Here are some ideas!

• Peas and rice. It’s a Caribbean coconut rice with beans in it and very good. Coconut is a great source of vegan fat, which increases your calories on the cheap.

• Chili.

• Basically any Indian dal. Chickpea dishes, black dal, red beans, toor dal.

• baking your own bread is pretty easy so long as you have a pot you can put in the oven - or if you can spritz with water every 5-10 minutes.

• tofu can be reasonably priced and is delicious. Make east Asian food with it. Fry it in a little oil the lazy way - cut into triangles, let it fry for 5-10 minutes per side.

• pasta dishes can be reasonably priced

• pb&j is underrated

• Mexican rice and frijoles negros

• making your own seitan is reasonably doable, just get some broth (better than bouillon is yummy) and vital wheat gluten, combine, knead, and steam. It can then be used as a meat substitute, like in a pasta dish. Put some fennel and a couple other spices in it and you have a sausage substitute that you can brown and incorporate into a pasta with peppers. You can also make tacos and burritos with it.

• Don’t sleep on soups. A nice Greek chickpea soup is so easy. Chop up carrots, celery, onions, and fry a bit too develop flavor. Then add water and your broth mixture, cooked chickpeas, salt, olive oil, black or white pepper, and lemon to taste.

• thai curries are actually very easy and go great with fried tofu and veggies.

• there’s a ton of Chinese stuff that’s good. Just like with Indian food, could probably write books on good vegan options. Various styles of tofu, noodles, vegetables, dumplings…

• Soy curls are really good, they’re basically tvp with a better texture. Just soak em and then flavor with broth, use as a substitute for chicken. Good in salads, good deep fried, good dry fried with a bunch of spices (like for tacos), good with sesame soy sauce.

people have covered actual meals pretty well, just want to add to try and find spices in the big bags that they often sell at asian/indian groceries (maybe also some supermarkets) depending where you are. you can get a giant bag for like $2.50 where i am that will last for ages for the same prices as one of those little white people spice containers they have at the supermarket, its literally 10x cheaper. adding plenty of spices is one of the keys to making cheap vegan food tasty so its well worth it

Potatoes (with skin on) are by far the best calories and nutrition you can get with money in a lot of places

Make curry with it and add carrots and onions

Lentils and rice can be cooked together in a rice cooker or a pot. Rice and split red lentils have pretty much the same cooking time, so when one is done the other is as well. You can use vegetable stock at half strength instead of water which makes the flavour nice. Beyond that maybe a little hot sauce and you’re good.

No chopping, no knives, one pot meal. prep time is about 20 minutes.

I would use 1/2 cups rice and 1/2 cups lentils. With 2 cups of half strength vege stock (or water).

Protein = 23g +7g =30g

Calories= 340 + 350 =700

If you wanted to add some more cheap calories and flavour I would put in 1-2 TBSP olive oil, the meal is pretty low in fats to start with.

I think you could make this for well under 2$ per serving, and it makes a pretty large meal.

Good luck my vegan comrade

spuds are good and versatile
sweet potatoes also if they are cheap where you live
carrots are hilariously cheap where i am, so i eat a lot of them
frozen peas
onions
mushrooms are cheap here too