Some days you just need a very simple lunch or dinner plan! Here are some of our favorites, many of them based on items you probably have in your fridge, freezer and pantry already.

Chickpea Salad Wraps:

Whip up a chickpea salad with diced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, grated carrot, red onions, and capers or olives. Spread wraps generously with hummus, top with the chickpea salad, and wrap it up. Angel Food addition: grate some cheddar or smoked cheddar over the salad.

This even simpler version is great for picnics on road trips, because you can get the ingredients at virtually any supermarket: spread wrap with hummus, top with olives from one of those little resealable pouches and cherry tomatoes and as much bagged salad greens as you can fit in the wrap.

Dumpling Soup:

In a large pot, sauté onion, garlic and ginger for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, boil the kettle and get the right number of vegan dumplings from the freezer. Add the boiling water to the pan, and season generously with your favourite Asian seasonings, e.g. fermented tofu, vegetarian stir fry sauce, chilli sauce, black bean sauce, sesame oil. Once the vegetables are cooked to your liking, add the frozen dumplings and cook for another few minutes (according to the directions on the pack). Check the seasoning before serving.

One-Pot Kidney Bean Curry:

Sauté onion and other diced vegetables for a few minutes before adding a can of diced tomatoes or a can of coconut cream, a drained can of kidney beans (or other pulses of your choice). Stir in your favourite curry spices or a ready-made curry paste. Simmer until vegetables are done, and you’re good to go. Cook some rice to accompany it, or use a pouch of pre-cooked rice. Angel Food addition: top with a nice dollop of our sour cream.

Quinoa Bowl with Roasted Veggies:

Quinoa is a versatile base for a nourishing bowl of goodness. Roast your favourite vegetables (such as kumara, broccoli, onion wedges, capsicum, yams) and toss them with cooked quinoa. Drizzle with tahini dressing or balsamic vinegar and sesame oil.

Angel Food addition: little cubes of our feta, or a sprinkling of our parmesan.

Kumara and Black Bean Burritos:

Gently warm tortillas (on a dry pan or in the microwave), spread with mashed kumara and top with black beans, corn, avocado and spices, before wrapping up enjoying. The same ingredients work beautifully as a quesadilla (two flat tortillas with the ingredients sandwiched inside and toasted in a pan). Angel Food addition: grated cheddar or smoked cheddar.

Pressure Cooker Soup:

Not everybody has a pressure cooker, but they really are great for soups and stews and pulses and wholegrains. This soup is a perfect way to use up the odds and ends from the vegetable drawer: just chop them all up quite finely and throw into the pressure cooker with some of that soup mix (which has pearl barley and various dried pulses) and plenty of water. Cook for 10 minutes at high pressure then allow the steam to release naturally, and add seasonings of your choice.

Leftovers:

Cooking enough for two meals at once is an energy-efficient way to work (in terms of electricity and your effort!) – refrigerate the leftovers to enjoy the next day, or freeze for future use. Just remember to label them so you don’t have to defrost it to figure out what it is (masking tape and a marker pen are great for this).

By the way - the phrase “salad days” was first penned by William Shakespeare, and meant a time of carefree innocence, idealism and pleasure associated with youth. These days it refers to a heyday, when we’re at the peak of our abilities, and not necessarily youthful.