Update January 2025: More Than Broccoli launched in 2022 as a vegetarian website and year-long project and has since transitioned to be fully plant-based. Read more on the about page here. This post has been updated to reflect this change.

If you have never consciously tried to make your meals plant-based, the task can seem quite daunting. More Than Broccoli helps you to plan this change.

More Than Broccoli has been designed to make it as easy as possible to cook and eat plant-based more often, giving you tried- and tested recipes, introducing delicious meat substitutes, suggestions for meal plans, and starting with familiar flavours and dishes. But the fact remains that we are creatures of habit. It is not easy to make a shift in the way you eat, even if it’s “only” once a week.

It took me a few years to fully switch to a plant-based diet. Along the way, I adopted new habits that helped me make the shift and plan for more plant-based meals. Here are my three tips on how to eat plant-based more often.

1: Plan ahead

Planning your meals not only saves you time during the week, it also makes it easier to make a slight change. More Than Broccoli features a wide variety of recipes which are filtered by different tags to choose from, such as pasta, rice, using a meat substitute or tofu. Pick a category that you are interested in and choose a recipe that sounds most appealing to you.

Now that you know what you will cook, the next step is to plan for when you will make the dish. Try to identify one day in the following week where you have time to try a new recipe. Pick a day where you don’t have any commitments yet in the evening (like sports) and/or where your day is not as busy.

You then need to make sure you have all the ingredients at home to start cooking. This removes another barrier to trying something new. Make sure that the day you picked to try the new recipe is after you do groceries.

The key is to decide in advance on what day of the week you are cooking plant-based. You can keep your current way of cooking on other days and buying groceries the same. This way you are using your existing habits to create a new one, which is a technique called ‘habit stacking’.

2: Start a collection

Once you have created time to try something new, you will need instructions. More Than Broccoli gives you recipes to try. But you may want to try something else instead or in addition. The idea is to plan for cooking more plant-based by collecting recipes that inspire you.

Why? It helps with motivation. When I am in the mood of trying something new, I go through my collection to see what I fancy trying that week. I also often get reminded of meals that I haven’t prepared in a while but that I really enjoyed.

Think about it: how often have you come across a meal or recipe online that you thought looked very tasty? And how often did you save this? Now think about all the times that you are trying to come up with meals for the week or day ahead. Starting a collection, whether that is a digital or physical one, will make it easier to decide what to cook. You won’t forget about that tasty meal you saw on Instagram. And it will make it easier to choose a plant-based meal.

Having a collection can also help you learn about new ingredients to try or how to prepare something. My collection includes new recipes and favourites, but also articles with tips on seasonal vegetables, and explanations on different products.

3: Rethink your favourite meal

I save all the meals and recipes that I like the look of, whether they are plant-based or not. The reason is simple: there are enough tasty meat substitutes on the market to make most meals plant-based these days — you can even make a delicious burger!

So think about your favourite meal: can you replace the meat with a meat substitute? Or can you even take out meat completely, and add another high protein ingredient instead?

To help with this, I’d recommend browsing through the vegan/plant-based isle at your local supermarket. Knowing what is available is half the job.