You can have a filling, tasty dinner on the table in only 30 minutes or less with these vegetarian recipes. Starring seasonal ingredients like squash, sweet potatoes and leafy greens, these meatless mains embrace fall flavors and are comforting choices for chilly nights. Recipes like our Spiced Cauliflower & Whipped Ricotta Pitas and Spinach & Artichoke Dip Soup are delicious, nourishing and easy to make.
Spiced Cauliflower & Whipped Ricotta Pitas
Photographer: Morgan Hunt Glaze, Prop Stylist: Priscilla Montiel, Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling
Spiced cauliflower bites sit atop a bright and nutty walnut spread layered with creamy whipped ricotta in this delicious open-face sandwich. The cauliflower bites are seasoned with shawarma seasoning, a complex Middle Eastern spice blend that can include cumin, coriander, paprika, turmeric and more. These cauliflower bites blend seamlessly with the flavors of both spreads on pita bread, but you can make the cauliflower bites separately and serve them as a side dish or appetizer.
Spinach & Artichoke Dip Soup
Photographer: Jen Causey, Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling, Prop Stylist: Josh Hoggle
This creamy soup captures the essence of spinach-artichoke dip perfectly. A touch of lemon juice adds a refreshing zing. Mop up every last bit with a hearty slice of whole-grain country bread or garnish the soup with crushed pita chips for extra crunch. If you can’t find frozen artichoke hearts, you can opt for canned, but remember to give them a rinse to reduce sodium before adding them to the soup.
Sheet-Pan Gnocchi with Broccoli & White Beans
Photographer: Fred Hardy, Food Stylist: Jennifer Wendorf, Prop Stylist: Lydia Pursell
This effortless dish comes together on two baking sheets for easy preparation and a fast cleanup. A blend of lemon and broccoli mixes with tender gnocchi and rich cannellini beans, all brought together with a generous drizzle of olive oil. For an added protein boost, toss in some shrimp or flaked cooked salmon.
Marry Me Chickpeas
Photographer: Morgan Hunt Glaze, Prop Stylist: Josh Hoggle, Food Stylist: Renu Dhar
We put a vegetarian spin on Marry Me Chicken, a dish typically consisting of chicken coated in a sun-dried tomato cream sauce, by swapping in fiber-packed chickpeas as the main ingredient. From the creamy chickpeas to the umami-laden sun-dried tomatoes, you’ll want to sop up every last bit of sauce. To riff on this recipe, you could swap the chickpeas for white beans, like cannellini or navy.
20-Minute Creamy Mushroom Soup with Sherry
Photographer: Robby Lozano, Food Stylist: Margaret Dickey, Prop Stylist: Julia Bayless
This quick creamy mushroom soup is loaded with earthy wild mushrooms enhanced by the flavor of dry sherry. To keep prep to a minimum, look for sliced wild mushrooms in packages, or slice your own using whatever combination you prefer.
Lemony Lentil & Cauliflower Cup Soup
Photographer: Jen Causey, Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall , Prop Stylist: Shell Royster
This bright lemony soup gets its boost of fiber and earthy, nutty flavor from ingredients like lentils and bulgur. Bulgur adds heartiness and a nice chewy texture, but you can swap it out for another cooked grain like brown rice or quinoa. Plus, the broth gets gentle heat from harissa paste. If you don’t wish to travel with vegetable broth or don’t have access to a microwave, you can use reduced-sodium bouillon instead and just add hot water.
Mushroom-Ricotta Toasts
Photographer: Grant Webster, Food Stylist: Addelyn Evans, Prop Stylist: Gabriel Greco,
Enjoy the art of presentation with a tartine—a sandwich that’s a feast for the eyes and taste buds, served open-faced. Here, we slather a thick slice of good crusty whole-wheat bread with a creamy pesto-ricotta spread and top it with golden-brown sautéed mushrooms. Any tender, quick-cooking mushroom would work for this recipe. Oyster mushrooms, chanterelles and shiitake mushrooms would all be delicious. Enjoy it as is or take it to the next level by adding a poached or fried egg on top.
20-Minute White Bean Soup
Photographer: Jennifer Causey, Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling, Prop Stylist: Christina Daley
This fiber-rich soup is an easy, healthy dinner when you’re pressed for time. This brothy soup is finished with a bit of heavy cream for body and richness. For a thicker soup, mash 1/2 cup of the beans and stir into the soup right before adding the cream. Frozen sweet potatoes and collard greens keep the prep to a minimum, but if you have a little extra time on your hands, fresh veggies work just as well. Serve with crusty bread for dunking.
Creamy Caramelized Cabbage Pasta
Photographer: Grant Webster, Food Stylist: Holly Dreesman, Prop Stylist: Lexi Juhl
In this comforting vegetarian dinner, cabbage is sautéed in butter until it caramelizes, imparting a subtle sweetness to the dish. A light, creamy sauce coats both the cabbage and the pasta. If you want to stretch the sauce a little further, you can thin it out by adding in a few tablespoons of pasta cooking water.
Eat-the-Rainbow Vegetable Soup
Photographer: Jen Causey, Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall , Prop Stylist: Shell Royster
This vibrant and wholesome soup recipe helps support your well-being. It’s packed with a variety of colorful vegetables, like tomatoes, which contain lycopene, a phytochemical that may help reduce inflammation.
Mushroom-Miso Pasta
Photographer: Jacob Fox, Food stylist: Holly Dreesman, Prop stylist: Joseph Wanek
This miso pasta features mushrooms, another umami-forward ingredient that takes this quick vegetarian recipe to the next level. We use white miso, which is light and slightly sweet. Whisking the miso into the reserved cooking water makes it easier to incorporate into the pasta.
20-Minute Broccoli-Feta Soup
Photographer: Jen Causey, Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall , Prop Stylist: Shell Royster
This 20-minute version of classic cream of broccoli soup is smooth and creamy after a quick whirl in the blender. To make prep even faster, opt for pre-cut broccoli florets. Serve this comforting soup with a grilled cheese sandwich on the side for dipping.
Creamy Spinach Orzo
This creamy spinach orzo pasta dish is light, quick and easy. The fresh basil truly shines through and complements the spinach in this vegetarian pasta dinner.
Veggie Fajitas
Photographer: Jacob Fox, Food stylist: Holly Dreesman, Prop stylist: Joseph Wanek
These veggie fajitas are packed with sweet bell pepper and red onion. Creamy avocado and warm tortillas complete the meal. The veggies alone make a great meal-prep recipe to have on hand. Serve them over rice, or heat them up over tortilla chips topped with melting cheese.
Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato & Spinach Soup
Loaded with umami from tomatoes, creaminess (and fiber!) from beans and bright flavor and satisfying mouthfeel from lemon, this vegetarian-friendly soup is compulsively eatable. And it could be on your table in 30 minutes. Plus, it’s jam-packed with nutrients from spinach, and we cut the salt by using low-sodium vegetable broth and unsalted cannellini beans.
Chickpea Pasta with Mushrooms & Kale
Loading up your pasta with vegetables like the kale and mushrooms here is not only delicious, it also makes the meal more satisfying.
White Bean & Sun-Dried Tomato Gnocchi
Jacob Fox
Sun-dried tomatoes are the star of this recipe—providing texture and umami. Combined with the spinach, they make this dish a great source of vitamins C and K.
Vegetarian Chili with Salad Beans
This quick vegetarian chili relies on pantry ingredients like canned beans and canned tomato soup to create a fast and flavorful meal. Top with your favorite garnishes, such as jalapeños and avocado.
Spaghetti & Spinach with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
To achieve flavor quickly in this sun-dried tomato pasta recipe, we use the oil from sun-dried tomatoes to create the base of the cream sauce. Meanwhile, the residual heat of the pasta wilts the spinach in record time for a fast weeknight dinner.
Comments are closed.