Vegetarian meal suggestions please.

[Dumbledoresgirl]

I have a friend and her son staying this week. They are both vegetarians whereas we are decidedly not. Usually, when she visits, I make a vegetable, tomato based sauce to eat with pasta, and my family add something meaty to it, eg meatballs.

But this time, I would like to cook something different for my friend. The trouble is, all the recipes I can find contain either spices
(which some of my children don't like) or mushrooms which are a big family no-no as my husband has a severe intolerance to them, and possibly my children do too (only one has dared to try them and they made him ill).

So I need a vegetarian meal that does not include spices or mushrooms, and preferably not a cop out like vegetarian sausages either.

Any ideas?

anything here?

or here?

I really love gillian mckeith's chick pean and kidney bean 'burgers'. Not a cop oout. They are lovely. they have tahini, onion, garlic, tomato puree in them. bit of coriander but that's a herb I think!?

Serve with a salad, or with potato wedges with garlic mayo (or sweet potato wedges) with a salsa sauce & salad.

I'd have a click through BBC Good Food's online vegetarian recipes. Most of them are simple, quick, cheap and don't need a mile-long list of hard-to-find ingredients.

The filo-pastry Greek-style pie with spinach, sun dried tomatoes and feta cheese is a regular in my kitchen.

A bean chili like this one could be done in two pots, one veggie and one with mince or something in.

I'd also do veggie stir fries like this one

Maybe a big veggie quiche to have with new potatoes and salad? Leek and cheese or cheese and caramelised onion perhaps?

A butternut squash and sage risotto?

A veggie lasagne?

x-post to say sorry I didn't read your post thoroughly. I'm removing my recommendation for the bean chilli and the stir-fry, obv.

Yes I'd go with a tart/quiche/flan. eg spinach and gruyere, leek and goats cheese, basically most veg and a cheese work well. Buy good shortcrust pastry if you don't want to make it, and add eggs/cream etc plus the veg and cheese.

Or homemade pizza? Everyone add their own toppings?

Thank you everyone. Sorry I didn't get back to this thread yesterday.

It really is hard finding recipes which don't use mushrooms, I find. I love them, and would happily eat them every day but alas cannot because of dh and possibly the dc.

Anyway, you have given me food for thought. Since I have recently discovered I can make perfect pastry after years of failing, I think I might go for the quiche idea, or else you have reminded me of a leek flan recipe I have seen. My kids aren't keen on the stringiness of leeks though - so maybe friend's son won't be either?

But anyway, thank you.

Dumbledoresgirl what is your secret to the pastry I always fail with it and I would love to be able make it so much!