looking for idea for non-dairy, low-fat largely veggie cooking

[rhetorician]

Hello

I am a decent enough cook, but DP has had to forgo dairy for the time being (bf dd2 not responding well), and I seem to have high cholesterol, so I am looking for good, tasty ideas (or recipe book recommendations) that will also work for dd2 (who is mildly lactose intolerant but can eat cheese). We all eat fish of all types and dd1 and I eat chicken, ham, sausages, mince. So recipes need to be

• dairy free
• low in unsaturated fat (not incompatible with above)
• nutritious for toddler and bf mother (calcium, iron and protein requirements)
• reasonably quick and easy to prepare (e.g. stews that can be reheated)

It's a pain, but I do feel that we need to overhaul our family diet. Thanks for any suggestions -

Well, you could try Quorn mince if you like mince; that way, it's veggie but a familiar taste for the toddler.

Stir fry with tofu or cashew nuts, with rice or noodles.

Soup is a really good, cheap meal - lentil soup maybe, or vege and barley, or a Thai style one with lots of veggies plus noodles. If we're having soup as a main meal, I quite like to do a fruit crumble for pudding.

Root vege and lentil casserole.

Chick pea tagine with cous cous.

quorn good - chili, and stuff like that. Main challenge is snacks - DP gets very hungry and needs something really quick - this has been bread and cheese or toast and butter. So need to make buy hummus, smoked mackerel pate etc etc

thanks for suggestions - all helpful. Can't think properly about food beyond the effort of getting everyone fed!

Totally recommend the River Cottage Veg cookbook. SIL got it for me for Christmas, it's my best present this year. The recipes are all completely veggie, some of them use a bit of cheese or cream or a poached egg etc but most don't.

Having tried a few, so far they've all been lovely...

Good luck.

got the HFW Veg Book for christmas, and thought of raiding it - a good number of recipes seem to be vegan which will work for all of us...eggs are good, except for me. There's good stuff in his family book too. just haven't had chance to look at it in any detail

are you OK with dairy 'replacements?' DS is dairy allergic, so use quite a bit of oatly cream and Kara milk.

ilovemydog yes, up to a point (e.g. not if they taste really nasty!)

I'd recommend you look to pulses for inspiration and therefore recommend Rose Elliot's 'The Bean Book'. There is a huge variety of beans, lentils and other pulses to choose from. Rich in protein and fibre, virtually fat free and very versatile indeed.

As well as nutritionally excellent they are also dirt cheap. My technique is to take a typical 500g bag of dried chickpeas (costing 60p-90p average), soak and cook for the time indicated on the packet.... generates about 1.3kgs cooked... then drain and allow to totally cool before spreading in a thin layer in a large freezer bag and freezing on a tray. Once frozen, a quick shake of the bag means they separate and are ready to use in.... soups, casseroles, dips, beanburgers, curries, chillis, broths, salads etc.

great tip, cogito. Am going to try dried beans (soaked) in the slow cooker

I think I have that Rose Elliot book somewhere - asian shops are great for good pulses I find. Fortunately for me dd1 loves both chickpeas and haricot beans, so that's a start. Must find time to look at the Veg book in detail

Vegetable curry
Red lentil curry
Chana Massalla
Chickpea tagine
Pad Thai
Veg green / red curry (use half-fat coconut milk)
Fajitas (use chicken breast, any veg you like, wholewheat tortilla and low fat creme fraiche/salsa)
Spicy Mexican bean burgers and sweet potato wedges (yum)
Tuna Nicoise salad
Salmon/Fresh tuna teriyaki

sofresh they all sound yummy - I've never made pad thai, or teriyaki..tagine I love but DP has some weird objection to fruit being in savoury dishes so dd and I would have to scoff that ourselves!