Vegan Ambient Ready Meals (no fridge required)

Plenny Pot is a real find from The Netherlands. It offers quick affordable shipping worldwide, and is an alternative to unhealthy expensive ready-meals, if you are unable to cook for any reason (this could include living without access to a kitchen).

Before cooking, read up on food safety for people & pets (many human foods are unsafe around animal friends). Recycle packaging at kerbside or supermarket bag bins.

Of course, it’s best to cook wholesome meals from scratch. But if life is not able for you to do that right now, this is a good option.

No food waste. Just scoop what you need, enjoy a tasty hot plant-based meals, and get all your nutrients.

These meals are based on the nutritional requirements of healthy adults, so check with your GP regarding the nutrition for pregnancy/nursing or affected medical conditions (not recommended for children – try Wildly Tasty meals).

You can try a starter try-out pack (which includes ordering one big pack of a chosen flavour of each meal and shake, plus one-time purchase shakers and bowls), then just order refills.

You can choose to buy from the following:

For now, the bar wrappers can’t be recycled (due to a mix of plastic with foil). But the sachets for the shakes and meals (likely the products you’re interested in) can be recycled at kerbside or supermarket bag recycling bins).

These are ready-meals you just mix with boiling water, no fridge needed, you just use the scoops to add and mix your meals).

Creamy Cajun Pasta
Lentil Bolognese
Mac ‘n’ Cheeze
Vegetable Korma Rice
Mushroom & Buckwheat Risotto
Satay Noodles
Tikka Masala Lentils

This is a fab company that sells its meals to 88 countries, and has so far sold over 45 million meals, with around 10 sold every minute.

And if you sign for regular orders (which can be postponed or cancelled anytime), you get big discounts – meals work out around £2.50 (compare that to a supermarket ‘meal deal’ of a soggy sandwich, pack of crisps and bottled water for £4 or £5).

SUMA (affordable vegan tinned meals)

Despite a modern obsession for cookery shows, the truth is that most people will take a quick tinned meal anyway (like beans on toast). Here are a few other good tinned meals.

They are ideal if you can’t be bothered to make your own seitan or don’t have the time or energy every night, to cook a meal from scratch. If bulk-buying, use

Store half-eaten meals from tins in airtight containers (don’t keep in tins). Read more on food safety for people and pets.

Always pop the ring-pull back over holes before recycling cans, to avoid wildlife getting trapped.

SUMA is a co-operative that sells wholesale to independent health shops. It has its own range of good tinned meals that you can find in health shops, farm shops and some smaller supermarkets (like Co-op or NISA).

These are mostly with protein, so with bread and some vegetables, make balanced meals. They don’t even need can openers. Just open, heat and eat:

Vegan Ravioli with Mushroom Sauce
Vegan Mac n Cheeze
Vegan Cheesy Pasta Pot
Spicy chorizo stew (chickpeas, peppers)
Vegan Meatballs
Vegan Meatball Bolognese
Saag Aloo (‘curry in a tin’ with potato, spinach and spices)
Baked Beans with vegan sausages

Tins of Seitan ‘Mock Duck!

Look in health stores for tins of mock duck. This is actually very tasty, a mix of seitan (wheat meat) in gravy. Use it to make stews and casseroles. You could use it to make vegan cottage pie.

Indian-Influenced Vegan Tinned Meals

GEO Organics offers tinned meals including chickpea lentil dahl, tasty tarka dahl, coconut kale dahl, chickpea apricot tagine & Moroccan chickpea tagine.

Plus side dishes of Bombay potatoes (with tomatoes & spices) and thick vegetable hotpot (carrots, parsnips, potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes & herbs).

Princes plant-based ready meals are in 2-person portions. Just heat for 5 minutes on the stove and serve with rice, pasta or on baked spuds:

Thai Green Curry (onion, green pepper, green beans, sweet potato, water chestnuts) in a garlic, lime, ginger spicy coconut cream).
Mexican Mixed Bean Chilli (tomatoes, peppers, spices and mix of beans – kidney, black & pinto)
Chunky Vegetable Curry (lentils & chickpeas with potato, carrot, onion, green beans, tomatoes & spices)
Lentil & Mushroom Bolognese (red lentils, tomatoes, mushrooms, onion, carrot, peppers, garlic, ginger, herbs and molasses with vegan Worcestershire sauce).

Urban Noodle: Authentic Urban Noodle Pots

Urban Noodle offers authentic Asian ramen noodle pots, inspired by bustling food street markets. You can eat them as is, or add tofu, veggies and mushrooms, for a more substantial meal. In easy to recycle cardboard pots, you can find these on some supermarket shelves, or order online.

Choose from:

Yaki Umami
Spicy Pho
Tom Yum

Huel Instant Plant Protein Meals

Huel offers a mighty upgrade on the Pot Noodle. Again these work out way cheaper than supermarket ready-meals if you buy in bulk online, and are far more nutritious (and vegan).

The Hot Meal Pots are packed with 25of protein, 26 vitamins and minerals, and over 170 health benefits. Just add hot water and enjoy (great if you don’t want the fuss of scoops and shakers).