7-Day Mediterranean Diet Meal Plan
A full week of Mediterranean breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks with real portions — built around roughly 1,800-2,000 calories a day and easy to scale up or down.
Written by Kimberly Clark, Nutritional Scientist · Mediterranean diet educatorReviewed for accuracy by our Registered Dietitian Nutritionist review team · Last updated: July 2026Quick answer
A Mediterranean diet meal plan builds each day around a vegetable-and-legume base, extra-virgin olive oil, whole grains and fish. A typical day: Greek yogurt with berries and walnuts, a lentil and vegetable salad with olive oil, baked salmon with roasted vegetables and farro, plus fruit or hummus with vegetables as snacks.
Key takeaways
- Plan two fish meals, two legume meals and one poultry meal per week; keep red meat to once.
- Every plate is roughly half vegetables, a quarter protein and a quarter whole grains or starchy vegetables.
- Olive oil is used generously — one to four tablespoons a day is normal on this pattern.
- Batch-cooking grains, roasted vegetables and a legume dish makes the week's meals assembly, not cooking.
This plan follows the same structure outlined in our guide to what the Mediterranean diet is: olive oil as the primary fat, fish 2-3x a week, legumes and whole grains daily, and red meat kept to a minimum. Every meal below lists an actual portion, not just a dish name, so you can shop and prep without guesswork.
The full 7-day menu
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | Snack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | ¾ cup Greek yogurt, ½ cup berries, 2 tbsp walnuts, 1 tsp honey | Greek salad: 2 cups romaine, cucumber, tomato, ¼ cup feta, 10 olives, ½ cup chickpeas, 1 tbsp olive oil dressing | 4 oz grilled salmon, ½ cup farro, roasted broccoli with 1 tbsp olive oil | 1 medium orange |
| Tuesday | 2 whole-grain toast slices with ¼ avocado, 2 poached eggs, cherry tomatoes | Lentil soup (1.5 cups) with a side of whole-grain pita and 1 tbsp olive oil drizzle | 4 oz roasted chicken thigh, 1 cup sautéed spinach with garlic, ½ cup bulgur pilaf | ¼ cup almonds |
| Wednesday | Overnight oats: ½ cup oats, 1 cup milk, 1 tbsp chia seeds, ½ cup sliced banana | Tuna salad: 5 oz canned tuna in olive oil, mixed greens, white beans (½ cup), lemon-olive oil dressing | 4 oz baked cod, 1 cup roasted zucchini and peppers, ½ cup couscous | 1 cup sliced cucumber with 2 tbsp hummus |
| Thursday | Veggie omelet (2 eggs, spinach, tomato, onion) with 1 slice whole-grain toast | Greek chickpea bowl: 1 cup chickpeas, cucumber, tomato, red onion, feta, 1 tbsp olive oil | 4 oz grilled shrimp skewers, 1 cup Greek-style green beans, ½ cup brown rice | 1 medium pear |
| Friday | ¾ cup Greek yogurt with 2 tbsp granola, 1 tbsp honey, ¼ cup pomegranate seeds | Whole-grain pita stuffed with 4 oz grilled chicken, lettuce, tomato, tzatziki (2 tbsp) | 4 oz baked salmon, roasted cauliflower with 1 tbsp olive oil and cumin, ½ cup quinoa | 1 oz dark chocolate (70%+) and 5 almonds |
| Saturday | Shakshuka: 2 eggs poached in tomato-pepper sauce, 1 slice whole-grain bread for dipping | Farro salad: ¾ cup cooked farro, roasted vegetables, ¼ cup feta, 1 tbsp olive oil-lemon dressing | 4 oz grilled lamb (small portion, weekly limit), Greek salad side, ½ cup rice pilaf | 1 cup grapes |
| Sunday | Whole-grain pancakes (2, small) topped with Greek yogurt and berries | Sardine toast: 2 slices whole-grain bread, 1 can sardines, sliced tomato, olive oil drizzle | 4 oz roasted white fish, 1 cup ratatouille, ½ cup bulgur | 1 medium apple with 1 tbsp almond butter |
Each day lands around 1,850-2,000 calories, with fat mostly from olive oil, fish, and nuts rather than butter or fried foods. If mornings are your weak point, our Mediterranean diet breakfast guide has 15 more options you can rotate in without breaking the pattern.
This is a solid generic starting point — but your ideal calories, allergies, and goals (weight loss, blood sugar, heart health) will change what actually belongs on your plate.
Build my personalized planSunday prep-ahead checklist
Do this Sunday to make the week run itself
- Cook a big batch of farro, bulgur, or quinoa (6 cups) and refrigerate in portions
- Roast a full sheet pan of mixed vegetables (zucchini, peppers, cauliflower, broccoli)
- Cook 2 cups dried chickpeas or lentils, or rinse 3-4 cans
- Hard-boil 6 eggs for quick breakfasts and salad toppers
- Portion nuts and dried fruit into snack bags
- Make a batch of olive oil-lemon dressing (½ cup olive oil, ¼ cup lemon juice, garlic, oregano)
- Wash and chop salad greens, store with a paper towel to keep crisp
How to extend this into a 30-day plan
Rather than writing 30 unique days, rotate this 7-day menu four times and swap the protein and vegetable within each meal slot each week: week 1 uses salmon, week 2 swaps in sardines or trout, week 3 uses shrimp, week 4 uses white fish like cod or halibut. Do the same rotation with vegetables — zucchini and peppers one week, eggplant and green beans the next — so you're eating the same structure with different actual food, which keeps grocery lists simple without becoming repetitive. This rotation logic is exactly how the sample day in our what is the Mediterranean diet overview scales into a full month.
Adjusting calories up or down
| Meal component | ~1,400 kcal/day | ~1,800 kcal/day | ~2,200 kcal/day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olive oil per meal | 1 tsp | 1 tbsp | 1.5-2 tbsp |
| Protein portion (fish/poultry) | 3 oz | 4 oz | 5-6 oz |
| Whole grains | ¼ cup cooked | ½ cup cooked | ¾-1 cup cooked |
| Nuts/snacks | 1 tbsp | 2 tbsp (¼ cup) | ¼-⅓ cup |
| Legumes | ⅓ cup | ½ cup | ¾ cup |
To drop to roughly 1,400 calories, shrink the grain and oil portions listed above rather than skipping meals — vegetables and lean protein should stay generous. To scale up to 2,200 calories for a more active person, add the extra olive oil and larger protein portions, plus a second snack like ¼ cup nuts with fruit. For deeper context on why this pattern works for fat loss even without strict calorie counting, see our Mediterranean diet for weight loss guide, and if you're weighing it against other approaches, check Mediterranean diet vs. other diets.
Shopping list basics
- Extra-virgin olive oil (buy the largest bottle you'll use within 2-3 months)
- Canned fish: sardines, tuna, salmon in olive oil
- Dried or canned legumes: chickpeas, lentils, white beans
- Whole grains: farro, bulgur, quinoa, brown rice, whole-grain bread and pita
- Fresh produce: tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, leafy greens, seasonal fruit
- Greek yogurt, feta, and a moderate amount of other cheese
- Nuts and seeds: almonds, walnuts, chia seeds
Skip the trial and error — answer a few questions about your calories, allergies, and goals and get a plan built around them, not a generic template.
Get my custom meal planReferences
[1] Estruch, R., Ros, E., Salas-Salvadó, J., et al. (2018). Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a Mediterranean diet (PREDIMED). New England Journal of Medicine, 378(25), e34. View the study
[2] Rees, K., Takeda, A., Martin, N., et al. (2019). Mediterranean-style diet for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 3, CD009825. View the study
[3] Davis, C., Bryan, J., Hodgson, J., & Murphy, K. (2015). Definition of the Mediterranean diet: a literature review. Nutrients, 7(11), 9139-9153. View the study
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free Mediterranean diet PDF?
This 7-day menu above is designed to be printed or screenshotted as-is — copy the table into a document or take a screenshot of each day. We don't currently offer a separate downloadable PDF, but the table format above contains everything a PDF version would.
How many calories is this meal plan?
As written, it lands around 1,850-2,000 calories per day. Use the calorie-adjustment table above to scale it down to roughly 1,400 calories or up to roughly 2,200 calories by resizing oil, protein, and grain portions rather than removing whole meals.
Can I swap meals around?
Yes — every breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack in this plan is built from the same food groups, so you can mix and match across days freely. Swapping Tuesday's dinner for Thursday's, for example, won't change the overall nutritional balance of the week.
What about a 30-day Mediterranean diet plan?
Repeat this 7-day structure four times, rotating the protein (salmon, then sardines, then shrimp, then white fish) and vegetables each week so meals stay varied. See the 30-day extension section above for the exact rotation logic.
Is the Mediterranean diet good for picky eaters?
It's flexible enough to work — the core structure (protein + vegetable + whole grain + olive oil) accommodates substitutions like chicken instead of fish on non-seafood days, or roasted carrots instead of zucchini. Picky eaters should lean on the [Mediterranean diet food list](/mediterranean-diet-food-list) to find approved swaps they'll actually eat.