Hot summer days need a different kind of approach to dinner. Summer vegan recipes for dinner should be quick, light, big on flavor, and oven-optional. You’ll love how figs make summer vegan dinner recipes sizzle! Here are some ideas for how to incorporate them into foods you’ll love throughout the season.
By focusing on sauces and marinades for summer vegan recipes for dinner, you can prepare fresh veggies and plant-based proteins simply on the grill or on the stove. It also means leftover lunches will get saucy. Fresh herbs will take the dishes over the top too. Vegan summer recipes veer into the no-recipe zone, so you can pick up what looks fresh at the farmer’s market and the sauces and marinades will dress them up.
Sun-Maid and Orchard Choice Figs add natural sweetness and fruitiness—Mission Figs bring a deeper fig flavor, while Golden Figs are a bit nutty and delicately sweet.
Sauces for Vegan Dinner Recipes
Fig Oyster Sauce
Whip up a Fig Oyster Sauce for an easy stir-fry where figs add a fruity flavor and natural sweetness to a sauce blended with oyster sauce and soy sauce for umami, and black pepper and ginger for a bit of heat. Try the sauce, as indicated in the recipe, with tofu and broccoli. Swaps might include eggplant with pineapple and red bell pepper, or cauliflower paired with the tofu and a dash of sesame oil. Or, use the sauce to baste grilled portobellos and other veggies.
Sweet & Spicy Fig Sauce
For fans of sweet and sour sauce, our sweet and spicy sauce hits a lot of the same notes. As such it’s a knockout with crispy tofu or to saute tempeh. Try it with chopped onion and red and green bell pepper and chunks of pineapple. This would be a delicious sauce to bring a bit of sweet heat to skewers too. Use either Golden Figs (for more of a subtle fig flavor and sweetness) or Mission Figs (with a more robust fig flavor and deeper color). Either way, the figs get pureed into a lush sauce you’ll want to spoon over everything. Whisk a peanut sauce by introducing peanut butter or almond butter. Or, spoon it onto a veggie burger.
Fig BBQ Sauce
Sweet, tangy, spicy, and ready for your next cookout or backyard party, you’ll love Fig BBQ Sauce. It’s the sauce you’ll want to keep on hand for basting portobello mushrooms, brushing onto crispy tofu, spreading onto veggie burgers. Just make sure to swap in vegan worcestershire sauce or use soy sauce.
Spiced Fig Enchilada Sauce
Originally envisioned as a sauce for pork, it can be transitioned to vegan by swapping vegetable broth in. The Spiced Fig Enchilada Sauce works well as a drizzle over grilled veggies tucked into warmed tortillas for tacos. It’s bold enough for using to sauce tofu or tempeh too.
Balsamic Fig Glaze
Typically this Balsamic Fig Glaze is used on chicken wings, but is easily made vegan by swapping in plant-based butter and cauliflower “wings.” The brightness of the balsamic has its sweetness amped up with Mission Figs, in this natural flavor pairing. Bolstered by herbs and spices, you’ll love this glaze on tempeh, crispy tofu, grilled zucchini spears, or carrots.
Marinades
Citrus Sherry Marinade
Dry sherry and orange juice form the base of this marinade balanced with soy sauce and herbs. It’s used to marinate the vegetables and plump whole figs for Vegan Kebabs. Marinating the vegetables ahead of time ensures that the marinade penetrates the vegetables, imparting a more robust flavor. This marinade would also be delicious in a kale salad with chickpeas too and other vegan dinner recipes.
Fig Soy Honey Marinade
This Fig Soy Honey Marinade is our pick for cauliflower steaks and a tasty flavor infused into portobello mushrooms too. You’ll find most of the ingredients already in your pantry, perhaps with the exception of rice vinegar—we prefer seasoned, which adds a bit of sugar to this light and bright vinegar. You could also use this marinade as the base for a peanut sauce to toss cold soba noodles, snow peas, julienned carrots, and flash-fried cubes of tofu. Try it with zucchini. This marinade would also be a delightful dipping sauce for vegan summer rolls too.
So, there you have it—our approach to summer vegan recipes for dinner is all about the sauces and marinades for main dishes. Veggie burgers will love a touch of figs in the variety of sauces. Chickpeas and fresh veggies will too. Add one or two of the sauces or marinades to your meal plan to make mealtimes during the summer easy.