Cheap Vegan Dinners for $5 or Less That Actually Taste Amazing

Ali Essig from PlantWhys proves that budget-friendly meals can still be flavorful and filling. In her latest video, she prepares three full cheap vegan dinners that cost $5 or less each. These meals are made with Dollar Store ingredients and basic pantry staples, showing that plant-based cooking doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated.

The recipes include refried bean taquitos, black beans and rice with a flavorful twist, and pasta with stir-fry vegetables and a quick peanut sauce.

Each one is easy to prepare, kid-approved, and surprisingly generous in portion size. These cheap vegan dinners offer great value and taste without compromise.

Refried bean taquitos

Essig starts by cooking a bag of dried pinto beans with salt and a strip of dried kombu, which she uses to reduce bloating. She notes that if you don’t have kombu, soaking the beans overnight works too. Once cooked, she blends the beans with spices – oregano, cumin, coriander, onion powder, and garlic – using an immersion blender.

“I like using an immersion blender because there’s not a lot of liquid,” she explains. “It’s an easy way to turn it into refried beans without adding water.”

She microwaves the corn tortillas until they’re flexible, then spreads the beans on each one. She adds green salsa, rolls them tightly, and air-fries the taquitos at 400°F. After about 10 minutes, they’re golden and crispy.

“These are great. Full of flavor, super easy, delicious,” Essig says. “And I’m always amazed at how much food you get from a bag of dried beans.”

She recommends freezing a second batch for busy nights. “Just pull them out and put them in the air fryer again,” she adds.

Black beans and rice with a twist

The second meal uses black beans, a can of enchilada sauce, frozen corn, canned diced tomatoes, and white rice. Essig cooks the beans in her Instant Pot with salt and kombu.

While the beans cook, she boils rice on the stove using plenty of water. Once done, she rinses off the rice and sets it aside.

To assemble the meal, she mixes the cooked beans with frozen corn, diced tomatoes (with their juice), and the enchilada sauce. She warms everything in a pan just long enough to heat the corn.

“This is one of the simplest, easiest, cheapest meals you can make,” she says. “It’s really good. So much flavor.”

Essig adds that the chunky tomatoes are easy for picky kids to pick out. She tops it all with fresh cilantro, but says the dish is delicious even without it.

Find the cheap dinners here

Pasta and veggies with peanut sauce

The final recipe features dried edamame, dried pasta, frozen stir-fry vegetables, and a quick homemade peanut sauce. Essig boils the pasta and tosses in the frozen veggies during the last few minutes of cooking.

For the sauce, she mixes peanut butter, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, sugar, lime juice, and a few spoonfuls of hot pasta water to help everything dissolve. “That’s a solid peanut sauce,” she says after tasting it.

She tosses the pasta and veggies in the sauce, then sprinkles dried edamame on top for extra protein. “If you have access to frozen edamame, that’s probably a better choice,” she admits. “It kind of just gets a little rubbery,” she notes referring to the use of dried edamame. “It’s needed for the protein, definitely has a different texture.” She concludes.

Essig likes that the crunchy peanut butter adds texture. She also notes that if you want a sweeter sauce, you can always add more sugar.

“My kids love everything pasta,” she adds, making this an easy win for the whole family.

You can find more plant-based food and lifestyle content on the PlantWhys YouTube Channel.