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Becoming veggie

6 replies

StillMedusa · 07/11/2020 17:56

I was vegetarian from 12-24 (My Mum and Gran were both vegetarian) but then started eating meat for ease of meals when my kids were babies.
I have felt guilty about it for the last 28 years and it's time to stop.

BUT I still cook for 5 adults and have no idea how to make my staple meals without some meat. I know I can do a separate spag bol with quorn for me, I'm going to attempt a veggie lasagne (for everyone) tomorrow , but could really do with some ideas for curries, roasts and the like. I have no desire to go vegan as I do love eggs and cheese in moderate amounts. I'm not very interested in cooking or recipes and would happily live on jacket spuds.. help!

OP posts:
PurpleDaisies · 07/11/2020 18:01

Curries are really easy to make vegetarian. You can use any combination of the following to replace the meat.
Lentils
Tofu
Paneer
Any mix of vegetables
Chick peas
Roasted sweet potato
Roasted butternut squash
New potatoes
Quorn pieces

BBC good food website has loads of vegetarian recipes.

BlueChampagne · 12/11/2020 15:57

My carnivores happily eat quorn mince and love quorn nuggets. As PurpleDaisies says, veggie curries are really easy.
Soups and baked spuds?

Roasts I admit are more tricky. But you can certainly make the roasties veggie, and serve lots of veg, and have something separate and special for you. Bean burger? When DS1 was veggie, he often just had roasties and veg.

frozendaisy · 12/11/2020 16:38

Add marmite to soya mince I find Tesco's own better than Quorn. Add a dessert spoon into it as you are frying it up with the onions. It's the secret to my success!

I am veggie, learnt to cook when I was a vegan as a young adult, I cook mostly veggie, DH and kids eat meat, but happily eat veggie most evenings.

Hugh-Fearnley has a great falafel recipe (archive Guardian article) really cheap but you need to soak dried chick peas the day before but you can then bake the falafel without cooking the chickpeas. And if meat eaters want they can add Italian ham to the pittas.

Fry an onion in a pan in olive oil and black pepper, wilt in 500/600g of spinach, once wilted take off heat stir in packet and a half of cubed feta cheese. Put all this in filo pastry, bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.

If you can make pizza dough and do calzones.

Anything Mexican tends to go down well but it's labour intensive to do many dishes so we tend to do this on a weekend.

Jamaican patties made with soya mince and tumeric in dough served with rice and peas.

Thai green curry with tofu instead of chicken.

You want the liquid out of tofu before you fry it, so squash it between two plates with a tin of beans weighing it down for an hour before use.

Veggie sausage toad in the hole works

If pushed for time and all else fails cream of tomato soup with garlic bread saves the day!

frozendaisy · 12/11/2020 16:41

@BlueChampagne

My carnivores happily eat quorn mince and love quorn nuggets. As PurpleDaisies says, veggie curries are really easy. Soups and baked spuds?

Roasts I admit are more tricky. But you can certainly make the roasties veggie, and serve lots of veg, and have something separate and special for you. Bean burger? When DS1 was veggie, he often just had roasties and veg.

I have veggie roast with Yorkshire puddings and sage onion stuffing it's plenty, bistro red gravy granules are veggie so I make onion gravy with red wine, black pepper, mustard and horseradish sauce in for a bit of a kick!
lastqueenofscotland · 12/11/2020 17:40

For curries have a look at vegan Richas blog she is fabulous

Tinned tomato’s, lazy cat chicken and the minimalist baker are all excellent recepie blogs for meat free cooking

Fivemoreminutes1 · 13/11/2020 04:41

When it comes to cooking for vegetarians and meat-eaters at the same time, there are a few different ways you can do it. The route you choose to go down will probably depend on what sort of meal you’re making.

The first options is to cook vegetarian side dishes, then just serve a different protein for the vegetarians and meat-eaters. You’ll all be eating mostly the same, so there won’t be too many additional pans to wash. I know a lot of vegetarians aren’t fond of meat substitutes, but they’re really useful for this kind of meal. I’d do this for roast dinners, burgers, hot dogs, bangers and mash.

Another option is to cook a vegetarian meal, and then scatter some kind of meat or fish on top for those who want it. I sometimes find it helpful to do a roast/pulled chicken or roast/pulled pork once a week so that we have some cooked meat on hand for adding in at the end. You can add pulled chicken right at the end to: enchiladas, fajitas and stuffed peppers. Roast chicken can be added at the end to a chickpea and couscous salad or tagine. I add cooked pork at the end to dishes like curries and stir fries. It's also useful to have bacon lardons for frying and adding right at the end to egg fried rice, carbonara, risotto and lentil casserole.

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, or can be part of a tapas or mezze dinner.
You can add grilled chicken to a mushroom or leek risotto and add sausages to a lentil stew/casserole.

Another option is to use two separate pans, which might sound like the equivalent of making two separate meals, but it’s not! If you’re making a stew or casserole, you can make the exact same thing in two different pans, with barely any extra effort, with meat added to one, and some kind of veggie protein added to the other. Sure, you’ll have two pans to wash instead of one, but there’s otherwise the same amount of prep work and cooking time. It's easy to make two small toad in the holes from one batter mix and just use different sausages. This oven-baked frittata is a good veggie dish if you fry the bacon separately and use two separate oven dishes, leaving the bacon out of one of them www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3077673/bacon-and-ricotta-ovenbaked-frittata It’s worth making a big batch of these kinds of meals. By the time you’ve started prepping, it’s not really any extra effort to make a larger amount. Stews and soups freeze really well, so you can freeze any leftovers in portions, to make for a quick and easy dinner another night.
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.
I make these pitta pizzas a lot and you can easily leave off the ham www.bbc.com/food/recipes/pitta_pizzas_20075

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