Help! Vegan meal for 4 (and a quarter) meat eaters

[thisnamechanger]

My stupid mouth 🤦

I have wanted to cut out meat and dairy for ages, and have been making fairly wishy-washy efforts so far, barely eat meat or fish but haven't kicked dairy fully...anyway have come back from a weekend with my vegan friends feeling really inspired. I thought rather than put loads of pressure of screwing up on myself by trying to make the change perminant from now I'd start by trying to eat only plant based foods for 1 week to begin with, to see what challenges it throws up etc.

Anyway text DF to see if he fancied dinner this weekend...he says he's free. I suddenly realise and go "oh wait this will mess up my plant based week - can I cook instead??". This was meant as a bit of a joke as DF always wants to do the cooking and makes lots of cracks about being a meat eater through and through. I've cooked vegetarian for him very occasionally when it's just the two of us. DB and SIL chipped in and said they and DNewphew are free too. All now think I was serious about wanting to cook a vegan meal and are being usually encouraging about it. Have tried to back out but they're not having it.

Crap.

I would have been up for trying something out just me and DF but with DP too that makes 5 people and a baby to cook for! So no pressure then.

Please please MN throw EVERY recipe you can think of at me because I'm only just finding my feet and currently only have like 4 tried and tested pb meals on rotation!

Sri Lankan curry by deliciously ella xx

Thanks - found it on Youtube - looks yummy

If you want to impress, try these www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/beetroot-squash-wellingtons-kale-pesto They can be made in advance and frozen. Recipe makes 6

This is easy, gutsy and serves 6 www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2010/sweet-and-hot-vegetable-curry

This serves 3 but is easily doubled. www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sweet-potato-black-bean-chilli-zesty-quinoa It looks impressive but is actually quite simple

This is hearty so you don’t miss the meat. It can be frozen too www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/butternut-chilli

This can be made ahead and frozen, or just kept in the fridge and reheated. I’ve found that the flavour actually improved with time. Just serve with couscous www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/healthy/moroccan-veg-and-chickpea-tagine/

You could go for a meze, including falafel, couscous, warm pitta bread, humous and Greek butter bean salad www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/12229/gigantes-plaki

I’m boring here but what about a nice pasta with a veggie or aribiata sauce? With a big salad and nice bread - cheese on the table for those who want it.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD

I've got my fennel and Orza staple as a backup for sure!

That Wellington looks so awesome!

I can't visualise this instruction though!! Argh need a video!!

This vegan 'pulled pork' from Buzzfeed is genuinely life changing:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/tasty.co/recipe/vegan-pulled-pork-sandwiches

Serve in burger buns with sweet potato fries and voila!

(I buy the jackfruit canned - you want the one in brine - from Amazon or in Asian supermarkets)

OP I made those wellingtons for my SIL at Xmas. They are nice, but not worth the time they take to make in my opinion. You will also definitely want at least one sauce to go with them (they are quite dry). I trained as a chef and LOVE to cook and even I think they are quite time consuming for the end result!!

Don’t ever get tempeh. It is the food of the devil. High in protein though.

Cookie and Kate's vegetarian/vegan chili. It's fantastic and we now prefer it to a meat chili.

cookieandkate.com/vegetarian-chili-recipe/

I remember now that had me scratching my head too! You end up with a long, sausage roll type affair so your pastry will be longer than it is wide. Sadly you can't actually get that much filling in them, which is part of the reason why they end up dry (IMO). I remember having filling left over which I had with pasta one night.

Going back to my comment about the sauces - you'd want something like vegan gravy to go with it and maybe pureed brocoli or something like that.

Spinach and coconut Dahl is good too.

www.tinnedtomatoes.com/2013/10/spinach-and-coconut-dal.html?m=1

I like tempeh... but DC would loathe fennel. Hope you sort it, OP.

Fennel gives me headaches which is a shame as I like the taste. How do you cook your tempeh?

That’s the recipe I always recommend nisse!

I’d do Indian, with onion bhajis, samosas, poppadums, that daal and a whole cauliflower roasted in curry sauce. Plus rice and naan. Depending on how busy I was, I’d buy some of that.

If you like to see what you're getting into with a video, I recommend Bosh! on youtube.

What sorts of things do you like cooking?

I’m not vegan but still enjoy veggie and meat dishes - DH feels a proper meal should have meat in it, but still loves my chickpea and spinach curry. Pasta or gnocchi dishes with tomato and veg based sauces are great too, just get some vegan cheese instead of Parmasan to sprinkle over.

Yes to Bosh on YouTube. I also find that meat eaters can be funny about tofu and tempeh, so I'd do something that highlights vegetables. A great veg curry, bean chilli with homemade cornbread, roasted pumpkin stuffed with rice and veggies, stuff like that.
I always make salad for starters, as it's easy. At this time of year, I'd do spinach, lettuce, cucumber, celery, with a nice balsamic dressing and roasted hazelnuts. Crumble can easily be made vegan, or simply a coffee with a biscoff for pudding.

@LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD
Do you steam your tempeh before you prepare it? That removes the bitterness. Steam for ten minutes. It should smell slightly nutty. Then marinate, fry, bake, crumble into sauces etc.

Echoing @Skyejuly the Deliciously Ella Sri Lankan curry is fantastic. Lots of happy meat-eaters' stomachs in this house after that one.

Agree with PP about Indian. You could do a chickpea and spinach curry, a lentil Dahl, coriander and lime rice, onion bhaji (there's a great swrecipe where you mix thinly sliced onion with grated sweet potato and spices then form into balls and bake), make flatbreads with equal quantities of flour and dairy free yoghurt, add garlic and dried coriander and roll out into rounds and dry fry for a few mins each side :) you could do a tomato and red onion salad on the side and a raita made with dairy free yoghurt and mint sauce.

God I'm hungry now 😂

Steam it? Oh - yes it has a bitterness that can be rather nasty and no amount of currying can take that away! I’m going to try that now as I quite like the texture.