Help me become vegetarian

[Hippocampe]

Over the past couple of years, as a family we've hugely cut down on our meat consumption, to the point now that we only ever eat chicken or fish. I would love to become vegetarian (potentially vegan eventually, as we don't use dairy in our cooking anyway), but I'm finding this final stage really hard to move on from. I really don't enjoy the meat alternatives, (Quorn, soya etc) they literally make my stomach turn. Can just about handle the Linda McCartney sausages if loaded with tons of ketchup, but I wouldn't say I enjoy eating them. We've switched to chicken alternatives for now, and the whole family is happy with this, but I need some inspiration to move to a vegetarian diet, as I keep getting an overwhelming sense of guilt when I eat meat. I will continue to cook the chicken products for the rest of the family, it's just me that wants to become veggie, so I need some alternatives. For example, if we had fajitas for dinner, what would you put in the meat-less one? We have a roast chicken every weekend, what would you do instead of the meat? Spagbol? We're all really missing this but haven't found an alternative to mince that anyone likes... I'd happily eat potatoes and roasted veg every evening, but I feel this could be unhealthy and not a complete meal, just need to find something to replace the chicken/fish I'd usually accompany it with. Thanks for any suggestions

Also, needed to add, vegetarian meal suggestions need to be dairy free due to dh allergy!

In fajitas I would use either Quorn fillets or some marinated tofu - I love the Cauldron range

Waitrose does a very nice meat free mince

In place of roast chicken I would have whole roast cauliflower or celeriac served on a bed of hummus - it’s delicious

Also this book is really good and might help www.amazon.co.uk/Flexible-Vegetarian-Flexitarian-recipes-without/dp/0711239045/ref=nodl_?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Not too sure what type of meals you like. There are lots of brilliant vegetarian recipes on you tube.

I use a lot of pulses, chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils and find them filling when cooking vegetarian dishes.

Spag Bol becomes lentil ragu (Gousto or Waitrose recipe)
Roast chicken can be replaced by mushroom wellington, lentil loaf or nut roast.
Use the BBC Good Food recipe for vegetarian fajitas - they replace the meat with black beans.

Most of our recipes are based on beans, lentils or chickpeas.
I use chickpeas for:
Curry
Tagine
Falafel burgers
Aloo gobi traybake

I use lentils for:
Ragu
Curry
Meatballs
Shepherds pie
Stew
Lasagne (Tesco recipe realfood.tesco.com/recipes/vegetarian-lasagne.html)

I use beans for:
Enchiladas (Jamie Oliver recipe)
Chilli
Tuscan bean stew
Butter bean and vegetable crumbles

We also have quite a lot of dishes where our source of protein is cheese:
Leek, potato and cheese pie
Roast vegetable lasagne and courgette lasagne
Cauliflower mac n cheese
Spinach and ricotta filo pie
Risotto

And egg dishes:
Egg fried rice
Frittata

I'd think about it the other way around.

Don't cook a 'normal' meal but take the meat out for you, it's far easier to cook a veggie meal to which the meat eaters can add a chicken breast/ beef strips/ whatever.

We do these kebabs except with jackfruit. It also makes a good approximation to pulled pork.

I stopped eating meat from January.

I'd recommend Hugh Fearnley-whittingstall first veg cookbook and Meera Sodha (we have East and Fresh India) as they both have brilliant ideas for meals. East I think has more vegan recipes.

We use jackfruit in fajitas. It's delicious and is a bit like pulled pork in texture.

Have you tried chicken sausages? Also the best of British quorn sausages are the best (not normal quorn sausages) but you can't get them everywhere. I can't eat normal sausages now that I eat vegetarian ones.

Lentil shepherds pie is a favourite
Jackfruit fajitas
Chickpea bake with butternut, tomatoes, garlic and onions
Normal things like baked potatoes and beans
Bean chilli (just replace the mince with tins of 3 bean mix)

I don't like processed vegan food or fake meat but there are still a lot of options if you enjoy vegetables

I am not a vegan but followed a vegan diet for 6 months last year to reduce my cholesterol and it worked.

If some meat alternatives make your stomach turn then you might have a soya intolerance. Maybe have a look for things without soya and try those. But if not then Richmond’s vegan sausages are incredible. Otherwise, we have lots of Mexican food without meat alternatives - burritos, rice bowls, fajitas etc. and you can make easy curries with potatoes/squash and lots of other veg. We usually make a huge pasta bake once a week and get six/eight servings out of it for very cheap - packed full of veg and vegan cheese with no meat alternative. Lasagnes too - never realised normal lasagnes usually have mince in as the one we make is just pure vegetables. They make vegan sausages which are more recognisably vegetable-based rather than faux meat if you think you’d prefer that - I think the brand is Heck.

Google PizzaHut vegetarian calzone recipe. I’m not a veggie but it’s delicious. Very easy too.

You could add some ham if your family insist.

If you are looking for recipe ideas - Highly recommend The Green Roasting Tin and Veg Everyday recipe books. Also the bbc good food website.

I eat a lot of tofu, (tofoo brand), paneer and Haloumi.

Paneer works really well in fajitas. And curries obvs.
Haloumi is great in burgers, wraps, Salads, or with roasted veg and cous cous.
Tofu is good in curries, stir fries.

When having a Sunday roast type meal I really like the quorn family roast. But it’s weirdly hard to get, so more often than not I end up having a pieminister or higgidy pie.

I’m not sure there is any replicating a meaty spag Bol. I use Sainsbury’s own-brand meat free mince and puy lentils and then add lots of sun dried tomatoes for flavour and richness. But there are so many amazing authentic italics veg pasta dishes to make.

Not a veggie but I love something that comes frozen called 'frys chicken style strips' they are really good in fajitas

Also halloumi. Perfect in fajitas, or even curry. Potato and spinach curry, chick peas or lentils are good curry fillers too

Please be aware though that jackfruit isn't a good protein substitute - it contains hardly any - so make sure you eat it with something else that contains protein - like beans, tofu etc

We use lentils for bolognese, beans for chilli.

Fajitas I use beans with jackfruit.

Roasts I roast a cauliflower, butternut squash, mushrooms and potatoes andcserve with stuffing and veg gravy.

Black bean risotto.

Tesco plant sausages are lovely, I do these with mash or as a fry up with mushrooms, egg, hash browns and beans.

Tofu I use in a stir fry or veggie kebab skewers, the TooFoo one is lovely and doesn't need draining. I marinade it, toss it in flour and fry for a couple of minutes then grill on the skewer with mushrooms, courgettes and peppers.

Veg and chickpea curry is another favourite.

Lazy days we have omelette and wedges.

You can try making curries like paneer tikka masala instead of meat dishes.
www.cookclickndevour.com/paneer-tikka-masala-recipe-how-to-make-restaurant-stylepaneer-tikka-masala-recipe/

Thanks so much for all these suggestions!

@bluewave it's chicken sausages we eat now. The heck simply chicken ones are amazing, and the kids love them, but I really want to go full veggie.

Loving the suggestion of halloumi as a substitute for meat. As I said the rest of the family will still probably continue to eat chicken for now, so that would make those meals easy for me, as I could have some halloumi, in place of a chicken breast. It's just the "fakeness" of the meat substitutes I can't stomach. I'd rather just have something obviously veggie than something that looks like meat but tastes a bit weird. Lots of meal ideas here to think about so thank you!!

We eat veggie about half the time but i've never done any meat replacements. It's too awful to consider. Agree with pp that rather choose proper vegetarian meals and, if your family are still eating chicken or fish, choose things that work as side dishes for everyone else.

I don’t eat meat (do still eat fish occasionally but phasing that out once I’m not pregnant anymore). I hardly use any meat substitutes really, and didn’t use any for the first couple of years. I love the cauldron Lincolnshire sausages, they’re by far the best veggie sausages I’ve tried. I will occasionally use quorn mince in a chilli, though usually I’ll just make chilli with chopped veggies. That’s the only ones I use though. We did have some quorn nuggets which showed up as a random substitution during early lockdown - they were fine but I’ll not be repeating them, but only because we don’t really eat nuggets anyway!

In fajitas I just put vegetables (usually peppers, mushrooms and onions) and if I want to bulk them out I’ll add a tin of kidney beans or black beans, or sometimes one of those microwave rice packets in ‘mexican’ flavour. Halloumi would also work if just for you, obviously not for those with dairy allergy.

I love this lentil cottage pie (and it goes down really well with meat eating husband and my best mate also really enjoyed it). I sometimes use the lentil part as a bolognase style sauce with pasta too. Just leave out the milk/cheese and do mash however you usually do. thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/vegetable-and-lentil-cottage-pie

I love this sausage casserole, I do it with the aforementioned cauldron sausages realfood.tesco.com/recipes/carls-all-change-casserole.html

We have fewer traditional style roast meals than we did when I ate meat. I do still sometimes do them but I’ll do them with e.g. individual cheese and veggie pies, or make Camembert and leek filo parcels - that’s not much use to you though if you need non dairy. There are vegan pies out there to buy, or recipes. Otherwise you could have something like a nut roast, or a stuffed roasted butternut squash or spiced roasted cauliflower. I’ve had ‘cauliflower steak’ in a restaurant before, I was pissed off as it was my only option and I don’t generally like cauliflower that much anyway, but you know what it was gorgeous! I keep meaning to find a recipe and try it at home - obviously depends a lot on the flavourings you rub into it, but that would make a decent alternative to a chicken breast for those kind of dinners.

Curries are really good for veggie options and really easy to adapt to whatever veggies you enjoy as a family. Pasta dishes can be the same.

I love a veggie burger - but as in made of actual vegetables/ beans / chickpeas and so on, rather than the soya/meat alternative ones. Aldi do a good range of things like beetroot burgers, and butternut squash ones. Alternatively I love falafel - you can make them but I tend to be lazy and buy the cauldron ones of those too. I love them in warm pittas with salad and hummus, sometimes a bit of chilli sauce and a load of oven fries - feels like a dirty take away but healthier!