Vegetarian meals-AIBU

[AreYouDaveGorman]

Ok, kind of light hearted, but am I doing this wrong??

There are so many threads on here that say to go veggie to save money.
I have friends that have lost weight by going veggie??

Please! If you are one of these people what are you eating?
I really want to reduce my meat consumption for a lot of reasons. It doesn’t help that I’m also gluten free so a lot of veggie substitutes aren’t suitable (but even if they are they’re still pretty processed and expensive).

I gained weight when I went veggie as I just ate carbs!

My friends who have lost weight say they eat loads of salads-but no-one can actually give me a good veggie salad recipe that is filling enough to have as a main meal.

So....AIBU or has anyone else found this?

If you haven’t found this pleeeeeease tell me what you eat!

Beans are filling

Pulses.
And don't eat meat replacements (burgers etc). They're highly processed and often high in fat and salt.
Nuts and seeds as part of a meal are also nutritious and filling, but higher in calories so best avoided as a snack food. They're not cheap though.

Filling salads are easy, you need to be adding ingredients like chickpeas or beans, feta cheese, boiled eggs, lean meat or quorn chunks, avocado, olives, sun dried tomatoes, roasted butternut squash chunks, that sort of thing. Big variety of veggies/herbs to make it interesting. I also make a salad dressing each week out of Greek yoghurt, dill or mint, gherkins, lemon juice or whatever needs using up really, makes a nice addition to the salads.

I’m vegetarian and don’t eat salad other than on the side.

Today is a lentil and walnut bolognese with salad and garlic bread.

Breakfast tends to be all bran or toast and peanut butter. Lunch is generally leftovers or vegetable soup and homemade bread.

I tend to make curries (paneer makhani, lentil dahl, sweet potato and chickpea are favourites)
Or chilli, I make a sweet potato one or a burnt aubergine one.

I’m slowly losing weight. I’ve got a 5 month old baby so slow and steady is fine for me. I’ve lost all my baby weight plus an extra few pounds. I’d like to lose another stone ideally but I’m ok right now.

Happy to post recipes if you want any.

Stay away from processed meat substitutes. I eat mainly tinned beans/pulses/chickpeas (no added sugar in water type) for protein and have a wide range of herbs and spices in the cupboard. Add those with veg, and watch the carbs. It's way too easy to bulk up the rice/pasta/bread.

Daily meals are curry, chilli, cottage pie (using sweet potato on top), pasta sauce, lovely salads with roasted veg and feta. BBC website has great veggie recipes, as does Jamie Oliver, Hairy Bikers Veg, River Cottage Veg, and even Joe Wicks veggie lean in 15.

Also delicious are - black bean burritos, Indian cottage pie, homemade pizza, quiche, risotto.

Thank you all.
I do a lot with beans/pulses but apart from the same couple of recipes I struggle to find new things to do with them.

@QueenAdreena thank you! They sounds great

@Sexnotgender thank you. Any recipes would be great! Some of those meals sound right up my street.

@BrilloPaddy thank you I’ll have a look at them x

Lentil walnut bolognese themodernproper.com/walnut-and-lentil-bolognese

I am vegetarian and my absolute favourite cookbook is 'The Green Roasting Tin', by Rukmini Iyer - really delicious ideas, quick to make and minimal washing up!

We also eat a lot of East/SE Asian and Indian food, much of which is vegetarian/vegan by default.

I agree with PPs who say try not to 'veggie-ise' meat dishes or rely too heavily on meat substitutes - it's worth exploring different cultures' cuisines to find really good 'first principle' veggie/vegan ideas.

Leek, ricotta, gruyere quiche - I actually do this in filo as I prefer it www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/leek-ricotta-gruyere-tart

Indian cottage pie www.feastingathome.com/vegetarian-shepherds-pie/

Burnt aubergine chilli, this is the best chilli recipe I’ve found. I usually Chuck a couple of diced peppers in too
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/burnt-aubergine-veggie-chilli

This is a butter chicken recipe but I just make the sauce and throw some diced paneer in at the end
maunikagowardhan.co.uk/cook-in-a-curry/butter-chicken-murgh-makhani-chicken-cooked-in-a-spiced-tomato-gravy/

The Hairy Bikers have done two very good vegetarian cookbooks. One is for people watching their weight.

I've seen people make this point about vegan meals - you can eat a portion of chips for your dinner and have that be vegan. People who talk about veganism for health often describe it as plant-based to get over that idea of a horribly processed fake burger and chips being a healthy vegan alternative.

We're a mostly vegetarian household. Things I've made recently to try 'new' things were a chickpea and kale coconut stew (google 'the stew that broke the Internet' - its really not that good! But not bad and I froze a few portions). I make a morrocan vegetable tagine with cous cous, you can find lots of different recipes online I tend to merge a few to get more veggies in it. There are a few Ottolenghi salads I'd have as a 'main', I think the key thing is to think: what is my protein? What is my carb? And make sure you have lots of veggies. So, I did a roasted peach, spinach and feta salad with walnuts on top together with a roasted Mediterranean veg and cous cous salad for dinner a while ago: on its own I'd add bread to the spinach one or it wouldn't be filing enough. Also... vegetarian bolognese with green lentils, veggie chilli with a baked potato, dhal with tomatoes and red lentils, tofu and stir fry in a soy sauce with rice...shakshuka is a really good one if you like eggs.

I think the thing is, if you're doing it right you'll spend more money on vegetables than you would have before, but less on your protein. And watch out for leaning too heavily into cheese/dairy as your only protein substitute, I think having lentils pulses and beans and nuts in there is important.

Butternut squash and sage risotto
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roastedbutternutsqua_67878

One of my favourite sites cookieandkate.com/

I love this but I add mushrooms, peppers courgettes to the sauce to make it even more filling.

www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/vegetarian/healthy-aubergine-parmigiana/

Olive magazine has some great recipes...look for the mushroom bhajee ..i havent found anyone who doesnt like it

Also if I have left over lentil stew, cottage pie mix etc I freeze it and shove it in a portobello mushroom with a bit of cheese on top and bake it.

Pescatarian here. I have found that ordering Gousto boxes has massively expanded my food choices. Plus you have the option of selecting gluten free/vegetarian/plant based etc. The menu cards have meant that I can recreate lots of my favourite meals - and they’re not all salads! Far from it.

avirtualvegan.com/lentil-shepherds-pie/#recipe
I'm having this for dinner...I have it at least weekly. Freezes well cooked and also just the lentil mix freezes well. I use Sainsbury's brown lentils from a can when I run out of dried ones and slice the potato thinly and layer it on the top to cover and spray with a little bit of oil, instead of mashing, as its less faff on and much less spuds (i'm calorie counting and lost 2 stone since May).

Jack Monroe is great for cheap and veggie recipes - current fave is black bean tarkari (I use frozen mango instead of peaches) cookingonabootstrap.com/2018/10/06/black-bean-tarkari-recipe/

I’m going to try some recipes from this thread!

Sweet potato, chickpea curry. I dice the sweet potatoes and roast them and put them in the sauce rather than what the recipe suggests. And I use frozen chopped spinach because I’m lazy😂

www.bosh.tv/recipes/chickpea-curry-veganuary-week-4

Some lovely recipes here - particularly from @Sexnotgender . Thank you

[quote Sexnotgender]Burnt aubergine chilli, this is the best chilli recipe I’ve found. I usually Chuck a couple of diced peppers in too
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/burnt-aubergine-veggie-chilli[/quote]
You beat me to it. This is a favourite here.

Op the key thing is to eat mainly vegetables! I weigh carbs (rice, pasta, cous cous etc) to make sure my portions haven’t got too big.

Tofu is great once you learn how to cook it. Wagamama has a fair few recipes that are veggie friendly. Indian cuisine is brilliant as a vegetarian. I like vegan Richa’s site. Jamie Oliver is also excellent for vegetarian recipes. There are a lot of threads on here too.

Some of my favourite cheap recipes:

Mixed bean chilli
Sweet potato and spinach quesadillas (Tesco recipe, I use value wraps, value sweet pots and frozen spinach and kids love them)
Lentil Bolognese
Spaghetti with bean balls (kidney bean ball recipe by Isa Chandra Moskovitz, probably online)
Hugh Fearnley W's swede and potato pasties
Pea and potato curry/lentil curry/mixed veg curry and rice
Veggie cottage pie with lentils and mushrooms and broccoli on the side
Homemade soup (e.g. butternut) with homemade brown rolls

The main thing is to avoid substitutes and stick to beans and pulses!