DD turning to 'veggie'..need some simple recipes esp veg curry please.

[sicily1921]

Hi there, I've had some great help on here before....so I'm looking for simple (ish) vegetarian recipes, in particular looking to make a veggie curry. DD 11yrs is passionately against cruelty to animals and has recently become vegetarian (apart from tuna!) so any help is greatly appreciated.

For dinner tonight I made a gorgeous vegan shepherds pie. Saute onion, carrot, celery, mushroom with Italian spices, add a tin of diced tomatoes and a package of quorn mince, cook for another ten minutes. Top with mashed potatoes and bung in the oven... Mine was vegan but just add cheese to the potatoes for vegetarian.

Pataks balti paste is a great base for curries. Fry onion and whatever you like - chickpeas, paneer, quorn pieces, mixed veg ect. Fry for another 2 mins with some paste then add a carton of passata and around 200ml of water and simmer for 20 mins.

Slightly - quorn isn't vegan is it, I thought it's made with egg?

there is a really good vegetarian food magazine available. also this month bbc good food magazine has a yummy ratatouille recipe which is lush and adapts easily into other things like veggie chilli, lasange, pasta bake etc.

I must have said it loads of time on here, but River Cottage Veg Every Day is excellent. Lovely food and easy to follow recipes.

Not a fan of that cook book at all. I prefer Cranks.

Spinach and ricotta are your friend! Costs a quid for the ricotta and 89p for a bag of spinach. You can use it to fill tarts, pasta tubes, put on pizza, make lasagne, quiche etc etc.you can freeze any left over too. Nice with salt pepper and some nutmeg too.

Rose Elliott is the Grand Dame of veggie cooking and her complete vegetarian cookbook was my bible for years - it's got everything you'll ever need.

I love veggieburgers and you can get some really good ones (for an easy option). I like the veggie/bean type ones best (rather than fake meat style).

Sainsburys do some really tasty ones.

Does she eat eggs?, I do a pretend quickie 'kedgeree' type thing with boiled egg, rice, tuna, chopped tomatoes, capers, jalapenos (plus anything else in the fridge I need to use up ) and its very yum & easy (meat eating DP likes it too).

So she's a pescatarian? Not a vegetarian.

Asda frozen morrocan burgers are brilliant, the sainsburys ones aren't spicy enough imo.

I am particularly mad for halloumi and have it about a million times a week it really satisfies that savoury craving.

Thanks all so much for your replies! All very helpful, muse I will check out your blog, sounds good.

She eats most things, the main prob I have with this is that my DS is quite severely allergic to quorn!!! and I find that is the most tasty alternative. She has eaten the tofu but the type I have found doesn't seem as versatile and I have tried Sainsbury for soya mince, told some stores have it but mine didn't.

Not to confuse things, DDs brother, not DD, is allergic to quorn, she is the one turning veggie

The BBC Good Food website has a huge vegetarian section which is a good place to look for recipes if you don't want to have to buy lots of recipe books. In fact, I find that googling usually brings up loads of interesting recipes from food blogs and so on.

As far as curries and so on go, I usually use lentils or chickpeas rather than things like quorn. Paneer is also lovely in curries.

In fact, I'm not a big fan of meat-substitutes like quorn and soya 'meat' full stop - they are over-processed, expensive and unnecessary, though I do see that they can be useful if you need something very quick. I've been vegetarian for nearly 30 years, and my DCs are growing up vegetarian/pescetarian (they eat fish a couple of times a week, though I don't), and we rarely eat quorn etc. Main protein sources are tofu (I cook a lot of Chinese and Japanese-style meals), beans, lentils, eggs and cheese.

Simple Curry
Chop a medium onion, fry on low heat in pan. Meanwhile chop and pound 2-3 garlic cloves and 1 inch ginger-grated-to paste.
Add paste to frying onion, cook a few minutes. Add 1-2 tablespoons of curry powder or paste, fry 1 minute.
Now add 2 cups of hot stock or water, and chopped vegetables ( carrot, mushrooms, potato, broccoli, squash, zucchini, aubergine, anything you like). Cook. add salt to taste.
Now you can add some coconut milk if you like, or tomato puree, or thicken with cornflour, or a packet of vegetable soup powder, even some beaten yoghourt, or some mashed cooked lentils.
You can add a tarka at the end by heating some curry leaves and a teaspoon of mustard seeds and/or cumin seeds in oil or ghee, and pouring it over the curry.
Have fun!

Slightlyitchy, just pointing out that Quorn is NOT vegan it contails egg! Suitable for vegetarians but not vegans.

Tell her to research it and cook it herself?

Mixed tinned beans are excellent in curry. Stick them in a sieve and give them a rinse, some come in slightly odd tasting sticky solution.

I made this beetroot and yoghurt curry for my daughter but it has since become a family favourite for all. It is simple if you have the different spices...

Otherwise, what about morrocan style stews such as carrot and chickpea stew

Have you tried soya chunks- you can get dried versions of these from most health food shops. Rehydrate them and then use them like you would meat?

quorn is rank.

We make this this Jamie curry quite a lot, in fact I'm making it tonight with cauli, squash and peas.

We also do veggie spag bol made with canned puy lentils instead of mince.

We've tried a few of the HF-W Veg Everyday recipes but thus far, with the exception of the North African stew, found them to be pretty bland, so if anyone can recommend specifics that would be great.

Sainsbos do, ihmo, the nicest veggie sausages.

How weird - I wrote a reply yesterday and it's not here.

Do you object to curry paste? That and coconut cream can make a v good and quick sauce for (for example) sweet potatoes, chickpeas and spinach.

Paneer is gorgeous. Google Nigella's mattar paneer recipe for a lovely side dish. I up the spices a bit though.

I've not been impressed by the HFW book - agree that the recipes are generally bland.

Another few things we like are:

tortilla wraps stuffed with butternut squash, chickpeas, spinach, onions and spices, topped with cheese and baked.

tacos with a beany sweet potato filling.

Dhal and rice.

Goodlife nutcutlets are brilliant for a lazy 'roast dinner' type meal. Sainsbo's do them too but Goodlife are nicer.

Besides cury, there is a nice butternut squash, mushrooms and spinach lasagne on the bbc website

Remus I also wrote a reply yesterday that has not showed up! Odd.

I had said - thanks chaos and redpriest for pointing out that quorn is not vegan. Genuinely had no idea. Will have to stop buying it now!