Vegetarian recipe ideas

A random request.

I recall a few people down the years saying they were vegetarian.

We've made the decision to eat one vegetarian dinner each week, and had maybe 8 weeks of it now. We got a veggie recipe book and are making our way through it. So far I'd say there's only been one dinner I've actually really enjoyed and honestly, I'm struggling with it a bit. We've tried things which have lots of flavour, but it largely feels like the meals aren't complete.

I wondered 2 things. Firstly, has anyone who has shifted to vegetarian meals experienced similar as part of the transition? And secondly, does anyone have any recipes they really enjoy which are veggie based and flavourful? (though nothing with aubergines or tofu!)

Thanks in advance.

 

Nut roast.

 

Red lentil curry

 

Substitute meat in dishes with either Quorn pieces or vegetarian mince. Try things like Curries, Bolognaise, Chill, Pasta bakes, Rissotto, Spanish omelettes,

 

I think so far we've had a baked gnocchi dish, an orzo lemon and roasted broccoli dish, veggie chilli, a lentil curry, another orzo dish with feta and a couple of pasta dishes... Oh and yesterday black bean noodles with peanuts, Pak choi and mushrooms (and we threw in snap peas and red pepper). I don't really want to do meat substitutes.

As I say, it feels like something is missing, and I don't know if its the texture and flavour of meat I'm missing or the recipes haven't quite been right and we're still trying to find good staple dishes.

 

Keir Starmers Black Hole salad .

Although it tends to repeat on you .

 

If you lightly sprinkle olive oil over a a plate of kale, then it slips off easier into the trash can.

 

I've been vegan for 5 years now. I'll share a longer list of resources tonight after work but The Guardian's new Feast app is really good for filtering vegan/vege recipes if you're willing to pay a small fee. Most of the recipes are accessible for free on their site but are much harder to find. Meera Sodha's in particular are very good. Obsessed with this one.

 

Do a cheap trial of Hellofresh for a few weeks then steal their veg recipes. We've been having veggie ones for a couple of weeks now and they are filling.

 

Lol, I actually really like kale ;-) Though my favourite dish has marinated beef with it!

 

Thanks, we get Good food every month and there are far more veggie and vegan dishes than there used to be. We also got the green cookbook from Rukmini Iyer.

 

But are they tasty?

 

I'm more of a Cabbage / Spinach / Chard type of person as I side dish, both of which are not too common over here.

 

Me and the wife aren't vegetarian but we do have many meat free days. I just make the same meals as I normally make but just substitute/remove the meat.

Curry using sweet potato/mushrooms/lentils etc. Ragu based meals. I use mushrooms quite often as the meat substitute. We even have a full Sunday dinner but without the meat, just do extra veggies/roasties/stuffing balls etc.

 

We try and eat seasonal veg where we can, so I wonder if we might do a bit better through autumn when we tend to have butternut squash quite a bit. We do a really good laksa recipe, but it has 5 spice chicken rested on top, so we could maybe try taking the meat out of that.

Did you initially feel like something was missing when you had meat free dishes?

 

I like greens of any sort really, though I'd say cavolo nero is my favourite.

 

Mey

Meyt and tatie pie wiart meyt.

 

Not really. I've always really enjoyed veggies though, so it's not much of a miss for me. It's all about the sauce.

I love a good garden salad too, just make your own potato/egg/pasta salad, savoury cheese, tuna mayo etc to go with it. I sometimes make a pasta salad with beetroot, mushrooms, onion, and a good dressing, add some feta cheese. Lovely.

Don't forget a nice bread too.

 

Its funny, during the day, most of our lunches are meat free. Yesterday we had butterbeans in passata with red pepper, lemon, rocket, oregano and feta with a pitta. I always really enjoy that. Maybe its just a psychological thing for the main meal.

 

Jackfruit is disgusting.