Ideas if just one person is vegetarian...

[Burpalot]

DP and I have recently started living together. He is vegetarian, and I am not. How do those of you who are similar eat? I like a lot of vegetarian food, but am struggling to get my protein in (I've had my stomach stapled and before we lived together I ate a lot of seafood, fish, lean meats). We're obviously cooking every meal together at the moment, and 20 out of 21 meals are vegetarian. Don't want to waste food especially as my meals are so small!!

Typical meals we've had recently - aubergine and spinach pasta bake, chickpea curry, lots of Thai curries with tofu, roast (him with a quorn thing, me with a lamb chop), pizzas, shakshuka, freezer surprise, other curries....

Any ideas for what we can cook where I can integrate more protein?

Bean chilli? Enchiladas? Lentil casserole? Beans and lentils a great source of protein

You could just cook your meat separately. Dh and I are veggie and vegan. He often adds an egg or cheese afterwards. Most of the time we just eat vegan because I cook most often.

You’d be surprised how much protein is in vegetables, nuts etc.

We've just all switched to mainly quorn and soya mince instead of meat. It makes like easier all round now that DS1 has gone veggie.

Here is a list. I think mine mainly comes from hummus . Lentils can go in almost everything. And chickpeas. Often have them in my salads. Broccoli is a good source too.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/best-sources-protein-vegans

I'm veggie and DP often cooks a whole chicken and will eat slices of it alongside whatever we're eating together (or instead of, if I'm having something that he doesn't like).

Otherwise: toasted nuts or seeds are good to sprinkle on stir fries, bolognese made with lentils or Quorn with cheese on top, omlettes or other egg dishes, veggie sausages (I like the birds eye pea protein ones), grilled halumi..

Thanks so far! Issue with protein is the portion sizes I can eat. So a small salmon fillet I can eat has 23g of protein. I'd have to eat more than a whole can of beans or almost 2.5 portions of quorn pieces to get the same protein (and my stomach can only manage maybe 0.5 portions giving me a measley 5g of protein)

Ah, I can see how that would be a problem with vegetarian food..

How about high protein Greek yoghurt? Or protein powders added to soups etc?

Also, don't forget that you need fat to fill you up - beans/Quorn etc are very low fat.. adding avocado/olive oil/cheese/nuts etc might help.

Make a bunch of beef meatballs and keep them in the freezer, so that a veggie tomato sauce for pasta can get a beefy boost when needed. Also, lamb meatballs are great to throw into a chickpea and vegetable tagine over some couscous. Vegetarian curries can have a little tandoori chicken on the side, and everyone wins.
Pea soup can be topped (or not) with shreds of ham, lentil soup can have bacon lardons added, a peanutty Asian noodle salad has the option of shredded roast chicken.
Fajitas are another good option as you can cook the peppers and onions in with the spices and can then add chicken which can be cooked separately either plain or with extra spice depending upon taste.
You can just add grilled chicken to a mushroom or leek risotto and add sausages to a lentil stew/casserole.

We have this situation although I am the veggie and DH the meat-eater. We do a mixture of the below:

-Completely veggie meals with beans/pulses/lentils/cheese as the protein (DH might then have a particularly meaty lunch or breakfast if he feels lacking in meat that day)

-Veggie meals that have some meat cooked separately and added at end. Examples being risotto (use veggie stock and chicken stirred through at end), paella (add chorizo/prawns/chicken at end), pasta bake (add bacon/chorizo/chicken), stuffed butternut squash (serve with sausages/chicken/steak) on side.

-Meat substitutes - I am not a big soya/quorn eater but they are handy and quick to cook and high in protein, so things like veggie sausages and mash, 'chicken' substitute pieces in a stir fry, veggie burgers. DH can either have the meat equivalent or will eat the veggie version if he likes it.

-Batch cook meals. I have a system where I make double portions of a meal, e.g. veggie shepherds pie, and freeze half. The next time we have that meal I will make double of the meat equivalent, DH will eat one portion and I will have a veggie portion from the freezer. The remaining meat half goes into the freezer, so then next time I make the veggie version, DH can have a meat portion if he wants. This works well with loads of meals, stew, curry, chilli, lasagne, bolognese being examples.

Hope this helps!

I’m veggie, dp often gets lean cooked chicken as a snack or to add to salads/pastas. I tend to add a handful of lentils to soups and pastas anyway but this gives him extra protein.

Given your situation, I think you should plan meals that can include meat. Make the curry without a main protein and then you each mix in your own that was cooked separately. Eat a protein of veggie bake with your salmon. Basically, his dishes need to be your sides.

If you had your stomach stapled, you should not be compromising your ideal diet for someone else.

How much protein in an egg white? You can add these to a nice egg and spinach curry (mmmm) or salads. There's always tempeh (which I really don't like - but other people say it's nice).

We all eat differently here (from veggie to mange tout) and it's easy enough to make salad/veggie/plain pasta etc and ass the protein of choice (meat/chicken/fish/dahl/eggs/cheese etc).

I am impressed at the veggie food you are cooking (as a veggie myself) - but it's too much for every day if you need to feed yourself too and it isnt the right food your your diet.

Lots of ideas and food for thought (haha!) Thank you all

I am very newly vegetarian (after 16 years of pescatarianism followed by a few years of meat-eating). Fiancé and son both neat eaters.

I find that adapting meals works e.g last night the boys had chicken casserole and I had the same but veggie stock instead of chicken and quorn obviously instead of the chicken itself. It is a bit of a faff doing my little separate meal but not too much trouble really and cutting the veg only had to be done the once.

Tonight we are having veggie flatbread with vegetarian feta, chickpeas etc. I will be having mine with eggs and the boys will have some sort of meat to go with it.

Good luck op

It's nice of you to be eating so many vegetarian meals! I'm vegetarian but cook meat and fish for DH.

We do as other posters have suggested - either add meat/fish at the end or cook 1 portion meat and 1 portion meat substitute. I frequently just add a roast chicken breast or salmon fillet on the side of his plate, or add some chicken pieces/prawns/pancetta to his portion at the end.

When you do your Thai green curry, can you do two pots at once, one with tofu and one with chicken? It wouldn't be any extra prep really.

How about some tofu, it's actually higher in protein than beef. It can be a bit bland and slimy, but the trick is to marinate it and bake it in the oven simpleveganblog.com/baked-tofu/

Are you having protein ag breakfast and lunch? Such as egg, Greek yogurt, banana and almond smoothie? Falafel at lunch?

I do have Greek yogurt and fruit for breakfast - need to make an effort to eat it more regularly though! Same with eggs.

DP and I have just done a meal plan for the week so I can integrate more protein into my diet. So we're making a veggie Dahl at some point, and I'll have less of it with some steamed cod, and maybe leftovers for lunch the next day with an egg. We're doing an Ottolenghi butternut squash thing, and I'll have it with a small piece of meat.

Thanks for the other ideas! Really helpful. Just think since lockdown we've been cooking the same thing a lot and I've been a bit thoughtless re my protein.

Small fillet steak and salad for me tonight! He'll have goats cheese and nuts and lentils and stuff.

A vegetarian blog i follow did a great post on how to cook for veggies and meat eaters without doing two meals, lots of examples in it
www.easycheesyvegetarian.com/vegetarians-and-meat-eaters/

@thrdropbear I can't see the link. Can you tell me the name of the blog? Thanks!

We have a great book called The Green Roasting Tin. Dead easy, cook everything in 1 tin so Imake a veggie tin from there and grill a separate chicken breast, steak or piece of fish for DP to have with it.

You can google some of the recipes from it.

A nice home made quiche? Or a retro soufflé?

Also have different lunches: you have tuna or prawns or cold chicken or ham in your salad or sandwich.

@milknosugars we have that book! The Dahl I mentioned is from it :-D

We have a veggie, a vegan and an omnivore in the house. Burger nights are good: we can each have the burger of choice and pick from a shared selection of salad / onions / relishes.