vegan meal prep – Edible Ink

Spring Harvest Rice | Meal Prep Recipe – Vegan

This large batch rice recipe is veggie-packed, vegan and can make enough to feed you throughout the week. Substitutions included in the recipe notes!

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Versatile & Meal Prep Friendly

This is a meal prep recipe that can easily be adapted to supplement different proteins and side dishes throughout the week, or to be used as is for a delicious and healthy meal prep lunch!

It’s flavor profile is flexible and truly can be made into a side dish or entrée with anything. Similar to Spanish Rice, Spring Harvest Rice uses fresh tomatoes and a plethora of vegetables and spices.

Make as is and it will yield about 10 cups of rice.

Swap It Out

Not everyone likes peas and bell peppers, and that’s a-okay with me! Here’s a few substitution ideas to suit your tastes.

Instead of PEAS try edamame or sliced snap peas
Instead of BELL PEPPERS try carrots and celery
Instead of RICE try farro, barley, quinoa or couscous. Cook according to package directions and follow the rest of the recipe as written.

When swapping vegetables in this recipe, keep the measurements the same. This will ensure your rice comes out as tasty as possible!

Additionally, I encourage you to use simply whatever you have on hand. Even if it’s a combination of the vegetables in your fridge to match the measurements in the recipe – that’s great! You’ll prep a delicious rice dish and cut down on food waste. Win-win.

See recipe for a full list of substitutions.

Use this spring harvest rice as the base for a delicious burrito! Add roasted sweet potatoes, black beans and cheese of your choosing for an easy meal.

Spring Harvest Rice Meal Ideas

Here’s a few ways you can make Spring Harvest Rice a meal.

Vegan

Eat as is with some fried tofu (thai peanut or teriyaki would go well) and crispy balsamic-glazed roasted brussel sprouts

Vegetarian

Wrap rice with black or refried beans in a flour tortilla topped with shredded cheese for an easy vegetarian burrito.

Omnivores

Serve with rotisserie chicken for an easy weeknight dinner.

The Cooking Process

To make this rice the best it can be, the vegetables need time to simmer. Put the pot on while you’re doing other things around the house, and check it periodically. You won’t need to watch it the entire time it cooks, so it’s good to cook when you’re already at home and can peek in on it every once in a while.

Browse through the photos below to see different phases of the cooking process and the final product.

There’s no replacement for time when cooking. Each step of the recipe builds a layer of flavor, toasting the spices, sautéing the aromatics, and then adding the fresh tomatoes and allowing them to cook down. The result is a lightly spiced, flavorful rice packed with vegetables. It’s a hearty, flavorful dish.

Spring Harvest Rice (Meal Prep Recipe – Vegan)

This is a meal prep recipe that can easily be adapted to supplement different proteins and side dishes throughout the week, or to be used as is for a delicious and healthy meal prep lunch!

It's flavor profile is flexible and truly can be made into a side dish or entrée with anything. Similar to Spanish Rice, Spring Harvest Rice uses fresh tomatoes and a plethora of vegetables and spices.

Make as is and this will yield about 10 cups of nutrient-rich rice.

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Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 1 hr

Total Time 1 hr 20 mins

Course dinner, lunch

Cuisine American, Spanish

Servings 10 cups

Ingredients

6 cups cooked rice (white or brown) 3 cups uncooked
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon each of the following herbs: oregano, parsley, onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, cumin
1 green bell pepper diced
1 yellow onion diced
3 cloves garlic minced
4 cups fresh tomato diced (subsitute canned)
½ red bell pepper diced
1 lb frozen peas
1 tablespoon salt
2 tsp black pepper

Instructions

First, cook your rice.
I prefer using an Instant Pot, or Rice Cooker, but you are welcome to use any method you'd like, including microwaved steamed rice (no shame in shortcuts).
Substitute couscous, farro, or barley and cook according to package directions.
Set aside for now.
In a large, heavy bottomed pot, or dutch oven over medium/medium high heat add oregano, parsley, onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika and cumin. Toast briefly (a minute or less) to bolster their flavors.
Next, add in 3 tablespoons of olive oil, or preferred cooking oil, and heat until shimmering.
Add diced onion, garlic, and bell peppers. Sauté until tender, about 10 minutes.
Add tomatoes and simmer uncovered over medium heat about 30-40 minutes, until tomatoes are cooked down and there is minimal liquid left in the pot.
Simply put, it should look less like tomato sauce and more like a big pot of sautéed vegetables.
Incorporate the bag of frozen peas and salt and pepper. Mix well to combine and defrost the peas.
When using frozen peas, it's best to add them at the last minute. If they cook too long, they turn mushy!
Add the rice 1-2 cups at a time, mixing well.
Be sure to break up the chunks of rice to blend with the vegetables. Repeat the process until all of the cooked rice is incorporated.
Done!

Notes

Substitute rice for farro, barley, quinoa, or couscous. Cook according to package directions.
Combine any of your preferred spices for a custom blend. Add some cayenne if you enjoy heat, or swap basil for paprika if you prefer things more mild.
Substitute sliced snap peas or edamame for frozen peas, if preferred.
Substitute carrots and celery for bell peppers, maintaining measurements.

Keyword easy meal prep, meal prep recipe, meal prep rice, spring harvest rice, vegan meal prep, vegetarian meal prep

Have you tried this Spring Harvest Rice? What substitutions did you make? Let us know how you liked it in the comments below!

Chia Pudding And Granola Parfait | Meal Prep Recipe – Vegan

Sized for meal prep, this made-ahead breakfast is easy to put together for a sweet, nutrient packed breakfast.

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What is Chia Pudding?

The name may be misleading, as chia pudding consists of gelled chia seeds that expand about 2-3x their normal size after absorbing liquids. The seeds remain whole but do soften. They also have a particularly fascinating ability to attract one another and tend to bead together on the back of a spoon, say, a bit like water droplets. You’ll see what I mean when you make this.

No dairy is involved in this pudding. Of course, unless you chose to add it. If you replace the non-dairy milk with dairy milk, I’d recommend omitting leaving the pudding on the counter for an hour to set. Give it a good whisk and stick it straight in the fridge. During the first hour of setting time, pull it out intermittently, stirring to discourage clumping and adding more milk if liquid is needed, about a tablespoon or two at a time.

Breakfast sans Sugar Rush

Store-bought granola typically contains high amounts of sugar — be it high fructose corn syrup, pure cane, or molasses. Being sensitive to processed sugar (it’s a migraine trigger for me hooray) I’ve begun to pay particularly close attention to what I eat first thing in the morning. This may be personal, but I believe what I eat for breakfast stays with me all day. It can affect my mood, energy levels and how I feel physically.

That being said, this granola gains its sweetness from small amounts of honey, fruit jam and dried berries (such as cranberry or raisin). Customization is always encouraged, but for the cleanest breakfast, I’d recommend following the recipe as written. Together with some fresh fruit, this Chia Pudding & Granola Parfait becomes an enjoyably sweet breakfast without inviting a massive carb-loaded sugar crash mid-morning.

As always, feel free to add your own twist and enjoy!

Chia Pudding and Granola Parfait

Make this recipe on a Sunday evening and enjoy throughout the week as a delicious, low sugar breakfast!

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Prep Time 1 hr

Cook Time 20 mins

Total Time 1 hr 20 mins

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Servings 10 servings

Ingredients

Chia Pudding

1 cup full fat coconut milk
4 cups non-dairy milk
1¼ cup chia seeds
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 TB agave or jam

Easy Granola

3 cups rolled oats
2 TB coconut oil melted
½ cup crushed nuts pecans, almonds, walnuts or peanuts
2 tsp cinnamon
2 TB agave or brown sugar
2 TB jam of choice
¼ cup dried berries cranberry, raisin or blueberry

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Whisk coconut milk, non-dairy milk, ginger, vanilla and sweetener of choice in a large bowl. Once smooth, add in chia seeds and mix well.
Let chia pudding sit on counter for about an hour, whisking intermittently and adding liquid as needed. This helps the chia seeds to expand without clumping together. While chia pudding sets, prepare the granola.
Mix all granola ingredients in a large bowl. Cover a sheet pan with parchment paper and press granola into pan.
Bake granola for 20 minutes, until crisp.
Let granola cool on the counter. Once cool, store in an airtight jar on the counter.
Store chia pudding in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
To serve, spoon chia pudding into a bowl. Add chopped fruit, peanut butter or preserves and top with granola. Enjoy!

Keyword chia pudding, chia seed, granola, meal prep breakfast, parfait

Have you ever tried chia pudding? Made this recipe? Let me know in the comments below!