25 Indian Vegetarian Lunch Ideas To Inspire You + recipes

Peanut cucumber salad, coconut milk rasam, Malabar spinach chutney, and rice

• There is no need to do any prep work for this meal. So when you forgot to plan or have a quick lunch, this kind of meal is helpful.
• You can replace peanuts with any beans in this salad.

Amaranth leaves dal( Thotakura Pappu), hand pounded rice, and mixed veggies.

• Quick lunch that can be made in 30 minutes.
• My weekday lunch will be this simple sometimes.
• Just make sure to add lots of veggies.

Cabbage peas curry, beans besan curry, curry leaves podi, rice, mango, and ghee.

• Some days I skip dal and have the rice with protein-rich gun powders.
• You can add roasted besan flour or sattu flour for beans curry for added protein and taste of course :). You can make capsicum curry also in a similar way.

Steamed Methi muthiya curry, Banana flower chutney, and rice

• You can use any leafy green veggies for making steamed dumplings.
• Banana blossom chutney is made with sesame seeds and urad dal.

Indian style chickpeas salad, brinjal chutney, coconut milk rasam, and rice

• Soak the chickpeas overnight or for around 8 hours.
• You can use any beans like rajma, kala chana, lobia to make this simple salad.
• Cooked millet will also go well instead of rice in this combination

Tamarind rice, Peanut rice, Sesame seeds rice, Coconut rice, Curd rice, and malida laddu

• This is the traditional festive meal which we usually make for varalakshmi vratam day.
• Instead of making complete spread, you can make one or two types of these kinds of rice dishes. These are healthy as we include nuts and seeds and quite filling.
• This spread will be good for breakfast and lunch box also.
• To make it more healthy, replace rice with cooked millet or quinoa.

Rajma salad with avocado, spinach dal, coconut milk rasam, and rice

• A simple hearty meal and you can replace rice with roti or millet or quinoa.
• Soak the kidney beans overnight. Sometimes if I am busy, I freeze cooked kidney beans on weekends and use it on weekdays to make this salad. You can use canned beans if they are available to you.

Quinoa pudding with coconut milk, peas potato curry, roti, and sunflower microgreens

• You can add good protein to your meal in the form of desserts also. Make this quinoa kheer and enjoy it guiltfree. You can have this for even breakfast.
• For peas potato curry, potatoes are cooked in mashed peas and that gave gravy texture to the curry.

Puffed amaranth and mushroom kofta in cashew tomato gravy and whole wheat roti.

• I made koftas using mushroom Tikki dough. Check the recipe on how to do it.
• This will be a good meal if you want to indulge something but yet healthy. Healthy eating can be made tasty.

Rajma vegetable curry, whole wheat roti, and veggies

• Soak the kidney beans for 8 hours or overnight.
• You can have this rajma curry with rice also or as it is for a light and protein-rich meal.
• To make this rajma curry, you can use any seasonal veggies, please check the recipe.

Paneer besan curry, tomato dal and roti

• This is again a meal that doesn’t require any planning before.
• Paneer along with veggies is marinated in chickpea flour and baked in an oven.
• You can make this panner batter ahead of time also, so this meal is helpful for busy weekdays.

Stir-fried mixed veggies with panner, roti , and raw carrots.

• Paneer makes this meal protein-rich. You can use tofu for a vegan option.
• For making this stir fry you can use any veggies like capsicum, zucchini, squash, sweet corn, peas, baby corn.
• Instead of whole wheat roti, you can have this with any flatbread.

Steamed potatoes cooked in mushroom gravy.

• No prep work is needed for this dish.
• This will be a good option if you want to make lunch for one or two people.
• Have this as a meal by itself or with a side for any flatbread or with toasted bread.

Ulavacharu, carrot bok choy fry, rice, and cucumber

• Ulavacharu is my favorite way of including horse gram in our daily diet.
• You need to soak horse gram overnight for making it.
• And coming to carrot bok choy fry, its a grated carrot stir fry, and I have added bok choy to it. You can add kale or amaranth leaves or spinach leaves to the curry. I always try to sneak leafy greens in some or other form.

Raw banana poriyal, tomato rasam, plain dal, and rice

• This is again a simple meal that doesn’t need any soaking or prep work the day before.
• Raw bananas are highly nutritious and by grating them, they can be cooked quickly and it will also be so tasty.

Telangana style sesame seeds Pongal, brinjal gotsu, strawberry banana mash

• Usually, fruits should not be included with lunch but sometimes if you carve for something sweet, it’s okay to have them. Instead of having it last, start your lunch with fruit.
• I just mashed one small banana and a couple of strawberries together. And the resulting thick puree will taste delicious even without sugar.
• And the Pongal has rice, moong dal, sesame seeds, and turmeric powder.

Snake gourd chutney, bitter gourd pulusu, rice, carrots, and homemade leftover rice vadam.

• We usually make this pulusu with bitter gourd as cooking this veggie with tamarind makes it less bitter.
• In summer, we usually make these vadams with leftover rice.

Mixed dal tadka, kale jeera rice, ragi brownie, and cucumber.

• Simple jeera rice can also be made healthy. I have sauteed kale along with jeera and added cooked rice. Adjust salt and heat it for a couple of minutes.
• For dal tadka, used masoor dal, urad dal, toor dal and moong dal in equal proportions.

Millet mango rice, ladys finger curry, bobatlu, rasam, and rice.

• Another festive meal that is made healthy.
• Usually, rice is used to make pulihora but I used cooked millet and added black chickpeas.
• The leftover water from cooked chickpeas is used to make simple rasam.
• Baksham, sweet chana dal stuffed paratha is a Telangana delicacy.

Horse gram rasam, Malabar spinach chutney, peanut podi, rice, and cucumber

• Horse gram or kollu should be soaked overnight. And leftover horse gram can be used to make hummus or salad or paratha.
• Instead of Malabar spinach or bachalikura, you can use Spinach also to make the chutney recipe.

Millet khichdi, coconut yogurt with gulkand

• Simple khichdi with foxtail millet. I have added potatoes and raw mango to the khichdi and flavored with little homemade sambar powder.
• Coconut yogurt and rose petals jam will taste very good. You can even have this combination with regular yogurt.

Rajma pulao and raw veggies.

• You need to soak kidney beans for 8 hours or overnight.
• Instead of rajma, you can make this pulao using chickpeas or black chickpeas or cowpeas also.
• I usually add veggies to the pulao to make it a complete meal by itself.
• This will be a good option if you want to make your lunch quickly.

Sambar rice with homemade sambar powder.

• Sambar rice is my most favorite one-pot meal, though I like to cook rice, dal, and veggies separately.
• You can add any veggies in this dish.
• Make this sambar rice with millet or quinoa instead of rice if you want to include alternate grains in your diet.

Black peas pulao and veggies.

• I have replaced rajma with black dried peas (kala vatana) in my rajma rice recipe.
• Try to have a handful of mixed nuts daily for your daily quota of vitamins and minerals.

Vegetable pulao cooked in coconut milk, aloo kurma, and raw carrots.

• This coconut pulao will be mildly spiced and hence liked by kids very much.
• Like other one-pot rice recipes, I add veggies also to the pulao so that it will be a complete meal.
• I served it with aloo kurma that was leftover from breakfast.
• You can serve it with any raita also.

Sprouts pulao, aloo kurma, and veggie salad

• For making this sprouts pulao, you can use any sprouts.
• I have used the mint mixture to cook the pulao but you can use spinach or coriander or sorrel leaves to make this mint pulao recipe.
• Again kurma is the leftover from breakfast.