CHEAP Vegetarian BATCH meal ideas please!

mikki6416

Hi Everyone,

As the title says, I'm looking for CHEAP meal ideas that I can preapare in BATCHES. They must be vegetarian/meat-free please. Ideally the dishes will be easy to make and freeze well.

Unfortunately I'm not a great cook and I'm not very good at coming up with good ideas on my own.

I'm a busy mum, I don't have much time for cooking a full meal each evening and I'm on a mission to save lots of money as I have some big bills coming up.

Thank you very much

Savannah02K

I'm not a great cook either but I am great discoverer of what shop bought sauces can be frozen! I make up batches of veggie curry, veggie chilli, etc using my favourite shop bought sauces when they're on special offer. I also make up batches of cheese sauce, individual portions, and freeze as I can use those for topping veggies, pasta etc. The pasta sauces (again I buy them on special offer) are great buys too. I buy the big family sauce ones, use the bit I want for my pasta and then decant the rest into individual portions and freeze. Just make sure with the tomato pasta sauces that you line your plastic freezer container with cling film first as the sauce does tend to discolour the plastic a bit otherwise. I also make up batches of veggie soups (a lot easier to make than you would think, forget making your own veg stock, just bung a couple of stock cubes into the water you cook your veggies in), freeze the soups in me sized portions, then soup and a sandwich, good meal.

LameWolf

When my husband had to work stupidly long shifts for several days on the trot, I made up a batch of individual Shepherd Spies (as we call them) using soya mince; he had a microwave available at work, so he'd take one with him and zap it for his dinner, saved spending a fortune in the cafe.
You can make up as big a pot as you want and portion it out into individual dishes; just make sure to do the same amount of portions of mash to go on top. The beauty of this also is you can chuck in pretty much whatever veggies you've got to hand, to mix in with the mince. Personally, I go with onion, carrots and peas.:o

VfM4meplse

Soup, in all its vegetarian and vegan guises.

xMonsoonx

I love these but I tend to substitute parmesan for the nutritional yeast as I'm not vegan and tend to have it in the fridge.

https://taleoftwovegans.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/chickpea-spinach-burgers/

Once you have the ingredients they are cheap to make and they freeze well.

I have made the mixture into burgers, koftas and dusted in bread crumbs and served with a side salad.

On a side note, the app Yummly is a really good source of recipes.
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jackyann

Thanks all for the ideas, as I too am interested.

My family love veggie lasagne. I tend to use whatever is around.
I make a thick tomato & garlic sauce with plenty of herbs, and add mushrooms if I have any.
I then roast the veg, any or all of the following, with garlic & herbs: flat pieces of pepper, slices of squash, leeks halved down the middle and slightly parted, aubergine slices, courgettes sliced lengthways etc (I would add that I think roast veg is a great veggie standby and always make plenty)
I then layer it all, and sometimes use par-boiled sliced potatoes instead of pasta.
I think that the great secret is the bechamel sauce. I always warm the milk with herbs, peppercorns, bay leaf etc. I make a thick sauce (60g. butter, 60g flour, 500ml. milk will do 3-4 portions) and flavour it with nutmeg (I also find this sauce will freeze for a few weeks which is useful)
Top with whatever cheese you like.

Personally (as a non-veggie who cooks for lots of veggies!) I find a world of difference between this and a lasagne/moussaka made with raw sliced vegetables and a plain white sauce.

RicardaRacoon

I often make a pasta sauce using any left over veggies in the fridge.
You need about 600-800 g of veggies, carrots, courgettes, leek, pepper, turnip, celeriac, celery all work very well. I also sometimes add some mushrooms.
Grate the veggies or finelly cut the "ungrateable" ones like leek and pepper and fry it all in a little oil with some chopped onion. Add two cans of tomatos, season with stock powder, pepper and herbs and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.

Can be used as pasta sauce, in lasagne or even as a slightly Italian-y Shepherds pie. You could also add some lentils or beans to make it more hearty and I also often add some olives.

Chili sin carne also works well or a curry.

Matody

Just posting to follow thread, as I'm off to bed x

june89

I know you said you're not a great cook, but what meals do you make now? As the easiest starting point is usually to cook twice the amount you would eat and freeze half. It adds barely any prep time compared to making the smaller portion. But do this even twice a week and within a month, you'll have a week's worth of meals stored up.

Most meals are suitable to freeze either prepared for cooking later, or fully cooked just to reheat - particularly one pot/dish style things like curries, chillis, stews, pies, pasta bake, etc.

JIL

I make my own version of vege moussaka and that freezes really well.
I make a vege sauce with onions, mushrooms, puy and orange lentils, herbs and spices and tinned tomatoes and wine. I then layer it up with griddled aubergine and sliced jacket potato. Finish with potato/aubergine top with grated / sliced cheese. Then beat two eggs into some Greek yogurt spread this on top.
Bake for about an hour. Cool it and portion up and freeze.

I also freeze in portion sizes vege Bolognese sauces and also hm cheese sauces.
Then there's the option of lasagne using a Bolognese and cheese sauce or macaroni cheese, cauliflower cheese, vege in cheese sauce topped with sliced potatoes. Or just a spag bol or pasta bake.

I freeze my hm meals in plastic dishes like you get from a takeaway. I buy them from Asda, I use a marker pen to write on the lids and when they have been used they go in the dishwasher, where the writing is removed.

tighteningthebelt

Delia Smith's dahl... We have this almost every week!
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/asian/indian/dhal-curry
(I usually use tinned tomatoes, and oil instead of butter, store cupboard items here, still delicious)