To ask for suggestions of healthy, balanced vegetarian meals?

[fieldsofdaisies]

Since becoming a vegetarian I have really struggled with composing nutritionally balanced meals. My meals have ended up being carb-heavy and high fat with lots of cheese and pasta etc. I recently realised how little I know about composing balanced meals and fitting in my five-a-day.

What are your favourite ideas for healthy breakfasts, lunches and dinners that are nutritionally balanced?

Thank you!

My meal plans tend to include different proteins through the week

• chickpeas, kidney beans or lentils (curries, stir fries or Mexican dishes)
• cashew nuts, peanut butter (stir fry, satay)
• eggs (omelette, quiche)
• cheese (macaroni, jacket potato)

But vegetarian meals should also contain enough carbs, and you don't need to get the balance right every meal. In plant based eating variety of colours and types of vegetable and legume gives you everything you need across the week. Not so much if your meals are samey or limited.

Not really a fan of breakfast so can't help there. Lunch, I normally have salad with protein - egg or cheese. In winter soup or leftover dinner heated up. I try to keep carbs low so will have lentil bolognese with chick peas or butter beans instead of pasta. Butternut squash and spinach curry, Dahl. Basically loads of veg and lentils / beans / chickpeas.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarian_Diet_Pyramid

That’s sort of what you need. To make sure I get my legumes and nuts/seeds every day, I do the following:
Have a mix of milled nuts/seeds to put in my morning porridge,
Buy seeded bread,
Add nuts to salad (pine or walnuts etc)
Have nuts as a snack
Batch cook daal
have hummus with falafel,
Edamame beans
my freezer has a selection of high protein veggie stuff in case I can’t be bothered cooking

I also try to choose high protein dairy like cottage cheese or fat free Greek yoghurt as it’s more filling.

My suggestions are vegan rather vegetarian but you can adapt as you like: scrambled tofu is amazing and I add loads of veg to it. Can be breakfast, lunch or dinner - last night I had it with quinoa and the veg I added was French beans, courgette, mushrooms, kale, onions and it was delicious.
chickpea curry or a dhal are lovely, again both go well with quinoa which is also a good protein
I make a big batch of spicy bean burgers which are really easy and delicious and have with huge salad, you can freeze the extras.
roast vegetable salad on spicy lentils is lovely drizzled with pesto
Homemade hummus with salad and sweet potato.
Breakfasts - porridge made from amaranth, buckwheat or oats, chia pudding, smoothie bowl, banana and oat pancakes, mushroom, spinach and tomato on rye toast with avocado. If I haven't much time I will make a chia pudding or overnight oats with seeds the evening before and have that with fruit and a dollop of nut butter.
Some suggestions to get you started. I'm happy to add to them or share recipes if interested. I love food

The vegetarian society has lots of information about how to make sure you have a balanced diet, I found that really useful when I first when fully veggie: vegsoc.org/info-hub/health-and-nutrition/vegetarianeatwellguide/
BBC good food is also good for balanced vegetarian recipes.

Also a food tracker app like my fitness pal might be useful while you’re getting used to the new way of eating, as you can track what you eat and see how the balance of proteins, carbs, and fats works out across the week and you’ll be able to see if you really are having too much carbohydrate and not enough protein. It’s a bit of a pain in the arse tracking everything and not something to do long term, but just for a couple of weeks it can be useful.

As for meal ideas, today I had bircher muesli with grated apple and blueberries for breakfast, I’ve got an orzo salad with various vegetables and almonds for lunch, and for supper we’re going to have pasta bake with spinach and Linda McCartney sausages. I tend to have leftovers from the day before for my lunch, which is generally more nutritious than just a sandwich or something (though obviously it depends and I still eat sandwiches!) but that’s an easy way to get extra protein and vegetables into your diet.

I'm not a veggie but I made a really nice veg curry a few days ago.

Aubergine, butter beans, tomato, cauliflower, onion.

I put onion, garlic and ginger paste to slightly fry, then added cauliflower, put curry seasoning over them, cumin, mixed herbs, pepper
Then aubergine and tomato, last is butter beans.
I add a little bit of tomato puree and coconut cream.

Breakfasts: vegan yoghurt, fruits and home made granola or a protein shake. Or peanut butter an a banana on brown toast.

Lunch: avocado on brown toast or beans on brown toast. Or a soup with brown toast.

Dinner: rice bowl with fresh veggies and a protein source (tofu or a vegan meat alternative) - either with Mexican style flavours or something Asian like bibimbap sauce. Or a veggie bolognese. Veggie curry or chilli.

Snacks: mostly fruit or oatcakes with a bit of hummus.

I have several time a week a ‘Buddha bowl’ of various ingredients.

3 Roasted veg - carrots/ onions/ parsnips
3 Salad veg - tomatoes/ spinach/ lettuce
1 Grain or beans - roasted chickpeas/ quinoa/black beans/ brown rice
1 Dip - hummus / Guac/ vegan mayo/ salsa
1 seeds - sunflower / sesame

Always varied to use what veggies need using up, delicious and balanced.

Wow thank you, lots of great ideas here! I will sit and write a shopping list ready for next week and find some recipes to try.

Hi! I have been veggie since the start of this year and here are a few of the things my partner and I eat often:

dinner:
stuffed peppers (baked peppers stuffed with couscous, onion, garlic mixture, topped with cheese if you like)
vegetarian chilli
butternut squash risotto
veggie sausages and mash (this can be mashed potatoes, or mashed root veg e.g. carrots, suede if you prefer)
aubergine Katsu curry (more of a plan-ahead treat, but so good!)
warm salad with chickpeas/beans, haloumi cheese, tomatoes etc
tofu and vegetable skewers served with rice
pasta and roast vegetables

I would usually serve all of these with a side of brocolli or salad

lunch:
we take it in turns to make a batch of lunch for the week, this is usually homemade soup, lentil dahl, wraps with roasted veg..

breakfast:
I alternate between scrambled eggs on toast and museli with yogurt, as don't want to eat eggs for breakfast every day

I should also add that I've started having a protein shake each day as I am aware that my protein intake probably dropped when I stopped eating meat, and I've also started weightlifting 3 or 4 times a week. When I calculated my protein intake vs what it should be, mine was much lower than recommended! As someone else above said, it is important to eat enough carbs (pasta, potatoes, rice etc are nowhere near as bad as the diet mags would have you believe!) as they are so important for energy throughout the day.

I try to include protein in every evening meal.maybe you could list all the veggie protein you like and and meal plan around them to get variety.
I find doing it this way you become less dependent on the carb.