Vegetarian without processed meat substitutes

[oviraptor21]

I'm looking to reduce/eliminate meat consumption and finding difficulty getting the protein elements without things like quorn pieces or whatever.
I follow a fairly low carb diet so need to get a lot of my calories from protein and fat.
I like eggs and cheese, less keen on nuts and tofu (does that count as non-processed?), but need inspiration on how to quickly rustle up a dish using them or anything else protein based.
Also, despite the nut dislike(!) has anyone got a very quick to assemble and not very nutty recipe for nut roast - I know I'm asking a lot with this one!

Have you seen the green Roasting Tin cookbook? Loads of recipes with protein and veg, easy to leave out the carbs.

Can you eat pulses? Could be useful to add to your diet.

As for a decent nut roast recipe, I've yet to find one after many decades or trying. Looking forward to seeing suggestions

I've been trying in vain to go more veggie and stay low carb and it's almost impossible unless you want to eat veggie omelettes / crustless quiche or your own body weight in cheese and celery for every meal.

There's some great low carb cheese muffins, seeded crackers and a passable bread which I use as fillers / carb subs

You can do a veggie chilli with aubergine, mushrooms, peppers, courgettes. Add grated cheese / sour cream for some protein. Boiled eggs for lunch???

Veg curry with cauliflower / broccoli... nuts for protein?? Boiled cashews are supposed to be good in curries.

Roasted Med veg with halloumi.

Roasted mixed veg (swede, carrot, aubergine, courgette) with tagine spices and some feta and almonds added at the end.

For protein if you have a freezer, you can cook a whole bag of pulses at once and then freeze into portions for quick use. Green lentils make a great substitute for mince. Chickpeas make a good protein replacement for a curry. If you don’t have a freezer you can buy tins, but it’s mor expensive and there’s often not as much choice as dried pulses.

If you are not eating meat, you need to eat pulses and whole grains together to get the ‘complete’ protein you would get from meat or fish. So chickpea curry with whole grain (brown) rice or green lentil bolognese with wholewheat spaghetti for instance. Yes, there are carbs in rice but whole grain is good for you, it’s white carbs that are of lower nutritional value.

I eat a lot of pulses. As PP said, things like mixed bean chilli, chickpea and spinach curry, Puy Lentil bolognaise or lasagne. Also if you quinoa rather than rice as quinoa contains protein too.

Good ideas - I will look out that cookbook and try some of your ideas. I'm happy to slather things with cheese or sour cream. But nuts of pretty much any variety I'm not keen on.
Pulses - I like lentils and soya beans. Not great with the rest.
Already having boiled egg with lots of salady stuff for lunch - med veg also features in my salad sometimes so that's a good call for evening meals - with lots of cheese!

Apart from other things mentioned peas are good as well ad homemade hunmus with wholemeal pitta for a complete protein. You say you don't like nuts but what about nut butters? Also milk eg with porridge oats

I eat a lot of beans, red lentils, chickpeas, tofu and cheese as not a big fan of egg. If I am having a difficult protein week I add in a protein shake but obviously that's very processed

Lentil loaf is a good alternative to nut roast. I use either this recipe with Puy or green lentils or this recipe with red lentils depending on what I’ve got in the cupboard.

Crispy baked tofu and cauliflower rice
Garlic and sesame tofu
Paneer korma
Paneer tikka
Lentil stuffed peppers

Definitely take a look at deliciously Ella, her food is all natural, unprocessed and home made.

So you like cheese, eggs, dairy in general? That's easy - Greek yogurt and paneer are especially good for protein.

Nuts and pulses are the mainstays of vegetarian protein for wholefood cooking. But you don't like these (except lentils, right?).

No nuts is tough - very good source of protein. Are nut butters mixed into sauces out as well?

Tempeh - it's soy, and far less UPF than Quorn or most meat-substitutes.

Dried soya mince - processed, but not overly. Again it's not something with a lot of unknowable ingredients.

Edamame.

Quinoa.

Something like Cauldron's marinated tofu pieces for snacking or in a salad (v salty, so beware). I'm not clear if you just don't know what to do with tofu or dislike it in any form.

There's some great infographics out there, but most assume that you combine beans/nuts with whole grains for complete protein.

Good luck!

Low carb and whole food vegetarian doesn’t always marry up perfectly, as lots of good vegetarian protein sources like beans and lentil are quite carby, and food can quickly turn uninspiring. My favourite protein sources are lentils, beans, cheese (including paneer and halloumi), Greek yogurt, eggs, nuts, tofu (which isn’t ultra processed, a look at this product on Open Food Facts: uk.openfoodfacts.org/product/5034467000216 here’s the brand I usually buy on Open Food Facts and it’s Nova 3) . I guess it depends on how strict you are with carbs, and what your counting as low carb. There’s a vegan keto subreddit, so clearly works for some people though.

You are fantastic!
Yes I love dairy.
I'm not great with pulses but lentils are good and that lentil loaf sounds right up my street. Peas are good too.
Hummus is good as is edamame (they're soy beans right?).
Nut butters - well peanut butter, not sure I've tried anything else is fab (just to be contrary!).
Carbs in general just make me hungry plus some of them - mostly wheat based - don't agree with me. I'm not anti carbs in principle, just have found that keeping them low works really well for me.
I'll have a look at tempeh. Tofu is .... OK. It does seem a bit salty but I'll give it another go.
Thanks for all the recipe ideas and other links. Plenty for me to be trying out!

Try cashew nut butter too. Honestly, I think that given the other things you want to avoid, it would be great if you could start to tolerate some nuts and seeds. A cashew nut recipe I like is groceries.morrisons.com/webshop/recipe/mixed-vegetables-with-cashew-nuts/44447

I'll give cashew nut butter a go. I don't think I'll get as far as actual cashew nuts!
I like pine nuts actually although I believe they aren't nuts! I like most seeds but again they don't all agree with me. I get very bloated and IBS symptoms. I need to work out if some are better than others.

I could pep up the veg with some nut butters, that sounds appealing.

Just noticed the Green Roasting Tin book is in the same series as the Quick Roasting Tin book which I already use and really like so will definitely be getting that one!

My student age sons have vast numbers of all kinds of tins of beans. I am constantly having to decipher the various types from shopping lists.

Beans again I'm not good with - it's the texture more than the flavour.
I think the only ones I actively like are the softer ones, so flageolet beans, soy beans, broad beans at a push.

Still not found anything that really replaces a steak or chicken breast in terms of its simplicity and chuck on a plate-ness!

I remember my mum used to use saviand and something else in the 70s. Probably also horribly processed - I think they came in a tin. I wonder if there's anything equivalent.

This lentil bake is a good bit of wintery comfort food without the hard carbs.

Tempeh is worth a go. I marinade sticks of them in soy/ginger/garlic/sesame oil and freeze potions. Then it’s a quick stir fry.

My DD is vegetarian and my cba options are:

scrambled eggs
baked eggs (grease a ramekin, season and add herbs and a tablespoon of cream and then bake for about ten minutes)
bean soup - you could liquidise it to smooth texture
tvp - fake mince made into satay (or curry) with veg
I think it’s hard to go low carb veggie with few beans and nuts though.

Here's the recipe for the nut roast I do- I add a load of chopped mushrooms to the sauteed onions and cook them down with the butter/marg. it's really nice and not dry at all - still quite nutty though

Crank's nut roast
Basic recipe
medium sized onion 1
butter or marg 1oz, 25g
mixed nuts 8oz 225g
bread 4oz 100g
veg stock 1/3 pt 250ml
yeast extract 2 tsp
mixed herbs 1 tsp
salt & pepper to taste

Saute onion till soft.
Grind nuts and bread and mix.
Combine all ingredients together.
Turn into greased shallow baking dish and bake 180c 350f mark 4till golden brown, aprox 45 mins.
Keep warm and leave it to stand 10 mins.

Have you tried Tempeh? It's so versatile and much better for you than tofu.

www.betternaturetempeh.co/

Having said that I do love this dried tofu www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/tofu-tasty-craft-tofu-knots/617636-782996-782997

I also use www.profusionorganic.co.uk/products/profusion-organic-pea-fava-protein-mince/

Would this be any good? I thought it looked nice. Not dry, visually appealing. www.thevegspace.co.uk/porcini-chestnut-wreath-roasts/

Fast 800 recipes are low carb and nutritionally balanced - if you're not looking to lose weight you just add extra cheese etc

Great ideas listed already, but to add to this, you can fry up a frying pan full of pumpkin and sunflower seeds, (I did dry frying them works fine but you can use some oil if you like) brown them a bit, then at the end ready to stir quickly, pour over a few tablespoons of soy sauce/tamari. It will sizzle and stick so quickly stir the seeds through and then take off the heat. Put them into a plate or tray so they can cool and this will minimise them sticking together.

They taste delickous as a snack on their own but you can put them in your salads and increase protein this way.

Smoothies for breakfast with protein powder in can be a great way of getting more protein if you need to.

There are loads of types of lentils so you can get different ones that better suit lentil salads (the firmer green lentils) or red/yellow ones that are great in Indian dishes.

This does my nut in. My 14yo is pescatarian but hates most fish and won't eat nuts/pulses/tofu etc. I'm demented trying to think of things to give her.

It's really hard. My veggie teen doesn't like mushrooms or eggs (and not that kem on many vegetables to be honest) and my other child has a nut allergy. I do just use quorn chicken pieces and quorn mince to replace meat and Linda McCartney sausages or I don't know how I'd feed him!