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These Vegan Comfort Food Recipes are easy to make, delicious, and budget-friendly! Each one costs less than 2 dollars to make per serving.
Well, folks, we’re at it again! We’ve already tackled some budget-friendly Italian and Mexican inspired recipes, so this time we’re going the comfort food route.
If this is your first time seeing my “5 Under 5” series, here’s how it works: I go to the grocery store, spend around $25 on ingredients, and come up with 5 tasty recipes for you all. This time, we went with Comfort Food! If you’d like to see the entire process and how I made each recipe, please watch my YouTube video below:
Now, keep scrolling for the printable recipes! As always, if you re-create these and decide to share them on either Instagram or Facebook, please tag me @FromMyBowl + #FromMyBowl. I love seeing your delicious (and budget-friendly!) recreations 🙂
Recipe 1: Vegan Mac and Cheese
Cost per serving = $0.89
To make this recipe, simply follow my Baked Vegan Mac & Cheese Recipe, but leave out the crumb topping! If you’d like, reserve some of the Cheese Sauce so you can make the Baked Cheesy Fries, below.
Recipe 2: Baked Cheesy Fries
Cost per serving = $1.02
To make this recipe, follow my Perfect Oil-Free Fries technique, and top your fries with leftover cheese sauce from my Baked Vegan Mac and Cheese.
Recipe 3: Minestrone Soup
Cost per serving = $1.31
PrintMinestrone Soup
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 2 people 1x
Ingredients
- 1/2 Yellow Onion, diced
- 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
- 1/2 cup Frozen Peas, thawed
- 1/2 cup Frozen Corn, thawed
- 1 Carrot, diced
- 1/4 cup Tomato Paste
- 1 can Fire Roasted Tomatoes (can sub regular, but this adds a lot of flavor!)
- 2 cup Vegetable Broth
- 1 cup Water (or more Veggie Broth)
- 1/2 cup Dry Pasta, cooked according to package instructions
Instructions
- Add the Diced Onion, Italian Seasoning, and a splash of water to a large pot over medium heat. Cook for 3-5 minutes, or until the Onion is translucent.
- Add all remaining ingredients, except for the Cooked Pasta, to the pot. Stir well to dissolve the Tomato Paste. Bring this mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 8-10 minutes.
- Stir in the Cooked Pasta, and add any Salt to taste, if necessary. Serve warm and enjoy.
Recipe 4: Potato Broccoli Soup
Cost per serving = $1.74
PrintPotato Broccoli Soup
- Prep Time: 7 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 3 people 1x
Ingredients
- 4 Potatoes, peeled if desired*
- 1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast
- 1 Small Yellow Onion, diced
- 4 cup Vegetable Broth
- 2 cup Unsweetened Plant Milk
- 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
- Salt, to taste
- 4 cup Frozen Broccoli, thawed.
Instructions
- Peel your Potatoes if desired, and chop into 1/2″ pieces. Finely dice your Onion, and chop the Broccoli into bite-sized pieces as well.
- Add the Onion, Italian Seasoning, and Garlic Powder to a large pot with a splash of water, over medium heat. Cook for 3-5 minutes, or until the Onion is translucent.
- Add in all remaining ingredients, except for the Broccoli, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, then cook for 6-8 minutes, until the potatoes are fork-tender.
- Keep the heat on low, and transfer half of the soup mixture into a blender and process until smooth and creamy. Return to the pan, and stir until well-incorporated. (Alternatively, you can also use an immersion blender for this step!) Add any Salt to taste, if necessary (I used around 1/2 tsp).
- Add the chopped Broccoli to the pot, and stir well. Once the Broccoli has warmed up with the soup, serve and enjoy.
Notes
*I would suggest Russet or Gold Potatoes for this recipe.
Recipe 5: Creamy Mashed Potatoes
Cost per serving = $1.18
PrintCreamy Mashed Potatoes
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 1 person 1x
Ingredients
- 3 Medium to Large Potatoes, peeled if desired
- 1 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
- 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt, plus more to taste
- 3/4–1 cup Unsweetened Plant Based Milk
Instructions
- Peel your Potatoes if desired, and chop into 1/2″ pieces. Place into a medium pot with water and bring to a boil.
- Simmer for 8-9 minutes, or until the Potatoes are fork-tender. Drain, turn the heat off, and return to the pot.
- Add in the Nutritional Yeast, Garlic Powder, Salt, and 1/2 cup of Plant Milk. Use an electric mixer or hand-press to mash your Potatoes. Add additional Plant Milk in 1/4 cup increments, until your Potatoes reach the consistency that you desire.
- Serve warm and enjoy!
Notes
*I prefer to use Russet or Gold Potatoes for my Mashed Potatoes!
Want to save these Vegan Comfort Food recipes for later? Pin them to your Pinterest boards using the following images:
The Minestrone soup, could be made easier & cheaper, by simply using frozen mixed vegetables, instead of separate frozen peas & corn, & carrot. One can get a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, for around a dollar, & they have at least 4 vegetables in them, instead of just 3. Italian Seasoning, can also be found in a dollar store, & possibly pasta & canned tomatoes too. Buying from a dollar store adds up, but they’re usually multiple servings per container, making the cost per serving, under a dollar.
Before I get started with my reviews, I just want to mention I’ve tried many, many recipes for some of these foods, but none of them have been quite perfect. Sometimes it would flat-out disgusting, and others something was just slightly off. I’ve had lumpy, bean-tasting, icky cheese sauces, bland and almost crumbly mashed potatoes, and soups with the broth way too strong and the stuff floating around in it not cooked right. So, going into cooking these, I was a little if not very skeptical. With that being said, though, I was hopeful — after all, the recipes seemed fairly easy and looked delicious. And I’m very happy to say they were!
The first recipe was the mac and cheese, but since they used the same sauce for the cheese fries I’m just going to combine them and call it the cheese sauce recipe. The end result was actually pretty tasty, but I definitely did not follow the recipe exactly. For the base of the sauce, I did everything according to the recipe. It was a little time-consuming, but I didn’t mind that. When it came to seasonings, I at least quadrupled the amount of garlic powder, doubled the nutritional yeast, and added some very healthy shakes of salt and pepper. I even ended up adding a tiny bit of tomato paste. Before adding all the extra seasonings, it was okay. It had that real umami factor, but it was definitely a little bland. Of course it didn’t taste exactly like cheese, but it’s vegan cooking, so you can’t expect it to be perfect. If you don’t have tahini, I think almond butter would work well instead. Overall, I would recommend this recipe. It’s creamy, packed with umami, and there’s the slightest hint of a good cheesy flavor in the aftertaste! Not only that, but it’s easy (even if you have to wash a pot and food processor) and cheap. One last note though — mine did not come out neon orange like advertised. Not like I have a problem with that!
Next were the soups. The minestrone came out much better than the potato and broccoli, but both were very good so I was pleasantly surprised. Both took quite a bit of time and work, and both produced a lot of soup (especially the potato and broccoli). Let me just say though, cooking these made my kitchen smell like heaven! When I was cooking the onions with the seasoning, the scent alone made me just melt. Not to mention the aroma of the finished minestrone — ooh lah lah! On to the actual cooking. Since I don’t like peas, I omitted those in the minestrone. I did everything else basically the same, besides overcooking those amazing onions. Not to worry though, since the “burnt flavor” didn’t come through at all. For the potato and broccoli, it tasted pretty good but took absolutely forever. I followed the recipe exactly, but I don’t think I understood the instructions well, so that probably contributed to the time it took. I would recommend when you blend half the soup to get a lot of potatoes in there and less of the broth, because I had about a fifty-fifty ratio of broth to potatoes and it ended up with this weird texture of tiny little mushed up potatoes floating around. One last tip would be to maybe use a bigger pot than you think you need, because both my pots were brimming to the top with the soups! Overall, I’d recommend these recipes because they tasted really good and are very very similar to the taste of their non-vegan counterparts.
Finally, the mashed potatoes. It was a very straightforward recipe — boil the potatoes and mash them with the non-dairy milk. However, I felt like I was whipping potatoes when it came to mashing them! Maybe it was because I used a hand mixer, but I had a hard time getting every little chunk of potato blended up. Eventually though, it came together quite well. No real adjustments to the recipe — it tasted really good! I would highly recommend as they are fluffy and fill you up.
So, in conclusion, I’d recommend these recipes. They were pretty good, really cheap, and very easy although time consuming. They definitely fill you up, that’s for sure!
Absolutely love this potato broccoli soup recipe! I made it for my parents (who aren’t vegan) and they love it too!
Caitlin! Awesome recipes! Thanks so much for giving these to us! I made the Macaroni and it was incredible but I think I added to many potatoes. I used around 4 small ones. Mine ended more a white color then cheesy. I saw your video and I think you added 1 cup of potatoes? I also think I added to much tahini. 🙂 My mac and cheese tasted more nutty. Anyhow, can you tell me how much tahini you used? Thanks again. So far I have made many of your recipes and really enjoy them. Thanks.
Ricardo
Hi Ricardo, I used the amount of Tahini listed in the recipe, 1 tbsp
This is great! Is the master grocery list for this set of recipes posted anywhere? Thank you!
Thank you Colleen! No it is not, unfortunately
Great personality.
Easy voice for listening.
★★★★
Yum, I made the minestrone and it was SO GOOD. I plan on making the fries tomorrow. I love how you seasonally alter your recipes, because this is just the kind of stuff I find myself craving once the weather gets chillier. Thanks, Caitlin!
★★★★★
Of course! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
Good thing the mashed potatoes serve one person, because I’d eat all of the recipe! XD Anyways, I love how budget-friendly these recipes are, as well as the simplicity of each one of them! I think a good idea would be to save some cheese sauce for the mashed potatoes to top with too!
Thank you so much, Cassie! I also love that idea 😉
I have been vegan for about 3 and half years now. You probably won’t see this comment because this recipe is old but I wanted to say these were some of the first recipes I made and these and still probably the only ones I make over and over. Especially the minestrone soup I just add kidney beans for protein. And the Mac and cheese I add frozen Broccoli heated up. It has been cheap and easy throughout community college and also storing in the thermos as a caricature artist who worked outside for 11 hours. The minestrone soup hold up espically well in the fridge. It is the one recipe I never get tired of making. Thank you! 🙌
Amanda, thank you so much for your lovely comment. It’s heartwarming to hear these kept you nourished and satisfied throughout your college years. All the best to you!