Transitioning to a vegetarian. Help!

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I need some lovely veggie recipes to start me off, dh is still a meat eater but will eat veg only options too.

We eat pretty healthy I'm also coeliac.

Can anyone give me some ideas or point me in the direction of a good website or book?

Thank you

Quorn do a handy cookbook. I use quorn to make meat free versions of everything. The only thing is that it taste much much better if dish is made and left for 24 hours e.g. Chilli, pasta sauce, curry etc quorn itself is a bit tasteless so leave to soak in the spices etc I cook big batches of stuff, let it sit and freeze etc

I love Veg by Hugh Fearnley Whittenstall (sp?). I'm not vege and this book is aimed at getting omnivores to eat meat-free meals. Loads of great stuff!

My two favourite cookery books are Hugh F-W's Veg, and Madhur Jaffery's World Vegetarian. Once you've got those two, you're flying!

Another great vegetarian cookbook is Plenty.

Great suggestions thank you, have just ordered HFW veg book

Vegetarian society have a great list of recipes and I think they have a way of showing GF only on there. You don't have to join to read them

Unicorn cooperative in Manchester have some good online recipes with spelt quinoa polenta and all those other funky things you spend about 10 minutes in the supermarket wondering wtf am I going to do with that at. They also do good low refined sugar recipes

A veggie cafe in Manchester run by a mental health charity also have recipes online (cafe is called topaz, is in Tameside and is run by mind)

I have less books but more odds and sods I've picked up over time and collected in my file. Much more personalised especially if you have additional dietary needs.

Good luck with the transition from a fellow vegetarian

Thanks so much avid, I'm looking now. Love quinoa and very odd foods!

I was vegan for 20 years. The best tip I can give you is to move away from trying to replace the meat in any dish. So try not to do any of the meat and two veg meals and go more towards curries, stir fries and pasta sauces where most veg can be bulked out with lentils and soya mince (if you like that - some don't).

My favourite recipes were the simplest - aubergine and red lentil pasta sauce (fry the aubergine, add onions and mushrooms and then 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and then lentils and simmer until cooked down - absolutely lovely). And I also love a really good potato and cauliflower curry - no recipe as such just anything goes and a jar of curry sauce for ease!

Have fun

Depending on how adventurous you are, I would recommend the Asian Vegan kitchen by Hema Parekh. It has really authentic recipes from all over Asia and the tofu recipes are by far the best I've found (I substitute fried cauldron for whatever tofu it specifies). Really flavourful dishes (especially Kung pow tofu- my favourite). The sweet corn fritters are easy and amazing.

My top tip for supermarket tofu (eg Cauldron) is to chop it in chunks then fry it first- makes it much more appetising.

Curry is your friend!

Chickpea curry
Veg curry
Daal
Thai curry
Veg biryani

For wintery stuff, veggie pies, lentil shepherds pie, lentil bolognase, veg stew, Spanish chickpeas.

But the very best is this I used canned beans though!

To add to the curries - muttar paneer (aka cheese and peas). I'm obsessed with the stuff, it's a genius combination! Doable at home, too, as most supermarkets sell paneer. The Prashad cookbook has a good recipe.

I'm not a veggie but am trying to eat more vegetarian food. I agree with the advice about curries. DH cooked a fabulous pineapple curry last week which he scoffed without moaning about the lack of meat.

You are all brilliant! Love tofu, sadly can't eat chickpeas but can easily substitute.

Pineapple curry sounds amazing as does the cauliflower and potato.

I quite often make cauliflower (used a the base) pizza.

I'm pretty adventurous and love Asian food. The healthier the better. I'm also interested in raw foods

I found blue dragon tofu much better. I can't stand cauldron. If you have access to a Chinese grocer, you can get a much larger variety of tofu/soy products. The tofu in water is harder to cook. You can get a 'dried' version in the fridge which is a lot sturdier and easier to stir fry. And there are puffed and deep fried ones too.

The tofu from Chinese grocers is much better- I don't need to fry it to make it edible! If you get the firm tofu (in water), you can wrap it in a tea towel and put it between two plates to get rid of some of the moisture- makes it much easier to handle.
I wish we could get a bigger range of tofu here- I've eaten it in Japan and it's in a different league.

Sorry, gone off on a tofu tangent!

The plain cauldron tofu has improved drastically in the last couple of years, I should add.

I must admit I haven't bought cauldron for a while. Once was enough to put me off. The 'dried' one in the fridge in Chinese grocers are pressed for a very long time to drain the moisture. Pan other trick to remove moisture in the standard one (sold in water) is to cut and then put in boiling water for about 5 min. I have heard microwaving works as well but haven't tried it.

I mean the ones in the fridge. There is a even drier one found on the shelves.

Press the Cauldron one as below, then dip slices in a mixture of oil, soy sauce, 5 spice powder and sesame seeds and then bake for half an hour or so. Lovely.

I do a shepherd's pie with Quorn mince (the trick to making it edible is to add loads of vegetables (leeks, carrots, onions, garlic) and flavouring - I add Marmite and Bisto) with sweet potatoes as the topping.

My very favourite veggie cookbooks are madhur J's World Vegetarian and also the World Food Cafe ones - only good if you like lots of spice.

Paneer is gorgeous - you can buy it in Sainsbo's. Cut into cubes and shallow fry until brown all over, then add to curries.