A Quick Vegan Lunch

One of the concerns population most often bring up, when I tell them about how I eat, is time. This seems to associate more specifically with lunch. So today, I am contribution two delicious, beautiful, sustaining meals that make an extraordinary lunch, and don't take very much time. I'm not going to lie; eating this well takes forethought and a petite planning, but it's nothing you can't handle.

When you start eating a diet based primarily on vegetables and whole grains, chances are you will always have leftovers of these two ingredients in your fridge. Sometimes I have as many as three or four dissimilar grains in my refrigerator and as many types of greens. Start by production a big pile of greens on your plate. Spinach, arugula, kale, whatever you have. This is the foundation of your lunch and your diet. I try to eat greens twice a day. My heroes, Alicia Silverstone and Christina Pirello, even eat greens with breakfast! Seriously, these leaves will turn your life. Scoop a pile of grains onto your greens. If you don't have any leftover grains, whole wheat couscous cooks in five minutes, and quinoa cooks in fifteen, so there are no excuses. On top of the grains goes my hidden weapon, Trader Joe's Black Beluga Lentils. They're fully cooked! All you have to do is microwave them for two minutes.

Vegetarian Dishes

If you don't have passage to a Trader Joe's (my condolences), or you already ate your delicious lentils, you can open a can of beans, garbanzo, kidney, black beans, etc. Just rinse them and toss them on top; you can even heat them if you like. The charm of this meal is that it works with whatever you already have. Then, I like a dollop of pesto. I make pesto approximately weekly, so there is always something in the freezer. Pesto is an additional one great source of greens, and you can make it with approximately anything. I have experimented with spinach, arugula, parsley, basil, and cilantro. I hear sorrel makes a beautiful sauce as well. Finally discontinue it off with whatever you see: roasted vegetables, chopped tomatoes, nuts, seeds, mushrooms, whatever within reach. In this example, I used fresh tomatoes (from the garden, thank you very much), sunflower seeds, and maitake mushrooms. And voilà! You have a lunch rich in fiber, omega-3s, vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats, all things you need to help you power straight through the rest of your day.

A Quick Vegan Lunch

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