Vegans and vegetarians

[sugarrosepetal]

This is probably the wrong place to post this but possibly the best place to get the most traffic.

Going off from another aibu post, would I be unreasonable to ask for vegan and vegetarian recipes for weeknight dinners and lunches?

I am an omnivore but the cost of meat is going up in price, plus I'd like to cut down on the amount of meat I eat. This is for a few reasons; dietary, ethics, carbon footprint, etc.

Please help me so I can bring my meat consumption down by at least half.

I'm a good cook but I'm not very inventive when it comes to meat and dairy free dishes.

Thanks.

Brilliant thank you. I wasn't sure where to post.

You’re trying to traffic where people post questions so, yes, you were trying to police the thread.

This is a great idea! One that I can possibly disguise for my child too. Thanks

I’m vegetarian and have been for 35 years . I like the Green Roasting Tin book - though some of the recipes are a bit pricy . I also rely heavily on the BBC food website .

@kitsuneghost no worries lol

@tattygrl i think I’ll be giving it a go then ty!!

Thank you

So many good ideas here for starting points. Thank you all so much!

Veggie for 30 years here 💪🏻 I highly recommend the fearne cotton vegan cook book.

Some excellent and very easy recipes: black bean and tofu sausages and lentil dahl are my favourites.

We eat regularly mid week
nut roast with roast spud cubes and veg . I make a big nut roast and freeze in individual portions
Lentil Dahl spinach and naan bread
tofu and veg stir fried ( tofoo brand is nice)
quorn lasagne with a pre made cheese sauce
Camembert wrapped in puff pastry with salad
three bean chilli made with tinned beans
a pasta salad with spinach avocado feta and sundried tomatoes
jacket potsto beans and cheese
quiche made with pre-made puff pastry

https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/vegan-aubergine-and-red-pepper-lasagne.html

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mushroom-stroganoff

https://deliciouslyella.com/recipes/categories/savoury/ (especially the dahl)

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/vegan-spag-bol

What type of meals do you usually eat? If you're meat potatoes and veg it's going to be hard to switch, whereas making fajitas, chilli, cottage pie etc veggie is pretty easy.

I haven't eaten meat in 30 years, we are a family of 5. Some of our faves :

Sunday lunch with quorn roast or pie instead of chicken
Moroccan beans with cous cous
Tofu, Noodles, stir fry veg
Fajitas with quorn/veg, avocado etc
Cottage pie with lentils or quorn
Kung pao cauliflower & rice/veg
Halloumi kebabs
Spag Bol/chilli
Rainbow rice (fry off veg in 5 spice, add rive peas, corn). Then scramble egg in/ add sriracha & fried egg on top, bashed peanuts etc.
Frittata
Burrito with roast butternut squash & refried beans in

I'm not going to lie, I had to look up chakkalaka 😆 it sounds lovely and my kind of thing.

A nice easy 'go to' meal for me is a stir fry vegetable bag with choice of protein, I use tofu.
The brand 'tofoo' is nice because it's already very firm and easy to cook.
I sprinkle on nutritional yeast and add a couple of crushed walnuts, too.

A Dhal is also really easy to make if you check out some recipes. I use coconut milk and lentils.

You can get some of those patak curry bags of spices for ease and use that on your choice of protein (again I use Tofu) with some vegetables and rice. Obviously if you have the spices in your cupboard then that's cheaper in the long run :)

Pasta with your choice of sauce. I quite often mash in some vegetables/avocadoif not using a sauce.

Beans on toast.

If you search food and recipes there’s some great stuff on there. I asked a couple of weeks ago if you search my user name there’s some great ideas. Someone suggested bbc good food burnt aubergine chilli which was amazing! I like veggie curries made with cauliflower or potato. Fajitas or tacos with halloumi. Aubergine parmigiana. Creamy spicy mushroom pasta. The happy pear have some good recipes too.

My tip is stock up on things that add flavour without meat/dairy. So as well as all your usual herbs and spices, e.g.

Soy sauce
Miso
Sesame oil
Garlic
Ginger
Chilli paste
Marmite
Peanut butter
Capers
Sun dried tomatoes
Olives
Mustard
Lime/lemon juice
Coffee (use in chilli etc)
Nutritional yeast
Molasses

I know UPFs are frowned upon but these are helpful:

Veg bouillon powder
Gravy granules
Chilli bean paste
Barbecue/hoi sin sauce

Things that add creaminess:

Coconut milk/cream
Avocado (mashed)
Blended cashews
Baked aubergine (blended)
Tahini
Potatoes (for soups etc)
Butter beans (mashed)

I'm pretty versatile in what I'll make and eat but I can be pretty fussy. I love most veg except aubergine and courgette (too mushy) but I don't like a lot of cheeses like brie, feta, camembert, parmesan,etc and tend to stick to cheddar, double Gloucester, red Leicester and mozzarella. I don't eat seafood at all and dislike olives and chickpeas. I'm not really a fan of Quorn products either and struggle with eating eggs but I will eat them and like veggie burgers and the likes.

That's probably why I'd struggle with a lot of recipes.

I'd love to know your burrito and morrocan bean recipes if you'd be so kind to share them?

Brilliant thanks. The creamy spicy mushroom pasta sounds nice.

https://vegsoc.org/recipes/gails-butter-bean-pie/

This is amazing

This is great, thank you

Oh was I? 😅We've resorted to italics? What's next, capitals? 😅

I came on here to suggest that. One of my neighbours has lent me this book and I am going to ask for it for my birthday, and am going to buy it for DD for Christmas.

I love Anna Jones' recipes https://annajones.co.uk/recipes

Bean chilli is delicious! Or the vivera veggie mince is usually around £2.50 and one pack when bulked ot with plenty of veg and extras will make us a chilli, spagbol or cottage pie to eat over two days. For chilli I use one pack of vivera mince, tin of cheap tomatoes, one onion, red pepper, couple of carrots/sweet potato/courgette (basically whatever I have that needs using up) one can of kidney beans, one can of haricot beans, cumin, paprika, and some aromat seasoning. The whole thing only costs a few quid and makes a delicious veg chilli that feeds for with rice, and the leftovers we'll have on jacket potatoes or in wraps the next day.

A minestrone soup can be a vegan main meal if you add beans, e.g. cannelloni, kidney or butter. Tin of chopped tomatoes, garlic, onion, celery, any other veg - whatever you happen to have - veg stock cube, any pasta you have, Italian seasoning and/or fresh basil - delish.

I made this for the first time last week and enjoyed it so much that I'm making it again tomorrow night: https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/crisp-cauliflower-steaks-with-harissa-and-goats-cheese/ You could sub the pine nuts for a cheaper chopped nut and make breadcrumbs from cheap white bread if you're looking to cut costs. The cheese, nut, breadcrumb combo really elevates a simple roast veg traybake.

One of my favourite lunches at the moment is frying a slice of butternut squash and eating that in a nice bread bun with halloumi, balsamic glaze and salad.