Family vegetarian meals that don't contain aubergine, sweet potato, squash, spice, avocado, yoghurt, cream, cheese, fruit

[Spirinata]

I'm trying to get us eating a huge amount less meat and fish (save money, ethical issues etc) but DH is so fussy.

I know I shouldn't pander to it but id like to convince him he can enjoy vegetarian food first and then tackle everything else.

DCs don't love spicy food or pulses but am doing some meals with pulses and they are dealing with it. But I'd like to find some that don't rely on pulses or a tomato sauce. Been making so many tomato based things!

Also no pasta as have recipes coming out of my ears for that.

Have been doing a lot of mushroom stuff that has been going down well.

Any ideas? Don't ask for much do I!?

Lasagne with quorn or roast veg or a mix of the 2

Pizza

Vege burgers

Chimmy chungas

Risotto

Vege sausages

Nut roast

Soup

Salad

Quiche

Omelette

Egg & chips

Vege all day breakfast

Stuffed peppers

Baked potatoes

Risotto with or without parmesan depending on how strict no cheese is, veggie/bean chilli with rice, vegetable quiche, other veggie pies, veggie fajitas using mild seasoning with guacamole and salsa, homemade pizzas, veggie burgers, halloumi (not cheesy tasting so perhaps not offensive?) and veg skewers

Halloumi and mozzarella are in. Apparently non offensive.

Guacamole is out - avocado

How do you make lasagne without a bechamel? And chimmychangas without cheese?

Quiche is also out, DH can't explain way.

Have been doing lots of soup and risotto which are going down well.

Thanks!

Sweetcorn/veg fritters
Spanish omlette
Lentil bake
Beany/quorn shepherd's pie
Stir fry - quorn or cashews for protein
Veg pasties
Mushroom stroganoff
Veggie chilli - I use sweet potato, but I guess you could leave it out.
Potato, cauliflower, pea, lentil curry
Chickpea burgers
Various bean stews

I've been veggie since I was 18 and taught myself to cook with Cranks

Aldo check out A Girl Called Jack her recipes are very much budget driven, so automatically contain very little meat or cheese. Actually I think she might be veggie anyway, but still not much cheese or dairy.

These are all great ideas. How do I do a great nut loaf?

And yes to the mostly veggie with bits of meat. Have been trying to do that with small amounts of bacon or chorizo thrown in here and there.

Last night I did jacket potatoes with slow-cooked leeks - just sliced, washed leeks fried slowly with olive oil, butter and a little water then finished with cream.

No cream!

Although that's is a good one. I do it quite often but with mushrooms as well and sometimes chorizo.

Most stir fries will fit the bill of lots of veggies without a lot of meat. As will Thai curries.

For example a pad Thai
www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/8718237/Pad-Thai-recipe.html
Substitute the tofu with meat from left over roast. Use any veggies you like instead of the suggested. Basically all you need from the recipe is the sauce

Pancakes with a mushroomy filling? Those who like it could add some cheese too, and you could add bacon into the filling if you wanted.

Do you know the website Lisa's Kitchen ? Although she has a lot of Indian recipes and therefore spicy, there are loads of others, and they are really delicious.

how about tofu - if marinated before stir frying it tastes really lovely. also strips of tofu coated in Chinese five spice either baked or grilled or shallow fried and served with sautéed mushrooms and onions and shredded lettuce on Chinese pancakes with a bit of plum sauce. That is from a fellow Mnetter and tastes great!

Veggie toad in the hole? Just cook some veggie sausages whilst warming an ovenproof dish (with a couple of tablespoons of oil in) and then put sausages in dish. Cover with batter mix. Cook for 20-25 minutes. Serve with potatoes and veg.

Actually a mushroom and onion in the hole night go down pretty well.

The cranks nut roast is lovely and they do a posh one in their entertaining book.

Thank you for this post though - really lovely ideas - I am a veggie don't want to cook hate cooking but must cook with a meat eating son so like the idea of recipes with a tiny bit of meat in that I can do separately for him.

Great I shall have a look.

Did a quinoa chilli tonight with some stealth sweet potato, peppers, and black beans. Red onion and coriander to garnish along with some deep fried chick peas rolled in cumin and salt.

I had yoghurt and avocado on mine!

Woolton pie

Faux chicken pie

Faux bacon blts

Leek and potato soup

Peanut curry (you can make it mild)

Vegetarian haggis roast dinner

Shepherdess pie

Vegetable moussaka

Vegetable paella

Spanish omelette

Stuffed cabbage rolls

Cornish pasties

Vegetable cobbler

Erm, out of ideas. Hope this helps a bit. There are some good blogs too just have a Google. Fork and beans is a good one.

What is faux chicken pie?

Quorn or other fake chicken substitute. Then make like chicken pie.

I also remembered paneer, it's halloumi like and good in curries and kebabs.

Are meat substitutes nice? And health properties? Are they full of weird additives? I don't mean tofu etc. I've always thought veggie sausages and Quorn look odd and processed but that is coming from a completely ignorant place.

Speaking as the household veggie, and principal cook, Quorn is a handy convenience food, particularly if you want to match what everyone else is eating. - sausage and mash, chicken stir fry, I would however, always prefer "proper"food. I tend to use a tin of brown/green lentils in lieu of mince for spag Bol, shepherds pie etc. There are some veggie sausages out there (Cauldron Foods) which are made of "real" food, or you can make some Glamorgan sausage recipe but cheesey sausages don't work for me.

Thanks so much for that. Good to know. I think since I'm trying to get everyone eating less meat I'll stick with veg substitutes. Made a nice ish lentil bolognese the other day based on deliciously Ella recipe. Nothing like real of course! Do you do yours the same way as a standard bolognese?

I'd say tofu isn't a bad convenience food, DH not keen unless I do it crispy with corn flour but that is a bit of a faff so going to try him on just marinating it and doing some sort of Malaysian type stir fry next week.

Meal plan next week
mon - carrot and coriander soup
tues - vegetable Thai green curry
weds - fish, potatoes and roast veg
Thurs - tofu stir fry
Friday - mushroom and onion in the hole with broccoli and peas
Sat - lasagne with meat but will do half as much meat and add in lentils, carrots, mushrooms etc for bulking then watercress soup for supper
Sun - homemade pizza with mushroom and peppers for lunch and possibly sausages for supper or some spinach pesto and pasta (DH will eat shop bought pesto but won't eat mine!!!! So he can have that and me and DC will have the nice one). I'm trying to keep our pasta intake low as well nothing against it but just so easy to fall into quite a boring rut of having pastas with sauce all the time and stops the DCs being adventurous. And I know that quite often have literally just plain pasta served up at school for lunch!

I don't think anyone can complain about that too much! Lunch wise in week it's just me and DCs sporadically so we will have picking bits, oat cakes, hummus, tomatoes and cucumber etc, probably socca on one of the days because it's so great!

Anyone else want to share their vegetarian or nearly vegetarian meal plans?

Nice ideas here. Mine:

mon something with the Sunday leftovers, probably pasta.
Tues mushroom risotto
Weds arancini with the leftovers and tomato sauce
Thurs dhal
Fri vegetable soup

Sat lentil type shepherds pie
Sun cheapest meat I can get in butcher and slow cooked. Then leftovers to follow into Monday