Top 50 slimming recipes

Slimming doesn’t have to mean bland or uninspiring food – not on our watch, anyway. We’re on a mission to power plant-based food to exciting new levels of utter deliciousness. We believe in healthy, tasty eating all year round – not just in the first few weeks of the calendar year when we all start out with good intentions and serious new pledges about diets and fitness.

Want to follow our lead? Good! We’ve got our top 50 slimming recipes right here that keep a careful eye on calories while packing a serious flavour punch. In our delectable selection of low calorie vegan meals, we’ve got everything from irresistible snacks to keep you ticking over throughout the day to quick and easy lunches and indulgent, hunger-slaying dinner dishes. Yes, these are vegan recipes for weight loss, but they haven’t been created specifically for dieting. They’re just naturally seriously healthy.

So – read on, and prepare to have your appetite well and truly whetted, and your bellies contentedly filled, with good eats. Let’s dive right into our fave low carb vegan recipes.

15 minute Healthy Mac & Cheese
Wait, what? A healthy version of Mac and Cheese? That’s right. Our recipe packs loads of veg – asparagus, cauliflower, green beans, spinach and tenderstem broccoli – into a super-tasty dairy-free cheese sauce pepped up by a dash of mustard. Fold the macaroni into this heavenly mixture and finish with a dusting of panko breadcrumbs.

Asian Style Risotto
Comfort food doesn’t come much more satisfying than a risotto, piled high into a steaming bowl. Our low carb vegan recipe version includes tenderstem broccoli, shiitake mushrooms, pak choi and peas (or edamame beans, if you prefer) and the punchy flavours are enhanced by fresh ginger, green chilli and white miso paste. A scattering of cashew nuts give this dish a glorious crunchy texture.

Asparagus Tabbouleh Salad
A Tabbouleh is essentially a Middle Eastern style of salad. Because of the bulgur wheat, chickpeas and asparagus – which are roasted before being added to the dish – it’ll keep you full for hours. It’s not a light bite! The spicy ras el hanout gives this a subtle, yet fiery, kick, while the pitted dates add a layer of sweetness. The plant-based yoghurt dressing means you can make this cooler to taste if you like – whatever suits your palate.

Avocado Brownies
Avocado Brownies? A brownie… made with avocado? Stick with us on this, and trust us; it really works. The avocado is an ideal substitute for eggs in vegan baking as its texture is perfect for binding all the other ingredients together – plain and wholemeal flour, cocoa powder, sugars, maple syrup, chunky dark chocolate and a whole load of other good stuff. Bake for around 25 minutes – and try not to eat the full trayload in one go… these are vegan recipes for weight loss, after all…

Baked Ratatouille Rice
This is a delicious rice dish that borrows presentation styling from a lasagne to deliver a hearty meal. The foundations come from basmati rice, with layers of thinly-sliced aubergine, courgette and cherry tomatoes placed on top to provide depth of flavour and texture. Season with servings of cinnamon, Italian herbs, fennel, parsley and garlic. Bake for just under one hour.
 
Banana & Chocolate Mousse
A banana and chocolate mousse in a list of low calorie vegan meals? You better believe it, and this dessert really couldn’t be simpler to make. It only needs seven ingredients. Just pop three ripe bananas, oat cream, cocoa powder, a squidge of cinnamon and maple syrup into a blender. Blitz it up until you get total banana and chocolate mousse gorgeousness. Divide into individual dishes, chill in the fridge for 30 mins and then decorate with fresh blueberries and mint to make it dinner-party ready.

Banana Oat Pancakes
We’re sticking with the bananas for this one. Team a ripe banana up with oats to create awesome, and healthy pancakes that are perfect for a weekend breakfast or brunch (or anytime really, we’re not here to judge). This is fast to make and cook; blend all the ingredients together and fry for a couple of minutes either side. You can add a topping – we recommend fruit or a plant-based yoghurt.

Black Bean Soup with Chilli Cornbread
Spicy, feisty and filling, this chunky soap is a warming delight, powered by black beans, vegetable stock, cumin, paprika, chilli flakes and coriander. You can eat it on its own – if you’re anything like us you’ll be licking the bowl by the time you’ve finished – or make our fantastic chilli cornbread to soak up every drop of juice. Serve with dairy-free yoghurt if you prefer to tame some of the flavour fire.

Blueberry Baked Oats
We’re big fans of blueberries here at Bosh, and why wouldn’t we be? Blueberries are packed full of antioxidants and are superb at boosting the immune system. They’re also flippin’ tasty! This breakfast dish uses blueberries with rolled oats and oat milk. If you’ve got any blueberries left over, use them as a topping when you serve, along with crunchy pecan nuts, maple syrup and gloriously thick yoghurt (plant-based, of course).

Blueberry Pancakes
Yep, we’re still dreaming of blueberries over here. The thing is, these little juice champions are so versatile. Here, you can fold a generous helping of them into a pancake mix – self-raising flour, caster sugar, dairy-free milk – and they’ll provide a lovely pop of sweetness every time you take a bite.

Braised Jackfruit Chilli
Jackfruit makes an excellent alternative to meat in stews as it has a texture very similar to braised meat or pulled pork – so it’s perfect for playing the starring role in this chilli. With red and yellow peppers, fresh chillies, kidney beans, allspice, cinnamon and cumin, this is a piquant dish, best served with basmati rice. To add extra texture and depth, our recipe also includes dark chocolate and walnuts.

Carrot & Coriander Soup
We love the colour as well as the flavour of this. Bright and vibrant, it has a mellow tone to it, with sweet smoked paprika, garlic and vegetable stock complementing the carrots and coriander. The carrots, seasoned with fennel seeds and chilli flakes, are roasted for around 30 minutes in the oven first to get them bursting with deliciousness.

Chana Masala
No meat, but so what? This aromatic curry uses dried chickpeas as the centrepiece, prepared with – wait for it – teabags (we know, we’re culinary geniuses here, but the bags are only used while the chickpeas are being soaked). There’s plenty of spice, with fresh ginger, fresh green chillies, coriander, cumin, fenugreek and turmeric all bringing something to the mix.

Chickpea Curry
For a different twist on a chickpea curry, this uses coconut cream for a rich, indulgent dish. It’s bulked up with roasted sweet potatoes, chopped tomatoes and spinach, with red chilli, cumin and ginger supplying the kiss of spice. Our low carb vegan recipe provides enough for you to save another portion for dinner the day after.

Creamy Mac & Greens
Who doesn’t love mac and cheese, as the ultimate comfort eating dish? We’ve given this one a veggie overhaul, as it’s loaded with broccoli, red onion and portobello mushrooms. Of course, we use plant-based milk, dairy-free butter and dairy-free cheese. A serving of mustard supplies the flavour kick, and the final flourish of panko breadcrumbs gives this a pleasing crunch.

Easy Peasy Pasta
We’ve called this one easy peasy pasta because… well, it’s one of our simplest slimming recipes to put together. An absolute doddle, in fact. It uses fusilli pasta and majors on roasted veg – red peppers, red onions, courgettes – as well as cherry and sun-dried tomatoes, Kalamata olives and spinach. A handful of capers delivers a delicious dose of natural saltiness.

Green Goodness Smoothie
Power up with a glass of super healthy stuff with our Green Goodness Smoothie. This is packed with ingredients that can boost your immune system. Kale, spinach, chard, avocado and apple, plus a spoonful of peanut butter to add a little sweetness. Mix with water, blend, and there you have it – a health kick in a glass!

Greens on Toast
A simple, tasty snack, this requires two slices of sourdough bread to toast, and a plant-based pesto as a spread. The greens part comes in the form of the topping, a mix of spring onions, butter beans, peas and hummus, all seasoned with garlic, lemon, salt and pepper. 

Greens Risotto
This is a lovely, fresh spring-time recipe – though we also say it’s great to eat at any time of the year. Simply add asparagus – stalks and spears – green beans, garden peas, garlic and red onion to arborio rice and stir gently while it bubbles away on a hob. Keep it topped up with vegetable stock. Finish with some roasted hazelnuts for a sweet crunch sensation.

Healthy Banana French Toast
Here’s a breakfast with a bang – toasted wholemeal bread laden with gorgeous combos of fruit, yoghurt, spices and syrup. Make the French Toast with almond milk, plain flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and a ripe banana, and then add the berry syrup, using 400g of mixed frozen berries, water and maple syrup. Serve it with more banana, fresh berries, plant-based yoghurt and flaked coconut. It’s a great way to fuel up for the entire morning.

Hummus Curry
Hummus? In a curry? Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it – and we highly recommend you do. Team hummus with chopped tomatoes, chickpeas and spinach, add garlic, ginger, coriander, salt, pepper and chilli flakes, and four tablespoons of curry paste (whatever you choose) and you’ve got a gloriously thick and filling curry. Serve with basmati rice.

Instant Ramen Stir Fry
Stir Frys are quick, simple and mega tasty and this is one of our favourite low carb vegan recipes. It takes around five minutes from start to finish, using instant ramen noodles. Cook the noodles with peas or mixed veg (or both if you like), chilli oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce and five spice, and add spring onions, mushrooms, carrot and red pepper to bulk it out and fire up the flavour. Fast to make, even faster to eat.

Mexican Baked Rice and Beans
Hearty and filling, our baked rice recipe delivers lots of spice thanks to the blend of cumin, paprika, chilli flakes and chipotle paste. Black beans and red peppers add depth and texture. Just bake for up to 30 minutes, and it’s ready to eat. We serve this with zingy guacamole – it’s just ripe avocado, lime, olive oil, salt, pepper and chilli flakes mixed together.

Nice Spice Rice
You’ll smash your five-a-day veg target with this dish! The recipe needs 500g of basmati rice and packs in six or seven different types of vegetables, though you can obviously leave any out that you don’t like. We use kale, spring onions, red pepper, bay corn, asparagus, sugar snap peas and sprouting broccoli. There’s lots of spice too, and we recommend a touch of sriracha sauce for a fiery finish.

Nooch Risotto
We love our risotto recipes here at Bosh and here’s another version. If you’re a fan of mushrooms, this is for you. It includes 500g of mushrooms, plus 15g of dried porcini mushrooms (though these are optional). There’s also a hefty few glugs of white wine, vegetable stock, dairy-free butter, garlic, onion, celery and lemon, all finished off with a liberal scattering of nooch – aka nutritional yeast.

Oil-Free Stir-Fry
All the taste of a stir-fry without using any oil equals an even healthier lunch or dinner and one of our stand-out low calorie vegan meals. This uses a mix of cucumber and water to act as the oil replacement; stir in with cashew nuts, ginger and garlic. Toss in Tenderstem broccoli, red pepper, green beans and baby sweetcorn, and then add the noodles. We use three nests – you can adjust according to how many you’re cooking for – of wholewheat noodles.

Orange, Fennel and Watercress Salad
This wonderfully refreshing salad has just a handful of ingredients. Tear sourdough bread into pieces, season with salt, pepper and olive oil, and roast for five to ten minutes on a baking tray. Bake the almonds for the same amount of time on a second tray. Then, add oranges, sliced fennel bulbs and watercress. For a simple dressing, mix one lemon with six tablespoons of olive oil and a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard.

Perfect Porridge
Kickstart your morning in style with this porridge recipe. It just uses 50g of rolled oats, 150ml of plant based milk and a small pinch each of salt and cinnamon, to taste. Sounds simple? It is, but the toppings take this to the next level. Our combination of peanut or almond butter, mixed seeds and fruit, and a banana, delivers sweetness and goodness. Nice.

Pesto Panzanella Salad
Panzanella always brings ‘summer in Italy’ vibes. It’s filling and pleasing, and really packs a punch on the flavour front with mixed tomatoes, butter beans, green olives, basil and pine nuts, which are toasted first. At the heart of this dish are chunks of roasted sourdough bread (we did say it was filling). Serve warm, with our homemade green pesto (basil, pine nuts, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, all blended together).

Pink Salad
This is certainly one of our most spectacular-looking dishes, bursting with vibrant pink, glistening red and sparkling green colours. The good news is that it tastes as great as it looks. This features roasted sweet potatoes and beetroot, plus chickpeas, smoked paprika, rocket and spring onions. The pink dressing is made from beetroot, almond milk, pine nuts and a dash of lemon, salt and mustard.

Plant-based Frittata
Perfect for a healthy lunch or relaxed supper, our frittata replicates an omelette – but without the eggs or potato! Instead, it uses Tenderstem broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, red pepper, red onion and baby leaf spinach, with flour and water, to conjure up a light and crispy frittata. We like adding a red chilli, too, to give it a satisfying tingle.

Punchy Protein Couscous
Transform couscous from something that can feel a little bland to a dish of real substance. Roasted chickpeas and tofu provide the base, along with the couscous, while cumin, garlic, chilli and Urfa – it’s a type of Turkish chilli paste – drop big flavour bombs throughout. Add a handful of cherry tomatoes and diced red pepper to the couscous mix and serve with a generous dollop of hummus.

Puttanesca Potato Stew
The combination of potatoes and punchy puttanesca is a bonafide winner here. We use new potatoes, which are halved and then boiled, before cooling. The sauce is the true inspiration and the key to the dish – passata, garlic cloves, fennel seeds, chilli flakes, tomato puree and red wine. Add spinach and olives at the same time you fold the potatoes into the sauce, for the final few minutes.

Quick and Easy Moroccan Couscous
This couscous, with a Moroccan influence. The couscous itself is seasoned brilliantly, with cumin, coriander, cinnamon, turmeric, black and garlic – plus half a cup of raisins to add extra juiciness. Team the couscous up with roasted red pepper, red onion and courgette, and add carrot – finely grated – and chickpeas for more texture and taste.

Rainbow Couscous Salad
Staying on the couscous theme, this rainbow salad is aptly named because of the range of different colours within it. With peppers, tomatoes, avocado, grapes, sweetcorn, olives, raisins and beetroot, you’ve got reds, greens, yellows, purples and more. Smoked almonds provide a subtle crunch, while paprika delivers sweet smokiness.

Ratatouille Soup
On a chilly day, only a warming soup hits the spot and this is a cracker. It includes roasted aubergines, courgettes and red peppers, which are added to a stock starring sun dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, passata, spinach and mixed Italian herbs. Serve it up piping hot with sourdough bread on the side.

Puttanesca Risotto
There’s a lot you can do with rice, and a lot of different takes on a risotto. This version has puttanesca-inspired flavours, with red chilli, kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes and capers complementing the white wine, vegetable stock and risotto rice. Serve generous helpings in bowls, garnished with parsley and mixed leaves.

Spanish Stew
All the flavours and aromas of Spain sizzle in this dish, which features plant-based sausages that are sliced into chunks and stirred into an intense sauce. Chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, red peppers, and both butter beans and haricot beans make it a chunky, satisfying sauce. Add fennel seeds and sweet smoked paprika for extra spice. We serve this with a thick slice of our ultimate garlic loaf, which is included in the recipe details.

Sunny Sri Lankan Curry
Rich and hearty, as well as healthy, you’ll love the bright orange colours in this dish as much as the taste. Cubed butternut squash and spinach sit in a sauce made from reduced-fat coconut milk, fresh ginger, red and orange peppers, bird’s-eye chilli, curry powder and turmeric. A handful of cashew nuts and coriander adds the perfect finish.

Super Green Smoothie
This is a thick smoothie that packs in a bunch of fruit and veg on top of a serving of rolled oats. We’re talking spinach, kale, avocado, banana, apple, frozen berries and celery along with a pinch of chilli flakes and ginger and 200 ml of plant-based milk. Start your day in the best possible way with a tall glass of this.

Super Green Soup
Here’s a soup with a twist. The green colouring comes from the kale, baby spinach and broccoli, but it’s taken to a new level with the introduction of soy sauce, red chilli and soba noodles – making it spicy and filling as well as rammed with veggie nutrients. Generous portions of tofu help to bulk it out.

Super Healthy Couscous Salad
A couscous salad really delivers on healthy nutrients but satisfies appetites, too. Roasted veg – butternut squash, cherry tomatoes, peppers, red onions, asparagus and courgette – perfectly complement the light and fluffy couscous. It’s delicately flavoured with basil, parsley, pine nuts and sesame seeds.

Super Healthy Quinoa Tofu
Packed with protein, this quinoa-based dish will keep you going for hours. It’s oh-so simple to make – just cook the quinoa for around 20 minutes. Then, in a separate pan, fry a little olive oil with garlic puree, sun dried tomato paste, cherry tomatoes, Cavolo Nero leaves, a banana shallot and tofu, loosening the mix with water, as and when needed. Combine the quinoa with the rest of the ingredients, stir well and serve.

Super Simple Summer Rolls
The perfect light lunch for spring or summer, our fresh rolls are fresh, delicate and delicious. We recommend using a Julienne peeler, so you can slice and shred the vegetables as finely as possible. We also use a tofu press, to ensure the tofu is flat before slicing. This recipe includes carrots, cucumber, red cabbage and romaine lettuce, and uses rice paper sheets to wrap all the ingredients together. There’s a tangy dip, with rice vinegar, light soy sauce, sesame seeds and chilli flakes. Dip, eat, and dip again!

Super simple Tinned Tomato Pasta
We call this super simple, and that’s no exaggeration. The sauce is made from tomatoes – sun dried, chopped and puree – cooked slowly with capers, balsamic vinegar, garlic puree and pinches of salt, pepper and sugar. Boil 500g of pasta – we use mafaldine, but any type of ribbon-style pasta works well – and add to the sauce when cooked and drained.

Sweet Potato Cauli Soup
This big-hitting soup uses sweet potato and cauliflower as its base and builds in layers of subtle spice and flavouring. Cumin, garlic, ginger, turmeric, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, chilli flakes are all added to tomatoes and vegetable stock – we also stir in coconut cream just before serving to max out the creaminess, and throw in some spinach to gently wilt.

Vegan Scrambled Egg
Welcome to scrambled egg, vegan style! Instead of eggs, this recipe uses firm tofu and silken tofu, prepped in a frying pan with spring onions, garlic cloves, a squidge of dairy-free butter, ground turmeric, black pepper and black salt. Serve it on a slice of wholemeal toast, or go with our choice, a bagel.

Two Healthy & Delicious Smoothies
If you’re in the mood for smoothies, here are two different recipes to try. Both have rolled oats and unsweetened plant-based milk, but while our Berry Boost Smoothie delivers sharp, fresh fruitiness by using frozen berries, our Banana, Oat & Nut Smoothie is sweeter and thicker, with banana and smooth nut butter. Both are awesome.

Vietnamese Style Noodle Salad
This is one of our most surprising dishes – a noodle salad with lots of crunch, crispiness and spice. It has a base of carrots – sliced into matchsticks – cucumber, lettuce and spring onions, with generous slabs of tofu and rice vermicelli noodles added to it. Dress the salad with our mix of fresh ginger, garlic, light soy, chilli flakes, rapeseed oil and rice vinegar, drizzling over it before serving. Dig in and enjoy.

Watermelon Poke Bowl
Poke bowls are becoming super popular, and while a traditional version has raw fish alongside fruit and veg, ours swaps out the fish for diced watermelon – giving it a supreme freshness. The watermelon is dressed in brown rice miso paste, brown rice vinegar, ginger, garlic and maple syrup. The poke bowl is completed by adding spring onions, avocado, mango, edamame beans and jasmine rice. We like to serve it with a couple of spoonfuls of sriracha mayo.