9 Meghan-Approved Vegan Recipes To Try This Veganuary

Açaí bowls do have that visual wow factor. Flooding foodie Instagram feeds a few years ago, it's no surprise that Meghan revealed açaí bowls were her favourite breakfast in a 2017 interview with Eye Swoon, and shared a co-created recipe with blogger Athena Calderone for how to make her go-to morning meal. Her original recipe calls for manuka honey, but we’ve replaced it with maple syrup to keep it vegan.

Ingredients

• 1 frozen açaí packet
• 1/3 cup of almond milk
• 1/2 banana
• A handful of frozen berries

Method

1. Blend the açaí packet with the almond milk, banana, and frozen berries. (This should be thick so add almond milk sparingly as you go.)
2. Top with coconut flakes, fresh berries, sliced banana, a drizzle of maple syrup, and serve immediately.

It's no secret that Markle loves a carb. She’s said in the past that she could live off chips and loves to eat pasta when she travels, and this courgette pasta with a twist recipe is one of her go-to dinners. The secret is to slow-cook the courgette for four or five hours. "The sauce gets so creamy you'd swear there's tons of butter and oil in it, but it's just zucchini, water, and a little bouillon," she told Delish in 2018. Make sure you opt for an egg-free pasta to make this one completely vegan.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 5 courgettes, chopped
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 bouillon cube
• 340g rigatoni
• 1 onion, chopped (optional)

Method

• If using an onion, heat olive oil over a medium heat and cook until soft. Stir in the courgette, water and bouillon cube and season to taste.
• Cover the pot and cook on a low heat for four hours, stirring regularly. The courgette should easily fall apart.
• Cook the rigatoni in a separate pot with boiling water and drain before combining with the sauce.

Everyone gets that afternoon slump once in a while, but Markle prefers to reach for something with a natural pick-me-up over a hit of caffeine when she’s filming. “I always lean towards a juice — specifically a green juice,” she told Today. It's easy to fall into the trap of rushing for a coffee when you hit that 4 pm slump, but if I blend some apple, kale, spinach, lemon and ginger in my Vitamix in the morning and bring it to work, I always find that sipping on that is a much better boost than a cup of espresso.”

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup kale
• 1 green apples, cored
• 1 cup spinach
• 1 (1-inch) piece of ginger, peeled
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Method

1. Combine in a blender or juicer and enjoy!

Markle is known for her love of avocado on toast, and even earned the moniker “#avocadotoast Whisperer'' from her friend and make up artist Daniel Martin when he visited the Duchess for afternoon tea.

Ingredients

• Avocado
• Red chili flakes
• Lemon
• Salt
• Multigrain bread
• Pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

Method

1. Take one fresh avocado and gently hand blend it with a dash of red chili flakes, a squeeze of lemon, and salt to taste.

2. Scoop onto a toasted slice of multigrain bread and finish with a dash of pepitas for that “nom nom” crunch.

Markle previously revealed that a vegan diet helped her to stay lean whilst filming, telling Today her secret to keeping to a plan in the week was batch cooking one of her go-to dinners, quinoa and vegetables. “At the start of each week, I generally cook a box of quinoa, and while it's simmering, I saute onions, garlic and any veggies I have on hand in a separate pan,” she said. “I season the vegetables with Spike, a seasoning blend my mom always used when I was growing up, or a little Bragg Liquid Aminos. I always add crushed red pepper and chopped fresh herbs. Toss this veggie mixture into the finished quinoa and eat it as a side dish, poured on top of a kale salad, or as an easy snack. It stores for days in your fridge.”

Ingredients

• Quinoa
• Onion
• Garlic
• Vegetables of your choosing
• Spike seasoning
• Vegan liquid aminos (optional)
• Parsley (optional)

Method

1. Cook up the quinoa according to instructions on the packet. Whilst its cooking, saute the onion and garlic before adding the vegetables and seasoning.
2. Add to salads or eat as a side dish.

I know most bread on the market also happens to be vegan, but when it's a “life changing” bread, you have to give it a go, right? This gluten- and grain-free recipe from Markle's friend’s mum, solves those “dietary conundrums that often have you feeling deprived of anything that remotely resembles a crave-able carb,” she wrote on the Tig.

Ingredients

• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• ½ cup flaxseeds
• ½ cup hazelnuts or almonds
• 1 ½ cups rolled oats
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 tsp fine-grain salt
• 4 tbsp psyllium seed husks (3 tbsp if using psyllium husk powder)
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 3 tbsp melted coconut oil
• 1 ½ cups water

1. In a flexible, silicone loaf pan combine all dry ingredients, stirring well. Whisk maple syrup, oil and water together in a measuring cup. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix very well until everything is completely soaked and dough becomes very thick (if the dough is too thick to stir, add one or two teaspoons of water until the dough is manageable). Smooth out the top with the back of a spoon. Let sit out on the counter for at least 2 hours, or all day or overnight. To ensure the dough is ready, it should retain its shape even when you pull the sides of the loaf pan away from it.
2. Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C.
3. Place the loaf pan in the oven on the middle rack, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove bread from the loaf pan, place it upside down directly on the rack and bake for another 30-40 minutes. Bread is done when it sounds hollow when tapped. Let cool completely before slicing (difficult, but important)
4. Store bread in a tightly sealed container for up to five days. Freezes well too – slice before freezing for quick and easy toast!

When her lifestyle website, the Tig was still running, Markle shared this “soul satisfying and delicious” recipe from Honestly Healthy, and it's just perfect for a cold, wintery meal.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups pumpkin peeled and cut in 2 inch chunks
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp cumin 1tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• Generous pinch of pink Himalayan salt
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 tbsp vegetable bouillon powder
• 2/3 cup red lentils
• 1 piece of Kombu seaweed

Method

1. Sautée the garlic in the sunflower oil with the fennel seeds, cumin and Himalayan salt for 1 minute.
2. Add the pumpkin and coat it with the spices. Add all the stock and leave on a medium to high heat for 12 minutes.
3. Pour into a blender and blend until smooth. (You can enjoy it like this or carry on to the lentil stage!)
4. Pour the soup back into the pan and on a medium heat, add the lentils and pieces of Kombu and leave to cook for 20 minutes.
5. Add 1/4 cup of water and cook for another 20 minutes. Take off the heat and take the Kombu out and serve hot.
6. If you want to serve inside a squash, buy an onion squash and put into the oven at 350°F (176ºC) for 1 hour. Slice the top off and scoop out the seeds and pour the soup inside.

In 2014, Markle shared her love for baking with Cooking Light, including her sugar swaps in her Ginger Berry Crumble recipe. “I love baking that lets you play and experiment, the less precise stuff is right up my alley," she said. "That's how I came up with The TIG Ginger Berry Crumble — it has a relatively healthy bent and a great kick of fresh ginger."

Ingredients (filling)

• 2 cups blueberries
• 2 cups blackberries
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

Ingredients (topping)

• 2 and 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 5 tablespoon maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 5 tablespoons almond flour (or regular flour)
• 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 5 tablespoons coconut oil (cold-pressed and at room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon flax seeds (optional)

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 177C. Rinse all berries and place in a baking dish. Add vanilla, lemon juice, maple syrup, ginger, and toss well.
2. In a separate bowl, start mixing oats, almond flour, walnuts, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, and flax seeds. Mix well before adding maple syrup and coconut oil. Mix until combined.
3. Pour the crumble mixture evenly over baking dish containing berries. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until the fruit juices are bubbling around the edges and lightly browned.

Markle looked to fellow foodie and chef Natasha Corrett of Honestly Healthy for this recipe on the Tig in 2014. “This one’s a crowd pleaser, and it’s finger licking good,” she wrote.

Ingredients (pastry)

• 200g gluten free flour
• 1tsp xanthan gum
• 1/4tsp nutmeg, freshly grated if you can
• 30g coconut palm sugar
• 100g vegan spread
• 1/4tsp Himalayan pink salt

Ingredients (filling)

• 70g berries (redcurrant, blackcurrant, raspberries or blackberries work well)
• 280g peaches
• 1tbsp coconut palm sugar

Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to 175°C
2. Start by making your pastry. Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix until they come together to make a ball of dough. Wrap the ball of dough in the clingfilm and put it into the fridge to chill for at least half an hour.
3. While your pastry is chilling, prepare your peaches by removing the stone and cutting them into 0.5cm half moons and tossing them in the coconut palm sugar.
4. On a flat surface (in as cool a place as possible) lay out a large piece of parchment and place the pastry in the middle. Lay out some clingfilm over the top of the pastry and roll the pastry out between the parchment and the clingfilm into a rough circular shape until the dough is about 0.5cm thick.
5. Get a pan that is around 25-30cm in diameter. Remove the top layer of clingfilm and lift the pastry with the parchment into the pan, pushing the dough together where any holes may have appeared. The pastry may be going up the sides a little at this point.
6. Next arrange the peaches in the centre of the dough – I like to arrange the pieces in neat spiralled (concentric) circles until you reach the centre. Make sure you leave around 4-5cm of dough at the edges so that you can fold this over the top.
7. Once you have laid out the peaches, sprinkle the redcurrants (or other berries) over the peaches and fold the outer edges of the pastry over the top, creating overlapping folds as you work around the edges.
8. If you would like a shine to your pastry, you can brush it with egg wash (a mixture of 1 egg whisked with 3tbsp of rice or almond milk), but you can omit this phase if you want more of a rustic look. Lastly, sprinkle a little coconut palm sugar over the top and bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and the fruit soft.
9. Enjoy with a dollop of coconut yoghurt or dairy free ice cream.