Vegetarian recipes that sauce-hating ds will eat?

[IlanaK]

We are trying to cut back on food costs and eat some more veggie meals. Ds1 hates things with sauce though (like the bean casserole I made tonight as it has tomato sauce). He likes food seperate. So if we have a meat stew, I pick out the pieces of meat for him and he never mixes bolognaise with his pasta, etc.

So, what veggie recipes can I make that are not "saucy"? Also, to complicate things, I have had to go dairy free so I can't do things with lots of cheese sauce which I am sure he would love.

Will he eat quiche or home-made pizza or frittatas or would they be considered composite foods. My toddler doesn't eat meat and likes all his foods separate on a plate - like they will be contaminated if they mix!

Will he eat quiche or home-made pizza or frittatas or would they be considered composite foods. My toddler doesn't eat meat and likes all his foods separate on a plate - like they will be contaminated if they mix!

Veggie kebabs

burgers/sausages made by finely processing the raw veg and then using beaten egg to form shapes

No to quiche. Homemade pizza is fine, but a problem for me with no cheese.

We eat meals as a family. He is 7 and I also have a 4 year old and baby. The 4 year old is fine with all food. Just my picky 7 year old that is a pain.

so a tomato kebab and pepper kebab and a corn on the cob/baby corn kebab.

Are you totally dairy free? As that does complicate matters on the vege front (although obv vegan recipes will be fine).

If you can have some cheese I would suggest cheesy oatburgers which were a family fave in our house as a kid, no sauce required.

Oats, chopped tomato (fresh not tinned), chopped green pepper, chopped onion, grated cheese - red leicester or cheddar, a beaten egg.

Mix all the ingredients together until they form a sticky firm mixture which you can mould into chunky burgers. Coat in flour and shallow fry in vegetable oil. Serve with greens or salad.

There are also quite a few nice stuffed marrow recipes where the filling is based on nuts and rice. We would usually have that with a cheesy nutmeg sauce to pour over the top - so if that was separate your DS could have it and you could leave it.

Re the homemade pizza - could you leave a gap in the cheese so you could have that bit? You could have hummus as a starter so you get the protein.

Speaking of hummus what about falafels?

Fortunately my veggie DD is happy to eat things with sauces. However some options are: Veggie burgers made from that BurgerMix stuff - like powder that you add water to (and an egg if you feel like). The mix has rather a lot of salt, but OK for an occasional offering, it tastes OK too (though probably not to real meat eaters). You can get it in Holland & Barret. Or make your own as someone else suggested, beany ones go down well here.

We do eat fish, so fishfingers are a good standby. Also any number of types of savoury muffin e.g. Spinach & cheese or squash & parmesan - I make mini muffins for the perfect kid size, and they freeze really well.

When I make stir fries I extract some fried veggies & tofu before the real flavour goes in, she is happy with that and noodles.

What she really likes though is batons of veg/bits of bread/pittas with a dip (usually cream cheese). I think the liking things seperate is a real toddler phase. It attracts DD because she can spear things like that more easily with her fork.

I am totally dairy free. OUr meals at dinner are usually a meat dish with rice, pasta or potatoes and a green veg. This suits him fine as he likes the three seperate things. Although veggie burgers once in a while is fine, I don't think I would want it every night.

The veg sticks, hummous and bread etc are fine for lunch (and we do that often) but not for dinner. We need a proper filling hot dinner. He does not like falafal unfortunately. But then, neither does ds2 so it is not a dish I would normally make.

Hmmmmmm.....this is harder than I thought.