For vegans aiming to reduce their carbohydrate intake without compromising on nutrition and flavor, a low-carb vegan diet offers a balanced approach. This article explores a variety of delicious and easy-to-prepare low-carb vegan recipes, providing options for every meal of the day.
Understanding the Low-Carb Vegan Diet
A low-carb vegan diet focuses on minimizing high-carbohydrate plant foods like grains and legumes, while prioritizing low-carb vegetables, plant proteins, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats. Achieving this balance can be tricky, as many vegan staples are naturally high in carbohydrates. However, with careful planning and creative recipe choices, it's entirely possible to enjoy a satisfying and nutritious low-carb vegan lifestyle.
Is a Low-Carb Vegan Diet Right for You?
It's important to remember that following a vegan diet requires careful planning to ensure you’re meeting all your nutritional needs. If you have any medical concerns, consult a healthcare professional or registered dietitian for personalized guidance.
Weight Loss Potential
It's possible to lose weight on a low-carb vegan diet due to reduced calorie intake and stabilized blood sugar levels. However, individual results may vary, and other factors such as overall calorie intake, exercise, and genetics play a role.
Fruit Consumption
Yes, but it’s important to choose fruits that are lower in carbs. Berries, such as strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, are great options.
Read also: Safety of Low-Carb Diets During Lactation
Protein Sources
Great low-carb vegan protein sources include tofu, tempeh, seitan, and pea protein powder. Nuts, seeds, and green leafy vegetables also provide additional protein but in smaller amounts.
Meal Planning and Preparation Tips
Starting a new meal plan can be overwhelming, especially if you’re new to meal prepping or are looking into a brand new diet and struggling to find enough recipes to fill the week. To simplify the process, we’ve included repeat recipes (which you can meal prep in advance) throughout this low-carb vegan meal plan. This not only saves time and effort but also helps reduce ingredient costs and minimize food waste.
To streamline your meal preparation, consider these tips:
- Wash, chop, and organize ingredients ahead of time.
- Cook certain dishes in advance to streamline your meal prep.
- Prepare multiple servings of meals for convenient leftovers.
Recipe Ideas
Breakfast
Easy Vegan Tofu Scramble (Low Carb)
This stellar recipe for Easy Vegan Tofu Scramble will become your new low carb vegan breakfast idea!! It’s beyond simple to make and you can even make it into breakfast tacos! I’ll admit it - I was very sceptical about this. Tofu scramble? But, I know you guys are always asking for more breakfast options, so I gave…Continue Reading Easy Vegan Tofu Scramble (Low Carb)
Healthy Banana Smoothie Recipe (diabetic, low-carb)
Lunch and Dinner
Ratatouille: Enjoy this super-healthy traditional ratatouille recipe for lunch or dinner, safe in the knowledge that it counts as four of your five-a-day.
Read also: Best keto-friendly chips
Mango Salad with Avocado and Black Beans: Get four of your five-a-day with this healthy salad of mango, avocado and beans. It's a nutritional powerhouse that's also vegan and gluten free.
Spiced Aubergine Bake: This is vegan comfort food at its best. Layer up slices of aubergine with a spicy coconut milk and tomato sauce for a hearty, warming meal.
Slow Cooker Vegetable Curry: Use the slow cooker to make our easy veggie curry with coconut sauce and freeze the leftovers for another day. One delicious serving provides four of your five-a-day.
Veggie Tahini Lentils: Quick, easy and packed with healthy veg, this is a great midweek meal for vegans and veggies.
Roasted Cauliflower Steaks: Unlock the flavours of cauliflower with a red pepper, olive and caper salsa, topped with almonds. Healthy and vegan, it makes a tasty light lunch or supper.
Read also: Best Keto Tortillas
Aubergine & Chickpea Stew: Dig out the slow cooker to make this healthy stew. Topped with toasted pine nuts and served with flatbreads, it makes a wonderfully nutritious vegan meal.
Herby Broccoli & Pea Soup: Our vibrant broccoli and pea soup delivers three of your 5-a-day, and is full of nutrients including iron, folate and vitamin C.
West Indian Spiced Aubergine Curry: Make the most of aubergines with this vegan curry. Low in fat yet packed with flavour, you can serve it with rice or roti.
Cheat’s Black Dhal: If you're eating gluten-free or dairy-free, try this delicious dhal topped with spicy cauliflower as a filling dinner or as a smaller side dish.
Roasted Stuffed Cauliflower: Need an alternative to nut roast for veggies and vegans on Christmas Day? Try this festive and filling roasted cauliflower stuffed with kale and chestnuts.
Spinach & Chickpea Dhal: Make this quick and easy dhal with just four ingredients: chickpeas, spinach, coconut cream and aubergine pickle. It's vegan, gluten-free and so tasty.
Salt and Pepper Tofu: Use both types of peppercorns for our salt & pepper tofu if you can, for a tongue-tingling kick and a spicy warmth. The dish is great for a Chinese banquet.
Spinach Falafel & Hummus Bowl: Make this easy vegan salad bowl, with homemade spinach falafels and hummus served alongside pitta and salad. It's packed with nutrients for a healthy supper.
Allotment Salad: Make the most of new season's asparagus and radishes in a vibrant salad with a French-style dressing. Great for a barbecue.
Vegan Kebabs with Avocado Dressing: Pile chunks of mushrooms, peaches, courgettes and red onions onto skewers and barbecue them for a wonderful BBQ flavour.
Vegan Butter Chicken: This Vegan Butter Chicken is even better than takeout! The cauliflower is marinated in spices and coconut milk, then pan charred before being added to the Indian butter sauce. It’s a healthier version of the classic, bursting with flavour and is rich and creamy! Vegan Butter Chicken. This was one of those “duh!” recipes that ended up being even better…Continue Reading Vegan Butter Chicken (Low Carb)
Sides and Snacks
How to Make Cauliflower Rice: Pulse cauliflower in a food processor to make cauliflower rice. This easy side dish is much lower GI than regular rice and ready in just 10 minutes.
Squash & Cabbage Sabzi: Serve this veggie Indian at a Indian feast. Made with pumpkin, cabbage and spices, it makes a good side dish with dhal and rice, or eat as a main with roti.
Best Healthy Coleslaw Ever (no mayo!)
Quick Pickled Cabbage: This Quick Pickled Cabbage recipe takes only 10 minutes! It completely transforms the cabbage and adds a divine pop of flavour to any recipe. Use them in sandwiches, tacos, burgers and any recipe you like! There’s something completely satisfying about a simple recipe that’s done so beautifully well.
Vegan Mayonnaise: Rustle up this plant-based mayo to use for salad dressings, dips, or spread in your favourite sandwich. It's very simple and quick to make.
Low-Carb Vegan Recipe Adaptations
The following are vegan low carb recipes:
- Butternut Squash Pizza: Its base is butternut squash along with chickpea and almond flour. The vibrant green sauce features cashews and basil and lots of other gorgeous flavours. The only change I’d make is to add lots of delicious caramelized onions on the top of this.
- Cauliflower Risotto: With its creamy mushroom flavours and the addition of sage, this is a real winter warmer.
- Zoodles: These zoodles are raw, so you can quite literally cook them in a nano-second.
- Eggplant Lasagna: Eggplant replaces the use of pasta sheets. And if you’re cooking for those who aren’t too sure about eggplant, then rest assured; it barely holds so much flavour, and its texture isn’t dissimilar to actual cooked noodles. This is one of those vegan low carb recipes you can enjoy with family or friends over a bottle of wine.
- Pho Noodles: This big bowl of pho noodles is a great way to add lots of nutritional greens into your diet whilst adding some stunning flavours. There’s chill, ginger, garlic and some lemongrass, which all combine to create a spicy broth. Throw in your veggies and the flavours are going to really pop.
- Avocado Sushi: Avocado has taken the place of rice, giving the sushi a creamy texture.
- Radicchio Salad: This recipe is really simple to make, healthy, and of course, tasty! Radicchio is just a red chicory leafy vegetable, and bok choy is a Chinese green you can easily get at Asian grocery stores. Sub in spinach if you can’t find it, though.
- Regular Lasagne:
- Spaghetti Replacement Recipe: The sauce for this dish isn’t exactly low-cal, but since you’re saving calories with the noodles, it’s all good.
- Eggplant Cannelloni: Finely-sliced eggplant acts as the pasta in this cannelloni dish, and the stuffing is based on basil, spinach and cashews.
- Cauliflower Rice: This ‘rice’ can be the basis for just about any sauce, and is a go-to recipe you must learn if you want to cut down on the carbs, and/or go keto.
- Cauliflower Tagine: This famous Moroccan dish gets a carb free makeover thanks to the power of cauliflower, which seem to be the newest starch substitute. Add chickpeas instead of white beans and some harissa sauce for some added authenticity.
- Cauliflower Mash: Cutting calories gets easier when you realise that you can easily make vegan low carb recipes by subbing in cauliflower for potatoes. This recipe calls for butter, but you can easily replace that with olive oil or vegan butter. The best part of this recipe, for me anyway, is the garlic.
- Cauliflower Pizza Crust: Freshly grated cauliflower serves as the base for the creative and delicious crust that you can even fold up just like traditional pizza!
- Paleo, Keto and Vegan Spaghetti: It may even make you ask yourself why you ever ate wheat-based pasta at all!
- Zucchini Noodles: I was getting a bit tired of those, and used konjac noodles instead. The texture may be a little weird for some, but if you can get past it, these noodles may soon be your favourite go-to meal.
- Cauliflower Salad: Not a fan of cauliflower? Or maybe not got any at hand?
- Vegan Ravioli:
- Deconstructed Burrito: It boasts all the flavours of Mexico I so adore: coriander, lime, tomato and onion - with loads of beans for your protein hit.
- Mac & Cheese: This recipe uses cauliflower as the ‘mac’ and of course, plant-based ingredients for the ‘cheese’.