I'm trying to eat less meat....ideas for family dinners?

[FireworkParrot]

For various reasons I've decided to cut right down on my meat consumption, although I'm not ready to go full vegetarian and am not sure I ever will be but I'm aiming to choose vegetarian options most of the time and eat meat only occasionally. DH and DC supportive of this and luckily happy to eat vegetarian meals sometimes but still want meat at least a few times a week. Does anyone who either does this in their family or has one vegetarian in the family have ideas for family meals? So far they're happy to eat pasta that doesn't come with any meat and would be ok with something like a three bean chilli but I'm running out of ideas. Do people cook meals then add some meat separately for the meat eaters? Or keep some vegetarian options in the freezer to add to meals like roast dinners or sausage and mash? I'd appreciate some ideas.

I do a stir fry with the cauldron marinated tofu. .its delicious.
salad with jacket potato
mac & cheese
and following for further inspiration!

There are 2 vegetarians in my family, 2 omnivores and 1 pescatarian.

Sometimes I will cook something like a bean stew, then add meat or veggie sausages. Or stir fry veg and noodles, then add either tofu, or chicken. I will make one marinade, satay for example and divide it between the tofu and chicken, then grill on either side of the grill pan.

Other times I will cook separate dishes, although if it's something like spinach and ricotta lasagne, we all have the same.

Another idea is wraps, salad and a meat or veggie option and everyone helps themselves.

I am the only vegetarian in our house , sometimes we all eat meatless meals sometimes I just substitute my own thing. This week I'm doing a roast they will all have chicken I will have cheddar & asparagus pie from Aldi which is lovely. I'm doing veggie chilli with quorn mince everyone will have that . Mash , veggie sausages , peas and onion gravy. Veggie kebabs , pitta breads and salad , fajitas made with quorn pieces, roasted veg lasagne. Jacket potatoes with various fillings. Stirfry they have chicken or pork I have halloumi, roasted veg lasagne, quorn nuggets with salad Mayo & sweet chilli sauce are lovely I could eat that every day

Curries and rice. Obviously there’s lots of different types, but I find anything saucy, spicy and warming with rice makes up for any lack of meat.

With your 3 bean chilli, whip up a cornbread if you haven’t tried that already.

Roasted veg, some kind of grain (I like buckwheat), seeds and a tahini based dressing.

Roasted celeriac with tomatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper. Serve with crusty bread.

Homemade pizza.

But honestly, curry and rice is my main staple. Thai, Indian (from all diff regions) Sri Lankan, Malaysian, so many options!

In terms of storage, with veggie food, largely I prefer to make a big enough portion for dinner one day for all and lunch the next day (rice is pretty risky to store cooked, so I tend to make a fresh batch when I need it).

Oh and curries and pizzas

We had poached egg, avocado and mushroom last night.

Jacket potato beans cheese.
Toad in the hole with the cauldron Cumberland (veggie) sausages.
Cauliflower and potato/sweet potato curry.

I live alone but just vary between meat/fish/veggie, actually I did the same when Dd lived here.
So long as the food is well cooked and tasty I don't think you miss the meat.

My daughter decided to reduce her carbon footprint significantly and has become vegan. Whilst the rest of us are not, it has made me look at things in a different way.

Last night I did a red Thai curry. I added chicken breast for the meat eaters in our family but they were all commenting on the vegetables and how good they were.
I chargrilled aubergine, chopped french beans, bamboo, and lots of chunky onion into the sauce.

We have decided that the chicken wasn't needed at all and didn't bring anything to this dish.

This keeps happening.

I do an Indian curry using chickpeas, simmered first so they are very tender. Lots of coconut milk and add in sultanas.

I make lasagne (vegetarian not vegan) by making a red lentil Bolognese base, you can add in TVP fine mince, tomato purée, sugar, tinned tomatoes, oil, herbs, seasoning, vegetable stock, yeast flakes, and gravy browning.

This is then used to make lasagne with a white sauce or I add chilli packet mix and kidney beans for a decent chilli.

We now bake without eggs, i purée apples and freeze them as egg substitutes. You add in oil to the apple in the final recipe.

I have discovered gorgeous waffles without egg.

The whole family collectively have decided vegan sausage rolls are better than the meat versions.

We are not vegan at all but taking steps based on taste to improve our carbon footprint.

I have been surprised at how easy the swaps have been.

www.annabelandgrace.com/roasted-mushroom-aubergine-moussaka/

This moussaka is yummy (usually have with salad).

Shepherds pie or bolognese made with lentils instead of mince is good.

Quiche or frittata with salad.

Loads of great risotto recipes without meat.

2 options.

Cook meals that naturally don't contain meat.

Cook meals where the meaty bit can be veggie or meaty, for example, sausage and mash. Veggie sausages for you, whatever sausages the meat eaters want.

Things like halloumi make a great replacement. I do halloumi wraps. Cook the halloumi and pile the plates with julienned salad vegetables, pickles, anything you could want in the wrap. Usually served with some home made wedges.

Spinakopita is a great veggie main.

Spaghetti with home made tomato sauce. You can cook meaty and veggie meatballs to go with it.

Egg, chips and peas is the food of the gods. You could always chuck on a sausage if the meat eaters want them.

One thing I'd also say, is if you can master cooking lentils, they're filling and nutritious and can really make a dish. I make a lentil cottage pie.

Stir fry is also easy to adapt to veggie Vs meaty. Ditto burgers.

The other things is learning to make vegetables the star of the dish.

Our favourite veggie meals are

Frittata
Risotto
Stir fry with tofu
Halloumi wraps with onion and peppers
Pasta bake with courgette and onion
Ravioli and tomato sauce

We eat a mix. Vegetarian Dd20 is home from uni til next week, so we have some meat free meals for 4, and some meals with meat for 3, and alternate protein for 1.

Tend to be things like stir fries, enchiladas, sausage casserole, pasta, curry, pizza. All can be with and/or without meat. I don't cook different meals, just variants.

DH and DS are vegetarians (last 2 years so not always the case). I am not but am quite positive about vegetarian stuff. Possibly not what you wanted but gousto boxes have been really useful for us- really good choice of vegetarian stuff and we’ve ended up frequently recreating them fairly easy.

Is a very easy (and lazy) way to try stuff you wouldn’t otherwise try. So much of the hassle is taken out.

@beautifullymad

My daughter decided to reduce her carbon footprint significantly and has become vegan. Whilst the rest of us are not, it has made me look at things in a different way.

Last night I did a red Thai curry. I added chicken breast for the meat eaters in our family but they were all commenting on the vegetables and how good they were.
I chargrilled aubergine, chopped french beans, bamboo, and lots of chunky onion into the sauce.

We have decided that the chicken wasn't needed at all and didn't bring anything to this dish.

This keeps happening.

I do an Indian curry using chickpeas, simmered first so they are very tender. Lots of coconut milk and add in sultanas.

I make lasagne (vegetarian not vegan) by making a red lentil Bolognese base, you can add in TVP fine mince, tomato purée, sugar, tinned tomatoes, oil, herbs, seasoning, vegetable stock, yeast flakes, and gravy browning.

This is then used to make lasagne with a white sauce or I add chilli packet mix and kidney beans for a decent chilli.

We now bake without eggs, i purée apples and freeze them as egg substitutes. You add in oil to the apple in the final recipe.

I have discovered gorgeous waffles without egg.

The whole family collectively have decided vegan sausage rolls are better than the meat versions.

We are not vegan at all but taking steps based on taste to improve our carbon footprint.

I have been surprised at how easy the swaps have been.

When my DD went veggie I did similar and we all discovered how much we didn’t miss meat. We rarely use meat substitutes either and probably eat 70% vegetarian as a family. We eat meat if we fancy it but the less meat we eat the less I fancy it and I really couldn’t face a big lump of meat like a roast etc.

For bolognese, switch to the quorn mince (honestly couldn't tell the difference, especially if you do a nice sauce). Lentils are an easy substitute for traditional meals again like bolognese, lasagne, cottage pie etc. You can get tins of them at tesco.

You could start by just switching to the meat alternatives and find the ones you like, then look for very veggie specific meals. If you like cooking then I quite like the Ella plant based cookbook.

And yes for curries with chickpeas!

Also I'm not sure if you're also reducing fish, but a delicious tuna Mayo alternative is mashing up chickpeas to have with the mayo. So good!! You have to try it. I add a bit of cheese to mine.

Maybe just find a veggie cookbook and try out a few recipes?

I love a good curry, and we all like tofu (just marinaded and cooked it in the air fryer), pasta, risotto, stir fry, chilli/taco/wraps..., anything in pastry, shepherdess pie (veggies with mash on top), potato and leek pasties... quiche, pizza, biriyani...ratatouille...omelettes. Yum

I really only buy ready made sausages (veggie not vegan as I find the vegan versions of things often makes me feel queasy) and Quorn slices for sandwiches.

Lasagne! I don’t sub the meat for anything or it can get really heavy.

www.squaremeal.co.uk/recipes/cauliflower-mac-n-cheese_48
Very yum recipe and goes down well for the both the meat lovers and the non meat eaters in my family

I use quorn and red kidney beans to make "chicken" enchiladas

Oh yes - cauli cheese mmmmm. I put a teensy layer or red pesto on the bottom of the dish before I pop in for cauli (ans broccoli l) and cheese sauce. And top with breadcrumbs. Bloody lovely.

All good suggestions. We have one vegetarian in the family and she mostly sorts her own food out, but we all like
Frittata, jacket potatoes with cheese/coleslaw/beans, egg and chips, halloumi wraps, soup, dhal.

Obviously everyone has different preferences but I find my family miss the meat less if it's a completely different recipe rather than meat free versions of their favourites.

Another vote for find a good vegetarian cookbook and cut down on meat gradually.

Anna Jones is a big winner in this house - DH ( the meat eater) loves anything Anna Jones and doesn't miss meat in her recipes.

Our next door neighbours are nearly vegan and recommended Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Much More Veg - again we ate at their house and the food was fantastic.

So I tend to cook one vegetarian meal a week, one cheese/eggs, one fish and the rest meat. Even those will include stretching out leftovers from roasts etc so meat consumption has reduced over all. You can reduce the amount of meat in each meal as well by padding with beans/chickpeas/veg/lentils.

But recently it's grown to two vegetarian meals a week and DH hasn't noticed the difference

If you do it gradually and the food is nice then you can avoid a mutiny.