Vegetarian advice please

tessasmum

Having taken in two EF homestay exchange students for the academic year, I am grateful to find that they both eat well and are not picky. One is a vegetarian and the other is happy to eat vegetarian food, as is the rest of the family, if necessary. I am happy to make some family meals completely vegetarian, but since we are not veggie ourselves, I haven't got a lot of experience. DD19 has been home from uni for the summer and she is veggie, so she has shared a couple of recipes, but I desperately need to extend the repertoire of meals that I can make. I have found the Old Style Vegetarian page with some recipes there, but can people recommend meals that they enjoy, or websites that they have used? All help would be welcomed.

WantToBeSE

Do they like fake meat products, like mince? If so, you can do anything you normally make with meat mince, with soya mince. Also, what type of vegetarian are they- some eat fish, so you could so things like fish pie and fish cakes. But i definitely wouldn't bank on this, as most don't eat fish.

Also,
Veggie risotto
Curry
Chilli
Pasties and chips
Stir frys
Lasagna
Pasta dishes


Really, there are loads of vegetarian recipes, just search through Google. Jamie Oliver has some great ones, as does Jack Monroe.

Caterina

You can make fake "mince" using a mix of brown lentils mixed with a finely chopped and sauteed onion, celery and carrot mix. Use this as a base for bolognese by adding tomato, shepherds pie by adding vegetarian gravy, stuffing for pasties adding a few pieces of cooked potato and turnip.

Also great to make lentil burger, mix with breadcrumbs, herbs and an egg (or a bit of oil if no eggs eaten), form into rissoles or burgers, roll into sausages, or just as a bake in a greased baking tray.

If they eat eggs, make baked omelette by adding cooked veg and grated cheese to a few beaten eggs, Then bake and serve sliced, with a side salad and baked potatoes (to maximise oven usage).

Pasta always goes well. To make it more interesting , make pasta bakes. Layer cooked pasta in tomato sauce (leftover is great) with mixed veg and grated cheese, and a light white sauce. Top with grated cheese and bake.

Vegetable stews with dumplings. Add proteins by chucking in a can of beans.

HTH.

dandy-candy

I love frittata made with potatoes, onions, peppers, mushrooms and green beans. Also burritos of spicy rice and beans with sour cream and cheese!

Smoosh

Personally I love Quorn and soya products so I tend to eat exactly the same meals as everyone else, with those substituted as the "meat" part.

JIL

im sorry for some reason I cant post links,


but if you google simon rimmer vegetarian recipes, and find delicious magazine, theres loads of really good ones.

LHW99

A good lentil and potato soup (with onion and carrot) usually goes down well. It can be made with vegetable stock (or marmite) for veggies, standard beef / chicken stock for carnivores.
Add a bit of curry powder for variation, and it can be whizzed smooth, or roughly mashed depending on whether you have youngsters in that won't eat vegetables if they can spot them in the mix!

edwink

As others have suggested Quorn is also a good alternative and is packed with protein too!! If you don't have much time to make sausages yourself Quorn make a really tasty sausage. These go really well in old fashioned toad in the hole. If they don't like Marmite gravy, I know I don't, there are plenty of instant onion gravy's about in the supermarkets or roasted onion gravy.

Spaghetti Bolognaise made with Quorn mince is delicious and so is Quorn mince Cottage pie or Shepherds pie. You can also make mince and onion pies with it.

If you don't want to use Quorn you can always get dried soya mince in H&B and in some supermarkets. A bag of that would serve many meals as it is dehydrated and when water is added one bag makes heaps of mince. If it is also cost you are looking at the dried soya mince is by far the cheapest.

Don't forget if you are busy you could also have a simple meal like jacket potatoes with baked beans and melted cheese.

And last but not least fried egg, baked beans and chips (who does not like chips?).

Hope that has given you a few ideas x

ruis72

hurry the food up has a really nice recipe for veggie thai green curry and they also post links to other veggie websites hth x

LameWolf

Nut Loaf - this is my adaptation of a Linda McCartney recipe, which I make as follows:

13 oz nuts - I use a mix of cashews, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, Brazils - equal amounts of whichever of these I have in the cupboard.
7 oz brown breadcrumbs
1 diced onion
2 eggs (I use the largest free range eggs I can get from the farmers market)
2 oz grated cheese - Cheddar or something similar
A sploshette of milk
A tablespoon plain flour
Dried mixed herbs
Butter

Wuzz the nuts and brown bread in a food processor, mix in the herbs and cheese, and set this aside for later.

Put the onion in a large pan and fry in a little butter til it softens.
Turn the heat to very low.
Add the flour and a little milk and stir in til you have a paste - if it seems over-thick, feel free to add a bit more milk. You want about the consistency of cake mix.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Add the eggs, and beat into the mix.
Add in the nuts and other dry ingredients, and mix it all thoroughly.

Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin, and transfer your nut loaf mix to this. pressing it down and getting the top as flat and even as possible.

Bake for 40 mins at 180 C.

Leave to stand for at least 10 mins before you attempt to turn it out of the tin.

I get eight slices out of this, and serve it either with roasted or steamed veg and vegetarian gravy, or else with boiled rice and HM sweet'n'sour sauce.

As there are only 2 of us, I freeze the remaining slices, separated by little bits of greaseproof paper; it freezes very well.

HTH

tessasmum

Wow - thank you for all your responses: I shall look up some of those websites and investigate some recipes. So far we have had some Quorn mince in a lasagne and that was eaten quite happily! Other things we have tried have been butternut squash/sweet potato curry, enchiladas with veggies in them, stuffed pasta shells, frittata, and a tomato and mozzarella spaghetti bake. So far so good - but I only get a food allowance for having them here, so it kind of has to stretch a bit to make accommodations for extra hot water, electricity etc - they are eating plenty but I can't spend a fortune. Thanks for all your help - will let you know how we get on xx