Vegetarian help!!

[BiscottiToffee]

I don't understand what we are doing wrong. Please can lovely MNers help! ❤️

DH and I love vegetarian meals. But whenever we sub meat for things like pulses/lentils/chickpeas we never feel as sated like with meat dishes.

Yet when our vegetarian friends make something, we come out stuffed.

So I reckon we're missing something.

Please help!

Lower protein and fat in the veggie dishes.

Basically add more butter, salt and other seasoning than you are doing!
are you using tinned or dried pulses?

What's a typical meal?

Start by learning how to make an amazing Dahl. The Prashad Dahl recipe is great

link please?
OP, could you just be eating more at your friends'?

I honestly never struggle with this and I think it's really a psychological thing of a meal lacking or being different without meat. Having said this, make sure you’re also replacing the fat that meat provides, as fat helps the feeling of satiety. Add nuts, avocado, healthy oils etc…

Upping the protein element is the obvious answer but also think about what you are serving it with. Whole grains (brown rice/pasta/bread) will keep you fuller than their white equivalents.

Tinned, mainly.

Would salt make a huge difference?

What are you making?

Something like a paneer curry with rice, naan, pappadom and salad (like a kachumber salad) is quite filling.

Or stuffed pasta with ricotta, spinach, baked with tomato sauce and mozzarella.

I think sometimes people think, oh I’m going to eat vegetarian and be all healthy, but you can still eat hearty filling meals. More seasoning will also help - salt, spices, butter, cream for flavour.

All sorts of things, veggie bolognaise, chilli, shepherds pie, curry.

I'm guessing we went wrong simply substituting a meat for a tin of beans.

I feel quite silly now.

You’re probably not using enough fat.

I think you need to start with veggie recipes, rather than just substitute - eg try a bolognese with puy lentils, or Anna Jones's chilli (jamie oliver also has a good one with sweet potatoes )

You might be missing the umami taste - add miso or marmite to the pulse dishes.

It's not quite a straight swap pulses for meat. I'm not a nutritionist, but I am a lentil loving veggie! I often use a tin of green lentils or puy lentils in place of beef mince. Google tells me that 100g of lean beef mince has 24g protein, but 100g cooked green lentils has 9g protein.

As an aside, the Merchant Gourmet vacuum packs of cooked puy lentils are really tasty and a good mince substitute.

For a lentil or vegetable dish, I'd pile my plate up higher than for a meat one. You'll still have fewer calories. Also I find tofu quite filling (top tip: use extra firm like Tofoo, freeze it first, then partially defrost, chop and cook in the air fryer or oven with seasoning - the texture is closer to meat then and not rubbery at all which some people think tofu is if they've eaten it when it's not been done well)!

Another good substitute is mushrooms and if you want them like mince for bolognese, cottage pie, etc, then put them in the food processor. Use lots though, probably double what you think. There's no harm in having leftovers but you want to make enough to be able to have seconds if you feel the need, IMO!

If you use dried lentils and cook them in stock as part of the recipe, the flavours are way better than if you use tinned.

Add garlic bread as a side to your bolognese, naan for your curry and rice, more cards I think

Add a splash of marmite to your lentil dishes often works