Vegetarian meal ideas please.

[ForDucksSake]

I know there are loads online, but I would love some 'real' vegetarian recipes from real people for a relatively new vegetarian family member. Things that are healthy, relatively quick and don't need 450 ingredients please. I'd be so grateful for suggestions.

I picked up a Vegan Food and Living magazine from Tesco last week and they had some really lovely recipes in. There was an interesting stuffed potatos dish using vegan herbed cream cheese I plan to try soon.

https://www.veganfoodandliving.com/

One recipe I make alot is a red lentil dhal. Sometimes I use coconut milk too but the base recipe is:

onions
carrots
celery
red lentils
vegetable stock
curry powder to taste

I cook it and keep adding water as the red lentils absorb the water and simmer until all a lovely stew the textre of hummus. We love that.

Sweet potato and chickpea curry. Freezes well too so an added bonus. It’s an Olive magazine recipe. They also have a great sweet potato and lentil curry recipe.
Another is sausage, leek and butter bean pie. You can swap ordinary for veggie sausages. Google for recipe.

Butter beans, tinned tomatoes chopped, fresh parsley, onion, seasoning and then I make homemade flatbreads with flour, water and olive oil to have on the side.

The original recipe I think I found was called Spanish butter beans or something like that. We have it at least once a week.

Dhal, with chopped tomatoes, peanuts and yoghurt on top.
Sweet potatoes filled with tomato sauce and cheese, with kimchi on top.
Chia pudding - really easy with coconut milk and any fruit blended. Just needs to sit in the fridge overnight.
Make salad dressings - tahini, olive oil, lemon juice takes seconds. Sprinkle things like cashews or seed mixed on salads.

Look for foods and meals that provide complete nutrients and pack a protein punch.

We’re a mixed vegetarian/ meat eating family so we often cook meals with a veggie version and a meat version. I love the Quorn plain fillets you can get in the frozen section- more or less any chicken recipe you can just use them instead! For example we had pollo picante the other day with a meat and veggie version. Same with Quorn chunks in a stir fry or fajitas, Quorn mince in a cottage pie or bolognaise (no I don’t work for Quorn… 🤣)

We often do a bean chilli and then the next night use it to make enchiladas. Or a veggie paella with chorizo on the side for the meat eaters. My daughter’s favourite is a big tray of roasted vegetables with couscous and grilled halloumi, we probably have that once a week.

Ready made pastry and puff pastry is your friend.

There are loads of simple versions of this: just roast veg and then put the pastry on top, use any Mediterranean type veg you like instead of parsnip and chestnut

https://www.fuelmyplate.com/recipes/parsnip-and-chestnut-tarte-tatin

A good tomato sauce with a lot of vegetables is a basic. I do a sort of cheats ratatouille which forms the basis for a lot of other dishes, eg with rice, pasta or cous cous. Ready made felafel from the supermarket go well, they come in lots of different flavours, or fried halloumi.

Sweat down sliced onions, lots of garlic. Add in veg like chopped courgette , diced aubergine, fry for a few minutes then add a tin or two of chopped tomatoes and a good squidgy of tomato purée and cook slowly in a covered pan for at least thirty to thirty five minutes to let the flavours develop. This will make more than you need for one meal so portion freeze so there is always something available for the vegetarian to cook quickly.

Another good standby is to find a daal recipe you like, I use the coconut daal from the BBC website, find it under Geroge Alaghai, I add in more garlic and a bit of garam masala. Serve with rice or naan, steamed broccoli, yogurt, mango chutney. Freezes well, again use portion sized bags, the IKEA ones are good so the vegetarian always has a quick standby.

Ready made puff pastry is another standby for a quick meal, make an open tart with prettily arranged finely sliced vegetables arranged on the top of some tomato pureee, or fresh tomato, or home made sauce.

Learn some good main course salad recipes using substantial carb bases like cous cous, ready made tinned lentils, cooked rice or fancy pasta. Then add on things like roasted butternut squash or cauliflower florets,steamed or raw broccoli, small roast cherry tomatoes, small roast courgettes or carrots,roast beetroot, toasted almonds, sunflower seeds, sliced caramelised red onions, etc etc with a really good flavoured dressing. PS Not everything at once!! Chose one or two or three. Make a good quantity to last several days so it is worth while getting everything prepped and ready.

Look up red dragon pie , no dragons are harmed. Makes a lot so good for a famiIy meal. I think having some recipes that can be eaten and enjoyed by everyone while also providing stand by meals for one person is a good way to go if there is only one vegetarian in the family.

As a vegetarian for decades I can’t stand Quorn fillets etc, but a new vegetarian might be ok with them. I’d advise checking.

I'll recommend my favourite veggie cook books:

East by Meera Sodha
The Green Roasting Tin by Rukmini Iyer

Also the Guardian's food page and BBC Good Food are good for inspiration.

We are veggie and eat mainly Asian food as it's quick, easy and delicious. Also very partial to a veggie chilli.

Anjum Anand's Indian vegetarian feast is a brilliant book, everything I've made from it has been lovely. Also the green roasting tin, another great book.

Nigella's courgette and feta fritters

And this: www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/mains/roasted-courgette-pesto-pasta

Here's my list from the fridge door!

Hard-boiled egg salad

cheese, sliced tomato and onion open toasted sandwich

Macaroni cheese

Home-made minestrone soup

butternut squash and sage risotto (just make basic risotto, add squashed roasted with garlic and sage)

Roast red peppers stuffed with couscous, onion, little cubes of cheese on top.

The vegan Richa website is great for curry’s/stews/stirfries

Veggie here:
Good bulk one - we make about 6 portions and freezes well:
https://rainbowplantlife.com/10-ingredient-vegan-red-lentil-bolognese/

The quick pasta dish: Tomato Vodka Pasta

Butterbean curry (With Chapattis is best)
Lentil Dahl
Popcorn Paneer with Chilli jam and salads (we like Saag Aloo or a potato salad with ours)

Tofu dishes - stir fries, salt & pepper (aka salt & chilli) - note it takes getting used to, and learning to cook well - this woman has great tips for different cooking styles: https://www.youtube.com/@wendythefoodscientist/shorts

Comfort food: <- this one is so good, we sometimes sub the croutons for dumplings

Chipotle burgers - https://makeitdairyfree.com/the-best-vegan-lentil-burgers/ but cover in panko breadcrumbs with a chipotle sauce in a burger are great. Can be made and frozen before cooking

The key thing is looking at protein content is sufficient so you need to use vegetarian protein sources like greek yoghurt, eggs, beans, lentils, tofu, nutritional yeast, seitan. Then there are certain vitamins that can be harder to get enough of like B12 - but that can come from nutritional yeast easily, vitamin D - supplement in UK is best, B2 (keep eating dairy), Iron - less bioavailable so need more and to consume with vit-c sources too, iodine - using nori for fish flavour in meals is a good source, and omega-3 use a supplement (omega 3 comes from algae that fish eat to get it oily fish, so the vegan sups are closer to source)

For cheap protein and low-processed chicken substitute we use soy chunks (soak in boiled water for 10 minutes, squeeze out excess and fry with seasonings - for chicken esq we use nutritional yeast, soy and vegan Worcestershire sauce)

For sausages, we do eat the mock-meat ones from "This isn't" and they're pretty close to the real deal, can help with a transition. The other fake meat we really liked too were the Italian meatballs from Beyond Meat. The other one we did like for a chicken burger was the plant pioneers (sainsburys) southern chicken burger. We try to limit our intake of the UPF mock-meat if we can, but sometimes it's a quick/easy meal and helps when you're craving certain textures.

Christmas: https://www.tinnedtomatoes.com/2018/10/mushroom-lentil-nut-wellington.html - with an rich onion gravy is to die for.

Generally speaking a good trick is to make the sauce for everyone, and cook proteins separately then combine at the end to make cooking for mixed diets easier.