Its mid-morning and you're feeling a little peckish – what will you eat? You feel a bit deprived because you are on the vegan diet, and you can't think of any tasty and quick snack ideas. Or perhaps you've just come home from work and are craving a yummy treat, but you are tired. You therefore want your vegan snack to be easy, hassle-free, and not one of the most complicated time-consuming recipes on the planet! Even better – preferably just something that you can throw together in under 5 or 10 minutes. Below is a list of some tasty, fast and easy vegan snacks recipes and food ideas to help make your life a little easier.
Popcorn
It's a tasty, rather low-calorie snack that can be ready to eat in under 10 minutes. It's perfect if you're craving something a little salty. Place 2 Tbsp olive oil and ¼ Cup popcorn in a large saucepan. Cover with a lid, and cook the popcorn over a medium flame, ensuring that you are shaking constantly. Just when you think that it's not working, keep on enduring for another minute or two, and the popping will begin. When the popping stops, take off from the heat and place in a large bowl. Add plenty of salt to taste, and if desired, dribble in ¼ Cup to ½ Cup of melted coconut oil. If you are craving sweet popcorn, add some maple syrup to the coconut oil, about ½ Cup, or to taste.
5 Minutes Or Less Vegan Snacks
Here's a list of basically ‘no-preparation required' vegan snack ideas that you can munch on anytime:
· Trail mix: nuts, dried fruit and vegan chocolate pieces.
· Fruit pieces with almond butter, peanut butter or vegan chocolate spread
· Frozen vegan cake, muffin, brownie or slice that you made on the weekend
· Vegetable sticks (carrots, celery, and cucumber etc.) with a Vegan Dip (homemade or store-bought) such as hummus or beetroot dip. (Careful of the store-bought ingredients though).
· Smoothie – throw into the blender anything you can find (within limits!) such as soy milk, coconut milk, rice milk, almond milk, soy yogurt, coconut-milk yogurt, cinnamon, spices, sea salt, berries, bananas, cacao powder, vegan chocolate, agave nectar, maple syrup, chia seeds, flax seeds, nuts, raisins, sultanas… What you put into your smoothie is up to you, and you can throw it all together in less than 5 minutes!
· Crackers with avocado, soy butter and tomato slices, or hummus spread.
· Packet chips (don't eat them too often). There are many vegan chip companies that make kale chips, corn chips, potato chips and vegetable chips, so enjoy a small bowl now and again.
Fresh Fruit
The health benefits of eating fresh fruit daily should not be minimized. So make sure that you enjoy some in-season fruit as one of your daily vegan snacks. Chop your favorite fruit and make a fast and easy fruit salad, adding some squeezed orange juice to make a nice juicy dressing. Serve with some soy or coconut milk yogurt or vegan ice-cream if desired, and top with some tasty walnuts or toasted slithered almonds to make it a sustaining snack.
Vegan Cake
If you are tired or very busy during the week, I recommend you set aside a few hours on the weekends to do your baking. Bake one or two yummy vegan snack recipes to last you the week, and freeze them in portions. Find some easy (or gourmet if you wish) vegan cake recipes, muffin recipes, brownie recipes or slice recipes that look delicious, and that you know will satisfy your snack cravings during the week. You should look online or purchase some vegan recipe e-books to find some beautiful vegan baking recipes that will keep you happy every time your snack time arrives! Who doesn't look forward to their piece of cake now and again? And remember, if the ingredients that you put in are healthy, you can enjoy your vegan cake or muffins on a more regular basis – without having to feel guilty!
Vegan Health Slice
Once again, if you bake it on the weekends, you will not have to prepare your morning and afternoon tea during the week. There are so many delicious recipes nowadays for vegan health slices. There's apple-crumble slice, oat and nut slice, dried-fruit slice, blueberry slice, chocolate-brownie slice, and so many more delicious recipes! Why not bake a different vegan slice every weekend? This will keep your vegan snacks from becoming boring.
As you can see, your vegan snacks can be very quick and easy to prepare. And it's always a very good habit to get into to do your vegan baking on the weekend so that your mid-week snacks can be hassle-free!
