What is Veganuary and Which Pinch of Nom Recipes Can I Make?

It’s January, which means hundreds of thousands of people around the world are challenging themselves to follow a vegan diet for a whole month! If you’re looking for ways to stay on track while eating vegan meals, rest assured…you don’t have to miss out on the foods you love on a plant-based diet, especially if you’ve got the right recipes at your fingertips!

What is Veganuary?

If you’ve never heard of Veganuary, it’s a huge global campaign that aims to promote the health benefits of following a vegan diet by asking meat-eaters to cut out animal products (meat, dairy and eggs) throughout January.

Following a plant-based diet can seem intimidating, especially if you’ve always built your meal plans around meat. We like to think of Veganuary as a tasty opportunity to get creative in the kitchen. You’ll learn about new ingredients and have fun putting a vegan twist on your favourite flavours, all while doing your bit for the planet – that’s a win, win!

To help you get started, we’ve rounded up healthy vegan recipes you can add to your meal plan for lunch and dinner, alongside snacks and (of course!) fakeaways. 

Veganuary lunch ideas

You can’t have Veganuary without lots of vibrant, colourful veggies! Our eye-catching Hasselback Butternut Squash might look like it takes a lot of effort, but it’s actually super simple.

Thanks to the hasselback-style cuts on the squash slices, the mild, fragrant spice mix soaks all the way through, leaving every bite with maximum flavour.

It’s all served on a leafy-green bed of peppery rocket, with cherries, pecans and a lip-smacking balsamic dressing.

If it’s a bit of warm, winter comfort you’re after, you can’t go wrong with batches of soup stashed away in the freezer. Our Hummus Soup is a great excuse to kick-start your first meal-prep session of the year; it’s velvety, nutritious and reheats like a dream.

Inspired by the classic Middle Eastern dip, every spoonful is brimming with lemony, garlicky goodness. You’ll blitz your ingredients until silky smooth in a blender, and top it all off with a crunchy handful of mildly spiced, oven-roasted chickpeas.

Preparing healthy vegan meals means getting creative now and again, in order to change existing recipes into plant-based versions. It takes a couple of swaps to turn our rainbow-coloured Halloumi Fries Salad into a tantalising lunchtime option for Veganuary. 

You’ll find suitable plant-based alternatives for halloumi and yoghurt at most supermarkets, as dairy-free products are now easier to get hold of than ever (be sure to adjust the calories too, if you’re keeping track).

Bake your dairy-free halloumi fingers in the oven until they’re golden, and serve over a salad that’s bursting with juicy orange slices, beetroot, cucumber and pomegranate seeds.

Veganuary midweek dinners

A meal plan filled with healthy vegan dinner recipes is easier than you might think to put together, and you’ll be excited to eat every dish! We can never wait to twirl Vegan Spaghetti and Meatballs around our fork when we know it’s pencilled into our food diary.

Making your meatballs from scratch doesn’t just lower the calories, it also helps to make sure that everything on your plate is vegan-friendly too.

Instead of minced meat, we’ve used beans, mushrooms, oats and a bit of seasoning to prepare our plant-based meatballs. The trick is to let your meatballs cool for five minutes after they’ve left the oven – it’ll stop them from breaking apart!

There’s no reason vegan food can’t be just as hearty and comforting as a meaty midweek dinner. Our Vegan Campfire Stew never fails to serve up a hug in a bowl, and it’s ready without a fuss from the oven, an Instant Pot or a slow cooker – whichever suits your schedule best!

Rather than using pork, we’ve cooked tinned jackfruit until it’s fall-off-the-fork shreddable, with a medley of chopped vegetables, herbs and spices.

Our Samosa Pie is a healthy vegan recipe that makes the best of irresistible, Indian-inspired flavours. Just like a vegetable samosa from a takeaway, it’s filled with potatoes, carrots, peas and onions in a yummy blend of store cupboard spices.

While deep-fried samosas from a restaurant aren’t ideal when you’re following a slimming diet, our lower-calorie pie bakes everything in the oven until the light, scrunched up filo pastry topping is crunchy and golden brown.

Great for Veganuary and Meat-free Mondays all year long, tofu is a nifty, versatile alternative to meat that’s well worth getting used to. It can take a little bit of practice to get right, but it’s well worth the effort when you can make gorgeous dishes like our Mini Tofu Kyivs.

The most important thing to remember is that you should never skip pressing your tofu. You always want to remove excess water, so that your Kyivs will hold their shape and have a satisfying, meaty bite.

While you might normally expect to find egg in a breadcrumb coating, we’ve bound ours with cornflour and dairy-free coconut milk. Trust us, it works a treat!

You can also make this recipe in your air fryer, if you’d prefer.

Veganuary snacks

When you’re sticking to a plant-based diet, having a trusty bank of snack recipes you can turn to will help you from going off track. These Vegan Bakes will deliver all the flavours you’re craving in less than half an hour, and they’re only 177 calories each.

To keep our twist on a classic pasty lighter, we’ve swapped out the traditional pastry for sandwich thins. 

For the full recipe behind this yummy meat-free bite, turn to pages 128-129 in your copy of Pinch of Nom: Enjoy.

Our Cheesy Chilli Toastie is super speedy when you’ve got a hankering for a lighter bite, and you only need a short list of simple ingredients.

It will need adapting slightly for a plant-based diet, as we haven’t used a vegan cheese alternative. Once your gooey, fiery filling is grilled until melty, it’s ready to slice and serve…in just 4 minutes!

Snack times are never boring if you’ve got Sesame Tofu Sticks with Peanut Sauce to nibble on. As well as preparing a nutty, satay-inspired dip, you’ll marinate each tofu strip in a moreish Asian-style glaze and coat them in a layer of crunchy sesame seeds.

The key ingredient is peanut butter powder. It comes in really handy for recreating lots of different fakeaway-favourite dishes, as it’s far lower in fat and calories than regular peanut butter.

This is your cue to crack out your air fryer! You’re gonna want to rustle up these Cauliflower Hot Wings (you can bake them to perfection in an oven too). 

An effortless, crowd-pleasing snack or side dish, we’ve even included how to make a cooling Sriracha-infused dairy-free yoghurt dip.

Once you’ve rustled up a batch of fiery florets, they’ll keep nicely in the fridge for up to 2 days, so you can pick at them for just 154 calories per portion.

Veganuary fakeaways 

Hopefully by now it’s obvious that eating vegan food doesn’t have to mean compromising on the foods you love. Fakeaway night is a non-negotiable fixture in our house, so we need a steady supply of healthy vegan recipes to get us through, like our tremendously tasty Sticky Pineapple Fried Rice.

Using a packet of jasmine rice as our fluffy base, we’ve recreated Thai-inspired sweet, sticky and savoury flavours for a fraction of the calories. 

You’ll find the full recipe on pages 74-75 of our latest cookbook, Pinch of Nom: Express. It’s one of plenty of restaurant-inspired recipes that you can make in a flash from our ‘Quick Cook’ chapter.

Pile our Tandoori Spiced Chickpea Burgers high, and you’re onto an instant burger night winner. Jam-packed with protein, we’ve made our mildly spicy patties with a surprising ingredient…quinoa!

This simple, plant-based staple is usually found in salads, but it’s also a useful ingredient binder. The homemade patties are easy-peasy to make, but you can stash leftovers in the freezer to make this one even quicker to serve next time.

If you’ve not tried our Japanese-inspired Vegan Katsu Curry yet, you need to turn to pages 118-121 in your copy of Pinch of Nom: Budget.

This thrifty, low-fuss fakeaway swaps out crispy chicken pieces for panko breadcrumb coated tofu, drizzled in a Katsu-style sauce you can make from scratch.

Sweet, spicy and jam-packed with veggies, it’s hard to believe it’s only 283 calories per serving.

Everybody needs nuggs in their life from time to time! Our Air Fryer Vegan Nuggets will keep you on track towards your slimming goals without an ounce of meat in sight. Perfect for dipping, we’ve also whipped up a smoky, ketchup-based dip you’ll want to come back to time and time again. 

Don’t worry if you’ve not got an air fryer at home, they’ll crisp up nicely in your oven too.

Looking to start and end your day with more vegan recipes? Take a scroll through our favourite vegan breakfast recipes and, when you’re done there, we’ve got a blog full of vegan dessert inspiration too.

Which vegan recipes are you adding to your meal plan?

We’d love to see which of our plant-based dishes you cook up first! You can share your photos with us by tagging us in your story on Instagram (@pinchofnom) or share snaps of your creations in our friendly Facebook group; there’s almost 1 million community members waiting to encourage you, or answer any questions you might have.

Taking a look through our Gallery is a great way to find more inspiration to fill up your January meal plan. You’ll want to sign up to a free website account to upload and share your photos (it’s really easy, and we’ve got a step-by-step guide you can follow here!).

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