The New Vegan Meal Toolbox
Certain cooking tools, specific ingredients, recipe staples, vitamins — are all essentials required for vegan meal prep or cooking. This page highlights various “Vegan Essentials.” Think of this as a “#NewVegan” meal tool box.
Cooking Tools
- Stove top grill
- Cast iron skillet
- 2 qt cast iron dutch oven
- 5 qt cast iron dutch oven
- One good knife
- Cutting board
- Measuring cup
- Spatula
Sides and Recipe Essentials
The sides listed here can accompany most main courses.
- Rice
- Polenta
- Mashed potatoes
- Home Fries
- Quinoa
- Fresh Vegetable Broth (this is not a side, but a common ingredient for a lot of dishes)
- Baked potato
- Pasta
- Legumes
- Gooey cheese
Legumes
These are absolute staples and offer a lot of flexibility with regards to how they can be served. For variety and easy meal prep, focus on preparing one type of legume a week and prepare different meals throughout the week with the leftovers. For example, one cup of dried black beans can yield a side for 2 weeknight meals for a family of four. And you might even still have leftovers if you prepare them risotto style one night. Legumes are a nice way of stretching your meal and dollar, while giving you the essential goodness you need as a vegan.
- Black beans – can be cooked alone or with rice risotto style (congri)
- Garbanzo beans (chick peas) – can be cooked alone, used in a curry, hummus, falafel
- Red beans – can be cooked alone, with rice, and the main ingredient in a vegan chili
- Split peas – can be cooked along or used in a soup
- Lentils – can be cooked alone or in a curry
The Pantry – Essential Common Ingredients and Spices for Most Dishes
Recommend keeping these in stock at all times
- Olive oil – used in, well, everything
- Garlic – a MUST
- Onions
- Tomato – for tomato sauce, salads, and used in cooking legumes
- White wine – as a base for a variety of dishes
- Red wine – used as a base for a variety of dishes
- Oregano
- Cumin – a critical spice for all legumes
- Cloves – a critical spice, specifically for black beans
- Potatoes
- Package of dried shiitake mushrooms – used for vegetable broth
- Course corn meal (polenta)
- 1 bag of each kind of legume (dried)
- Whole wheat flour – for pizza
- Soy sauce – used in many dishes, but critical in the vegetable broth
Essential Vitamins
- Vegan Multi-vitamin pack