I incorporate some of this homegrown produce into the recipes today and how I eat it in my everyday life, but before we get into that, Garden is running a Black Friday sale right now that you definitely want to check out. The sale runs through December 3rd, and you get 20% off of the Garden Studio or any of the other Garden devices. There are larger ones if you happen to have more space for that. This is an awesome deal and perfect for anyone who loves to cook, loves to garden, maybe is just getting into gardening and wants a fuss-free way to do that. I especially love using this in the winter months when I basically can't grow anything at all outside, but I love using it in the summer too when I can grow things inside that are more heat sensitive that I can't grow outside, so it's basically a perfect all-year-round gift, so be sure to check it out. I'll also have a link to it in the description of this video, so click the link and check it out. First recipe we're going to be making is a lentil salad. I love eating salads even in the fall and winter because I know how to make them hearty and delicious, and I'm going to show you this recipe which is packed with fall and winter produce, but I'm also going to give you tips on how you can turn almost any salad recipe into a meal prep friendly recipe without it getting soggy. The first thing we're going to do is cook our lentils because that's going to take the longest time, so we have about a cup of dry lentils. I'm using French lentils which are a little more firm, but you can use brown lentils if you'd like. We're going to add that to a pot. We're also going to add three cups of water and about a teaspoon of salt. We're going to give this a little bit of a mix, then cover and bring this to a boil on the stove. Once it's boiling, you can reduce the heat and simmer it for about 20 to 25 minutes. While the lentils are cooking, you have the perfect amount of time to prep your other ingredients. Now my original recipe does call for toasting hazelnuts, but the ones I happen to find in my store were already pre-toasted, so we can skip that step today, and the recipe also calls for some pickled red onions, and I already have some made in my fridge, but this takes maybe about five to ten minutes. I will link this recipe in the description of this video if you want to do it. I put these on everything, so I always happen to have a jar in my fridge. I will say while I am on this note, if you don't want to cook the lentils and you want to prep this recipe even faster, you can buy pre-cooked lentils and then just rinse them really well and combine the salad, and then the whole thing would probably take less than 10 minutes to put together, but since we already have this done, we're going to go ahead and work on our dressing. I love to save these little glass jars to make all of my salad dressings in because it's much easier. You don't have to whisk it, you can just shake it up, and then it also works for storage as well. So for this dressing, we're going to combine olive oil, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, Dijon mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper to taste in your jar or bowl, and then either whisk until emulsified or seal the jar well and shake until the dressing is nice and creamy. Then we can set this aside and prep the rest of our ingredients, which would be chopping our hazelnuts, deseeding our pomegranate, chopping some parsley, and then harvesting some fresh greens from our garden. Once the lentils finish cooking, I like to drain them with cold water until the water draining from them runs cold. This way you can combine your salad even faster instead of waiting for the lentils to cool. I would recommend letting the lentils sit just for a little bit to drain any excess liquid out, but now we have prepped all of our ingredients, so it's time to combine. Now if I was just making this for dinner or to eat immediately, I would just combine everything in a bowl, but because we're making this for meal prep, I'm going to show you how you can stack your salad into jars. I like to use these tulip jars because they look cute, and they hold about four cups, which is like the perfect lunch salad size. I will link these below, but you can also use what you have on hand. For example, I also get these big peanut butter jars that I use to store things in, or just like a quart-sized mason jar. Basically you want something that's going to hold four cups, and I do recommend a jar because the base is more narrow, so it's going to prevent our soggy ingredients from wilting. So now we're going to stack our salad with the dressing at the very bottom of the jar. Then we'll add in our lentils. I actually like to give it a little bit of a mix, this way the lentils are marinated further. Then we're going to top it off with our pickled red onions, pomegranate, hazelnuts, and then we'll put in our leafy greens and parsley at the top. This prevents it from getting soggy. Now you're left with these beautiful meal prepped jars that will keep in the fridge for up to, I'd say, four or five days. And then whenever you're ready to enjoy, you can just give the salad a tiny bit of a toss in the jar, and then you're going to dump it upside down into a bowl, and the dressing that was on the lentils is going to spread throughout the rest of the ingredients of the salad. You just give it a little bit of a stir with a fork, and you have an easy to eat, pretty much instant lunch that doesn't require any reheating at all. I love the salad because the pomegranate and hazelnuts stay extra crunchy, and this variety of lentils does get a little bit less mushy, so there's no mush factor at all, and they're nice and hearty and protein packed. And then the onions and the dressing provide that little bit of acidic brightness that just really rounds everything out and makes it totally delicious. Next up, we're going to be making a butternut squash and a white bean chili. Prepping soups and stews is one of my favorite things to do in the fall and winter because you can make a big batch at the start of the week, and it's super easy to reheat throughout the week, whether on the stovetop if you're working from home or in the microwave if you work at a desk or if you work at home and you want to heat it up faster. I specifically gravitate towards chilies and really hearty stews for meal prep, and I love this butternut squash one because the butternut squash adds that sort of cozy seasonal element, but then we still have some umami rich Tex-Mex style flavors, and the white beans add protein and fiber, so it'll keep you full a lot longer and feel more nourishing and filling versus a bisque or a lighter soup that's more veggie heavy but not necessarily calorically dense and filling, if that makes sense. This recipe comes together pretty quickly and it is relatively hands-off. We'll start by warming some oil in the pot, then adding our onion and sauteing this for three to five minutes. Then we'll add in the stems of our cilantro, bell pepper, our jalapenos, and then our spices. So we've got cumin, smoked paprika, and some nutritional yeast. We'll stir this and saute it for another three or so minutes until everything is fragrant, then we'll add in our beans, butternut squash, and vegetable broth. I'm using imitation chicken broth here, but you can just use regular vegetable as well. Bring this to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer this for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally to help break things down and make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once the squash is tender and everything has thickened to your liking, you can remove from the heat and season the chili with additional salt and pepper to taste. Then from there, just divide the chili into serving bowls or meal prep containers and I would let it cool slightly, but then you can garnish with the remaining cilantro leaves, which we set to the side. This chili is really hot, but I promise it is super delicious. I love the nutritional yeast and I know it's not a traditional chili ingredient, but it really helps make the broth so silky in combination with the starch from beans, and I love the subtle sweetness from the butternut squash too. If you want it to be extra fancy, you could top this with some like vegan sour cream or cashew cream, maybe have some bread on the side to bulk it up a little bit, but it is just as satisfying on its own like this too. Our third and final recipe is not one to be missed. I am about to introduce you to the world of instant noodles. No, not ramen noodles, though ramen noodles are delicious. Recently, I've been obsessed with making my own homemade version of instant noodles. I have a ton of different flavors on my blog, but today we're going with the most simple one. And we're starting with some miso noodle soup, sort of like a mushroom miso with tofu making it like a perfect light but filling lunch. I do have a stove top version of this recipe on the blog. So if you're more interested in that, you can click the link in the description. But today I'm doing the make ahead version. If you're making the make ahead version, you do need a specific type of noodle. Usually they come in different packages. This is the one I'm using. I got it at my local Asian grocery store. It's vermicelli noodles, which are typically rice, but this is a mung bean vermicelli. So it's more starchy and you don't need to boil this in order for it to be cooked. This is sort of the key noodle ingredient. One more change I'm making to this recipe is I'm adding a little bit of extra greens. I picked some spinach and bok choy from my garden. Just add a little bit of extra color and you know, nutrition to the recipe. Again, we're going to start out on the stove before we go to assembly. You're going to warm some oil in a nonstick skillet. Then we're going to add the white portion of our green onions, along with some garlic and ginger. So I'll take this for about a minute until it's fragrant. Then we're going to add some mushrooms to the pan with a tablespoon of soy sauce and cook this down for about three to five minutes to remove any extra moisture. I'm using these cute little button beach mushrooms, but you can use cremini mushrooms, white mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, any mushroom you like. And then we'll make the rest of our soup base, which we'll do by mixing some miso paste with some soy sauce and hot water in a bowl, mixing until it's a thick, soupy-ish, dewy texture. Then we're going to assemble our soup into two large jars. Start by dividing the miso mixture and we'll evenly divide the mushrooms and give it a little bit of a mix. Top this off with some cubed tofu. Then we'll add in the greens from our garden, followed by our dry rice noodles and green onions. The miso mixture is going to marinate the mushrooms in a bit of the tofu, but it's not going to pre-cook the noodles. You can store these as is in the refrigerator for up to five days. And then when you're ready to prepare one at your desk or at your house, all you need to do is bring two cups of water to a boil, either on your stovetop. I like to use my electric kettle, but then you're going to pour the water over the noodles, cover and let this sit for about seven to 10 minutes. After that's passed, the noodles should be cooked. You can give everything a good stir, season to taste with more soy sauce or toasted sesame oil, and then you're ready to enjoy. And that concludes our three easy meal prep friendly recipes. As always, all of the recipes will be linked in the description of this video, where you can head on over to my blog, save the recipes for later, print them out, leave a comment, leave a review. That would actually be really appreciated if you like the recipe. Thanks again to Garden for sponsoring this video. Be sure to shop Garden's Black Friday sale. It runs now through December 3rd, and you can get 20% off of the Garden Studio that I showed you in this video, as well as all of the other Garden models. They're all really awesome, honestly, and I love to use them. I love how easy it makes gardening and how easily I can also add fresh produce and herbs into my diet and my recipes without having to take a trip to the grocery store. That's it from me for today. Thank you again so much for watching. I really appreciate it. And if you have any suggestions for future videos, maybe this theme, maybe a different theme, I would love to hear about it in the comments below. I hope you all are doing well and taking care of yourselves, and I look forward to seeing you soon in the next video. Bye!