What would a simple Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) daily meal system look like? Videos for individual WFPB recipes are listed in sections below; let's see the big picture first:

Breakfast:

• Sweet breakfast: Oatmeal or overnight oats or sweet dalia porridge.

  or

• Savory breakfast: Masala oats or mixed veg dalia.

Lunch:

• Have 'dal' (chana masala, for example) with some brown rice and simple raw salad by the side.
• (optional) If we are a fan of curd or yogurt, we may consume some plant-based (non-dairy) curd by the side. Even better, prepare a 'raita' with grated veggies like grated carrots or grated 'lauki' in it. An extra helping of raw veggies is a good thing!
• Rice has too much arsenic content these days. Switching to another grain is recommended by Dr Greger (see details in Brown Rice section below).

Dinner:

• Have 'mixed veggies' with some whole wheat chapati and some simple raw salad by the side.
• (optional) Have plant-based (non-dairy) curd or even better, 'raita', as outlined above for lunch.

Additional foods during the day:

• Snacks: Eat some fruits like apple, banana, orange, …
• Chai: Enjoy some 'masala chai'!
• Green Smoothie: This is an easy-to-prepare but non-traditional preparation. It helps us boost our leafy greens intake daily.

Recipe videos for simple daily meals are described in sections below. For a comprehensive list of Indian recipes, see Indian Whole Food Plant-Based Recipes.

Oats are an awesome grain! It comes in many forms: oat groats (very hard; take a longtime to cook; great for sprouting), steel cut oats (the most common form of oats — used for preparing oatmeal), quick cook oats (these are similar to steel cut oats but have been pre-cooked, so it's faster to cook them at home), thick rolled oats (these are oats that have been flattened), rolled oats (same as thick rolled oats but thinner), and so on.

What type of oats to use? Thick rolled oats are awesome: they cook easily. We can prepare both sweet & savory recipes with thick rolled oats — see videos below.

For even more recipes & ideas, see Masala Oats Recipes — Steel Cut Oats Recipes — Rolled Oats Recipes — Oats Flour Recipes — Whole Grain Recipes — Indian Whole Food Plant-Based Recipes.

Dalia is cracked wheat. It's a whole grain, not a refined grain. We can make sweet or savory preparations with dalia. Two of them are shown in videos below. For more ideas, see Mixed Veg Dalia — Sweet Dalia Porridge — Dalia Tikki — Dalia Salad — Indian Whole Food Plant-Based Recipes.

A simple oil-free Chana Masala recipe is shown in the video below. Chana Masala is so tasty! For a Whole Food Plant-Based preparation, all we have to do is to remove oil! That's all. For more ideas, see Chana Masala — Kala Chana Masala — Chana Chaat — Kala Chana Chaat — Roasted Chana — Chana Dal Fry — Chickpea Sandwich — Simple Hummus — Fancy Hummus — Steamed Bean Dumplings — Beans Recipes — Indian Whole Food Plant-Based Recipes.

In Whole Food Plant-Based guidelines, we consume whole grains instead of refined grains. Brown rice is a whole grain, with all three parts: bran, germ and endosperm. White rice is a refined grain in which bran and germ have been removed (polished away).

Arsenic in Rice! See Arsenic in Rice. Dr Greger prepared an 11-part video series in 2017 to explain that rice has so much arsenic that he recommends not eating any rice at all! What do I do? I don't eat rice regularly. I may eat it sparingly — something like once in 2-3 months on average. In other words, no white rice, no brown rice, no red rice, no black rice for me.

Please use some other grain! Even though I'm showcasing how to cook brown rice through the video below, we should keep in mind Dr Greger's recommendation that we switch to other grains like wheat, barley, amaranth, quinoa, sorghum, teff, amaranth, rye, and so on. See Sweet Corn recipes — Amaranth recipes — Buckwheat recipes — Teff recipes — Quinoa Recipes.

Which rice to buy? How to cook? For those who wish to keep consuming rice despite its arsenic levels, please study these articles:

• (2020) Which Brands and Sources of Rice Have the Least Arsenic?
• (2020) How to Cook Rice to Lower Arsenic Levels.

A simple oil-free mixed veggie preparation is shown below. All we have to do is to make it without oil, ghee or butter. And don't use yogurt or paneer. For more lunch recipe ideas, see Indian Whole Food Plant-Based Recipes.

Today, khichdi is often made with white rice & dal. For Whole Food Plant-Based khichdi, we must avoid oil, ghee & butter. And we must use brown rice instead of white rice. But using some grain other than brown rice is best due to the high levels of arsenic found in rice worldwide (see the discussion about arsenic in rice in the section above).

Instead of brown rice, we can prepare a khichdi from many other grains! For ideas, see Quinoa Khichdi — Oats Khichdi — Barley Khichdi — Bajra Khichdi — Indian Whole Food Plant-Based Recipes.

If we seek curd or yogurt flavor in our meals, we may prepare a plant-based yogurt at home quite easily. The challenge lies in doing it the first time — after that, it's straightforward! Further, we may prepare some 'raita' by mixing in some grated veggies — grated carrots or grated 'lauki', for example. Eating an extra helping of colorful veggies is a good thing!

Below is a simple recipe using peanuts. We can prepare homemade yogurt from almonds, soy, chickpeas, cashews and rice too! See Plant-Based (Non-Dairy) Yogurt Recipes.

There are lots of Whole Food Plant-Based salad recipes online. They are usually complex, with lots of ingredients. To get started, we don't need such complex raw salads. We can prepare something simple with cucumber, onion, tomatoes, 'mooli' (radish), 'kakdi' (Armenian cucumber), cilantro, mint, lemon, herbs n spices.

Raw salads are called 'kachumbar' in North India, 'koshimbir' in Maharashtra and 'kosambari' in South India. There are many variations to such a raw salad. Some use sprouted lentils. Some use curd. In Whole Food Plant-Based versions of such a salad, we may use plant-based (non-dairy) curd. And please don't use sugar; use date sugar or chopped dates instead. Minimize salt. Such a raw salad is so flavorful that we don't need any salt at all!

More salad ideas are here: Koshimbir recipes.

We all know how to prepare a simple oil-free chapati. The only guideline we need to keep in mind is that flour should be whole grain (with bran and germ too), not just endosperm. In Hindi, we say 'chokar yukt atta'. For more ideas like stuffed chapatis and steamed chapatis, see Roti Chapati Recipes.

How may we prepare 'chai' without milk and sugar? Chai is made from black tea, which comes from the tea plant. Many other teas come from the same plant: green tea, white tea, oolong tea, matcha, and so on. So nutritionwise, we can have any of them for the health benefits. Many people prefer simple green tea in hot water, with no other additives. But most people consume 'chai' out of habit, not for its nutritional value.

How may we make 'masala chai' without milk & sugar? Turns out that we can make a fantastic preparation without any tea leaves at all! The idea is to boil a mixture of herbs & spices with plant-based (non-dairy) milk. For sweetness, we may add some dates or date sugar (which is simply dried dates that have been granulated).

For more ideas, Masala Chai recipes.

An important food group in Whole Food Plant-Based guidelines is Fruits. We may eat any fruits as snacks: apple, banana, orange, … whatever is available seasonally and locally around us; organic preferred.

If we prepare a sweet breakfast, then fruits become a part of our breakfast porridge.

A green smoothie is an excellent way to boost our leafy green intake in a day. How to prepare a green smoothie? Should we drink it or 'chew' it? Should we blend fruits? Should we add seeds to it? See Smoothies for a discussion.

If we already eat a raw salad with lots of leafy greens for lunch and dinner, we don't really need a green smoothie. Most people find it difficult to consume salads packed with leafy greens, so a green smoothie is a great way to boost our leafy green intake. Also, a smoothie has the advantage that many more cell walls of leafy greens get broken, so their nutrition oozes out — see Wall Off Your Calories and Smoothies.

Dr Greger's Daily Dozen has 12 food groups: (1) Whole Grains, (2) Beans, (3) Fruits, (4) Berries, (5) Leafy Greens, (6) Cruciferous Veggies, (7) Misc Veggies, (8) Nuts & Seeds, (9) Flaxseed, (10) Herbs & Spices, (11) Beverages and (12) Exercise.

In the meal plans outlined above, how well did we cover Dr Greger's Daily Dozen? Let's explore that in Getting Started With North Indian Meals — Part 2.