Cheap Vegan Meals

Are you struggling to put cheap vegan meals on the table, or worried that if you start eating a plant-based or vegan diet it will become too expensive?

Feeding a family on a tight budget isn't easy no matter which dietary preferences you have, but luckily vegan staples like beans, legumes, grains, potatoes, root vegetables, pasta, rice, oats, flour and seasonal fruits are some of the most budget-friendly foods available at the grocery store. By building your meals around vegan food like this, you can create satisfying, tasty meals on a budget much more easily.

Here are some tips for saving money on your groceries:

• Shop seasonally.
• Don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry.
• Meal plan and make a list so you don’t buy more food than you actually need.
• Buy foods that last a long time (like pasta, dried beans, root vegetables etc) in bulk or when they are on sale.
• Frozen fruits and vegetables are just as nutritious as fresh veggies and tend to be cheaper, so incorporate them into your meals more.
• Buy dried beans and cook them yourself rather than buying canned beans. An Instant Pot is really handy for this. You don't even need to soak them and it cooks so fast.
• Bake your own bread and treats instead of buying them. I have so many recipes for vegan baked goods!
• Don’t shop when you are hungry.
• Batch cook things like soups, stews, and chili and freeze leftovers for another day or have them for lunch.
• Buy less packaged convenience foods.
• Check grocery store flyers, ads, and online to see what’s on sale and where before you go shopping.
• Check the marked down/reduced items in the produce department. Slightly past their best vegetables are still great for stews and soups and overripe bananas are perfect for freezing to make Healthy Banana Bread or Easy Banana Peanut Butter Ice Cream Bars. Other overripe fruits are great for making smoothies, adding to cakes, muffins, crisps, and crumbles and veggies that are a little old, battered or bruised are great for soups.
• Make vegetable broth/stock from your veggie scraps (see below).

As well as shopping and cooking smart, you can recycle veggie scraps that might otherwise get thrown out or composted.

I keep all of my veggie scraps like peel and offcuts in a container in the freezer. When it's full I tip it into a large pan, add enough water to cover along with some salt and pepper and whatever dried herbs I've got, then bring to a boil and simmer for an hour or two.

Budget-Friendly Vegan Recipes

Here are some easy, cheap vegan meal ideas with something to suit all tastes. Because a satisfyingly good vegan meal doesn't have to break the bank!