Vegetarian family friendly ideas!

[BahMooQuack]

Okay, probably the topic has been done to death, but DS1 (aged 10 and quite fussy) has decided he wants to be vegetarian. (Actually, he also wants to limit dairy so we might be more on the vegan end of thinsg)

I am making sausage stew today with Linda McCarntey sausages.

His tastes are very plain and unadventurpous so anything spicey is out.

I'd love some new ideas! I am in a bit of a rut anyway and I always find these threads throw up some brilliant new ideas.

Following!

But why on earth does a 10 year old want to limit dairy? Calcium so important at this young age

Lentil Cottage Pie

Mainly because he hates cheese and milk!! I have been looking really closely to alternative calcium sources from the PCRM site, Viva and the Vegetarian society etc plus he get a multi viatmin. So I will be paying attention to that. (I suspect he does not consider icecream to be dairy thoguh.... )

I have been using red lentils in bolognese for abit to up the nturient quotient, so lentil cottage pie sounds like a win!

excuse my typos. I have two fingers strapped together right now!

Beanburgers

Bash up ( mixer or processor ideally) tinned chickpeas, tin bean burgers, chopped onion, garlic, sweet corn, mint sauce and turmeric, shape into burgers, bake or fry, add topping of halomi if you want

Veggie cobbler,

Cook up a mix of veggies ( lcarrots, turnip, beans) , make a white sauce with leeks and garlic ( use oatley if avoiding dairy) add all to baking dish, and top with a suet dumpling topping ( and grated cheese if you like, or use mushrooms or pesto in the suet dumpling) ( 4oz self raising flou, 2oz of veggie suet, any flavourings you fancy, stir in water, it goes quite sloppy and can be dribbled over the veggies) and bake

Quiche, egg and chips, Spanish omelette

That.s a Tin of butter beans not bean burgers

Buy The Green Roasting Tin by Rukmini Iyer and get him involved in the cooking

We make homemade pizzas once a week - everyone gets their own pizza, and can have whatever toppings that they like.

brilliant ideas thanks!!

Bean burgers also a great idea. Tomorrow I HAD planned on tuna fish cakes but abvandined that with the idea of doing sweetcorn, and potato cakes. He adores hummus and could eat that and celery for every meal.

Lentil Bolognese
Jack Monroe's bean chilli (mild chilli powder)
Peanut stirfry
Cauliflower cheese made with dairy alternatives (although for environmental reasons i wouldn't touch soy or almond milk, oaty mild all the way)
Jack Monroe's peach and chickpea curry.
Dhal (with mild curry powder)

But honestly getting sufficient protein and iron you need to be really careful about. DD14 tried this in the new year. An awful lot of veggie meals are sweet potato based and very low on protein. A lot of your protein needs to come from beans chickpeas and lentils. Which meals curry based food work well. If your being fussy about those type of meals it isnt going to work.

The green roasting tin is not very good protein wise

We usually did whatever we were having but without meat. Lots of tomato based things.

Pasta with tomato sauce or tomato and chilli sauce.
Pasta primavera
Pizza but no or minimal cheese. We tended to pop an egg on instead.
Tomato risotto
Lemon and asparagus risotto
Root vegetables casserole with dumplings or mashed potatoes.
Root vegetable pie
Egg and chips with beans
Vegetarian curry with onion bhaji
Vegetarian chilli and guacamole
Eggy bread and beans
Soups - curried carrot and rice with naan was a favourite
Nachos for a treat.
Fajitas or burritos
Sweet and sour or chow mein

All day veggie breakfast is nice - home made baked beans, mushrooms, griddled halloumi, roast tomato, avocado, spinach and poached egg (if he will eat eggs)

There’s a lovely recipe for bulgar wheat tomatoes and pepper in the roasting tin cookbook that my kids like

Spinach and roasted tomato risotto

Baked potatoes with sweet corn pepper and cheese

Pizza beans - drained butter beans topped with passers, garlic, then anything you would put on pizza: sweetcorn, peppers, etc, then mozzarella and Parmesan and bake. You could top with vegan cheese although personally I’d use it as a way to get some stealth dairy into him!

Chickpea curry and sweet potato and spinach Dahl is popular here.

[makes notes]

Give him bigger carb portions if he might not eat enough. Do a deal, if you're supporting this, he has to try new things.

Dd prefers Cashew nuts, chickpeas, halloumi cheese or tofu rather than other meat substitutes. Family favourites are cauliflower cheese, Thai green curry, chickpea curries with naan, lentil daal. Egg chips and beans. Greggs vegan sausage rolls are also rather good. Get him to look up some bosh recipes and choose some to try. But also give him an easy out if he doesn't want to continue long term - don't make too big a deal of it.

Thanks for the advice Eva. :)

I am very supportive oif him being a vegetarian (although I am not myself) but i really remember well my own mother first of all scoffing when I wanted to be vegetarian at his age, and then later when i was ateen and her 'told you so attitude' when I went back to meat eating. I resented it alot so will defintiely let Ds feel his way with it and if he changes his mind then that is okay too!

I like the idea of 'doing deals ' though as he tends to be very fussy. He is pretty open to reasoned negotiation!!

Another family staple here is a mushroom stroganoff or risotto ..use oatley creme in the first and mixed nuts in both for texture and protein

Oh! I have just rememebred a dish i used to make..... roasted peppers stuffed with nutty risotto. Yum!

I would give him a vegetarian cook book and ask him to look through it and suggest meals from it.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/crispy-greek-style-pie

This is a favourite here and easy to vary the fillings.

We had this so did vegetarian January. Couple of things that were hits - Linda McCartney stuff - the mozzerella burgers were really meaty, the shredded duck and pulled pork were not too far off their meat equivalents.

Lots of nice recipes on BBC Good Food - Tortellini Soup, Sweet Potato & Lentil Curry, Halloumi Warm Salad.

Love the greek pie. We went to Greece last year and Ds adored it.

My Best friend gave me a recipe for tofu pasties which i think will work. I already make by choice crumbed tofu nuggets and tofu schnitzel as part of my regular rotation.

Frittata ~~ good for using up left over vegetables.

Hearty vegetable soups, add rice/soup pasta/barley

Stuffed baked peppers/aubergines/large tomatoes/ round courgettes, again good for using up leftovers, can be the main item for the vegetarian and served with chop or fish for the omnivores.