Vegan family meals

[Jaynetheplane]

We eat a lot of meat, we eat it every day for dinner and most lunch options involve meat too.

I’ve decided to do one vegan day a week, and maybe one vegetarian meal a week too but I already have a few veggie recipes up my sleeve that I use occasionally ( bean chilli, veggie curry,etc)

Kids are pretty adventurous, so are dh and I so Any ideas welcome.

We eat vegan every night! Here are some current favs...

healthylivinglondon.com/nutrition-and-food-for-healthy-living-in-london/red-pepper-goulash-recipe/

veganuary.com/recipes/peking-jackfruit-pancakes/

goodeatings.com/recipes/mains/crispy-cinnamon-potato-tacos-cook-share-eat-vegan/

recipes.sainsburys.co.uk/recipes/sainsburys/sausage-and-bean-stew

The last one is a simple favourite for this time of year just swap out the stock to veggie stock and get some vegan sausages instead, sainsburys range of vegan food is excellent!

This Aubergine, olive and butter bean cassoulet is really tasty.
I’m making this root veg tagine tonight, serve it with cous cous.
Also big fan of jack Monroe’s carrot and kidney bean burgers, pasta arabiata and stir fry with cashews. I’m not vegan but these all fall into our regular menu plans.

We use the Bosh recipe books and the Dirty Vegan one too - there are loads of ideas in there. I've been surprised by how adventurous my children have been.

Loads of pasta dishes, chilli and curries which always go down well. we've tried various mexican ones too, the bosh bowls and tofu stir fry things (pad thai mostly). Plus the linda mccartney duck (for an easy night) went down really well.

To be fair, you can get relatively good vegan replacements for pretty much any ingredient that you would use - so a lot of the time you don't need to be that clever about it, just make what you would normally make, but with meat replacement/vegan cheese/soy milk etc.

This one from hello fresh is my favourite. Just use dairy free yoghurt

www.hellofresh.co.uk/recipes/roasted-carrot-dal-5a90623bae08b54238638222

We just replace any meat in recipes with lentils, beans, veggies etc and cook all the same meals as before.

Lentil ragu www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/lentil-ragu
Bean burgers
Falafel
This is the best vegan lasagne recipe I’ve found. It serves six, but it also has the freezing guidelines at the bottom if you have extra portions. realfood.tesco.com/recipes/vegan-aubergine-and-red-pepper-lasagne.html
Lentil meatballs www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/healthy/lentil-meatballs-with-fresh-tomato-sauce/
Chickpea curry
Satay stir fry www.cauldronfoods.co.uk/recipes/vegan-satay-tofu-stir-fry

Thanks for all the ideas I will try all of them x

Portobello mushroom burgers for a quick supper.

Lots of pasta dishes, aubergine & tomato, ratatouille, Prima-Vera, wild mushroom, etc etc.

Easy quick ones I like
Green lentil and portobello fajitas
Fried rice
Loads of curries are vegan
African Peanut stew
Veggie paella’s
Drunken noodles with rice noodles

www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/p/potato_leek_roestiwithchickpeasandcoriandersalad.html A long term family favourite - quick and easy too!

I suppose it depends on why you want to do it i guess. Whether its for welfare reasons or to expand your veg intake?

Theres lots of easy swaps eg mince, trying different sausages, or some of the new awesome burgers etc but If your only being vegan for one night then personally i would look for meals that make sense without any substitute and let veg shine. As a veggie i use lentils and chickpeas but i would focus on veg if it was onlyone night

-fajitas are really easy with peppers etc

• lots of beans are good for tacos or chillis

-roasted veg is amazing served just with pasta (watch for egg in some pasta)
-pesto pasta (some pesto has cheese in)

• using tomato as a base you can make good pasta sauces with all sorts of veg

-lentils can be used for bulking spaghetti, chilli etc out

-stews

-curry is always an easy thing to put lots of veg in, use coconut milk and paste if you normally buy sauce (jar sauces often have milk,double cream in). Lots of indian side dishes use lentils or chickpea We love this one but i would say any sweet potato curry has gone down well:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/satay-sweet-potato-curry

• stirfry is always quick

• I've tended to find falafel a winner with people who aren't eating vegan deliberately. Roasted veg and falafel wraps, buddah bowls or falaffel burgers

-tofu isnt the devil people might have you think. In our house we only like crispy tofu so always use recipies that involve using cornflour etc however the below uses premarinated so theres no pressing and the texture is perfect

realfood.tesco.com/recipes/veggie-rice-bowl.html

I just realised that last post might have made me sound judgy about why you are doing this! I just meant i didnt want to offer you meals really similar to what you have if you were doing it to increase your variety.

I have the Bosh book and Jamie Oliver's Veg - they are both fab.

I've also swapped freezer food for veg options and the kids dont even notice half the time! Quorn nuggets, veg sausages, haven't tried the fishless fingers yet though.

We only have meat once or twice a week now.

@Fallofrain no that’s fine, tbh I’d rather be more inventive with actual veg rather than meat replacements. We eat vegetables but usually just as they come, as a side rather than being the main part of the meal, so I’d like to try something different with them.