A heart-healthy lunch meals doesn’t have to be boring or complicated. By choosing foods that are healthy, you can also choose to feed yourself a heart-healthy lunch meal as well. Creating a complete, healthy, and balanced meal when it comes to lunch is easier than you think.
Heart Healthy Lunch Meals
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6 Heart-Healthy Breakfast Recipes
It’s true what they say—breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day. A well-balanced, healthy breakfast with adequate protein, healthy fats, and quality carbohydrates can help you better control your blood sugar and your hunger levels throughout your day.
Mushroom Avocado Toast Recipe
Start your day with this high-protein, mouth-watering balsamic mushroom avocado toast. This simple vegan and gluten-free toast recipe is perfect for a quick breakfast or snack. Whether you’re vegan or not, enjoy a nourishing variation of the classic food blog favorite, packed with healthy fats and fierce flavor.
Avocados are high in Omega-3 fatty acids, specifically alpha-linolenic fatty acids. Incorporating these healthy monounsaturated fats into your diet can help you feel more satiated, reduce inflammation, and positively influence your cholesterol levels (5).
15 Heart-Healthy Lunch and Dinner Recipes
All of the recipes below can be enjoyed for lunch or dinner, we’ve included a variety of recipes with some key heart-healthy ingredients such as lean protein sources like chicken and
1. Chicken and Pesto Sourdough Sandwich
Toasted sourdough, paired with savory pesto, Trifecta chicken, and sweet Roma tomatoes. This delicious recipe can be prepared in less than 15 minutes.
2. Sriracha Honey Sesame Chicken Dinner
This combination of honey and sriracha, along with a hint of sesame offers a balance of Asian-inspired flavors, served along with puffy brown rice and some roasted broccoli.
3. Chicken Chilaquiles Recipe
Chilaquiles are a great one-stop meal, that can be made very quickly and pack a ton of flavor in no time. Aside from being very customizable, you can make this recipe your own and choose to prepare a green or red chilaquiles recipe.
4. Chicken and Pesto Stuffed Sweet Potato
Not only will you pack in some protein with tender shredded chicken, you’ll get a bump of extra vitamins and minerals from the sweet potato and pesto in this recipe.
5. Chicken Burrito Bowl
Instead of going out to eat and getting a bowl topped with every condiment and excess calorie, find a super simple and quick recipe here for any day of the week.
Chicken is a great lean protein source to help support your protein needs. Protein supplies our body with amino acids to build and sustain muscle mass, which helps protect our bones and maintain a healthy weight, an important factor in preventing chronic disease.
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6. Seared Salmon and Lemon Kale Salad
This dish proves that eating healthy doesn’t have to be difficult—and that you don’t have to spend all day meal prepping either. All you need is fresh greens tossed with healthy fats and served with sustainably-caught salmon and a tangy dressing that brings it all together. Enjoy this light and vibrant dish for a quick dinner or meal prep for lunch throughout the week.
7. Baked Salmon Pasta Piccata Recipe
Salmon smothered in tangy lemon-butter, piccata sauce tossed with pasta and broccoli, all baked into one tasty and quick recipe.
8. Blackened Salmon Tacos with Purple Cabbage Slaw
Enjoy two tacos stuffed with cajun rubbed salmon and a tangy purple cabbage slaw topped with a spicy sriracha aioli.
9. Salmon Grain Bowl Recipe
Sometimes simple is better, which is certainly the case with this salmon grain bowl. Not only is it pretty impossible to screw up, it’s also insanely delicious. This easy meal prep recipe will liven up your week with a healthy dose of fresh herbs, crunchy veggies, and savory salmon. Plus, it’s high in healthy fats, protein, and vitamins A and C.
10. Italian Caprese Salmon
You’ll love the sweet balsamic flavor paired with melted mozzarella cheese in this Italian Caprese salmon recipe, a spin on the classic Italian Caprese salad.
11. Kelp Noodle Vegetable Bowl Recipe
Kelp Noodles are made from edible seaweed called kelp and are a gluten-free, low carbohydrate noodle option with a high amount of minerals such as iron (1). Paired with homemade pesto and fresh vegetables, this raw food recipe packs in beneficial micronutrients such as magnesium, potassium, and b-vitamins.
12. Thai Vegetable Curry Recipe
This vegan Thai curry recipe is overflowing with nutrient-dense vegetables coated in a savory red curry coconut broth.
This is a great meal prep recipe to customize and change up the vegetables or pair with quinoa, basmati rice, or brown rice.
13. Plant-Based Southwest Burrito Bowl Recipe
Building any kind of cuisine-inspired bowl is an easy way to increase your consumption of phytonutrient-dense foods and utilize flavorful herbs and spices. Meal prepping ‘bowls’ will also help you maximize flavor while minimizing effort and cost by preparing proteins, starches, and vegetables in bulk.
14. Vegan Southwest Stuffed Sweet Potato Recipe
This vegan Southwest baked sweet potato recipe is stuffed with plant-based Beyond Meat® and topped with a zesty cilantro crema and fresh avocado.
Baked sweet potatoes are a fantastic base to mix and match a variety of toppings onto—from BBQ-stuffed to Mediterranean-inspired, incorporating a stuffed sweet potato into your weekly meal is easy and flavorful.
Try this recipe with ready-to-eat meal preppedd Trifecta Beyond Beef Patties.
15. Plant-Based Pot Roast Recipe
Utilized in preparing traditional pot roast, braising is a combination cooking technique using both dry and wet heat to cook food in liquid, producing a magical plant-based dish with little effort.
Fall in love with this easy and wholesome one-pot vegan recipe with 21 grams of protein per serving and explosive flavor.
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5 Heart-Healthy Side Dish Recipes
Pair these with grilled or sauteed protein or a plant-based protein of your choice for a nutrient-dense and heart-healthy meal!
1. Aromatic Greens with Coconut Recipe
The aromatics combined with the coconut milk and the hearty greens make this dish a perfect staple to have in your fridge. The hearty greens hold very well in the fridge and while being reheated. Add a splash of green with this recipe to your dishes.
2. Healthy Mashed Sweet Potato Recipe
You’ll love the combination of warm spices, coconut milk, and sweet potatoes in this healthy sweet potato mash recipe that’s dairy-free! Believe it or not, we have used this recipe to feed professional athletes. It’s an incredibly comforting dish!
3. Spiced Roasted Butternut Squash Recipe
The warm spices of this recipe make this side of butternut squash one to have on constant rotation. Buy two large butternuts and make this fall-inspired recipe to have it in your weekly rotation!
4. Roasted Cauliflower with Agrodolce Sauce Recipe
Agrodolce means sweet and sour. This Italian-inspired recipe adds a beautiful sweet, sour, and savory punch to your cauliflower. Use this sauce to coat any kind of winter squash!
5. 50/50 Mashed Potato Recipe
Using half cauliflower and half potatoes cuts down the carbohydrates and increases some of the nutrients in this delicious mashed potato recipe!
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8 Heart-Healthy Sauce Recipes for Meal Prep
Preparing your own homemade sauces can help you greatly reduce the amount of added sodium in your diet—plus you’ll get to sharpen up your chef skills in the process! Try out some of our favorite go-to meal prep sauce recipes:
- Parsley and Almond Tabbouleh Recipe
- Dandelion Pesto Recipe
- Green Goddess Dressing Recipe
- Carolina BBQ Sauce Recipe
- Guacatillo Sauce Recipe
- Red-Pepper Cashew Alfredo Sauce Recipe
- Fresh Chimichurri Sauce Recipe
- Roasted Mango Habanero Sauce Recipe
5 Satisfyingly Sweet Dessert Recipes
These recipes are all naturally sweetened and are sure to satisfy your sweet tooth. Enjoy them as a midday snack or after-dinner dessert.
- Cookie Dough Protein Bar Recipe
- No-Bake Oatmeal Cookie Recipe
- Chocolate Chip Mug Cake Recipe
- Delicious Gooey Chocolate Brownie Recipe
- High Protein Chia Seed Pudding Recipe
Heart-Healthy Resources
Eating for heart health doesn’t have to feel complicated, time-consuming, or restrictive. The basics of healthy eating are actually quite simple and a typical heart-healthy diet doesn’t look much different from a nutritious, balanced diet.
Heart-Healthy Ideas for a Nourishing Lunch
Even though I sometimes crave indulgent foods come lunchtime, it never gives me the feel-good energy I need for the afternoon. I find that if I don’t eat something wholesome for lunch, I’m sluggish for the rest of the day. My goal is to eat a well-rounded meal that’s full of vegetables, lean protein, fiber, and whole grains. All of those things happen to make what I strive to eat heart-healthy too.
1. Cauliflower Rice Lunch Bowl with Sweet Potatoes and Chickpeas
Not only does opting for cauliflower rice keep this lunch bowl gluten-free, it also adds an extra dose of fiber to the situation, which is great for your heart.
2. Spicy Salmon Black Bean Salad
This satisfying salad comes together in just about five minutes since it calls for hot smoked salmon, which is already cooked, and a can of black beans. Enjoy it on its own, over a cooked whole grain, or with whole-wheat pita chips.
3. Roasted Cauliflower & Lentil Bowl with Sweet Potato Hummus
Sweet potatoes not only lend a pretty hue to this hummus, but they also add extra heart-healthy vitamins and minerals to the bowl.
4. Chicken Lentil Soup
This is wholesome comfort food at its best. Make a big pot of this soup over the weekend and you can dig into it all week long or freeze it in batches to enjoy bit by bit.
5. Warm Beet and Farro Salad
Nutty, chewy farro is a whole grain that is easy to love and a nice departure from the usual brown rice and quinoa. Here it’s enjoyed warm with roasted beets, their sautéed greens, and just a bit of salty feta cheese.
6. Scrambled Chickpea and Spinach Pitas
This vegan recipe makes a dozen hearty sandwiches, which can be frozen for up to three months and taken out as needed. You’ll thank yourself when you have a quick and healthy lunch ready to grab!
7. “Low-Rent” Tuna Poke Bowl
Both tuna and avocado are rich in healthy fats that keep your heart strong. Here they’re tossed with a sweet and sour ginger dressing and served over brown rice.
8. Quinoa Tabbouleh
This Middle Eastern grain salad is usually made with whole-grain bulgar, but here it’s replaced with quinoa to lend some vegetarian protein to the bright, fresh mix.