Vegetarian options

degzs

I want to eat less meat but finding it hard to find recipes

I suppose its just a different mind set ?

Tree

Plenty of options depending on what you like, sometimes it's just a leave out the meat in a pasta dish, or sub in beans (i use adzuki beans in my bean herders pie), or just try something entirely different. If you're looking to reduce meat rather than exclue it entirely, tofu is great in with meat dishes (or on its own entirely, local takeaway does a spicebag with fried tofu instead of the chicken strips, it's sooooo good). Quorn and the like are good if you want to eat what you used to but swap the meat for something that looks like it.

Shenshen

It is a different mindset in a way. I remember I found it difficult to get away from the idea of a dish having a main ingredient, with everything else just "supporting". Most vegetarian dishes I cook these days don't work like that.

What kind of food do you like, what are you looking for? Quick and easy? Comfort food? Spice and flavour? I'm happy to share a few of my go-tos, but I'd need to know a bit more first. 🙂

anewme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118563541#Comment_118563541

I really struggle with the main ingrediant challenge and would like some recipes that are more rounded.

I'd love if you could share some of your dishes, comfort food and spice and flavour. Thanks in advance.

Shenshen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118622955#Comment_118622955

Here's some ideas for comfort food :

Hotpot

Ingredients

2 onions, sliced

2 sticks of celery, chopped

2 carrots, diced

½ turnip, diced

small punnet of mushrooms, quartered

handful of dried mushrooms, soaked in hot water (optional)

1 glass of red wine

1l vegetable stock

2 sprigs of rosemary

2 sprigs of thyme

2 bay leaves

1 tbsp of vegetable gravy powder

1 bag of baby potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

Melted butter

Ideally, make this in a pan that can be on the hob and in the oven. I like using a cast-iron one for this.

Start by frying the quartered mushrooms in a little oil until they’re well browned. Remove them from the frying pan and add the sliced onions. Fry until they’re brown and caramelised.

Add the mushrooms back in, and pour in the red wine. Let the wine reduce, then add the rest of the vegetables and the stock. Add the herbs, cover and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove the herbs, and stir in the gravy powder. Season with a bit of pepper, and more salt if required, remove from the heat.

Layer the sliced potatoes over the mixture. You can do this as neatly or as messily as you like.

Brush with the melted butter and put into the over for ca 40 minutes.

Stuffed Butternut Squash

Ingredients

1 butternut squash, sliced lengthways and with the seeds scooped out

1 onion

100g of brown lentils (dry)

150g of rice

Vegetable stock

100g feta cheese

Season the butternut squash with salt and pepper, rub it with a little bit of oil, place both halves on the baking tray (cut side up) and bake at 180 degrees for 40 minutes until soft.

Dice half of the onion. In a wide pan, fry the onion in a little oil. Add the rice and lentils, and cover with vegetable stock. Cover and let it simmer, topping up the stock whenever it gets too dry, until both the rice and the lentils are soft. You want the mixture to be a similar consistency to risotto. Season with some pepper.

In them meantime, slice the remaining half an onion and fry the slices until brown and crispy.

Take the squash out of the oven and generously fill both halves with the mixture. You’ll have to pile it up a bit.

Crumble the feta over it, and spread the crispy onions over. Return to the oven for another 10 minutes, until the feta starts to brown.

Here's something comforting from Germany/Austria :

Bean Stew with Bread Dumplings

Dumplings :

Ingredients

White bread (stale is best, it's a good way to use up leftovers)

Dried breadcrumbs

1 small, chopped onion

1 egg

Pinch of salt

Chopped parsley (optional)

Milk

Cut or tear the white bread into chunks, mix with the milk, salt and egg and let it soak a little. If your bread is very stale, you might want to warm up the milk. It should just about cover the bread.

Once the bread is soaked through, mix in dried breadcrumbs with your hands. You'd want it to be the consistency of stuffing. Mix through the onion and parsley if you're using it.

Bring a big pot of salted water to the boil,then reduce it to a simmer. Form the dumplings, and drop them into the simmering water slowly, one by one.

Keep the water simmering (try and avoid a full boil, the movement of the water could break them up), the dumplings are done when they float on top.

Bean Stew :

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped

1 stalk of celery, chopped

1 - 2 bell peppers, chopped into bite-size chunks

1 large carrot, chopped into bite-sized chunks

2 - 3 salad potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite-sized chunks

1 tin of mixed beans

Vegetable Stock

2 - 3 tsp of paprika

1 tsp of smoked paprika

1 tsp of carraway seeds

Fry the onion an celery in some oil until soft. Add the remaining ingredients, with enough vegetable stock to cover everything.

Bring to the boil and simmer for ca 20 mintues, it should thicken up a good bit. If it doesn't, you can cheat by adding a spoonful of gravy granules.

For spice and flavour :

Asian-style soup

Ingredients

2 mushrooms, sliced thinly

1 carrot, julienned

8 or 10 mangetouts, slices

½ red pepper, sliced thinly

80g vermicelli rice noodles

2 red chilies, sliced

1l vegetable stock

1tbsp miso paste

½ bunch of coriander, chopped

2 spring onions, sliced

Couldn’t be simpler : Bring the stock to the boil, disolve the miso paste, add all the other ingredients except the coriander and spring onion. Let it simmer until they’re all done, then add the coriander and spring onion. Serve.

Black Bean Burittos

Black Bean Filling

Ingredients

1 onion

2 -3 cloves of garlic

1 green pepper

2 - 3 sticks of celery

100 - 150 g of black beans

2 -3 bay leaves

Vegetable stock

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 - 2 tsp paprika

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

Roughly chop the onion, garlic, pepper and celery, then place them in a food processor and puree them into a paste.

In a wide pan, heat up a tbsp of oil, then add the puree. Fry it until most of the moisture is gone and the mixture starts browning a little.

Add the black beans and cover with stock. Add the bay leaves, keep on a low heat and simmer for around 2 hours, until the beans are soft. Keep topping up with stock if it's going too dry, but not too much at any one time to make sure you'll end up with a nice thick stew.

Once the beans are soft, season with the smoked paprika, paprika, cumin and coriander, as well as salt and pepper.

Tomato and chili salsa

Ingredients

1 punnet of very ripe tomatoes

3 spring onions

small bunch of coriander

2 fresh chili, or some dried chili flakes (depending on how hot you like it)

Lemon juice

1 - 2 tbsps of tomato puree

1 tsp of sugar

1 tsp of salt

Cut the tomatoes in quarters and remove the seeds. Squeeze them a bit to get rid of some of the water, too.

Roughly chop the spring onions, coriander and fresh chili (if you're using it), then put all of it and the remaining ingredients into a food processor or a blender. Blitz for about 30 seconds to 1 minute - it should still be a little chunky.

If it's too watery, add more tomato puree. Once the consistency is ok, taste it and add some more seasoning if you like.

What else?

Boiled rice

Shredded lettuce

Sliced avocado and/or sour cream

To make the Burritos :

Get some wraps and heat them up in the oven or the microwave. Fill them to your taste with rice, beans, salsa and vegetables. Wrap and enjoy!

degzs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118628549#Comment_118628549

Great recipes, thanks for sharing

Green Finers

BBC good food have lovely vegan recipes.

I eat a lot of meat and dairy and I recently cut down drastically because my cholesterol was over 6 despite my weight being healthy for my height - BMI 21.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/vegan-recipes

igCorcaigh

These recipes from Joe Woodhouse look excellent:

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/feb/20/potato-and-cheddar-pie-mushroom-stroganoff-joe-woodhouse-vegetarian-recipes-your-daily-veg?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

GoogleBot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118630532#Comment_118630532

High cholesterol usual indication of some issues like inflammations hence body pump more cholesterol to fix it. Meat generally is not the cause of high cholesterol:) visit health forum for more discussions.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058230707/vegetarian-options

I’m the same and I made a savage pie this weekend, cooked carrot and swede mix with butternut squash (all bought chopped), fried onion and broccoli and mixed nuts , garlic and added a coconut stir fry in a bag from dunnes .

put stir fry into pie tray , then added the carrot/swede/butternut mix then topped it with red cabbage, i poured tomato and garlic sauce that I had and topped it with mashed potatoes

you’d feed an army with it

also added gravy for the craic