Exciting kid friendly vegetarian recipes please?

[MrsTxx]

Sick of the usual pastas, meat alternatives. Would like to try anything new but child friendly please DS2 quite fussy with anything too complex/spicy! Also any suggestions for vegetarian food products to try.

Following! Mine (teens) love pasta bake, pizza, veggie hot dogs, halloumi, arancini, tacos/nachos.
Dh and I often eat different spicier stuff

You can’t beat a good Mac and cheese and this one is phenomenal m.youtube.com/watch?v=snsEjQKO-s8

Also burgers are fab - Hellman’s do a vegan baconnaise which turns any burger exciting!

Have you tried moving mountains meat replaces? They’re amazing. You can get them from sainsburys and Ocado.

Have you tried the new Richmond brands?

Me and now teenage DD are both vegetarian, she has always eaten risotto, curries, stir-fry, polenta, falafel, couscous, salads, roasted veg, Buddha bowls, fajitas jacket potatoes... Currently she is obsessed with baked camembert. I do not like chilli so we never have that, but always seems v popular on here.
We don't eat meat alternatives other than an occasional Quorn nugget and once in a while a Linda M sausage. Tried the Richmond ones last week and they were so grim I chucked the other half of the pack.

I do like the Richmond sausages from the range but found I had to grill them abit longer than instructed, lovely on a warburton thin for lunch.

Has anyone tried the oomph! Brand kebab, my latest obsession. Lovely in a wrap for dinner with some salad and not too high in calories either. £3 in Tesco for a bag but does go on offer frequently

DS1 loves Waitrose vegan Wellington (about £4 from the frozen veggie section.)

Veggie gyoza are good too. lightly fry them in a bit of sesame and corn oil. We also have the veggie steamed buns - 1 minute in the microwave - a good after school snack though quite high carb.

For home made recipes:
spanakopita is really nice
tortilla/spanish omlette made with onion, potato, petit pois and mixed peppers with melted cheese on top
Home made pizzas with add your own toppings
Enchiladas or tacos with mild spiced tomato and veg sauce (can make with quorn mince if they like it) with iceberg, carrot sticks, sour cream, guac if they like it, grated cheese etc.
Good old eggs, chips and beans

Cheese and tomato bread pudding recipes.sainsburys.co.uk/recipes/cheese-and-tomato-bread-and-butter-pudding
Halloumi traybake www.happyveggiekitchen.com/halloumi-traybake/
Egg fried rice realfood.tesco.com/recipes/egg-fried-rice.html
Halloumi burgers www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/halloumi-burgers
Risotto www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/no-stir-tomato-and-basil-risotto/
Veggie burgers www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/the-best-vegan-burger/
Loaded potato skins realfood.tesco.com/recipes/loaded-baked-sweet-potato-skins.html

I found oumph to be very chewy but DH loved it.

This is great too. The bacon lardons are lovely in a carbonara.

Have you tried the quorn crispy nuggets they’re amazing.

My kids love these! Tasty for adults too...

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/veggie-fajitas

cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020830-caramelized-shallot-pasta

foodism.co.uk/recipes/rukmini-iyer-vegetarian-gado-gado/

www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/v/vegan-jackfruit-breakfastburritos.html

All of the above can be modified to be made more/less spicy (I have one spice phobic DC)

Also pasta with vegetarian meatballs and a good tomato sauce...
Incredible burgers from co-op and little willies sausages are great too :)

@nocturnalcatfreetogoodhome my DH is obsessed with the crispy nuggets!

How about Mexican tacos, fajitas, enchiladas, burritos. You can either use replacements for meat or just vegetables. Our kids have always loved them as you can just lay it all out and they make them up themselves to their own tastes.
DS just has the meat (we aren't vegetarian) and cheese, DSD has loads of salad in hers. It's great one meal for everyone but they just pick the bits they like

We do quorn and red kidney bean enchiladas (mild spice mix), 5 bean chilli, stuffed mushrooms, curries (dd would live on daal)

I find this site good for child friendly recipes. Even my very plain eating, DNs have enjoyed a number of her recipes when I’ve cooked them plus they’re generally pretty straightforward with easily accessible ingredients.

This bean burger recipe is really good and you can use as little or as much spice as you wish. They freeze well too.

Ok so it’s pasta but this veggie lasagne is very tasty.

We also do a lot of veggie quiches, tarts (shop bought pastry) and frittatas.

We don’t use meat replacements too often but we all like Linda McCartney mozzarella burgers, also the pulled pork style ones and the Quorn Swedish style ‘meat’ balls are very nice too.

Falafel wraps: large flatbread, flatbread, salad, babaganoush, sliced cucumber, sliced cherry tomato, thinly sliced red onion, parsley sprigs, sides of humous

mango aubergine soba noodles with tofu: www.101cookbooks.com/archives/ottolenghi-soba-noodles-with-aubergine-and-mango-recipe.html

rice bowls: bottom filled with brown/white rice, topped with your choice of things like grated carrot, sliced avocado, edamame, sliced and lightly pickled cucumber, kimchi, sliced pepper, sautéed mushrooms, sautéed watercress, sautéed aubergine with some sort of protein like tamago (Japanese sweetened omelette www.seriouseats.com/home-style-tamagoyaki-japanese-rolled-omelette), tofu, normal omelette

Panisse (chickpea chips) with spiced tomato sauce. Here is a recipe for panisse, and spiced tomato sauce is just a thick tomato sauce where you add thinks like cumin, smoked paprika and chilli to spice it up. You can also spread the panisse mixture in the bottom of a oven tray and make it a pizza base

Tortilla espagnola: www.seriouseats.com/tortilla-espanola-spanish-potato-omelette-recipe served with tomato bread www.gimmesomeoven.com/tomato-rubbed-bread-pa-amb-tomaquet-pan-con-tomate/

Soup au pistou: www.theguardian.com/food/2019/jun/12/perfect-soupe-au-pistou-pesto-recipe-felicity-cloake

Courgette butter pasta: smittenkitchen.com/2021/06/zucchini-butter-spaghetti/

vegetable galettes

vegetable tian served with crusty bread, rice or pasta www.kitchenstories.com/en/recipes/french-vegetable-tian

Mac and cheese is a favourite here and pesto pasta, it's really easy to make your own pesto and my kids love make your own pizzas, they will literally eat things they would refuse to look at before if they put it on their own pizza 😆

Chilli (loads of veggies and bulgar wheat) with tacos, salads, cheese, salsa...
Cowboy beans (fry onion, green pepper then add a can of baked beans and a tomato and cook - a student favourite)
Pizzas are easy
Tofu - me meat loving son loves tofu (marinade and griddle or air fry)

Following for ideas!

Im making paella today.. Thai green curry always goes down a treat in my house too.

Dh usually does the cooking. I only cook in school holidays. Im a big fan of one-pot or, my new favourite, tray bakes.

When she was younger our daughters favourites were

Obviously pasta bakes
Lasagne
Risottos
Baked potatoes (actually not her favourite but easy)
Homemade sweet and sour vegetables
Spaghetti hoop omelette (I know, I know)
Curried carrot and rice soup
Tacos
Corn fritters with a tomato salsa
Stuffed peppers

Mainly I did a non meat version of whatever we were having.

Spaghetti hoop omelette? I’m intrigued!

KittenKong it’s disgusting, but she ate it very happily. A vegetarian who wouldn’t eat much cheese and wasn’t terribly keen on vegetables made variety difficult.

It’s a simple plain omelette, all nice and fluffy, with a drained small tin of Heinz spaghetti hoops as the filling. Put some vegetable sticks on the side or as a starter and it’s a surprisingly balanced meal. Grim but balanced.

Crispy teriyaki tofu, with steamed rice, and a cucumber salad - tossed with a little sesame oil and lime and toasted sesame seeds. One of our favourites, and so simple.

Quorn fishless fingers are great and we often have them in tacos like this realfood.tesco.com/recipes/fish-finger-tacos.html

Agree re Fajitas - we make ours with a base of peppers, onions and tomato and sometimes just have them like that, sometimes add Halloumi.

A trick for smaller kids who can be a bit fussy was to make big batches of roasted veg, with about 1/3 tomatoes then blitz it up with some cream cheese (and some walnuts if I had them handy) and use it as a sort of red pesto.

I'm going to try aubergine and goats cheese burgers which I think will go down better than the carrot/chickpea burgers that basically only DH likes!

Halloumi generally is a good choice. I often do chargrilled greens and then for the halloumi I sprinkle it with paprika and cumin then when it's almost cooked, add garlic, honey and lemon to the pan to caramelise. Usually serve it with flat breads or similar.

We also do roasted cauliflower and carrots quite often, served with pilaf. I think it's quite child friendly as DS's neighbourhood friends stayed for dinner a while ago and it went down well with them (DD won't touch things like this so it's a bit hard to know what's child friendly when I have one good eater and one tricky eater).

oh, also breakfast for dinner. Eggs, toast, beans, bacon, mushrooms in whatever combination your kids will eat them. DD usually just has the eggs and toast, maybe with a side of avo. DS eats whatever we have!

sweetcorn fritters are good. also Falafel and hummus pitta.