Photo Credit: Fresh n’ Lean Blog

What do Liam Hemsworth, Beyonce, Ariana Grande and Jennifer Lopez all have in common? It may surprise you to learn this collective of famous faces all follow vegan diets.

Celebrity status or not, there’s a plethora of great reasons to adopt some vegan goodness into your diet. Given most vegan recipes are plant-based, adding a few meat-free meals into your weekly eats will dramatically up your vitamin and mineral intake. Vegan meals also tend to be cheaper, quicker and easier to cook (thankfully, it’s nigh-on-impossible to poison yourself from an under cooked broccoli floret). Cutting back your meat intake is also the most effective means to reduce your carbon footprint: research published by The University of Oxford earlier this year named adopting veganism as the ‘single biggest way’ to lessen environmental impact on the earth.

Feeling inspired? Here’s seven vegan recipes to try for dinner this month:

‘Lightened Up’ Low Fat Vegan Caesar Salad

Your classic Caesar salad can be transformed into a vegan-friendly dish with a few clever tweaks. Adele from Everything Peachy makes a creamy dressing with soy yoghurt and mixes milled cashews and nutritional yeast to make her diary-free ‘parmesan’. The Caesar salad is finished with crisp toasted chickpeas that take the place of croutons, offering a healthy and vegan-friendly take on this restaurant favourite.

Pumpkin Linguine with Capers

Pumpkin season isn’t over yet and here’s a great recipe to use up those leftover Halloween gourds. Romy London creates a flavoursome sauce for linguine that combines pumpkin puree, capers, stock and a splash of ale for good measure. Coat fresh or dried pasta in Romy’s sauce for a healthy vegan carb-fix that would satisfy even the most dedicated of meat eaters.

Thai Lettuce Wraps

Thai recipes lend themselves well to a vegan diet thanks to the fondness for coconut milk in Thai cuisine. This recipe for build-your-own lettuce wraps can be tweaked depending upon which ingredients linger in your mid-week fridge (most crunchy veggies will do!). Noodles are cooked in a flavoursome coconut curry paste broth and added to the wrap mix to make a more substantial dish.  Finish with a peanut butter dressing for a super-delicious dinner.

Creamy Dahl

We can’t think of a more comforting winter dinner than a hearty bowl of red lentil dahl. This is a great recipe to whip up at the weekend, portion and freeze for a week’s worth of low-cost and healthy suppers. Ania uses powdered coconut milk in her recipe for a creamy consistency and blend of garlic, turmeric and garam masala for a dish that’s full of flavour.

Whole Wheat Vegan Pizza

Curb your carb cravings for this easy but drool-worthy recipe for whole wheat vegan pizza. The homemade crust is loaded with chopped veggies and tomato sauce for a healthier take on the takeaway classic. Add dairy free cheese if you’re missing your mozzarella fix for a dinner that’s barely recognisable as vegan-friendly.

The Best Vegan Macaroni Cheese

Thought mac and cheese was out of the question on a vegan diet? Think again. This ingenious recipe creates a creamy white sauce using vegan cheese and dairy-free milk to recreate the comfort food classic for a vegan diet. Combine with macaroni pasta shapes and steamed broccoli before topping with crispy breadcrumbs for a comforting bowl of carb-laden goodness.

Vegan Korean Fried Tempeh

If you have yet to discover tempeh, we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. This meat substitute is made from fermented soy beans (it’s more appetising than it sounds, we promise) and originates from Indonesian cuisine. Unlike the more commonly known tofu, tempeh has a firmer texture and nuttier flavour that is surprisingly delicious. Natalie Tamara coats her tempeh in a panko breadcrumbs and Korean spicy sriracha sauce before air-frying to create a moreish appetiser or main when accompanied with rice and vegetables.

Words: Sophie Green