Needing inspiration for meat free meals

[flibbertigibbert]

I've decided for budgetary and health reasons to have 2 vegetarian nights a week. DP is of the opinion that a meal isn't complete without a huge slab of meat. How can I convince him otherwise? I need your best vegetarian recipes.

Wow, there are so many

A good place to start would be here

We quite often have meat free nights too, DP took a while to be persuaded but doesn't grumble too much now!! :)

Tonight we had mashed potato, savoy cabbage, tesco meat-free cheese & leek sausages (they were lurking in my freezer, nice) with gravy.

More planned meals tho, vegetable curry is nice. We usually have cauliflower as bulk as ours, with sliced courgettes, spinach...whatever we have lying about really. Curry paste/spices, tin chopped tomatoes and tin coconut milk if you feel like it...yum! Or lentil dhal with spicy rice, peas & boiled eggs :)

Risotto nice without meat - we often have mushroom risotto. Or green veg (peas, broad beans, leeks etc)

Or pasta dishes are nice & easy. We had one with finely diced aubergine, courgettes & carrots and a tin of chopped tomatoes this week. Or a fave when I can't be bothered to cook is carton of passata with whatever veg in freezer - peas, sweetcorn, broad beans etc, and sometimes a bit of red pesto stirred in at end if I have any in fridge.

Sorry, gone on a bit...trying to distract myself from blue cheese cravings!!

This is a vast question. Here are some of my favourite things off the top of my head.

Falafel burgers (chick peas whizzed up with some coriander, cumin, garlic, parsley, fresh coriander) with humous, harissa, halloumi, rocket etc. Think I nicked that from Giraffe actually - seem to remember they serve it with grilled red peppers in the bun too.

Pasta with a million different sauces. My favourites are puttanesca (has a couple of anchovies in, if you don't mind including a tiny bit of fish), or broccoli with garlic, cream and loads of parmesan - steam the broccoli til it's soft so it starts to break up as you stir it in. That's also nice with anchovies actually, as is broccoli with poached eggs and anchovy butter.

Melanzane parmigiana (ie aubergines).

Lebanese mezze - humous, baba ganoush, halloumi, tabouleh, flatbreads.

Home-made garlic mushroom and mascarpone pizza, with dried chilli flakes sprinkled on top.

Big flat field mushrooms baked and topped with fresh spinach, blue cheese, breadcrumbs (if you happened to have a couple of rashers of bacon knocking around you could crisp them up and use them instead or aswell).

Baked potatoes with cottage cheese (much the best topping imo) and salad.

Gratin - you can put anything in. Use your favourite creamy soup as inspiration, eg leek and potato.

Ploughmans lunch with cheese and homemade soda bread rolls (take 20 minutes, can be flavoured with cheese and mustard)

Risotto - butternut squash, sage and parmesan; spring veg eg asparagus; mushroom (all of these are best if you make them with chicken stock, but veg stock is fine too).

If you don't mind compromising, you could always have a mostly-veggie meal using meat as an accent rather than main ingredient, almost like a seasoning: eg, spinach, red onion, tomato, cheddar and bacon salad, with mushrooms if you like them raw.

Hope that helps.

Sorry, forgot one of my absolute favourites: savoy cabbage and sweet potato hash. Steam then fry the veg til they are crispy, make some indentations and crack eggs into them, then bake for 15 minutes. Also delicious with fried chorizo in it too.

And dhal! With rice, pickles, naan.

I'll stop now

...Except to add that puy lentils are delicious in salads with roast root veg, watercress and feta or goats' cheese; or with salad ingredients like feta, tomatoes, roast butternut squash, cucumber etc stirred in.

Can you come and live in my house thereistheball? All those suggestions sound fabulous!

We have home made meat free pizza once a week and no-one notices there's no meat. I put peppers, chopped baby corn, onions, mushrooms and olives with mozzarella they all yum it down.

we are veggies if you want simple...try a veggie curry veggie pie,soup etc...just miss out the meat.or quorn,we use it on lazy days.just make your usual cottage pie,spag blol,chillie,bean stew with 'sausages' etc...its easy really,much easier than meat,you dont have to cook it as long and you cant poison anyone!!

love the sound of that sweet potato dish thereis the ball. Used to do one similar with new pots and savoy cabbage and some chili- must do it again soon.

Other things we eat are tarts made from puf pastry topped with caramelised onions and feta/goats cheese, greek pie with spinach and feta and filo, courgette lasagne, lots of dal and curries too, vegetable tagine, black bean chili, mushroom strogonoff (from the original Cranks cook book).

Thank you for all the replies!

Thereistheball - everything sounds delicious, especially the dahl and gratin. I had an M&S spinach and potato gratin the other day as a side dish but I could probably turn it into a main.

FortiesCromarty - I used to do homemade pizzas with lots of veggies but got lazy. I'll definitely do another one soon.

I should've said in the OP that I'm trying to lose weight at the moment and my dietitian advised that my dinner plate is 1/2 veg, 1/4 protein and 1/4 carbs, so any veggie recipes with protein in would be good.

I used to be vegetarian in my teens but didn't eat anything as interesting as some of the suggestions here.

Glad you like them. Most of them are not original - the sweet potato and savoy cabbage hash was from a Waitrose recipe card last year IIRC. Anyway good luck with it!

(PS Tarts - how could I forget them?? Crikeybadger's puff pastry one sounds delicious. Another one I do is with pesto and roasted summer veg, with goat's cheese sprinkled on top.)

some delish suggestions on here. Re protein op mushrooms are good, as is tofu (you need to fry it imo but it contains no fat of its own). Halloumi is fantastic, you'd only need a few strips, a load of roast veg and a flat bread. Which reminds me, quesadillas! Easy and quick.

The advice the dietition has given you is based on a meat eating point of view. Most veggy cuisine involves combining foods to create complete protien. Eg dahl and chappatis, rice and beans etc, but these foods also contain carbs (as do veg). Go for whole grains as they have better gi. Lots of foods contain protein in lesser quantities than meat though some are harder for your body to extract. I'd suggest maybe asking your dietitien to clarify how she would classify lentils etc.

flibbertigibbert - have you read this book? I think it's great. It's a low-carb diet: the weight is falling off me.