January is often when people start looking for lunches that feel a bit lighter, without becoming repetitive or bland. If you’re taking part in Veganuary or simply building more plant-based meals into your routine, the challenge is usually the same, keeping lunches interesting, filling, and still tasty.
Vegan cooking relies heavily on balance. Without meat or dairy, flavour has to come from a careful mix of sweetness, acidity, savoury depth and texture. This is where sauce plays a practical role, not as an afterthought, but as a core component of the dish.
Below are five vegan lunch ideas built around that principle. Each one uses a Harrisons vegan and gluten-free sauce to provide structure, contrast and balance, turning simple ingredients into lunches that hold their own.
Why Sauce Matters in Vegan Lunches
In plant-based cooking, sauce does more than add flavour, it helps complete the dish.
A well balanced sauce provides:
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Acidity, which lifts vegetables and grains and prevents meals from tasting flat
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Sweetness, which balances bitterness from greens or roasted veg
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Savoury notes, which replace some of the depth normally provided by meat
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Moisture and texture, helping dry ingredients be eaten more comfortably
Harrisons sauces are built with this balance in mind, making them particularly useful for vegan lunches where you want flavour without extra prep.
1. BBQ Roasted Veg & Chickpea Wraps
With Harrisons BBQ Sauce
This is a strong starting point for plant-based lunches because it uses heat and sauce together.
Roasting vegetables concentrates their natural sugars, creating sweetness and caramelised edges. Chickpeas add firmness and protein, but on their own can taste dry or earthy. All that filling combined tastes rounded rather than one-note.
Why the BBQ sauce works:
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Sweetness enhances the roasted veg without overpowering
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Acidity cuts through the starchiness of chickpeas
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Smoky notes add depth normally associated with grilled food
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Thickness helps the sauce cling during roasting
Ingredients summary:
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Mixed vegetables (peppers, onions, courgette, sweet potato)
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Add raw greens for contrast and crunch
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Cooked chickpeas
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Wraps or flatbreads
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Shredded lettuce or cabbage
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Pumpkin seeds to top
2. Crispy Tofu Lunch Bowls
With Harrisons Sweet Chilli Sauce
Tofu benefits from contrast, both in texture and flavour.
Baking or air frying tofu removes excess moisture and creates a crisp exterior, which improves mouthfeel and prevents sogginess in packed lunches. This combo of tofu & sweet chilli prevents the bowl from tasting heavy or dull, especially once cooled.
Why the sweet chilli sauce works:
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Sugar balances the neutral, savoury tofu
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Chilli heat adds interest without dominating
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Vinegar-based tang sharpens the dish and lifts grains
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Glossy texture coats tofu evenly rather than soaking in
Ingredients summary:
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Firm tofu
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Cooked rice or quinoa
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Shredded carrot
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Cucumber thinly slided
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Mixed greens
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Seeds for added texture
3. Mediterranean Veg & Hummus Grain Bowls
With a BBQ Sauce Drizzle
This lunch relies on layering rather than cooking complexity.
Grains provide structure and satiety, while roasted Mediterranean vegetables bring sweetness and softness. Hummus contributes fat and creaminess, which can otherwise dominate the dish. Thinning the BBQ sauce with olive oil or lemon juice turns it into a dressing that distributes flavour evenly without overpowering.
Why BBQ sauce works here:
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Acidity offsets the richness of hummus
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Smoke adds contrast to roasted vegetables
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Tomato sweetness bridges the gap between grains and veg
Ingredients summary:
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Cooked grains (quinoa, bulgur or rice)
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Roasted aubergine and courgette
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Cherry tomatoes
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Hummus
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Harrisons BBQ Sauce (thinned with olive oil or lemon, if needed)
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Olives or seeds
4. Vegan Sausage Sandwich
With Harrisons Tomato Ketchup
This lunch works because it leans into familiarity, you just can’t beat a good old sarnie.
Vegan sausages often have a savoury, spiced profile but can feel dry or dense without the right condiment. Ketchup acts as a seasoning and moisture source, not just a topping, making the sandwich more balanced bite to bite.
Why ketchup works:
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Tomato acidity cuts through fat and starch
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Moderate sweetness balances salt and spice
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Smooth texture spreads evenly through the sandwich
Ingredients summary:
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Your favourite vegan sausages
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Fresh ciabatta or toasted bread
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Caramelised onions
5. Leftover Veg & Rice Stir-Up
With Harrisons Sriracha Mayo
This is a practical lunch built around reuse.
Leftover rice and vegetables can taste disconnected or flat without a unifying element. Used at the end of cooking to stir through, the spicy sriracha mayo seasons the dish without masking individual ingredients. And yes, this mayo is gluten-free!
Why sriracha sauce works:
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Chilli heat adds interest to otherwise neutral leftovers
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Creaminess improves mouthfeel and prevents dryness
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Mild acidity lifts reheated rice and vegetables
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Emulsified texture coats ingredients evenly rather than pooling
Ingredients summary:
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Cooked rice (leftover or freshly cooked)
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Mixed leftover vegetables
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Cooked beans or lentils (optional)
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Spring onions or seeds
Vegan & Gluten-Free, Without the Fuss
All of the lunches above use vegan and gluten-free Harrisons sauces, including:
They’re designed to work across cooking, dressing and dipping, without the need for specialist ingredients or adjustments. The same flavour-first approach applies whether you’re cooking plant-based meals occasionally or regularly.
New Year, New Flavour
These lunches are designed to be practical, repeatable, and adaptable. They’re not built around restriction, just solid flavour balance and ingredients that work well together.
By focusing on acidity, sweetness and savoury depth, it’s possible to make vegan lunches that feel complete, filling and satisfying long after January has passed.
Shop Vegan & Gluten-Free Favourites
Explore Harrisons sauces designed for everyday cooking, dipping and drizzling.
