Simple 5 Ingredient Plant-Based Recipes

Pea & Potato Risotto from The Plant-Based 5-Ingredient Cookbook

Plant-based cooking doesn’t have to be complicated or full of endless ingredients. There are many recipes that use just five ingredients (not including oil, salt, pepper and water). Fewer ingredients means you don’t even need a shopping list, you can just remember ingredients to buy fresh in the grocery each day.

And meals are simple to prepare, meaning you are less likely to rely on plastic-wrapped expensive ready meals. Here are some good books to help.

Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets. It’s best to just bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) along with rhubarb, tomato and citrus scraps, as acids may harm compost creatures. 

A bit like building a capsule wardrobe, good 5-ingredient recipes have been carefully thought out. In fact, it’s even more important to choose good cookbooks, as they know about flavour blends. If you make a pasta dish say with tomatoes – just blending tinned tomatoes with a couple of vegetables and some plain tofu, is not going to make a tasty dinner!

Good cooks know the ‘secret ingredients’ like vegan Worcestershire sauce or certain herbs and condiments, that bring a dish together. And also provide good nutrients like protein and calcium. They also pair different textures (cooked beans and steamed veggies with toasted nuts) and know how to balance bitterness (tomato) with sweetness (roasted carrots).

To make filling meals, you’ll also want versatile staples that carry flavours and form good bases, like brown rice, lentils and sweet potatoes. Try to also include some healthy fats.

Tips for Maximising Flavour with Few Ingredients

Since you’re working with few ingredients, how you prepare and season them makes a big difference. Simple techniques can transform basic foods into something rich and exciting.

• Roasting: This brings out the natural sugars in vegetables and nuts, with smoky notes.
• Marinating: Even a quick marinade with lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil can lift the flavour of tofu, mushrooms, or beans.
• Seasoning: Fresh herbs like parsley, coriander, or basil add bright, fresh flavours. Don’t underestimate citrus zest or a squeeze of lemon or lime; they brighten dishes instantly.
• Using pantry spices: Keep staples like smoked paprika, cumin, turmeric, black pepper, and chilli flakes on hand. These small additions can change the character of your meal without adding bulk.
• Adding umami: Soy sauce (and tamari), cheesy-tasting nutritional yeast and miso all pack a savoury  taste punch. Miso is unpasteurised, so avoid for pregnancy/nursing and weak immune systems (including children).

The Plant-Based 5-Ingredient Cookbook

The Plant-Based 5-Ingredient Cookbook is packed with easy recipes that only need 5 ingredients, that cut down on food waste and are super-affordable. Most of these recipes are Italian-based with fresh vegetables and natural foods like lentils (there are no ‘fake meats’). There are also a few Asian dishes, but no desserts.

Base your meals around core ingredients like pasta, beans, legumes, mushrooms or squash. Each recipe has a beautiful colour photo. This is a real find! Recipes include:

• Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta with Corn
• Ravioli in Ginger-Fennel Broth
• Thai Basil Chickpea Salad
• Creamy Dijon Chickpeas & Mushrooms
• Saffron Butternut Squash Lentil Bowl
• White Acorn Squash in Charred Fennel-Tomato Broth
• Tahini-Miso Shiitake Broth
• Mango Cauliflower Curry

As an example of how easy and tasty these recipes are, the first recipe (sun-dried tomato pasta with corn) uses oil from a jar of sun-dried tomatoes for double-tomato flavour and fresh veggies (corn, cherry tomatoes and fresh basil). Pasta is obviously the main ingredient, then flavours are lifted with salt, pepper and oil.

Once made, you’ll never go back to a jar of watery Dolmio sauce.

This recipe for roasted gnocchi & onions (Exploring Vegan) is by the author’s recipe blog. It makes use of ready-made gnocchi (potato pasta) that only takes 3 minutes to cook (when gnocchi rise to the top of the pan in boiling water.

But to make  things tastier, this recipe bakes the gnocchi (Italian for ‘knuckles!) in a pre-heated oven, drizzled with oil, salt and pepper. Then combined with with a sauce made from cherry tomatoes, veggie stock, caramelised roasted shallots, crushed red pepper flakes and capers. And served with wilted greens.

Pasta with Basil Cream.

Kylie Perrotti was a ‘meat and potatoes’ girl, until she wrote a plant-based cookbook. Originally a challenge, she was so in love with the recipes created that she now eats them most of the time. She posts more 5-ingredient recipes at her blog Exploring Vegan.

Liv B’s Easy Everyday Vegan Recipes

Liv B’s Easy Everyday Recipes is a lovely book of recipes by a Canadian chef (who with her husband has hundreds of thousands of followers on her blog, and 1 million YouTube monthly views). You only get that with good recipes! This is effortless and inexpensive plant-based cooking.

Find over 100 recipes that are tasty and easy, baked on just 5 ingredients, or in one pot or baking tray.  From meal prep to freezing instructions and from cooking tips to pressure cooker recipes, enjoy:

• One Pot Mac n Cheese
• Sheet Pan Pot Pie
• One Pot Mushroom Stroganoff
• Frying Pan Granola
• Chorizo Tempeh Breakfast Wraps

Also check out Liv’s other book: Liv B’s Vegan on a Budget. The author loves to share how easy it is to eat yummy plant-based meals that are fast and simple, with accessible ingredients that don’t break the bank. Recipes include:

• Homemade Smoothies
• Spicy Mango Salsa
• Lasagne Soup
• Ginger-Glazed Carrots
• Sweet Sriracha Cauliflower Wraps
• Tomato Fettuccini

This couple’s most popular recipe on their blog is the Vegan Big Mac Toast (5 ingredients), one of which is their vegan Big Mac sauce (just over 5 ingredients, including spices). So to be fair, this is 10 ingredients, but this is for two combined recipes!

Katy’s Five Ingredient Recipe Book

Five Ingredient Vegan is just one of fab short-time cookbooks by Yorkshire’s Katy Beskow. As well as only having a few ingredients, most meals are ready in 15 minutes or less. The 100 recipes all include simple affordable lists and a sweet little tip for each one.

Recipes include:

• Carrot Cake Porridge
• No-Fish Fishcakes (above)
• Spiced Parsnip Bisque
• Country Lentil Pottage
• Cauliflower ‘Cheese’ Soup
• Pantry Minestrone
• Spinach Pancakes
• Zesty Bread & Butter Pudding

I’m a firm believer that a few, simple good quality ingredients can make the most satisfying of home-cooked meals.

Buy the best that you can afford, particularly fresh ingredients such as vegetables, fruits and bread, and aim to buy ingredients in season for maximum flavour.

Easy Vegan Bible is another of Katy’s books, with 200 easy recipes, the chapters are divided into various types (one is 5-ingredient recipes, along with 15-minute, 30-minute or 1-pot).

Using quick-to-cook, affordable and easy-to-find ingredients, the book also includes details on useful kitchen equipment and common substitutions, plus demystifies common vegan ingredients like silken tofu, so you know what to do with them!

Plus there are recipes for special occasions. Learn to make:

• Breakfast French Toast
• Carrot Coriander Fritters
• Chickpea & Pesto Toastie
• Summer Punch
• Christmas Chestnut Cassoulet

Many of the recipes have international flavours:

• Creamy Coconut Noodles
• Panzanella
• Spring Risotto

Desserts include:

• Limoncello Panna Cotta
• Rhubarb & Orange Crumble
• Sticky Toffee Flapjack
• Lemon Drizzle Squares

Katy Beskow grew up in Yorkshire, and learned to cook while studying physiotherapy in London (inspired by the markets of fresh produce, while having to eat on a budget).

Returning to her home county, her blog led to a cookbook deal which led to another, and now Katy has many top-selling vegan cookbooks under her belt.

So Vegan in 5 (a bumper book of recipes!)

So Vegan is a big pink bumper book of recipes, all with gorgeous colour photos. You’ll never run out of ideas in this book by popular London chefs Roxy and Ben. Try this recipe for their super-green kale linguine, with vegan Parmesan. Make with plastic-free pasta!