Summer Meal Prep Recipes

July 15, 2021

I'm Chef Eduardo, and I'm a plant-based chef.

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I've been a professional chef for over 10 years and now I'm sharing my knowledge and helping people learn how to cook with plants to make them delicious!

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It’s summer and there are so many beautiful fruits and vegetables available! But how many times have you seen something that looks incredible and thought “that’s nice, but what would I do with that?”

That’s why I’ve created a whole list of simple and super flavorful recipes that you can use to make the most of the beautiful summer produce in your weekly meal prep!

You don’t have to make all of them at once—feel free to pick and choose what you want in your meal prep—but if you do, they are designed to give you a great variety of flavors, textures, and nutrients, and a lot of them use the same basic ingredients for seasoning so that you can buy them once and use them for everything.

These recipes celebrate summer in all its glory, using seasonal superstars like watermelon, corn, zucchini, cucumber, beets, and radishes. Some dishes are completely raw while others are cooked for a nice balance.

Here’s what’s on the list:

  • 2 X breakfasts

  • 3 X salads

  • 3 X vegetable sides

  • 1 X cream

     

For easy navigation:

Watch the video for a step-by-step on how to make each of the recipes.

Use the navigation menu below to quickly jump to a recipe!

click to Jump to the recipe:

Breakfasts

· Peach Overnight Oats

· Cherry Spelt Pancakes

Salads

· snow pea and radish dijon salad

· golden beet salad with kale and fennel

· Cucumber watermelon salad

Sides

· grilled zucchini with Aleppo pepper

· tandoori masala spring onions

· charred corn with almond walnut cream

Cream

· Green onion cream

watch the recipe video here:

 

Peach Overnight Oats

Serves 2

2 ripe peaches

300ml plant-based milk of choice

40ml maple syrup

5ml vanilla extract

20g chia seeds

150g rolled oats

25g hemp seeds

 

Toppings (optional)

Fresh peaches

Granola

Cacao nibs

  1. Add chopped peaches and plant-based milk to a high-speed blender and blend until smooth. There will still be pieces of peach skin that you can see, and that’s ok.

  2. Transfer to a bowl and add maple syrup and vanilla extract, and stir to combine. Add chia seeds, stir again, and add oats and hemp seeds.

  3. Mix well to combine, making sure there are no large clumps of chia seeds, before transferring to a jar (or 2 if portioning), and storing in the fridge overnight. When ready to serve the next morning, top with fresh peaches, granola, cacao nibs, or any other toppings of choice. Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

 

Cherry Spelt Pancakes

Makes 10 small pancakes

270g spelt flour

Pinch sea salt

13g baking powder

25g coconut sugar

110ml full-fat coconut milk

200ml almond milk

4ml vanilla extract

125g fresh cherries, pitted

  1. Sift the spelt flour into a large mixing bowl. Add baking powder, salt, and coconut sugar, and mix to combine.

  2. Add coconut milk, almond milk, and vanilla extract. Whisk until just combined.

  3. Add chopped cherries and use a spoon to gently fold into the mix.

  4. Preheat a medium pan on medium heat and add coconut oil. Spoon pancake mix into the pan, making as many small pancakes (about 2 1/2 inches in diameter) as will fit in your pan without touching each other.

  5. Cook for 1 minute, then flip and cook for 30 seconds on the other side. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Repeat with the rest of the batter.

  6. Serve warm. Store in the fridge for up to 4 days.

 

Green Onion Cream

Makes 285ml

20ml olive oil

94g spring onion tops (green part only), roughly chopped

53 raw cashews, soaked overnight, drained and rinsed

100ml vegetable stock

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

  1. Heat a medium pan on medium heat and add olive oil and chopped onion tops. Cook for about 3 minutes, or until softened. Remove from heat.

  2. Add onion tops and olive oil from the pan to a small high-speed blender along with soaked cashews and vegetable broth. Blend on high until completely smooth.

  3. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

 

Grilled Zucchini with Aleppo Pepper

Serves 4 / Makes 400g

6 small zucchini or summer squash

30ml olive oil, plus more for drizzling

Freshly-ground black pepper

Ground Aleppo pepper, to taste

Sea salt, to taste

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1/2 lemon

 

Topping

10g fresh dill

  1. Cut the zucchini and/or summer squash into 1/2-inch pieces lengthwise. Depending on your zucchini, you might cut some into 2 and others into 3 o 4 pieces.

  2. Preheat your gill pan or BBQ. Place into a large mixing bowl and add olive oil, black pepper, Aleppo, lemon zest, salt, and then toss to mix and coat the squash completely.

  3. Add as many zucchini and squash pieces to the grill as you can fit and place a weight such as another pan, or pot on top so that they sear well. Grill for about 5 minutes on medium flame, then remove weight and flip the pieces over. Remove from heat and set aside to cool in the mixing bowl you used before.

  4. Add lemon juice and another drizzle of olive oil. Serve warm topped with fresh dill.

 

Snow Pea and Radish Dijon Salad

Serves 4 / Makes 420g

130g snow peas, cleaned and cut on a bias into 1/2-inch pieces

230g radishes, peeled and shaved thinly

 

Mustard greens pesto

5g (1 clove) garlic

2 pinches of sea salt, plus more to taste

20g toasted pine nuts

8g fresh parsley leaves

8g dijon mustard

20ml maple syrup

100ml olive oil, plus more if necessary

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 bunch mustard greens, destemmed and roughly chopped into small pieces

 

 

Topping

Toasted pine nuts

  1. Add snow peas and sliced radishes to a large bowl and add water and ice. Set aside for at least 20 minutes to crisp up and dilute the punginess of the radishes.

     

Mustard Greens Pesto

  1. Add garlic cloves and a pinch of salt to a pestle and mortar*. Mash the garlic to form a paste. Add toasted pine nuts and crush to form a paste too.

  2. Add parsley and a pinch of salt, and mash to incorporate. Now add mustard, maple syrup, and olive oil. Mash again and add lemon juice.

  3. Start adding the mustard greens little by little, mashing as you go to incorporate everything together. Add more olive oil if necessary to achieve a pesto consistency.

     

Assembling

  1. Drain the radishes and snow peas and spin them in a salad spinner to dry. Place back into the large (dry) bowl and add a few spoonfuls of the pesto. Mix to combine until completely coated. Taste and adjust seasoning.

  2. Serve cold topped with toasted pine nuts.

 

*Note: If you don’t have a pestle and mortar, you can make this pesto in a food processor.

 

Cucumber and Watermelon Salad

Serves 4 / Makes 650g

6g (2 cloves) garlic, skin on and crushed with a knife

0.5g curry spice

55ml extra-virgin olive oil

300g Persian or English cucumbers, cut into bite-sized pieces

400g watermelon, seeded and cut into bite-sized pieces

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

Sea salt, to taste

8g fresh cilantro leaves

  1. Heat a pan on medium heat and add garlic. Add curry spice, stir to mix, and then the olive oil. Turn off the heat and leave to cool.

  2. Add cucumber to a large mixing bowl. Remove the garlic from the spiced oil and add the oil to the cucumber. Mix to combine.

  3. Add the watermelon and lemon zest, lemon juice, black pepper, and salt. Mix to combine and coat the cucumber and watermelon thoroughly.

  4. Add cilantro and gently stir to combine. Serve cold.

 

Golden Beet Salad with Kale and Fennel

Serves 5 / Makes 470g

504g golden beets, peeled and shaved into 3mm-thick pieces

52g Spigarello kale or curly or Lacinato kale, destemmed

Zest of 1 lemon

 

Fennel dressing

1g ground toasted fennel seeds

60ml extra-virgin olive oil

Freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

Sea salt, to taste

30ml white balsamic vinegar

  1. Stack the shaved beets on top of each other in piles of 3 or 4 and slice vertically all the way through into matchsticks. Add them to a large mixing bowl.

  2. Pick the kale leaves into bite-sized pieces, maintaining their beautiful shape. If using curly or Lacinato kale, stack the leaves on top of each other, roll them up, and use your knife to cut into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.

 

Fennel Dressing

  1. Add ground fennel, olive oil, black pepper, and a pinch of salt to a small bowl. Whisk to combine.

  2. Add white balsamic vinegar, whisk again, and taste to adjust seasoning.

 

Assembling

  1. Add lemon zest to the bowl with the beets, followed by the dressing. Use your hands to massage everything into the beets to coat completely. Add kale and massage again to combine. Serve cold.

 

Tandoori Masala Spring Onions

Serves 4 / Makes 211g

2g tandoori masala

1 bay leaf

304g spring onions, halved

100ml vegetable broth

30ml extra-virgin olive oil

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly-gound black pepper, to taste

Add habaneros, tomatillos, onion, and garlic to a sterilized 1 qt jar.

  1. In a separate bowl, combine the water and salt. Whisk to dissolve the salt, then add the salty water to the jar with the rest of the ingredients, leaving about 1 1/2-inch space from the top.

 

Charred Corn With Almond Walnut Cream

Makes 2 corncobs and 280ml of cream

Almond walnut cream

60 raw almonds, soaked overnight, drained and rinsed

60g raw walnuts, soaked overnight, drained, and rinsed

130ml vegetable broth

27ml extra-virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Sea salt, to taste

 

CORN

2 ears of corn with husks

ALMOND WALNUT CREAM

  1. Add soaked walnuts, soaked almonds, vegetable broth, olive oil, and lemon juice to a high-speed blender and blend on high until smooth. The cream will be thick, so you might need to stop and scrape the sides of your blender a few times. The texture might be slightly grainy, and that’s ok. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

 

Corn

  1. With the corn still in their husks, place over an open fire to char. This can be on a barbecue or on an open flame on gas stove.* Char for about 1 hour, turning every now and then until charred evenly. The husks may catch on fire sometimes, but will quickly dim since they contain a lot of water.

  2. Once charred, remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly before peeling them.

  3. Cut the corncobs into halves or quarters for easy storing. Serve warm with a nice spread of almond walnut cream on top and some fresh cilantro.

     

*Note: If doing this over a stove, keep in mind that it will get a little messy because small pieces of bunt just will start flying around. Prepare the area around your stove by laying out large sheets of aluminum foil for easy cleanup.

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I'm Chef Eduardo, and I'm a plant-based chef living in New York City.

more about me

I've been a professional chef for over 10 years and now I'm sharing my knowledge and helping people learn how to cook with plants to make them delicious!

categories

learn how to master vegan cooking

find out more

categories

starters

events

snacks

sides

breakfast

dessert

mains

bread

sauces

nutrition

lifestyle

cooking

all the fun is happening on instagram

@vegancookingmastery