Veggie (ish) recipes for a toddler

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Hi we have just adopted a 20 month old.

It seems she's either not used to, or doesn't like meat, (her fc were vegetarian but they didn't enforce it, but I guess naturally they were more inclined to cook vegetarian dishes)

So we tend to eat spag Bol, shepherds pie, meat, potato, veg type things but she's not liking them. She'll wolf down pasta, cheese, potatoes but I'm fast running out of ideas.

So any vegetarian, or almost vegetarian recipes would be great

Congratulations on your little girl. The BBC good food website has some lovely recipes. The gnocchi and tomato bake is nice and I've tried lots of variations on risotto and pizza. Couscous is also very versatile. With the gnocchi/risotto style dishes you could cook up some chopped sausages or bacon and stir them into the meat eater portions.

Don't drive yourself too mad cooking separate meals, at that age & even still at 11 my militant vegetarian DD loves nothing better than what she calls a "snack pot"

Basically its a bowl of chopped up raw veg batons such as carrot, cabbage, cauliflower, swede, celery, tomato, beet root, peppers, cucumber etc & salad leaves such as spinach & lettuce, & protein in the form of butter beans, kidney beans, chic peas etc, or maybe a handful of good nuts such as pecans, & some cubes of cheese, or cheese dip or hummus.

I used to drive myself nuts trying to coax her with good cooked veggie food & then realise why am I bothering, she's eating really healthily & it's what she likes & it's easy to grab stuff from the fridge & throw together :)

My DD also loved noodles at that age, bit of finely shredded, carrot, cabbage & spring onion stir fried & tossed with cooked noodles in a bit of sesame oil, soy sauce & some cooking water from the noodles - takes about 10 minutes :)

Congratulations

Cheesy baked beans
Baked potatoes with egg mayo
Eggy bread
Veggie lasagne (courgettes, mushrooms, carrot slices)
Have you tried using quorn with your usual family meals?
Mac n cheese (I think you said that)
Mozzarella sticks and dippy sauce
Pitta and hummus with cucumber sticks
What about mild flavoured fish?

How about lentilly things like dal or a veggie lasagne like this.

Do you think it is the texture she struggles with? Meat can be hard to chew for little ones.

Ohh noodles and pizza why didn't I think of that. And eggy bread is a great idea.

We've tried quorn but I think it's the texture she doesn't like..

Thanks for the help, I'll visit a few websites

Oh & I forgot to say

Congratulation :)

Congratulations.
I've got a veggie toddler and we post all the recipes that she likes here:
Broccoli and rice cakes which you might find useful. There was another recent thread in this section on vegetarian meals so you might find that useful too. Otherwise, I'd try red lentil bolagnese or red lentil lasagne
Shepardess pie (using lentils and veggies rather than mince in traditional version)
My daughter has always enjoyed egg noodles and veg stir fry and
chickpea and veg curries (non spicy).

Good luck!

Does she eat fish?
Omelettes are good - mine are usually spinach, tomato and cheese. With potato slices if they need to be more filling.

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

My kids are veggie, and at that age, they also loved pasta dishes. The also liked veggie pizza, soup, jacket potatoes, dips with pitta and vegetable crudites.
I made up this meal plan from various veggie blogs, which might help.

Congratulations!! I have a 2 year old DD and these are things we do for her. We like lots of spicy food so I am often cooking semi separate meals hence some of these are a bit nursery food like! eg we might have some chicken in black bean sauce alongside the egg fried rice, or a hot curry with the quinoa/pakoras, or a chilli, chorizo & veg omelette when she has the egg, broccoli & potato.

Egg fried rice with peas/corn/finely diced things like onion/carrot etc mixed through. A smattering of soy sauce if she's anything like my DD and has a taste for salty!

Pasta with homemae pesto is generally a winner here. I ram it full of pine nuts and stuff some spinach in with the basil. Then a little grating of cheddar on top.

One of our most successful and v quick lunch/dinner/even breakfast on occasion(!) is a poached egg with bitesize bits of new potato and broccoli. I toss the spuds and broccoli in butter as she loves it and she will then dunk them all in the egg yolk.

She adores quinoa which, whilst seeming grainlike, is actually a seed and is a complete protein. And tbh I have been known many a time to dish up for her quinoa with grated cheese on top, some cherry toms & cucumber sticks.

Homemade pakoras often go down well. Shred/grate/stick through food processor a mix of veg like onions, carrot, cabbage, frozen peas. Then pour in enough gram flour (ground chickpeas) to coat the veg well. I add some cumin, coriander & garam masala and 1/2 tsp baking powder. Then add water until you have a stiff-ish batter. Fry until golden and then drain on kitchen towel, where they will crisp up. Let cool before giving to her! For adults, add salt once cooked. Deep frying gets the best results, but you can shallow fry too.

Bean chilli. My DD adores chickpeas and beans in general so I do a mix of about 4 different beans + grated up veg & the usual chilli flavourings. Serve with rice/quinoa

Good luck.

And as a PP said, don't over complicate it. In reality DD loves to have a buttered ryvita with some cheese on top, cherry toms & cucumber sticks, then fruit & often some plain greek yoghurt. I feel bad putting so little effort in but actually she's happy and it's healthy so it's fine to wheel that out pretty often!

Oh and chickpea curry (channa masala) she enjoys - just leave out the actual chilli so it's aromatic but not hot.

Thanks again, some great ideas here

I had a bit of time today so made a pizza base and out her fav things on top and she loved it! I also felt all 'earth mother' as us actually made it

Daal is easy and you can make it totally mild.

Vegetable and lentil casserole with dumplings is easy and nutritious.

Baked sweet potato with pesto and cheese and with salad.

Snacks: apple cheese and raisin, peanut butter on big rice cakes, savoury muffins, houmous and veg sticks, fruit and yoghurt and honey.