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Vegetarian Inspiration (Read 7919 times)

Fultonius

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Vegetarian Inspiration
June 29, 2014, 09:56:54 am
Alright folks,

I'm not a veggie, but the lass is. I do most of the cooking when I'm home as she works full time and I'm a lazy doss-about.  8)

Eggs, cheese etc. ok. Fish / seafood and, well, meat, are not.

I'm looking for inspiration for simple, tasty and nutritious dinners. Before we met I'd often make one of these a week (which would last a few days or go in the freezer):

Chilli con Carne
Any kind of Curry
Spag Bol

Basically anything that I could shop for and cook with a minimal amount of thought.

Now, with the vegetables I don't find it so easy to have a few staple, tasty, easy dinners like that. I have no problem with putting some thought in and aking nice things like quiche, fresh pasta etc. but I can;t be doing that every night of the week.

So, please, hit me with some inspiration. Full recipes not required - I can work google. But if it's your own recipe/tweak then feel free to hit me with the full recipe.

 :popcorn:

Seb

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#1 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 29, 2014, 10:14:32 am
I found veg curry works really well, I like to put some halloumi in for a different texture. Rice and beans are really good as well.

andy popp

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#2 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 29, 2014, 10:36:02 am
Get Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's Veg Everyday book - its full of appealing and tasty recipes that work and are doable, many of them from pretty staple foods.

nik at work

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#3 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 29, 2014, 10:56:45 am
Veg curry is da bomb.
Veg lasagne can be amazing with a decent recipe, but dreadful without.
I really like roasted veg (peppers, courgette, carrots, onions, errr whatever). Nice with cous cous.
Stir fry is obvs quick but again if it isn't right it will be very wrong...

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#4 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 29, 2014, 01:17:43 pm
Agree with the above, any half decent veg curry book will let you get 3 of 4 different curries into your repertoire without much effort, as with any single pan meals once you've done the spices they largely come to throwing the right amounts of each ingredient in and cooking them down!

I love making veg lasagne but it's definitely not an 'quick and easy' meal, by the time you've made a bechamel and a tomato sauce, roasted your veg, layered it all up and put it in the oven, it's fairly labour intensive.

Roast veg with Jacket potatoes and houmous: dead easy and tasty, you can whack everything in the oven and have  a fingerboard session.

Pies using shop bought pastry: obviously totally cheating but quick and tasty, roasted veg with feta and potato, caremalised onion and cheese sauce are two of my favourites.

underground

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#5 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 29, 2014, 06:30:17 pm
As soon as I saw the title I was going to mention what Mr. Popp already has- currently using the same book for tea.
As for the chilli/spaghetti Bol options, I do both if them loads with no meat- more beans, lentils, soya mince, mainly because they are dry and always in the cupboard, but also because I'd rather eat meat infrequently if at all, although I do eat it but only when it's really good stuff I've taken care over.

dr_botnik

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#6 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 29, 2014, 10:53:34 pm
veggie nut roast:

get a packet of stuffing mix and a packet of falafel mix. One requires making up with cold water and the other hot so you have to make them seperately.

Cook off some veg (mushrooms and peppers) then add some cashew nuts/seeds and mix together, plop in a baking tin in an oven for about 15-20 mins at about 180-200.

Stuffed peppers:

Follow similar process but put the mix inside some hollowed out peppers, maybe leave out the nuts and put browned onion/mushrooms instead to keep it juicier.

Bean burgers:

tin of kidney beans, one large carrot, teaspoon of cumin, corriander

Boil kidney beans for 10 mins, drain and mush. Grate in carrot, add cumin and finely chopped corriander. Form into patties with a bit of flour and fry

Other tips:
Find a good veggie stock cube, alot of them are really salty and not much flavour.

Garlic mushrooms are really simple and really delicious.  :thumbsup:

Evil

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#7 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 30, 2014, 10:38:51 am
I'm veggie, but for the last few years have also been eating fish, so I have some veggie staples...

I make chilli with all this stuff:
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1 small green bell pepper, diced
½ medium yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 fresh chillies (depending on strength, or top up with chili powder)
2/3 teaspoon ground cumin (to taste)
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
1 large sweet potato, cut into cubes
1 tin black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tin kidney beans (in chilli sauce)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 cup vegetable or chicken stock

I really like the sweet potato addition to chilli, it really absorbs the flavours.

I also made last night some dal with red lentils, chickpeas, spinach, lots of garam masala, chilli, and a little bit of curry paste I had leftover from making another veggie curry into which I had chucked some quorn pieces (I don't eat loads of quorn, and their sausages are rubbish compared to the cauldron ones, but it's alright sometimes).

Also veggie stir fries with some tofu (Cauldron do some nice marinated tofu pieces which you don't have to mess about with to make sure they don't fall apart when you cook them) are super quick meals.

slackline

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#8 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 30, 2014, 11:02:51 am
I'm veggie, but for the last few years have also been eating fish,

You're a pescatarian.  Fish are animals.  :read:


SA Chris

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#9 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 30, 2014, 11:07:38 am
I love making veg lasagne but it's definitely not an 'quick and easy' meal, by the time you've made a bechamel and a tomato sauce, roasted your veg, layered it all up and put it in the oven, it's fairly labour intensive.

Roast veg with Jacket potatoes and houmous: dead easy and tasty, you can whack everything in the oven and have  a fingerboard session.


You can make big batches of veggie lasagne and freeze it though. It's OK provided you use a lot of sauce, or else it tends to dry out a bit getting frozen and thawed.

Roast root veggies with haloumi sliced and grilled on the top is a winner too.

Evil

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#10 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 30, 2014, 11:29:37 am
I'm veggie, but for the last few years have also been eating fish,

You're a pescatarian.  Fish are animals.  :read:

Yeah yeah alright veggie police

Durbs

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#11 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 30, 2014, 11:31:49 am
I'm in the same boat - non-veggie cooking for t'other half.

For general staples; mexican/tex-mex, pasta and various veg curries are easy.

For more exciting food - Middle Eastern is a very rich picking ground for deliciousness.

2 books in particular; "Plenty" by Ottolenghi is fantastic, also "Veggiestan" by Sally Butcher is great.
Alot of the dishes are pretty simple, but with more interesting flavours than your standard "spag bol but with quorn mince" affair.

Shakshuka is a personal favourite, and ful moudamas is a protein feast of a side dish (or breakfast).

slackline

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#12 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 30, 2014, 11:39:08 am

Yeah yeah alright veggie police

I expect most people would say fish are animals not vegetables(/plants).




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#13 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 30, 2014, 11:40:33 am

Yeah yeah alright veggie police

I expect most people would say fish are animals not vegetables(/plants).

Nice quoting there slackbot.

Fish are a type of underwater plant I am sure.

slackline

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#14 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 30, 2014, 11:41:58 am


Yeah yeah alright veggie police

I expect most people would say fish are animals not vegetables(/plants).

Nice quoting there slackbot.

Fish are a type of underwater plant I am sure.

Who's the biggest fool, the fool or the fool who misquotes the fool? :clown:

Evil

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#15 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 30, 2014, 11:57:52 am
Well, I like to think of them as underwater plants, provides a handy justification for eating them  ;)

seankenny

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#16 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 30, 2014, 12:48:13 pm
If you're doing a Tex-Mex thing, take your veggies and roast them. Pepper, onions, tomatoes, garlic are all good but you can do things like asparagus and broccoli spears in the oven too. Five mins before the end, chuck in a load of black beans and roast those too - they are delicious like this. Get a packet of Uncle Ben's flavoured rice which takes two mins in the microwave, stick it all together with cheese, guacamole, tortillas, salsa or whatever, maybe throw in a veggie sausage, great dinner and takes about 20 mins to make.

Sloper

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#17 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 30, 2014, 12:59:00 pm
Gradually introduce meat into her diet, a little veal stock here, some marrowbone there, a bit of finely ground lamb in with the 'vege' meat substitute.

The when she's good and hooked on food that has flavour, remove the additions and watch her crave real food.

the above is entirely ethical of course.

moose

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#18 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 30, 2014, 01:08:12 pm
+1 for veggie curry - just make according to your usual method but add tinned chickpeas instead of meat. 

I also occasionally make daals - my preference is for the vellow split pea lentils (chana daal) - give a really good, rough texture, which I prefer to the gruel like consistency of the normal orange lentils.  They need longer to cook though (soak over night and simmer for at least an hour, skimming the water).  My main find with daals though is for the tarka (the fried onion, chilli, spice accompaniment). I really like to fry the onions with panch phoron.  It's a mixture of fenugreek seed, nigella seed, cumin seed, black mustard seed and fennel seed that you can buy big bags of in Asian food stores.  I suspect you are meant to grind it but I use it as supplied - adds lovely taste and texture.

The kidney bean and carrot veggie burgers sound good - sometimes, for all the delights of "foreighn" cuisine - I just want to eat something with chips!

dr_botnik

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#19 Re: Vegetarian Inspiration
June 30, 2014, 10:45:25 pm
One for the BBQ:

Slice aubergines diagonally, grill lightly on both sides, crumble on goats cheese and a dash of lemon juice.

 

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