36 simple vegan recipes with 5 ingredients or less

Need easy vegan recipes? I've got you covered. These simple vegan recipes with 5 ingredients or less range from appetizers and sides to main dishes and desserts!

There's a common misconception out there that it's hard to make vegan food. Or that vegan food is somehow different from "regular" food. These deliciously simple vegan recipes prove that eating vegan can be easy!

Just like any other type of cooking, vegan recipes can use a long list of ingredients and tricky techniques, but they don't have to. And just like any other type of cooking, there are vegan recipes out there that are plain awful and ones that are stellar.

These lazy vegan recipes are tried-and-true faves. They're easy, they use a limited number of ingredients, and you are going to love them!

Main dishes

Some of these are stand-alone meals, and some of them are entrees begging for a side dish or two. Rice, noodles, veggies, or any of the appetizers and sides listed below are great options to pair with these easy vegan main dishes.

Vegan Taquitos Recipe

Vegan taquitos stuffed with creamy, smoky black beans are an easy-to-make plant-based entree. Bake or air fry them!

Air fryer tofu recipe

Easy, flavorful air fryer tofu is perfectly crispy, just like deep fried, without cups and cups of oil. Serve it up with rice or noodles or on your dinner salad!

Vegan Salt and Pepper Pasta

Who needs pasta to make salt and pepper pasta? Not you, my friend. Not you. You only need four ingredients and about 30 minutes to make this recipe!

Baked BBQ tofu recipe

Sticky-sweet baked BBQ tofu is perfect parked next to your favorite green veggie on top of a bed of fluffy mashed potatoes.

Nutritional Yeast Tofu

Savory Nutritional Yeast Tofu only requires a few ingredients to make and is perfect as a main dish or in grain bowls, salads, or wraps. My family loves this tofu, and I just know that yours will, too!

Sheet Pan Broccolini and Chickpeas

Amy's super easy 5-ingredient sheet pan recipe can be a meal on its own or served with your favorite pasta or grain. Either way, it's super healthy and delicious!

Classic Vegan Pesto Pasta

Sarah's super easy pesto recipe has only five ingredients, including the pasta you toss the sauce with! It's also a nut-free recipe that uses hemp hearts instead of more conventional pine nuts, almonds, or cashews.

Appetizers and sides

Serve these as starters or side dishes, or use them as a base for a meal. The sesame noodles would go great with any of the veggie side dishes listed here to create a super easy meal.

Mini Baked Potato Bites

Mini baked potato bites are a crowd-pleasing finger food recipe. Make these addictive loaded potato bites in the air fryer or oven!

Air fryer asparagus recipe

Crispy, tender air fryer asparagus with lemon and garlic only takes around 10 minutes, including prep time!

Jalapeno slaw recipe

Jalapeno slaw is a spicy, creamy side dish or topping for fishless tacos. And you only need five simple ingredients to make it!

Sesame udon noodles recipe

Flavorful sesame udon noodles are a perfect side dish that only takes 15 minutes to make. Serve them hot or cold.

Air fryer Brussels sprouts recipe

Perfect, crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside air fryer Brussels sprouts are easy to make and delicious, with or without oil.

Smoky shiitake mushroom bacon

Crispy, smoky, shiitake bacon takes just minutes to make in the oven. And you only need five ingredients to make it!

Buffalo cauliflower recipe

Easy air fryer buffalo cauliflower is light on the batter and simple to make with a satisfying crunch and plenty of that buffalo heat! Dip it in vegan ranch or your favorite creamy vegan dressing.

Olive oil mashed potatoes (dairy-free and delicious!)

These creamy, dreamy olive oil mashed potatoes are dairy-free, but no one will be able to tell. They're still decadent and delicious!

Sauces and salad dressings

I love to build a meal around a good sauce. These are great for creating flavorful salads, sandwiches, wraps, and bowl meals. Use the dips as a sauce or as a snack with veggies or crackers.

Cashew ranch dressing recipe

Cashew ranch dressing is rich, creamy, and flavorful. This vegan ranch is so easy to make, right in your blender, no oil needed!

Cranberry Vinaigrette Recipe

Make this flavorful cranberry vinaigrette dressing in less than five minutes in your blender. Pour it on all of the salads!

Lemon Tahini Sauce

Make this creamy, magical lemon tahini sauce in about five minutes, right in your blender. It's a healthy, flavorful dip or salad dressing!

Easy Vegan Cheese Sauce

Easy vegan cheese sauce is soy free, nut free, and decadently delicious. Drizzle it over chips for instant nachos or use anywhere you want a little dairy-free cheesy goodness.

Snacks

I don't know about y'all, but I love snacks! Having an arsenal of healthy, simple recipes will help you manage snack attacks with ease.

Chili-Lime Cashews

Chili lime cashews are a super easy Trader Joe’s knock-off. They only have 5 ingredients and cost so much less than the pre-made kind!

Vegan black bean dip recipe

Smoky, creamy vegan black bean dip only takes a few minutes to make and is perfect with chips and veggies for dipping.

Smoky BBQ Hummus Recipe

Sweet-spicy-smoky BBQ hummus is the perfect dip for chips and veggies. It makes a great party snack or cookout side!

Air fryer chickpeas

Ranch seasoned air fryer chickpeas are a satisfying, healthy snack. They scratch that itch for flavor, crunch, and salt without the grease of a potato chip.

Chewy Peanut Butter Granola Bars

Whip up a batch of Sarah's peanut butter granola bars on Sunday night, and you've got breakfasts for the week! Instead of firing up the oven, you stick your pan of granola bars into the fridge to chill for an hour before you slice and serve them.

Sunflower Fig Balls

Jennifer's sunflower fig snack bites are nut-free, refined sugar-free, and perfect for snacking. You can also double or halve the recipe to make as many or few as you think you'll eat.

Vanilla Almond Balls

Mary Ellen's vanilla almond balls are a perfect, healthy on-the-go snack. They're date-sweetened, so they're refined sugar-free, too!

Drinks and desserts

Need a sweet treat? This is your section! Get your decadent desserts and tasty hot and cold drinks here!

Vegan Peanut Butter Balls

Vegan peanut butter balls are basically healthy peanut butter cups that you can eat any time you want. They are so fun to make!

Chocolate Maca Latte Recipe

A cozy chocolate maca latte is my new favorite morning drink. This maca hot chocolate only takes 5 minutes to make!

Vegan Cherry Cheese Danish

I won't tell anyone how easy it was to make this sweet, creamy, Vegan Cherry Cheese Danish if you don't!

Vegan chocolate bar recipe

Making candy bars at home is much easier than you think! My kid and I are obsessed with making this crunchy, nutella-inspired vegan chocolate bar recipe.

Vegan vanilla pudding recipe

Creamy, southern-style vegan vanilla pudding is rich, thick, and so satisfying. Serve it with your favorite fruit or layer it into a classic banana pudding.

No-Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Bars

Super easy and decadent, these chocolate oatmeal bars are a 5-ingredient vegan dessert that's a total crowd-pleaser. Kristina uses cashew butter as the binder for the oats with a creamy chocolate filling.

Matcha whipped tea

Move over, whipped coffee! This bitter-sweet, vibrant, fluffy Matcha Whipped Tea is where it's at. You don't need any special ingredients to make it.

Define 'ingredients'.

Wondering how I calculated the number of ingredients?

When I say that these simple vegan recipes have "5 ingredients or less," I'm not counting garlic powder, salt, pepper, or water, because I'm assuming everyone has those in their cabinets.

I'm also not counting optional ingredients, because they're optional.

When initially collecting this list of recipes, I was planning to also count garlic powder, but I consider it as much a pantry staple as salt. If you don't have garlic powder, get yourself some! It makes basically any savory dish 100x better.

Tools to make vegan cooking easier

Really, I could just call this section Tools to Make Cooking Easier. Vegan cooking is just cooking without animal products. It's not that mystical.

But if you're new to eating vegan, making cooking in general a bit easier can help free you up to discover new favorite ingredients, recipes, and techniques. Because a big lifestyle shift like going vegan can feel tricky at first.

But you've got this, I promise.

These are the kitchen gadgets I use to streamline my cooking, so I spend less time over the stove and more time with my family:

• Instant Pot - An electric pressure cooker, like an Instant Pot, is great for making quick soups, stews, beans, grains, and even tofu recipes! We use ours almost every day.
• Air Fryer - You probably know by now that I love my air fryer! It cooks food quickly without heating up the whole house. A real plus during Georgia summers.
• Upright Blender - I not only use this to puree sauces and smoothies. The pulse function works great to mince veggies, which saves so much time!
• Immersion Blender - Do you like creamy soups? Then an immersion blender is your friend. No need to transfer the soup to a blender to puree. This stick blender goes right into the pot.
• Garlic Press - I don't usually recommend unitaskers, but if you use garlic often, a press can save you a ton of mincing time!
• Good Knives - Cooking with a lot of vegetables can mean more time at the cutting board. Good knives make that time more efficient and enjoyable.
• Citrus Zester - Need instant flavor? Zest some lemon, lime, or orange peel into your next soup, salad, or bowl meal.

Of course, you don't need any of these gadgets to make vegan food. They just make life easier. It's up to you whether you want to splash out on these extras or not!