There are tons of options! Too many, really!

I’d start with thinking about macros and veggies.

Carbs: rice, bread, other grains, etc.

Protein: beans, tofu, seitan, tempeh

Veggies: all of them they are great.

While these are just ingredients, there are tons of combos that make great food. A nice vegan burrito can just be beans, rice, and veggies (all of the above spiced and seasoned of course) in a nice tortilla. A delicious Indian dal is lentils, spices, and sometimes another base like tomato, and can be eaten with rice and a salad. You can make a nice fried tofu and then eat it in a stir fry and serve with rice. You can treat seitan like as faux meat, more or less, and fry it up in a stir fry or season it and bread it and deep fry it etc etc. You can make a very nice burrito bowl centered on Mexican frijoles negro and dry pan fried corn. Chili is basically just tomatoes, beans, and spices.

There are also several accidentally vegan easy meals, like freezer stuff. There are Chinese veggie dumplings in most Asian markets. I like to get nice frozen potato pierogi. Black bean burgers are great and can be pan fried from frozen. You can spruce up instant noodles with frozen veggies and tofu in a pinch.

There is also a ton of vegan junk food out there and it is A-OK to have some. I just wanted to focus on healthier options first.

Also consider getting both a rice cooker and an I instant pot. You’ll eat more rice if you have a rice cooker. Parboiled rice is as nutritious as brown rice but tastes way better IMO. An instant pot enables you to cook dry beans quickly. Dry beans are incredibly cheap and last forever when stored properly. If you want to cook Indian pulses you will need to cook them, I’ve never seen most of them in canned form.

Also vegans inevitably discover nutritional yeast because it tastes so good and fits a similar savory profile as cheese when combined with garlic powder. It’s also very good for you!

Lentils. Look up some recipes for dal makhani or similar Indian dishes. May at worst need to sub in coconut milk or oil if they use cream/ghee/etc. but tons of Indian dishes are already vegetarian. Can sub tofu for Paneer as well. It will require some spices to get started, which will be a little expensive if you’ve got nothing. But past that, most Indian dishes are mostly spice in a sauce, not too bad to make just taste as you add spices and add them slowly and keep tasting until it’s good. Recipes will get you in the right ballpark but older spices are more dull so they may need more (or less) depending.

Stir fry is also nice and cheap and easy if you can get veggies at a produce stand it’s typically much cheaper. Cut up whatever veggies you like, fry on high heat in oil, add day old rice from anything else you were cooking before (or noodles from ramen or etc. works as well) and some soy sauce, whatever sweetener you use (honey is normal but just sugar or agave are fine) if you can get fresh ginger and grate that and some garlic in, do that. Protein whatever you have works.

Something I make sometimes that is stupid easy is my ghetto ass beans and rice. I have a fancy rice cooker that I add 3 cups of rice to with equal parts water. Then I add 2 cans of drained black, pinto, and/or kidney beans. Then dump in a jar of salsa. Let it cook the rice and stir when done.

It’s really just a dump and push start recipe and it’s not glamorous but super easy and quick. Makes like 6-8 servings. Don’t let it overcook because it can get dried out.

Homemade hummus can be budget friendly and is amazing over whatever grain you choose to serve it with (pasta, rice, bread, ect).