To challenge you to think of 7 veggie family meals...

[Sayhellotothesun]

That don’t involve meat substitutes?

7 Vegetarian Traditional British meals

1. Cheese, Leek and Potato Pie
2. Jackets with Cheese and beans
3. Cauliflower Cheese
4. Bubble and Squeak
5. Spanish Omelette
6. Chestnut and mushroom strogonoff, bake or filo pie
7. Ratatouille with peas/green beans and rice

These are the vegetarian meals my Gran made for us to eat as children.

I don't have money to splash out on multiple cookbooks but I'll try my library.

Look for books written by actual vegetarians or writers who eat vegetarian dishes as part of normal life (I'd put River Cottage, Ottolenghi, Slater, Jaffrey in that group, Delia Smith and Jamie just don't get vegetarianism IME). Try a few before you spend out on one to keep.

If you are moving from meat to veggie this one might be useful: Part time vegetarian because it gives ideas for transition meals.

Otherwise recipe sites are useful - BBC, Allrecipes, Yummly all have options to search for vegetarian, some by ingredient. www.vegweb.com/ and ohmyveggies.com/category/meal-plans/ may also be useful

I’m not veggie but the DC have regularly declared they are, we have lots of veggie fam & friends.

I do whatever we’re having with chunkier veg and more thoughtful herbs/spices.

Works for everything apart from steak and chips or bacon butties

Shamelessly placemarking.

awesome thread...

Does anyone want to highlight ones that can be made in 20 mins or less?

My dream veggie week (DH wouldn't be so happy):

-Halloumi and field mushroom burgers w caramelised onion

-Bean enchiladas ohsheglows.com/2016/02/01/next-level-vegan-enchiladas/

-Paneer curry myfoodstory.com/restaurant-style-paneer-butter-masala-recipe/

-Tomato tart and a roasted vegetable salad

-Falafels and tabbouleh

-Ethiopian curry and injera www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-recipe/ethiopian-stews/

-Roasted vegetable pizza

Veggie sausage toad in the hole.

Jack Munroe has loads of fantastic recipesf free online. All super cheap.

Nigel Slater's Lentil Bolognese is the bomb!

Rosie Elliots veg cookbook is amazing!!

I could name 100+ meals -
Masala dosa
Lesagne
Various vegetable curries
Tarka Dal, yellow dall with spinach and homemade chappatis
Stir fry
Enchalladas
Cowboy bean burgers - mmmm
Homemade pizza
Veg lesagne
Butternut squash cheesy bake (loads of walnuts and garlic)
Red lentil croquettes with smokey sauce
5 root veg tagine with lemon couscous
Parsnip and date tagine with Herby dumplings ( a winter favourite)
Veg tacos with smokey black beans and salad - stack your own

I'm not a veggie but some of my favourite foods are:

Spaghetti and pesto - all flavours but especially Sacla truffle pesto
Cheese and onion quiche
Any risotto, but especially mushroom
Paneer curry
BBQ haloumi kebabs
Cheese and egg plate pie
Mac n cheese
Mushroom ravioli with a sage and butter sauce and garlic bread
Gnocchi with blue cheese

I can live without the meat but not the cheese 😂

Veggie lasagne and salad leaves.
Carrot and coriander soup with garlic bread and a swirl of cream.
Dhal and rice.
Nachos with cheese, salsa, guacamole, sour cream etc.
Jacket potatoes, cheese, baked beans.
Egg and chickpea curry with coconut milk, naan bread.
Veggie frittata and potato wedges.

Pasta with tomato sauce
Lentil soup
Omelette chips and salad
Veggie shepherds pie
Chick pea and small pasta
Noodle soup
Veg stir fry

I have a newly converted veggie DC who won’t eat cooked cheese or things that are “too mixed up”. Doesn’t much like saucey things either. It’s a challenge but this thread has lots of things to try. Thank you all

Depending on the age of the dc concerned, I would get her to come up with a list of things she likes the sound of and cook them with her. And while I am a huge supporter of accommodating new vegetarians in family meals. I think they need to compromise a bit too. Time to experiment for them too. I always make sure that I've got portions of something in the freezer that vegetarian dd likes so there's always something to microwave if the rest of us are eating meat. I always make sure that whatever was acccompanying the main meal is vegetarian, so it's easy to swap in something from the freezer for her.

Go on BBC Good Food and look at the vegetarian recipes. Loads of really delicious meals on there.

Or one from my student days - lentil bake.
Cooked lentils + onions + pureed or chopped tomatoes in the bottom of a dish. Sliced boiled potatoes on top. Cheese on top of that. In the oven for half an hour.

Plenty of inspiration here for me, I'm struggling at the moment. We are pescatarian but eat mostly veggie meals, kids eat meat so I do end up cooling separate meals sometimes. DCs not keen on mushrooms, courgette aubergines. DH not keen on pasta. One DC hates stir fry. I've been tearing my hair out lately. I am out most evenings with DD so needs to cook meals ahead. I used to love cooking but can rarely be arsed nowadays

Mushroom stroganoff
Baked potato with beans/cheese etc.
Vegetable soup -
Stir fry
Pizza
Piella
Omelette
Frittata
Pasta bake
Mexican rice

If your allowing fish
Fishcakes
Fish pie
Prawn linguini

Mushroom & spinach pasta in (veggie) creamy sauce or (vegan) tomato sauce with lentils.
Veggie coconut curry with mango chutney and cucumber salad.
Dahl with naan, tomato salad and crispy onions.
Black beans salad with tahini, couscous and tahini.
Black bean chilli with feta, salsa, avocado & sour cream..
Veggie burger.
Mushroom rice bowl.
Veggie pizza.
Puy lentil/butterbean stew/baked beans & veggie sausage with Mediterranean veg.
Risotto/veg pie/veggie hot dog/egg fried rice/jacket potato with cheese & beans
Quesdilla with feta, sweet potato & broad beans.

Megabeth-why not just stop giving the children meat and all be pescaterian? Much easier.

Doh, black bean salad should have had roasted med veg & nuts instead of tahini twice.
Thug kitchen is good for ideas. And local library should be able to order some good veg books for you.

I was veggie for about 15 years and never used a meat substitute (other than Linda mcartney sausage rolls which were rather nice). There are literally thousands of recipes out there which have nothing to do with meat substitutes. Lots of Mediterranean food for example, Italian, Spanish, Greek dishes are vegetarian

Lentil Dhal with wraps
Stuffed peppers
Feta and watermelon salad with fried tofu
Vegan Miso soup with noodles and cherry tomatoes.
Bean Casserole
Hummus, bread, mixed vegetables, cous cous.
Baked potatoes with grilled pointed peppers
Pad Thai no meat.
Vegan Katsu Curry
Homemade Pizza.

Vegetarian Enchiladas
Pasta with homemade pesto
Lentil bake with cobblers
Dhal with vegetarian side dish and raita (banana raita always goes down well)
Soup (any variety) with toasted cheese sandwiches
Pizza
Baked potatoes with coleslaw
Vegetarian couscous

We do:
Vegetable stir fry.
Vegetable curry.
Chickpea and spinach (and sometimes potato) curry.
Lentil pie.
Simple pasta/rice with tomato sauce and vegetables (and sometimes bread/garlic bread)
Jacket potato with beans, cheese, and some veg.
Vegetable lasagna.
Aubergine pariggiana.
Pizza - I usually make 4 to share, one margherita, one with no cheese plus mixed peppers and pesto, one with cheese and caponata mix and basil, one with no cheese plus olives, capers, pesto, and fresh basil. Obviously lots of interchangeable toppings, these are just my house’s favourites! We’ll have it with some wedges and vegetables.
Fajitas/other wraps.
I make these broccoli pasta shells and serve with pesto.
Spinach and ricotta cannelloni/ravioli.
Caponata stew with bread.
Bean chilli with rice and veg.
Soup!!!! (With bread)

I could go on... the only meat substitute I like are Linda mccartney’s veggie sausages so sometimes we do them, and occasionally I’ll throw some quorn into a chilli. Other than that I never use meat substitutes...