Eating less meat / more veggie / vegan

[Plantsandpuddlesuits]

Ok so my husband and I have been talking and we would like to try to eat more plant based meals.

I love veggie food anyway and will often choose it if I'm eating out but he needs a bit more convincing 🤣

Some nights in the week we eat seperate to the children eg they will have nuggets / pizza / Mac cheese so I'm thinking those nights would be the easiest for the adults to switch

I went out for brunch today and had a full vegan cooked breakfast it was amazing especially scrambled tofu. I also like a tofu dish if we get a Chinese takeaway

We don't want to go fully veggie maybe 1-2 nights a week. Is meat free Monday still a thing?

Looking for meal ideas...

So far I'm thinking tacos with Quorn mince and that's about as far as I've got!

All ideas appreciated!

Do you like cooking or are you looking for quick and easy things? I got Fresh India (really nice veggie Indian recipe book) for Christmas one year and did veganuary a week later. Everything I cooked from the book was amazing but there’s a lot of prep. I tended to batch cook at the weekend and eat the same thing 2-3 times. Nice daals, butternut squash curry, potato dosas (ohhhhh the potato dosas).

Me and my partner are veggie - some meals that we love having are:

• Paneer butter masala www.gousto.co.uk/cookbook/vegetarian-recipes/paneer-butter-masala-with-coriander-naan

• Stir fry with pan-fried tofu

• Naan pizzas (topped with quorn pieces or plant based lardons)

• Veggie 'meatballs' made by cutting up Richmond meat-free sausages, with a swedish style gravy

• Enchiladas or fajitas with beans or quorn mince

• Macaroni cheese

• Spaghetti bolognese/lasagne/pasta bake/moussaka/chilli/shepherd's pie made with quorn mince

• Halloumi and cauliflower rice bowl from Mob Kitchen

• Paella made with veggie sausages and quorn pieces

Good luck

If you like curry then there are loads of options. One of our standby meals is roasted vegetables with cous-cous and falafel and hummus. I did a three bean vegetable chilli with soy mince which turned out really well, and was quite versatile as it could be served with rice, or on a jacket potato.

We tend to have a roast on a sunday - vegetables as normal, roast potatoes made in sunflower oil, and in lieu of meat a nut roast or vegan pie (there are loads out there now, the Pukka ones are quite good and often on offer).

Check out the vegan threads in the food section - loads of ideas in there.

I'm not really into cooking to be honest!

Would rather do quick and easy.

Just remembered we like chickpea and spinach curry

If you're after quick stuff now and again there are some great vegan products in supermarkets now. IMO Gro range are particularly good, their frozen meatballs are lovely and I don't think I could tell the difference in a blind test!

Otherwise try and think outside meat-alternatives for some meals. I wouldn't put quorn mince in a chilli for example, I'd just make it with lots of beans and lentils for consistency. Lots of options for veg curries, pies, pasta dishes etc.

Jack Munro's ' Vegan-ish' cook book is good.

Look on the gousto website. So many tasty / easy veggie recipes. We’ve recreated the tomato / coconut dal with spiced paneer tonight.

You don’t need to have a “meat substitute” (the fake meat stuff) in every veggie meal. I’m going to get flamed and get called a pearl clutcher etc but that stuff is full of shit.
If you’ve got enough protein in your meal (chickpeas, beans, nuts, soybeans, lentils, dairy) it should be filling enough.

I like vegetable stir fry with nuts.
Pasta e Ceci is probably one of my favourite meals.

I do also love macaroni broccoli cauliflower cheese. That’s a filling meal

I think if you're after quick and easy then yeah, start with the nights where the kids are having pizza and pasta - all easy to make veggie and for everyone to have the same things.

I don't love all the processed vegan stuff you can get in the shops these days, and if it's veggie rather than vegan then of course there's eggs - omlettes, egg and chips (still my favourite tea in the whole world!). Bean burgers are incredibly easy to make if you have a food processor - I do ones with a couple of tins of haricot or cannelloni beans whizzed up with sweet corn, jalapeños, coriander and breadcrumbs with an egg to bind. Tend to make that in a big batch and freeze half raw for another day.

Falafels, wraps, sliced peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, various hot sauces depending who is eating them is another go-to, and I make up a tub of fajita spice mix too which means I can fry off some peppers, onions and whatever else is lurking for fajitas really fast - that's one for DS activities nights actually.

I like Quinn products. Meat substitutes are generally just minging. Beans and lentils in dishes taste much better in my opinion. Start with a few tried and tested and then try out a few recipes, some will be hit and miss and some unexpectedly amazing like cauliflower cheese, quoin chicken burgers with chips and salad, cottage pie with kidney beans, lentil dhal with rice. Vege food lasts longer than meat and doesn’t grease up your oven so I find it a bit more convenient also cooks quicker.

Quorn fgs 😵‍💫

The green roasting tin is a good recipe book for quicker one pot type meals.

One meal I like is roasted veg and noodles - so chop up a chunky type veg (butternut squash, sweet potato, cauliflower type thing) with peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes, whole garlic cloves (which have a v mellow taste once roasted) and cashew nuts. Glug some olive oil on it and roast it for 30-60 minutes depending on how you like it (I like mine on the blackened side). Serve with noodles and soy sauce.

Pasta, pesto, olives and sweetcorn or peas is very quick and simple.

Stir fry tofu with a sauce made of siracha, soy and brown sugar is nice if you like spicy food.

I love veg stir fries.cauliflower cheese, crumb and cheese topping.dont buy veggie meals. make curries with butternut squash, sweet potato. Lasagne, shepherdess pie

There is a simple Halloumi Tikka Masala recipe in one of Miguel Barclays cookbooks that is excellent and only has a few ingredients. If you Google if the recipe may come up.

My favourite meal at the moment is bean quesadillas with chopped raw veggies and avocado if we have one.

Depends on your motives. If you just want to eat less meat because you don’t want to be eating animals then fair enough. But if you are doing it for the environment then please don’t buy the fake meat stuff. So much soya and air miles in these. Do some research into the price of processed food on our health. Animal agriculture in the uk (presuming that is where you are from) is vastly different from the places much research takes place. A good look into carbon sequestration in the uk and you will see that meat is not the monster that media portrays it to be.

We did the same a couple of years ago and now have at least one or two veggie meals a week. Our standards are;

• Bean chilli burritos
• Chickpea, cauliflower and spinach curry
• Falafel, hummus, pittas and Moroccan style couscous
• Bean burgers, wedges and coleslaw/salad

We've just bought the Bosh cookbook to try and broaden our repertoire. Kids eat the same as us, although they are teens. They both object to mushrooms and slimy veg like courgettes and aubergines, which limits the options a bit.

I've just cut out meat a couple of weeks ago, and have been cutting down for a few weeks prior to that. Easy meals I've done have included:
Stuffed mushrooms or peppers (from the prepared veg section in Tesco) with a carb and some green veg.
Chickpea and beetroot burgers.
Butternut squash lasagna (takes a while to cook but not much prep).
Mushroom curry.
Ratatouille with cannellini beans stirred in.

We're in a similar position OP that we aren't planning to be full veggie at the moment but do want to reduce our meat intake. We have still ordered meat for Christmas though.

We're mostly cutting out meat from things like curry and stir fry. We'll have veggie pasta, fajitas etc
I already love things like mushroom stroganoff and risotto.
We'll still have the odd spag bol as I just don't enjoy it with meat replacement but actually there are new ones around since I last tried.

We're trying out a few plant based products to have in the fridge/freezer for easy meals. I think it just takes a bit more thought than falling back on meat meals when you're not used to it.

I guess we're thinking we'll have meat maybe 1-2 times a week at home.

I'm not a fan of all the processed vegan meat substitutes. I'd rather make a batch of my own bean burgers and freeze them (Jack Monroe's are really nice).

Beyond that you can't go wrong with a roasted cauliflower. Cut into florets and either coat with bread crumbs and grated parmesan and eat when ever you'd eat something like nuggets or fish and chips or coat with oil and garam masala powder and eat with dhaal and rice.

I make a very simple lasagne by slicing an aubergine, brushing with oil and roasting the slices for 20 minutes. Then layer up with a drizzle of passata, a layer of pasta sheets, a layer of aubergine, more passata, sliced mozzarella, repeat pasta aubergine passata mozzarella and then top with pasta, passata and mozzarella. Takes no time and DC wolf it down.

We'll still have the odd spag bol as I just don't enjoy it with meat replacement but actually there are new ones around since I last tried

Have you tried it without the meat replacements? I much prefer adding split red lentils and pulsed carrots, mushrooms & pepper to the tinned toms, passata & herbs.

We aren't vegetarian, but loads of our meals don't contain meat.
Regulars for us:
Mushroom risotto, or butternut squash risotto.
Homemade halloumi kebabs.
Homemade veggie fajitas (I have peppers and onions, shredded lettuce, jalapeños, cheddar cheese, avocado and soured cream).
A 'lebabese' meal of rice with onions and lentils, served with roast cauliflower, courgette, falafel and houmous.
Tofu pho.
'Breakfast for dinner' - scrambled egg, beans and mushrooms on nice toast.

I've been a vegetarian for 40 years. I prefer meat but just can't justify the impact of it.
My favourite lunch meal or even evening meal if you don't mind a cold meal is this nut and seed loaf with pickles, vegan "ham" slices, hummus, and cheese.

www.rte.ie/lifestyle/recipes/2021/1117/1260459-mary-berrys-nordic-seed-and-nut-loaf/

@MeetMeAtOurSpot

We'll still have the odd spag bol as I just don't enjoy it with meat replacement but actually there are new ones around since I last tried

Have you tried it without the meat replacements? I much prefer adding split red lentils and pulsed carrots, mushrooms & pepper to the tinned toms, passata & herbs.

That sounds lovely but for me, it isn't a bolognese. I know that sounds silly but I'd rather have it now and again with some good quality local meat. As I said, we're not stopping meat altogether.

Lots of lovely recipe ideas here.

We are veggie and what you could do is order a Gousto recipe box for 2 people x 2 recipes a week?

So many lovely recipes to choose from!

My work from home veggie lunch:
Fry some pre-chopped frozen onion for a couple of mins. Add a spoonful of smoked paprika, a can of tomatoes and a can of 5 mixed beans/sweetcorn. Done!
(Also nice with dollop of creme fraiche on top.)