For vegetarians: what easy, quick recipes do you use most?

[monstertufts]

I'm stuck in a rut food-wise. I have very little time for cooking and a weeny kitchen, so cooking is never a pleasure. Anything I make for me and the kids either has to be super-quick and/or a large amount that lasts for several meals. I often find myself alternating days between baked spuds with beans and cheese (DD's favourite) and pasta either with cheese sauce and veg, or with a sauce made from tinned tomatoes, lentils, and quorn sausages (if I have them in). I used to make a lot of curries too, but they take a little longer, so I rarely make them since DS arrived last year.

So, I need your quick, healthy, vegetarian recipes! And by 'quick' I don't mean Jamie Oliver's idea of quick, i.e. 30 minutes ... I consider 30 minutes to be ages :D

I would fry off any veg you have in with an onion, add a tin of tomatoes and put in an oven proof dish. If you want to bulk it out you can put a tin of drained butterbeans as well. Lentils would work but I'm not a fan of lentils so never really use them. Then boil and mash either butternut squash or sweet potato, and put on top.Cover with grated cheese and mozzerella.Stick in the oven until cheese is bubbling.Serve with salad.

Really yummy and you can make loads and keep in the fridge, it also freezes well too.

One of my faves at the moment is veggie chilli - recipe here

I also make a mixed veg risotto but that takes 40 mins to do. Other than that we have mushroom stroganoff, veggie korma, split pea dahl (quite often have pots of this in the freezer) and Gardeners Pie (from the Good Granny Cookbook).

put on some pasta to cook.
Meanwhile, fry up chopped onions, sliced peppers, courgettes, mushroom, garlic and spring onions (add chicken if cooking for meat-eaters!). When they are basically ready, add either some chopped fresh tomatoes or half a tin of chopped toms, cajun spice, squeeze of lemon juice. Add a little brandy or white wine or stock. If you have added alcohol, flambe it. Stir in some cream or ricotta.
Mix with pasta and serve.

PS make cooking a pleasure - have a radio/ipod/whatever in the kitchen so you can listen to something nice while cooking, and have a nice drink in your hand - wine/beer/smoothie. You dont need a big fancy kitchen for it to be a pleasure x

I make macaroni peas for my kids, its quite quick! ALso a chickpea & ketchup curry thats also quicker than a normal curry.

Some great ideas - thanks very much! Am going to try to chilli over the weekend and serve it with rice ... I need to get away from pasta or spuds as the main starch.

SpanishFly, I don't think I'd enjoy cooking much even if I had a flashy kitchen! :D

I make lots of curries, chillis etc but I start them off on the hob and then shove them in the oven to cook - not quick but feels like the oven does most of the work as I don't have to keep checking it and giving it a stir. :)

Baked risotto is great too - the initial prep is quick and then it just cooks in the oven.

Qaesadillas are quick and easy -and v popular with children. Just serve with a salad and a salsa (both easy: just chopping needed).

Quick risotto - fry up mushrooms, peppers, quorn chicken, any other veg you like, add a packet (or two if for the whole family) of pre-cooked rice (or pre cook it yourself earlier), about a third of a tub of philadelphia and a tablespoon of pesto (any flavour)

Pitta Pizzas - for each person, toast a pitta bread for a few seconds until it puffs a little to make it easier to halve into two thin flat ovals. spread each with some tomato puree, topings of your choice, and some cheese. Grill till the chese melts, eat.

Does it need to be quick from start to finish or is brief prep time, longer wait (for other tasks!) then few mins again at the end OK? If so, I like to do roast veg with couscous and haloumi: Chop 2 or 3 peppers into largish lumps, a courgette, perhaps half an aubergine (though they are in short supply this summer) and 1 or 2 red onions (take care to trim as little of the root stem as possible then cut them into wedges along the central spine so that they stay together rather than falling into slices). Spray with oil and bake in a hot oven (at this point no further effort required till then end so I go off and do something useful (or mumsnet). About 40 mins later, measure out some couscous and pour on an equal volume of boiling water, stick halloumi slices under the grill. When the haloumi is browned/blackened on both sides, add a couple of small knobs of butter to the couscous anf fluff it up with a fork, take the veg out of the oven and stir together with the couscous, put a pile of veg&couscous on each plate and top with 2 or 3 slices of halloumi

Pasta with chick peas and garlic -
put bag of pasta on to cook. While it's cooking, fry 2 chopped onions with a head of chopped garlic in olive oil until soft. Add 2 tins of chick peas (drained) and heat through. Drain pasta, chuck in chick peas, mix well. Serve with a little bit of grated gran padano or similar. Serves 4-5

nutty potato cakes - really quick if you have left over mash. Blitz a 200gm bag of peanuts (plain ones not salted), a handful of parsley and an onion until the are quite finely chopped. Mix into mashed potato, shape into patties, coat in breadcrumbs or flour and fry until golden on both sides. You can bake them until crisp if you like. Serve with salad or veg.

mac and cheese - cook pasta, make sauce by melting 200gms grated cheddar into a tub of crème fraiche while the pasta is cooking.

scrambled egg rice - use leftover rice for extra quickness. You need
1 cup cooked rice per person
1/2 an onion per person
garlic to taste
1 egg, beaten per person
salt and pepper

fry the onion and garlic in a good amount of oil until soft. Add rice and stir until hot. you can add some frozen peas at this point, if you like. Add egg and cook, stirring for a couple of minutes until set. Season and serve.

I live off stirfrys when I'm busy, with lots of egg noodles for carbs.

You could also try mini pizzas with chilli wedges... english muffins cut in half and toasted, topped with tomato puree, then whatever toppings you like (I have spinach,a slice of beef tomato, a slice of mozzerella and olives) then grill until the cheese melts. Chilli wedges: jacket potato in the microwave for 8-10 mins. Then cut into wedges, coat with olive oil and some chilli flakes...grill until crispy.

xx

Buy some puff pastry, lay it on a baking tray.
Leave a 2cm gap round the edge and cover the rest with your favourite roast veg, pesto and cheese. Bake it and serve with new potatoes and salad.

Roast a tray of veg (courgettes, pepper, onions, squash, garlic and a few sprigs of thyme) when done mix into couscous. Nice hot or cold the next day.

Rivercottage Veg cookbook has tons of quick recipes in it.

Other ideas for covering puff pastry for an easy but delicious tea.

Spinach and ricotta. Mix up in a bowl and throw in whatever flavourings you like (herbs, lemon rind, nutmeg, whatever). Spread over pastry leaving a gap at the edge. Bake. You can roll it up to make a brilliant looking roulade-type thing, but that takes a bit longer to cook.

Onion and Cheese. Fry off some onion until soft (maybe with some rosemary or thyme thrown in). You could caramelise it properly, but this takes longer so I never bother. Spread onion over puff pastry. Top with grated cheese of your choice (or sliced goats cheese if you prefer). Would also be nice with some pesto or tapenade spread underneath.

This takes a bit longer, but mostly it's just doing its own thing in the oven so you aren't stuck in the kitchen. Throw some diced sweet potato, a roughly chopped onion (whatever colour you like), two roughly chopped peppers and a handful of cherry tomaoesin a roasting tin. Add about a tablespoon each of cumin and paprika (you can also add a couple of whole, unpeeled cloves of garlic and/or a cinnamon stick if you like) and a little oil. Mix up and throw in the oven until everything is soft. Cook a bout half a packet of giant cous cous and drain. Mix a tin of chickpeas into the roast veg mixture. The residual heat will warm them through. Throw in the giant cous cous and mix. Serve with some pitta bread (or just bread).

You can vary this by mixing in normal cous cous, pasta, rice or anything else you like, or by changing the choice of veg. It makes loads and is lovely hot or cold.

Other ideas... Pasta/rice with a creamy mushroom sauce.

This Black bean chilli is incredibly good (and popular with the vegetarian averse). I usually serve it with rice and soured cream. It would be great on nachos too.

New potatoes with green beans and pesto. Cook some new potatoes and green beans. Stir through some pesto and perhaps add some grated Parmesan. You could add cherry tomatoes too.