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These delicious Meatless Monday recipes make plant-based eating exciting and satisfying! From hearty burgers to creative bowls, these vegetarian and vegan meals please eaters of all kinds.

Meatless Monday Recipes
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A few years ago, Alex and I committed to one meatless dinner per week: partly for health, partly to help our grocery bills. That meatless meal ended up being one of the most delicious in our week, so we started adding other days of the week too!

Fast forward to today, and I’m a cookbook author who specializes in vegetarian and vegan recipes! Naturally, I love the Meatless Monday movement to eat meatless meals one day per week. Whether you’re eating this way one day or every day, here are all my top Meatless Monday ideas to make plant based eating satisfying and delicious!

What is Meatless Monday?

Meatless Monday is a global movement with the message: one day a week, cut the meat. It was launched in 2003 as a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns, working with the Center for a Livable Future (CLF) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The goal is to reduce meat consumption by 15% for our personal health and the health of the planet. Today, Meatless Monday is embraced in over 40 countries and in over 20 languages!

35 Meatless Monday Recipes

Tips for Making Meatless Monday Work

Start with familiar flavors. I didn’t jump straight into ambitious vegan recipes. I started with easy quesadillas filled with beans instead of chicken, and vegetarian fajitas loaded with peppers, onions, and pinto beans. Once those felt natural, I branched out.

Stock your pantry strategically. I always keep canned chickpeas, lentils, and black beans on hand. With those basics, I can usually throw together everything from chickpea curry to lentil sloppy joes without a grocery trip.

Load up on seasoning. Vegetables need more love than meat does. Combining spices like garlic powder, smoked paprika, and cumin, and a finishing hit of lemon makes vegetables taste extremely delicious.

About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi there! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of two cookbooks, busy parents, and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share simple, seasonal recipes and the joy of cooking. We now offer thousands of original recipes, cooking tips, and meal planning ideas—all written and photographed by the two of us (and tested on our kids!).

Leave a Comment

4 Comments

  1. Ladyv says:

    I’m trying this recipe but didn’t think 30 minutes was enough for the potatoes, did anyone else?

  2. Sal Madge says:

    Great recipe. I loved it.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Really really good. Loved it!!!

  4. Tradition says:

    Old school for Catholics. Meatless Wednesdays and Fridays for hundreds of years.