How do I make the transition from meat eater to vegetarian?

[Alondra]

I want to do it. I've struggled for a long time with my feelings about eating animals and the industry behind it, and my love (pleasure really) with the dishes I love.

I rarely eat steaks but looking into my dietary habits, meat (including chicken) is still 40% of what I eat, 30% is fish and only 30% will be vegetable only meals.

I love legumes in winter but I add chorizo to my lentils or make a chickpea cocido with chicken stock.

I don't like tofu. I've tried it a couple of times and the texture makes me gag. I love salads and vegetables but I can't live on salads and roasted vegetables forever.

Any advice from those of you who've been there before?

I really need to get some good cookbooks. I'm struggling thinking how to make a good bolognaise with lentils!

Please don’t move to processed shit instead.

I personally only buy organic, grass fed meat. I don’t want to give up meat as it’s best for our health but those animals get a better quality of life.

An easy way in would be a meal prep box, Gousto/ hello fresh type. Order only veggie meals, only while you get the cheap deal if you want. That way you try out lots of veggie meals, so you find out if you want a meat substitute or if you want to do without. They’ll also give ideas for cooking, seasoning, balance of nutrients.

To start with you could order enough for 2 or 3 meals a week and go from there.

I tried swapping meat for fake meat a couple of years ago. It was an easy swap but I grew to really strongly dislike it, each time I used some it seemed to taste worse.

So in the end I just gave up and went back to meat. If I was going to try again I would try the lentils/mushrooms route.
I don't love pulses but I'm getting better at eating them.

If you like Indian food start with some curries such as rajma, chole/chana masala with a vege curry such as saag/palak paneer or aloo mattar. I find that food that is meant to be vegetarian tastes much nicer.

I don't eat much processed food, and the last thing I want is eating vegetarian crap.

My DH is happy to follow my lead on shared meals, except he opts out if he wants a "bacon sandwich" or a "nice burger" for lunch on weekends. :)

I’m a meat eater but Tofoo diced, tossed in potato starch or cornflour and shallow fried is absolutely delicious, I scrounge some off my son every time he makes it. Plenty of salt and pepper too.

Look on Pinterest for vegetarian meal ideas and start to replace some of what you already eat with vegetarian options.

I think for someone who wants to be veg, you’re currently eating quite a lot of meat/fish, so would be easy to swap out some of those meals. Do 1-2 days a week only vegetarian, change up a dinner for another night. I’m not vegetarian (though was for 20 years), but I still probably only have about 5 meals a week (out of breakfast/lunch/dinner) that are made with meat or fish. There are so many other options these days. You don’t need to eat tofu or fake meat. Especially in the summer, you can make lots of lovely salads and soups and wraps or rice bowls with loads of nice toppings.

Once you start getting in the habit, you’ll find it’s much more intuitive just to make everything without meat and you won’t think about it much.

Simon Rimmer’s two early books — The Accidental Vegetarian and The Seasoned Vegetarian — are both really good. Some of the recipes are a bit cheffy/restauranty but that’s the appeal really. The filo strudels in port wine sauce and shallot + asparagus rendang are both brilliant and well worth the effort. His macaroni cheese is also pretty definitive in our house. (Only if you’ll be including cheese of course.)

I am so glad you hate tofu - the shit we get here in the west is death to your thyroid. Fermented is fine, but that's not the sort put in the processed veggie soya stuff. Avoid at all costs.

Quorn I like, but I also like lentils, beans etc - for your lentils, you vn get a decent 'meaty' flavour by using Marmite. And for 'chicken' flavour to chickpeas I add sage and onion stuffing, plus thyme and parsley.

I became veggie as a try-out on 1990. Never went back. Although my capacity to live on roasted vegetables and baked potatoes is huge :-)

If you are wanting to go veggie from an animal cruelty perspective then really you need to consider going vegan as the dairy industry is arguably worse and intrinsically linked to the meat industry. Check out Earthling Ed - read his book, This is Vegan propaganda.

Then just start by getting one or two base meals down. You don't have to do it all suddenly. It can be a life long transition and goal. No one is perfect and it is hard/impossible to live a truly vegan lifestyle with the world as it currently stands.

Don't go for meat substitutes-just go proper vegetarian. Choose a book and cook from it!

This statement does not square with your intital "I've struggled for a long time with my feelings about eating animals and the industry behind it".

The dairy and egg industries perpetuate terrible cruelty to animals. There is no need to eat animal products in 2023.

@Alondra I read that at first as 'man' eater not meat eater and wondered what the connection was in becoming a vegetarian! Then I put my glasses on and understood!

I’d recommend ruing a hello fresh or gousto box. They have some fabulous recipes. I’ve got a code for a free hello fresh box (just pay postage which I think is 4.99). Message if you’d like it (I’ve a few so this offer is open to others too).

Not a vegetarian but I love using black beans for a chilli. I make it the same as a normal chilli but use the beans in place of mince and still add kidney beans. Really delicious.
As mentioned, even the dairy industry is cruel to animals. I am not a vegan btw. I have discovered there is such a things as calf and cow dairies where they keep the calves with their mums. There are only a few around and sadly none near me, but might be worth a look.
As for cheese, just check is suitable for vegetarians as some contain animal rennet.

I don't think there's any need to berate OP for not being vegan. I'm sure she understands the animal welfare issues of dairy.

However she is making a change and being dismissive of it is not really very helpful. Would you rather she didn't bother and carried on eating meat?

Get hold of 'Flavour' by Ottolenghi. The ragu recipe in there is AMAZING. Super easy to make (all done in one tray in the oven), makes a huge batch and freezes really well. The ingredients list is a big odd sounding (coconut and harissa - would never have thought to put both of those in the same recipe), but it really is so tasty. We used it as a spag bol, a lasagne and as a cottage pie.

I'm not a veggie, but I do like a veg recipe, and this one is one of the best.

There are also a lot of great veg recipes in 'Simple'. But it's not just a veggie cookbook, it has meat recipes in it too.

I would strongly recommend any of Anna Jones' books.

Then start by meal planning for the week: One day vegetarian, one day something egg based, one day something fish, one day something meat, one day leftovers and so on.

Over time I've found I have moved to more and more days vegan rather than vegetarian, fewer days meat and DH hasn't even noticed. He has noticed that he's lost 1/2 a stone without trying and is jolly pleased about it.

Tofu is your friend!!!! And nowadays there are so many vegan options, Iva had vegan chorizo.

I've been veggie all my life basically. This is what I do regularly

Quorn mince- shepards pie, veggie chilli, veggie spag bol
Quorn sausages- sausage and mash, sausage casserole
Quorn pieces- veggie fajitas (with onions and peppers also in the pan)

And I get mozzarella sticks from the chippy instead of fish😊

Would it be easier to go pescetarian as an initial step maybe? I did that for a year first and it helped me as a transition.

It's really easy to replace chicken as a vegetarian now though, Quorn and other brands do a lot of substitutes. That would be an 'easy' first step without changing your diet that drastically too.

I like tofu but we don't eat it super often tbh, I find it quite difficult to cook well (at least without a lot of time invested), we only really use it occasionally to chuck in a stir fry. We eat a lot of meat substitute meals, some meals based around pulses, lots of cheese and eggs, and some meals based around just general veggies. We have two little ones though one of which is very fussy.

Also works well air fried or oven roasted. You can add a bit of seasoning to the cornflour to suit whatever you're adding it to.

We planned ahead when we decided to go veggie. We stopped buying any new meat and started eating up our stock of fridge and freezer meat for a few weeks whilst eating more veggie meals. We planned a month's worth of meals in advance when we did switch so we'd never be stuck for what to have.

We ate a mix of meals, we used some meat substitutes for some more familiar meals - veggie sausages with mash and beans, veggie mince in bolognese with carrots and mushrooms (we now often use lentils instead of mince). We also ate lots of veg curries, bean chillies, kidney bean and veg enchiladas and pasta bake.

We've never looked back. You soon get used to it and to tweaking existing recipes to be meat free. The spicery's veg legends cookbook is good if you like curries and there's lots of good recipes online, Veg Soc have some nice ones.