OS Vegetarians??

crazyscientist · 12 April 2006 at 1:50PM

Hey

I've been watching this thread with interest and am becoming more convinced that i should make an effort to go a lot more OS. Currently tons of food gets wasted at home which i dont like to see but it always seems to have been the case since left home!

I currently shop for me and OH + OH's 3 DD at weekends.

The problem that i have is finding food to suit everyone!

I am vegetarian and so is SDD1 (when it suits her anway!). OH would survive on ASDA ready meals if i didnt cook anything else. Other 2 DD are just average kids with the average fussiness about food!

We seem to eat the same meals over and over again - tomatoey pastas, veggie burgers, sausages etc with the kids. And pasta / rice / omlette dishes for me during the week and ready meals for OH (we dont really eat together during week)

Any suggestions?? Anything but ready meals

[Deleted User] · 12 April 2006 at 2:00PM

Rose Elliot books. Any of them. I started with thrifty fifty when I got married 35 years ago. For example butterbean pie with cheesy crust from simply delicious, cashew nut and tomato risotto, potato and soya bean fry etc The children and meat-eating visitors always loved her meals

thriftlady_2 · 12 April 2006 at 2:13PM

I second Rose Eliot.The best one I found was Cheap and Easy,but when I last looked for it on Amazon it was out of print.It has some excellent easy recipes.

Do the girls like spicy dishes? I find veggie curries and rice dishes popular with my 3.Chick peas always go down well with mine-hummus,felafel,chick pea curry,chick pea and veg stew with coucous.Lentils are a life saver too;lentil cottage pie,lentil bolognese,lentil bake/flan,dhal and rice.

HTH

squeaky · 12 April 2006 at 3:53PM

We have some recipe threads listed under "vegetarian" in the Cooking section of the MEGA Index sticky at the top of the Old Style forum.

We also have more recipes collected in the Old Style Recipe Collection and the Slow Cooker Recipe Collection.

You can find these via my signature any time you see it or...

..you can use the Indexed Collections link in the Blue Bar at the top of every page which looks something like this:-

seraphina · 12 April 2006 at 4:38PM

I'm a lifelong vegetarian and whilst I like Rose Elliot's later stuff (Vegetarian Meals in Minutes springs to mind) I find her original stuff (Beanfeast, etc) boring and bland! My mum used to cook from these and I don't remember enjoying much of it when I was a child. I did take her copies of Beanfeast and Simply Delicious with me when I went to uni, thinking I'd give them another go, but they're not used much.

On the other hand, I couldn't be without her Vegetarian Pasta book, which is superb.

My favourite book for all meals has to be Leith's Vegetarian Bible. It's full of lots of interesting and tasty recipes which are easy to cook. Tellingly, it's the cookery book that gets used most around here, and I have far too many of them!

Loadsabob · 12 April 2006 at 4:49PM

I've been veggie for about 15 years...I know what you mean, I get stuck in a rut with the same meals over and over (all homemade, but I get a bit bored!).

Current favourite is a chick-pea meal with rice:

I soak the chick-peas overnight in water, and a paste made from 1tsp salt, 1tsp Bicarb and 1 tbsp flour (any flour). They then cook like a dream in no more than half an hour!!! (This is Nigella's soaking method, but she uses a tablespoon of salt and that made me feel quite ill. The soaking is no less effective with only a teaspoon).

I fry up a large chopped onion and large red of yellow pepper in a bit of olive oil, and garlic, and lots of spring greens, and add liberal amounts of fresh black pepper and about 2 tsp (or to taste) ground cumin, and tsp of veg stock (I use the marigold low salt), and tsp paprika (add a drop of water if it looks as though it's going to catch). When they're reasonably soft, add lots of chopped field mushrooms (the biggest you can get), then when they've wilted a bit, loads of roughly chopped spring greens (kale can work, or leaf beet, chard or the leaves from purple sprouting broccoli). Then add the chick peas when they're nearly soft, and a tin of tomatoes, and a generous squirt of tomato puree (I use organic both), and water to get it to sauce consistency, and boil away for a while.

I serve with brown basmati rice, and I just adore this dish at the moment. I find it quite "meaty" with the greens and the field mushrooms.

I don't know why, but I seem to be developing an addiction to chick peas!

thriftlady_2 · 12 April 2006 at 5:41PM

Loadsabob wrote:

I don't know why, but I seem to be developing an addiction to chick peas!

I love the humble chick pea too

A good tip with dried pulses is to soak and cook a whole packet at once.Then divide them up into meal-sized portions and freeze.You can add them straight to stews and curries from frozen.As convenient as tinned,but cheaper

Sharra · 14 April 2006 at 10:07PM

My favourite veggie cook book is the Cranks Recipe book, I've never cooked anything from it that wasn't lovely. Most of the stuff in it can be frozen too, I always cook double and freeze half.

letsgobilliejoe · 14 April 2006 at 10:26PM

the one I stick to with a passion is Rose Elliot's 'Vegan Feasts'. it's brilliant.

also, there are some good websites that i use for recipes, such asvegan family house, parsley soup and VegWeb. There are some good recipes in them, especially on the first 2.

a quick and easy recipe of mine is:
saute a couple of onions and a couple of garlic cloves in olive oil for a few minutes, covered.
then add a diced carrot and pepper (sweet) and cook, covered for 10 minutes, shaking a couple of times.
then add a couple of cans of chopped tomatoes, 1/4-1/2 tsp of mild chilli powder and cumin and some dried herbs (whichever ones you prefer), stir and simmer on low for 10 minutes, uncovered.
then add a couple of cans of chick peas or kidney beans (chick peas are my fave!), or dried equivalent, providing they've been prepared correctly beforehand, stir and cook till warmed through. best served with wholegrain rice.

I only do half that cos there's only 2 of us here, but 2 cans of pulses and tomatoes should be enough to feed 4 adults with rice/potatoes/quinoa.

enjoy!

arkonite_babe · 14 April 2006 at 10:30PM

I have a copy of This Book at home, which has some fab ideas for veggie cooking. As it is really suited to students, it is based on budgeting and feeding yourself really cheaply.

I won it in a comp last year and can't recommend it enough.
HTH

Edited to add: Web address is : http://www.beyondbakedbeans.com/index.asp

shoperholicnot · 15 April 2006 at 12:16PM

Recipe for Lentil Lasagne

This is the quantities i used but you can adapt to suit yourself.

500g red lentils
1 veg stock cube
2 medium onions
2 cloves of garlic
2tsp of oregano
1 tin chopped tomatoes
half a jar passata
3 tbs Tomato puree
half a tsp of ground chilli powder (optional!)
Enough Lasagne sheets to do the Job for your size dish

Put lentils in large saucepan just covered with cold water, bring to boling point throw in the veg stock cube and stir, simmer on low heat for 10 mins

chop onions and soften in tablespoon of olive oil in large wok or saucepan, I also then add about a tbsp of water and put onions on low heat for a few mins, stirring all the time, add the oregano and crushed garlic.
Drain off as much remaining water from lentils as poss, add them to onions and stir together. Then add chopped toms, passata and purree. Add as much as is to your taste. Add salt and pepper, again to your taste you can also add the optional chilli powder if you wish
Place on a very low heat and you can then make the white sauce.

3 tablespoons butter
3 or 4 tablespoons plain flour
2 cup Milk( maybe more) added gradually to your required thickness
100 g grated cheese

melt butter in pan, add flour and mix untill you get ball of dough slowly add milk stirring all the time, or you get lumps! (if you do get lumps whizz it with blender and this will get them out)
I like to add cheese, but you dont have to!
At the end I add around 75g cheese to sauce stirring all the time.

Layer lentil mix in dish, followed by white sauce, Lasagne, Lentil mix,white sauce, lasagne, Then place in oven for 40 to 50 mins. the last 15 mins of cooking add the rest of grated cheese to top of lasagne and it will bubble and brown nicely

serve with salad and crusty garlic bread!!!!

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OS Vegetarians??

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