Vegetarians - recommend a recipe to convert an enthusiastic carnivore

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I eat too much meat. I enjoy cooking and love protein.

Some parameters:

No fake meat, fake cheese or tofu
Love umami flavours and strong flavours generally
Do not enjoy Indian curries ( although I admit have never probably eaten authentic high end Indian cuisine)
Love Thai and Japanese food. Favourite cuisine is French.
Something colourful with good texture contrasts would be great. I don't really enjoy ´ sloppy' food

I will eat almost anything except coconut (the milk is fine) and anything with an aniseed flavour.

What would you recommend ?

A good homemade french onion soup, sprinkle cheese on top and croutons. Shame you don't like curry, I make them with butternut squash and sweet potatoes. DH is an avid carnivore, but will happily eat veg curry,as he says most veggie meals are bland.

Often the best way is to move slowly towards less meat.
Buy the steak, cut it in half.

Day one, fried steak with puy style lentils braised in red wine plus the usual veg.
https://groceries.morrisons.com/products/morrisons-wholefoods-green-lentils/105662211

Day two, teriyaki steak strips with rice filled tofu pockets plus green veg and carrots slow cooked in miso.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yutaka-Pockets-Seasoned-Pouches-Soybean/dp/B0CJ9V7L36?ref_=ast_sto_dp

I'm a meat eater but one of my favourite recipes is the Gousto halloumi and bulgar wheat meal. It's got orange, mint, rocket in. It's really lovely.

www.gousto.co.uk/cookbook/vegetarian-recipes/halloumi-with-mint-orange-bulgur

A good option is to reduce meat rather than eliminate eg puy lentils, mushrooms and pancetta make an excellent dish for only 1/4 of the meat you would typically eat in a meal

Roasted cauliflower and chickpeas

The problem I find with tofu (Im trying to eat more of it) is that it always needs frying to be any good, so lots of fat and oil to be used. Im going to try to experiment with cornflour to coat it, apparently that makes it really crispy

Egg based dishes are easy, shakshuka, quiche, frittata type of things.

A good french onion soup needs beef stock as the base though, but its a delicious soup that you rarely see on menus now

Same with cullen skink, the king of soups

I love Mexican dishes - strong, smokey flavours, lots of different textures and colours - delicious!
I'll also second properly cooked tofu. I despised tofu for years until I learned how to prepare and cook it.

Have you tried tempeh instead of tofu? I did some yesterday in the pan with a bit of stock until it had reduced down.

Parmigiana. So flavoursome and fresh crusty bread sets it off a treat.

@Bruisername Sainsbury still sell Merchant Gourmet dried Puy lentils, but they're in a bag rather than a box.

Family with various allergies including crustacean and milk. We eat very little meat and I hate tofu so refuse to cook it

Over the last few weeks we’ve had:

lasagne with caponata sauce
nut roast roast
pasta puttanesca
falafal, humus, pitta etc.
gujurati daal, aloo Gobi and paratha
cauliflower steaks with katsu sauce rice etc (etc being chopped up toms cucumber ribbon cucumber)
Buddha bowl with kale tempered in orange juice and sesame oil, tinned beans (kidney, chickpea, butter)
minestrone (nigellas recipe) and shop bought garlic bread
Something incredible with aubergine, I can’t remember 😂
vichyssoise soup without milk but cream for any non vegans.
Macaroni cheese
rice pudding with coconut milk
Red pepper tomato and paprika stew served with chicken breasts or cauliflower steaks over bang bang potatoes.
Lamb stew with more chick peas (2 tins to about 150g lamb) enormous bunch coriander, cumin, chilli, honey, garlic sliced onions in the slow cooker. It was a recipe in Marie Claire nearly 30 years ago. Serve with couscous and flaked almonds, crusty bread.
Reading over it’s all quite sloppy 😂 but balanced with more toothsome stuff. Like the crunchy bread, paratha, toasted almonds etc.

www.nigella.com/recipes/cauliflower-and-cashew-nut-curry

This is excellent.👌🏼

Ive seen it in the shops and havent a clue what you do with it, how do you cook it?

Does everyone know that its not called that because of cheese?

You dont need cheese in a parmigiana, just to say, you can do it just with the tomato ragu and aubergine.

Its named after window shutters.

smoked tofu in OK sauce

Egg child and homemade slaw is lovely

Putting tofu in with fake cheese and meat seems odd?
Are you really sure about tofu as the hairy bikers sweet and sour tofu is fabulous ?

Mexican beans - black or pinto beans ideally - slow cook fresh tomatoes ( 3 per person ) chilli onion garlic , stir in the beans , serve on flat breads with sides of cheese sour crème or corriander as you see fit ( if you like corriander add the stalks with the beans )

Spinach and walnut lasagne - basically the meat sauce layer is replaced with is onions spinach tomatoes and smashed walnuts cooked up . Add mushrooms on ye top . Possibly with a spoon of marmite

Yep, if you like umami Japanese food, nasu dengaku is pretty much the perfect food.

If you are ever passing through South London, this place does an amazing homestyle aubergine (eat either with rice or mixed into plain noodles), and TEP (tomato, egg, pepper) noodles. Probably the most delicious comfort food in the world.

Chips! Don't eat your child !

How strange, my post above was a very bland one recommending nasu dengaku and a south London xinjiang-style Chinese restaurant...

And on edit it has been undeleted. How weird

Everything in the crooks recipe book goes well with a steak.

I used to do their buckwheat bake a lot.

Soupfiend I used marmite for the stock.(French onion soup)

Grilling tofu also works. Brushing it with oil works best, but you don’t need to use much (just us a pastry brush).

Carnivore here with a vegetarian adult son
I have a small repertoire for when he visits. He eats fake meat but I hate it.
Risotto is easy
Use diced fried halloumi as a bacon substitute in any recipe.
Bolognese using lentils. Add lots more garlic and herbs than you normally would.
Tofu is very difficult and not worth the effort imo.

Prawns is not vegetarian

Here is a tofu recipe that I guarantee you will enjoy, by far the best veggie chilli I've ever had. Serve with rice or a j-po and all the usual Mexican accompaniments

amp.theguardian.com/food/2024/jan/13/oven-baked-tofu-chilli-vegan-recipe-meera-sodha