Last week I made a request for recipes and ideas for meatless meals for Lent. I received quite a few recipes and ideas and put them all together in this post for easy access for Lent. Thank you to everyone who helped me gather these! I also included some of my own recipes that we enjoy.
I’m sorry if I had more time I would have attempted to organize all of these, however since I am most likely going to be called upstairs soon I’m just keeping it simple by having a section of ideas that I received, and another section for actual recipes that I received. I hope these help you discover new meatless recipes that you’ll love! If you try one and love it, please feel free to reach out and let me know!
Meatless meal ideas
So many of you commented ideas for meatless recipes! Thank you! Most of the time, Christian and I (kids are still young for the requirement to abstain from meat) end up having egg and cheese sandwiches (sometimes with avocado added) and tuna melts. The rest are ideas submitted by you:
- French toast
- Pancakes
- Creamy tomato tortellini soup
- Veggie Chili
- Black Bean and quinoa chili
- Pasta Puttanesca
- Loaded baked potatoes
- Grilled cheese
- Baked Flounder
- Broccoli Cheese Soup
- Sweet Potato Curry
- Lentil Curry
- Vegetable Chowder
- Tomato Soup and Garlic Toast
- Cheese Pizza (I feel like this would be fun to make at home with the kids! Or even do cheese pizza bagels)
- Velveeta Shells & Cheese (if you want, add canned tuna for protein)
- Mashed Potato Bowls: Make it like a baked potato with cheese, sour cream, butter, vegan bacon bits if you want, etc. -Use instant mashed potatoes for a 5-minute meal.
- Mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce -Used instant mashed potatoes, stuffing, and canned cranberry sauce for a quicker meal; You could make your mashed potatoes baked potato style/cheesy; it’s all up to you.
- Caesar Salad: Don’t have romaine lettuce… no worries, just use what you have -A meatless meat idea is vegan bacon bits, but honestly not needed
- .White rice & brown gravy -Use Instant rice for a quicker meal
- Cornbread & black-eyed peas
- Baked Yams: use butter and brown sugar for flavor
- Waffles: Frozen, homemade, any waffle is great -Add some fruit and eggs if you like eggs to make it a more filling meal
For Mexican food options you can make:
- taquitos with potato and cheese
- Hard shell tacos and replace the meat with refried beans (Someone else also suggested making tacos with beans instead of meat but also includes lentils)
- Fish tacos;
- Black beans and Mexican rice
- Lentil soup (boil lentils and cut a tomato and onion and season with salt);
- Enfrijoladas (which is bean enchiladas);
- Red enchiladas with potato and cheese inside.
- Cheese Quesadillas
- Bean Burritos
Meatless Meal Recipes Submitted by You
- Easy bean soup: 1 can small butter beans and 1 can stewed tomatoes. Mix and heat. Serve with shredded cheese on top if desired.
- Veggie Lasagna:
3. Vegetable Jambalaya
4. Coconut Lentil Curry
5. Baked Ziti
6. Strawberry Black Bean Quinoa Bowl
7. Quick and Easy Tuna Pasta Casserole
10. Easy Vegetarian Enchiladas
11. Thai Chili Ramen-
Ingredients are: bell pepper strips, sliced mushrooms, onions if you like them, heavy cream, Sugar free Thai chili sauce, chopped peanuts, vegetable stock & the rice noodles.
Boil water for the noodles and cook those separately.
Start with butter and garlic in a sauté pan, let the butter melt and the garlic roast. Add the veggies & sauté them lightly. Add the heavy cream, veg stock and Thai chili sauce to make your sauce base. Use less Thai sauce if you want it less spicy. You’ll want enough sauce to lightly cover your noodles. Add finely chopped peanuts and simmer until the sauce thickens. Once you have your desired consistency, add the rice noodles & mix it all.
You can top it with more chopped peanuts for extra protein and some chopped cilantro!
12. Low Carb Tuna Nuggets- Use canned tuna, shredded cheese and an egg. Cook in an air fryer and the result is similar to a chicken nugget, just softer!
13. Orange Roughy Parmesan – Can also be made with Tilapia
14. Shrimp Scampi (Substitute chicken for shrimp in this recipe)
*The following recipes and meal ideas were submitted by the same person, so anytime you see the word “I” it is the person who submitted the recipes giving suggestions.*
Many of these recipes fall under the lawless cooking rules, aka use as much as you want or switch out some ingredients. You can’t go wrong because there are no actual rules. It’s your food!
15. Cranberry Apple Pasta Salad
- A box of pasta (use whatever you like, I like tri-color rotini to add extra nutrients)
- 1-2 chopped apples
- Dried cranberries
- A bag of shredded carrots
- Slaw dressing (½-¾ of a bottle)
- Pecans (optional, just adds some crunch)
- One head of Broccoli (optional, I don’t always add)
16. Tri-Color Rotini Pasta Salad
- One box of tri-color rotini
- Parmesan cheese
- Mozzarella cheese
- Carrots
- Broccoli
- Shredded Chicken (optional, obviously not for Lent Fridays)
17. Copycat Cracker Barrel Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole
- 2 pounds of frozen hashbrowns, thawed (use whatever form you like)
- ½ cup of butter, melted
- One can (10.75 ounces) cream of chicken soup
- ½ cup of onion, chopped
- 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- ½ teaspoon of pepper
- During non-lenten Fridays, my family often adds Chicken, so that is an option to keep in mind. Regarding seasoning, I think when my mom makes this she uses a bunch of Nature’s Seasoning and calls it a day.
Ever wonder why we abstain from meat during Lent?
To learn more about this, watch this short video clip from Fish on Fridays!
