A quick lunch usually fails one of two ways: it takes longer than promised, or it's so light you're hungry by three. These ten vegan lunches avoid both. Every one lands in 15 minutes or less, and every one has real protein in it, because a lunch without protein is just a delay.
The 15-minute lunches
1. Smashed chickpea sandwich
Mash a drained tin of chickpeas with vegan mayo, mustard, and whatever crunch you have (celery, pickles, spring onion). Pile onto good bread. Ten minutes, mostly mashing.
2. Peanut noodles with edamame
Cook a noodle nest, whisk peanut butter with soy sauce, lime and a splash of the noodle water, toss with frozen edamame. Twelve minutes.
3. Instant noodle stir-fry, upgraded
Cook the noodles, ditch the sachet. Fry frozen veg in a hot pan, add the noodles, season with soy, garlic and sesame oil. Tofu if you have it.
4. White bean and pesto pasta
While pasta cooks, warm a tin of white beans with vegan pesto. Combine. The beans make it lunch rather than a side.
5. Burrito bowl from the cupboard
Microwave rice pouch, tin of black beans with cumin and paprika, salsa from the jar, avocado if it's ripe. Fifteen minutes at a stroll.
The 5-minute lunches
6. Hummus and roast veg flatbread
Shop hummus, jarred roasted peppers, a warm flatbread. Assembly, not cooking.
7. Desk-drawer couscous
Couscous plus boiling water plus stock cube, five minutes covered, then a tin of mixed beans and olive oil. Makeable at an office kettle.
8. Loaded toast, grown-up edition
Butter beans warmed with garlic and olive oil on toast, or nut butter and banana when the cupboard is bare.
The 90-second lunch
9. A fiid bowl
Every fiid bowl is 100% plant-based, high in protein and fibre with around 50% vegetables, and heats in 90 seconds. The Smoky Black Bean Chilli over a rice pouch is a proper hot lunch in under three minutes, and the bowls live in a desk drawer, no fridge needed.
10. The fiid bowl plus one
Same bowl, one upgrade: the Golden Curry House Special over couscous (see number 7), or the Sundried Tomato & Lentil Ragu on a microwave baked potato. Still under five minutes.
Make quick lunches automatic
Keep the cupboard stocked with the recurring cast: tinned beans and chickpeas, noodle nests, couscous, rice pouches, and a few shelf-stable bowls for the days even 15 minutes is too many. For lunches that travel to the office, see our healthy office lunch ideas and plant-based lunch ideas for busy weeks.
FAQ
What is the quickest vegan lunch?
A shelf-stable legume bowl (90 seconds) or hummus flatbread (about 3 minutes). Both beat the sandwich queue.
How do I make a vegan lunch filling?
Build it on a legume: beans, lentils, chickpeas or edamame. Protein plus fibre is what carries you to dinner.
Keep four 90-second lunches in your desk with the Starter Box.