If you aren’t working from home every day, finding the time to make yourself a decent meal for lunch can be challenging. Let alone coming up with a variety of healthy and delicious vegan sandwich ideas.
Perhaps like us, you try to maximise that good brain time in the mornings before heading out for your commute, and then you’ll likely end up giving yourself such a small window to put something together for lunch that you can’t try out any new sandwich fillings and flavours.
But everyone deserves a decent lunchtime meal, and perhaps at first, the challenge of coming up with multiple ideas beyond a few slices of not meat and cheese is a bit daunting.
This is why just for you we have put together a list of 7 sandwich ideas which you can use to reinvigorate lunchtimes.
Vegan Sandwich Fillings
Some of these recipes are perfect to use the excess from the previous night’s dinner, and a few of them are fresh ideas that can be put together at speed for that rush out the door, but most importantly all of them are led by flavour.
We are not expecting you to produce a new sandwich every day of the week from this list either. If you want to buy a cucumber and a pot of cream cheese and have a fresh and crisp and creamy cucumber sandwich from Monday to Sunday, that’s fine and very economical.
But keeping it simple you can easily use last night’s leftover meatballs and marinara sauce and make yourself a sub or change it up and have a not tuna and sweetcorn instead. For a whole range of other original lunchtime recipes keep reading.
What Bread is Vegan?
Before you start to explore all these deliciously easy sandwich-filling ideas, it is also worth discussing the bread that they will all sit between.
Many people ask if all bread is plant-based, and the answer is no, not every bread is vegan, however, you can relax as most are.
The fundamental ingredients of bread are flour, water, salt, and yeast, all of which are vegan. Therefore, your everyday loaf of farmhouse white is without any animal products, and so are ciabattas, pitas, every loaf of sourdough, and many wholemeal and seed-packed varieties too.
What Bread can Vegans Eat?
So, what’s the problem we hear you ask? Essentially any bread that has had a milk or egg product added to it, which you can easily identify by checking the ingredients list, and looking for any of the following: milk, cream, butter, eggs, sugar, honey, and less obviously casein or whey and lecithin, which are egg and milk derivatives.
Having lived in both the UK and the USA, we can tell you now, that finding vegan bread in the States is a little more challenging due to the frequent use of sugar within your everyday loaf, but significantly easier in the UK.
Unless you’re picking up a pack of egg-coated brioche, you are almost guaranteed to be safe, but you can always check the ingredients list and many brands will happily display the “Vegetarian Society Approved – Vegan” text and/or logo as well.
Vegan Meatball Sub
The next time you plan on making spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, make a little extra, keep some back (we know we’re guilty of always making more than we need) and treat yourself to an epic sandwich for lunch the next day.
Buy some soft baguettes that you can load up with about four of your favourite plant-based meatballs and marinara sauce that you kept from the night before.
Also, this is a judgement-free zone, if the sauce was your go-to marinara in a jar, that’s fine. If you do fancy expanding your Italian cooking repertoire though then you really should go and check out our marinara sauce recipe.
Vegan Meatball Sub Ingredients
Meatballs
Marinara sauce
Vegan mozzarella cheese
Fresh basil (Optional)
Crusty French bread
How to Make a Vegan Meatball Sub
If you are not using leftovers from the night before, then you will want to start by cooking up as many vegan meatballs as you require, according to the packaging.
Expect a cooking time of around 20 minutes in a preheated oven, to a temperature typically between 180-200°C. Warm up your marinara sauce either in the microwave or on the stove, stirring it regularly, and we are going for warm enough to melt some vegan mozzarella onto, not face-meltingly hot.
Next up, grab your crusty French bread, lengthways cut halfway through it, and open it out just enough to sit the meatballs inside of it.
Finally, pour on the marinara sauce and top with some grated cheese. You will likely want to grab yourself a serviette as well, this is an easy, affordable, and delicious sandwich recipe, but no one said anything about it not being messy.
Vegan BLT
Until recently we had always opted for an ALT (avocado, lettuce, and tomato) as one of our go-to lunchtime options. However, after the discovery of This Isn’t Bacon Rashers, we have regressed to indulging in the BLT once more. This is the best vegan bacon we have tried to date, and it deserves to find its way into your lunch box. We like to accompany this tasty meat-free bacon alternative with some crisp iceberg lettuce, fresh sliced salad tomatoes and our favourite vegan mayonnaise.
Vegan BLT Ingredients
Vegan bacon rashers
Iceberg lettuce
Salad tomatoes
Vegan mayonnaise
Vegan buttery spread
White farmhouse-style sliced bread
How to make a Vegan BLT
You can go ahead and get all those bacon rashers fried in one go (we tend to cook ours so that they are on the crispier side).
You can leave it all to cool down and then pop all the rashers into a zip-lock bag and store them in the fridge until you need some.
When it’s sandwich-building time, this is about as simple as it gets. Slice and cut up as much lettuce and tomato as you want to pack out your sandwich.
Butter a couple of slices of bread, spread on a helping of mayonnaise and then add your veggies and bacon. Simple and delicious.
Vegan Italian Sandwich
Keeping it simple, this Italian-inspired sandwich filler requires minimal food prep, and the ingredients list contains a range of veggies that are almost always in the crisper drawer of our fridge or a jar on the shelf above.
We have even steered clear of the temptation to make this sandwich a bit pricier by searching for some plant-based deli meats to add to it, instead, we have kept it strictly salad.
Vegan Italian Sandwich Ingredients
Vegan pesto
Rocket lettuce
Salad tomatoes
Red onion
Black olives
Vegan buttery spread
How to make an Italian Sandwich
First, the food prep, slice as many tomatoes as you need, and do the same for a portion of black olives (unless you purchased them pre-sliced in a jar or can).
Then grab your red onion, peel it, thinly slice a section from it, and take a few of the outer rings (this is a strong flavour, you won’t want much so keep the rest for a pasta dish or salad).
On a bread of your choosing, spread on a knife full of a plant-based buttery spread, and then a helping of vegan pesto (repeat for both pieces of bread). Then load up your sandwich with all your veggies and throw in a handful of arugula to finish.
No Chuna and Sweetcorn
Much like the BLT, we have gone years without a tuna sandwich, and accompanied with some crisp sweetcorn, this was always a personal favourite.
At one time we did try our hand at a meat-free canned-style tuna alternative. We used mashed chickpeas as the base ingredient, providing protein and a similar colouring, and then we flavoured it with nori, salt, and some lemon to get that fishy, seafood-type taste sensation.
It was quite good, however, since then many plant-based food producers have come out with tuna alternatives for vegan-kind. Our personal favourite is Plant Pioneers No Chuna with Brine Dressing. In the pursuit of a simple life, this is now our go-to for all our tuna needs.
Also if you’re a fan of the plant-based tuna alternatives you can buy off the shelf now, and want to try out a great meal that’s even more filling the take a look at our perfect jacket potato recipe.
No Chuna Sandwich Ingredients
Plant-based canned tuna
Vegan mayonnaise
Canned sweetcorn
Malt vinegar
Rock salt
Brown bread
How to make a No Chuna Sandwich
Starting with the vegan tuna, open the can and press on the lid (watch out for sharp edges), drain the brine water (or whatever flavour you chose), from the tuna itself.
Next up, tip this into a bowl and add a teaspoon of mayonnaise per can of tuna (as a rough guide, but the creamier you want it the more you should add), throw in a tablespoon of sweetcorn too, and a splash of vinegar, a couple of cracks of rock salt and using a fork, mix it all.
Have a taste and alter any of the seasonings as you see fit. Then finally spread it on thick in between a couple of slices of your chosen bread (our personal preference for this filling is brown bread). Enjoy.
Vegan Cream Cheese and Cucumber Sandwich
This is a rather vegan take on a very British sandwich. If you too would like to feel rather Royal and enjoy a plant-based version of cucumber sandwiches on the lawn, then this is the simple lunchtime sammy for you.
There is a good range of cream cheese spreads available for vegans now, with my preference being the Violife option. Once again, in the name of simplicity and a quick fix, this filling requires no cooking, and minimal prep work, yet the results are refreshingly good.
Vegan Cream Cheese and Cucumber Sandwich Ingredients
Cucumber
Vegan cream cheese
Cress
Rock salt
Lemon
White bread
Plant Based Mediterranean Sandwich
When the good weather comes around, we start to crave those Mediterranean flavours, and a staple of this region’s cuisine is the rich-tasting, protein-packed, chickpea-derived hummus.
Accompanied by a bistro blend of lettuce leaves, some crisp peppers and mashed avocado, this is a mouth-watering lunchtime sensation. We would recommend that you use your favourite store-bought hummus but do buy whole avocados to smash once they are ripe.
Which is also one of only two parts of food prep required to construct this quick and easy sandwich.
Plant Based Mediterranean Sandwich Ingredients
Hummus
Avocado
Mixed bell peppers
Bistro blend lettuce
How to Make a Plant Based Mediterranean Sandwich
For one sandwich, you will want no more than a single bell pepper and avocado. De-seed and slice the pepper into strips.
Cut the avocado in half and remove the stone, and then scoop out the ripe green centre into a bowl, using a fork smash it up to an almost smooth texture, you aren’t trying to make guacamole, just a spreadable consistency.
Start to build your Mediterranean sandwich by spreading out some hummus onto a couple of slices of your selected bread, making sure you have an even covering.
On top of one side spoon on and spread out the smashed avocado, and then lay on some colourful lettuce and strips of pepper. Set the other slice of hummus-covered bread on top and enjoy.
Vegan Cheese and Pickle Sandwich
We are going to complete this list with a super simple British picnic classic. There is seldom a hamper destined for the beach, or a sun-soaked field in the UK that will not include a cheese and pickle-filled sandwich.
This classic is a family favourite of ours and requires almost no prep at all beyond dicing up one red onion (which is just our addition to what is essentially a two-ingredient filling, you could add so much more though, like a slice of plant-based ham or some tomatoes).
This is also nothing more than a recommendation, but in our minds, a fresh farmhouse-style white bread with a golden crust completes this lunchtime sandwich choice.
Vegan Cheese and Pickle Sandwich Ingredients
Mature cheddar-flavoured vegan cheese
Pickled chutney
Red onion
Vegan buttery spread
Farmhouse-style white bread
How to Make a Vegan Cheese and Pickle Sandwich
The only food prep required is the dicing of a single red onion, just roughly done, and it doesn’t have to be too fine.
You will also definitely have leftovers if you are only making one or two sandwiches, as you just want a sprinkling, so tub up the rest and put it in the fridge.
Butter one side of a couple of slices of bread, and then spread on a liberal amount of pickled chutney.
On top of this grate an equally generous amount of cheese and then top it all off with a couple of evenly distributed pinches of red onion.
