Here’s the thing about cooking vegetarian meals at home: most people think they need a fully stocked specialty pantry. They don’t.
I’ve cooked in hostel kitchens across three continents with barely functioning burners and whatever I could find at the nearest market. What I learned is that limitations breed creativity. When you strip things down to basics, you actually cook more, not less. These seven recipes all pull from the same ten ingredients: onions, garlic, canned tomatoes, chickpeas, rice, eggs, cheese, olive oil, vegetable broth, and whatever fresh greens you can get your hands on. That’s it. No specialty items, no trips to three different stores.
Shakshuka
Eggs poached directly in a spiced tomato sauce. This North African classic is one of those dishes that looks impressive but takes about twenty minutes from cutting board to table.
The key is building flavor in stages. Start by softening onions in olive oil, then add minced garlic until fragrant. Pour in your canned tomatoes, let everything simmer and reduce until it thickens slightly. Create small wells in the sauce and crack your eggs directly into them. Cover and let the whites set while the yolks stay runny.
Crumble cheese on top if you want. Serve it straight from the pan with crusty bread for dipping. This works for breakfast, lunch, or a lazy dinner when you don’t feel like doing much.
Simple chickpea curry
Chickpeas are the workhorses of vegetarian cooking. They’re cheap, filling, and take on whatever flavors you throw at them.
Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil. Add your canned tomatoes and a drained can of chickpeas. If you have curry powder or cumin in your spice drawer, now’s the time. Let it all simmer together for fifteen minutes until the sauce coats the chickpeas nicely. Stir in a handful of greens at the end and let them wilt.
Serve over rice. The whole thing costs almost nothing and makes enough for leftovers. I ate variations of this dish for weeks while backpacking through Rajasthan, and I still make it at least twice a month.
Spanish-style rice with tomatoes
One-pot rice dishes are underrated. Everything cooks together, the rice absorbs all the flavor from the broth and tomatoes, and cleanup is minimal.
Toast your rice briefly in olive oil with onions and garlic. This step matters. It gives the grains a slightly nutty flavor and helps them stay separate instead of clumping. Add vegetable broth and canned tomatoes, bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer.
Walk away for about eighteen minutes. When you come back, you’ve got a complete meal. Top with a fried egg and some cheese if you want extra protein. The crispy rice at the bottom of the pot is the best part.
Greens and white bean soup
Swap the chickpeas for white beans if you have them, or just use chickpeas again. This soup is forgiving.
Build your base with onions, garlic, and olive oil. Add vegetable broth and canned tomatoes. Bring to a simmer, then add your beans and let everything cook together for ten minutes. Throw in generous handfuls of greens at the end. Spinach wilts in seconds. Kale or chard need a few minutes longer.
A sprinkle of cheese on top adds richness. This is the kind of soup that tastes even better the next day once all the flavors have had time to meld together.
Fried rice with eggs and greens
Leftover rice is actually better for fried rice than fresh. The grains have dried out slightly, so they crisp up instead of turning mushy.
Get your pan screaming hot with olive oil. Add cold rice and spread it in a single layer. Let it sit and crisp for a minute before stirring. Push the rice to the sides, scramble eggs in the center, then mix everything together. Add minced garlic and whatever greens you have. Season simply.
The whole process takes maybe ten minutes. It’s the perfect use for rice you made two days ago and forgot about.
Baked eggs with tomatoes and cheese
This is shakshuka’s lazier cousin. Same concept, but you let the oven do the work.
Spread canned tomatoes in a baking dish. Nestle in some sautéed onions and garlic. Crack eggs on top, scatter cheese over everything, and bake until the whites are set. The cheese gets bubbly and slightly browned around the edges.
It’s hands-off cooking at its finest. Prep takes five minutes, then you just wait. Good for feeding multiple people without standing over a stove.
Chickpea and tomato stew over rice
Heartier than the curry, this stew leans into the tomatoes more heavily. Think of it as a vegetarian chili without the beans-and-chili-powder commitment.
Sauté your aromatics, add a full can of tomatoes and chickpeas, then pour in enough vegetable broth to make it stewier. Let it simmer until the liquid reduces and everything thickens. The chickpeas will start to break down slightly at the edges, which is what you want.
Serve over rice with cheese on top. It’s filling, cheap, and reheats beautifully for lunch the next day.
The bottom line
You don’t need a complicated pantry to eat well. Ten ingredients, used thoughtfully, can take you through an entire week of meals without repeating yourself.
The real skill in cooking isn’t knowing a hundred recipes. It’s understanding how a handful of ingredients work together and riffing from there. Stock these basics, keep them on hand, and you’ll never be stuck wondering what to make for dinner again.
