FAO Caryll - vegetarian meals

Robin and I have started to periodically discuss the idea of changing to a vegetarian diet. The problem is that I have cooked for years using meat and all my stock of favourite family meals contain meat so I wouldn't know what to cook all the time. While I can think of things such as cheese pie etc. - I don't know if I could think of 7 delicious vegetarian meals to get us through the week. I don't know if we could stick to it either as we love meat and would probably think the vegetarian meal was missing something. What sort of gorgeous vegetarian meals do you make? I'm not after recipes - just ideas. Also, what do you eat on feast days such as Xmas?

Well, we use quorn quite a lot - the mince is good for chilli or spagbol, and the chunks are good for curries. This eveing we had pizza pie (from Iceland) with a pasta concoction! Yesterday we had curry with rice, naan bread & pappadoms. Asda do some very nice non-meat food in their freezer range.

I tend to wing it, really, as I've never really followed recipes.

Last Christmas we had Quorn roast, roast potatoes, parsnips, sprouts, carrots, mini quorn sausages wrapped in quorn bacon (my version of pigs in blankets), stuffing, gravy & the usual condiments. So everything except the turkey!

I have never used quorn before - do you cook it in the same way as mince and does it taste nice?

Some people don't like it at all, but then some people like tofu and soya products which I don't like much.

Ordinary Quorn has a subtle taste, a little like chicken. But it takes on the taste of any sauce you use with it so it's versatile. You use it the same way, but you don't need to pre-cook it and it takes a lot less cooking time.

The only problem with it is that it isn't moist enough to make things like meatballs etc, it just doesn't stick together well. Soya mince is better for that, but the taste is totally different.

I think the thing to do is forget trying to replace meat because you'll be disappointed; just try some of the frozen meat free things in the supermarkets to start with & see how you go. Many people just can't do without the taste & texture of meat, though, and give up pretty quickly. It was easier for us because we'd gradually given up specific meats over about 7 or 8 years (beef because we used to get to know the beef calfs in the field at the back of our house; lamb because of the sheep in the hills around us; pork was too fatty and chicken was boring in the end!), and our two kids just didn't much like it anyway.

I have a friend who is vegetarian except for wild game. If it has been caught in the wild she will eat it as she thinks this is natural. She won't eat farmed game. I can see her point actually.

It is true - I'm worried about doing without meat.

I can see your friend's point of view. I do eat some fish and seafood, but not very often, and wherever possible it's line caught fish.

Why do you want to give meat up? Sorry if I'm being nosey.  

No you are not being nosey at all Caryll. It is just that we love animals and don't really want to eat them if we are honest. I brought the subject up because Robin and I were talking about it again only last night but we were in agreement that we wouldn't know what to eat all the time so I said I would post the question here and see if there was anything that would make us say - 'yeah, I could eat that quite happily in place of lamb chops or whatever'.

I've got to be honest & say that unless we're having a specific 'meat' meal (ie spagbol or chilli etc) we tend to just leave the meat out anyway. Pasta dishes have stir fry veg or just a nice sauce, sunday roast has everything except meat & if there's enough of it you tend not to notice it's missing!

The main problem I find is that many sauces that I'd like to buy ready made have meat stock or meat powder in them (some also have gelatin which I like to avoid if at all possible) and so I won't buy them.

Nowadays, though, the thought of eating meat revolts me (I'm not bothered if other people eat it, just me!), and a little while ago I bought a curried vegetable pasty. I bit into it & it had chicken in it - I literally felt sick for the rest of the day!

I think that we will ease into it gradually. Maybe just eat less meat until the day comes when we can do without it altogether. I remember the pair of us doing the 'you are what you eat diet' for a month. It doesn't have meat and there are lots of recipes in the book but they were not nice - very boring and unsatisfying so we basically lived on veg soup, roasted veg and fresh fruit for the month. We lost weight and felt very fit when the month was over but we were so bad tempered!

That's the trouble, some of the recipes are so bland!

I'll have a look through some of my books & see if there's one that you might want to have a look through. All my recipe books (which I tweak to suit myself - I'm terrible at following recipes) have been bought from Abebooks.co.uk and have been cheap 2nd hand copies!

Whilst admitting to be an omnivore, I do quite often cook vegetarian meals, just because we like them!

I would caution a rapid changeover however - I once used soya mince and suffered the most agonising cramps all through my digestive system! a body's system needs a bit of time to adjust. Same goes for people abandoning a vegetarian diet - my niece was vegetarian for a couple of years and then ate a nice big steak. She was hospitalised for a week.

Here's my veggie meals (I can give recipes if required)

Macaroni cheese (obviously)
French Onion Soup
Cheesy Veggies
Potato & Onion Casserole (with cheese)
Curried Eggs
Omelettes, varied, including Spanish Omelette
Fish
Fish Pie
Kedgeree

I do several potato dishes, but my favourite is potato provencal - if you want the recipe just say.

I also tend to use a lot of fresh herbs. I grow Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley, Coriander & Mint on my allotment, and buy fresh Basil from the supermarket as & when I want it.

And yes, Lynda, you have to be careful introducing new food types - soya does that to a lot of people. I'm not keen on it, but if I do have it I can't have too much! Just leaving out meat, however, does your body no harm at all as long as you're sensible with the veg you're eating (many & varied!). BUT. Suddenly eating meat after a long period without it can cause havoc with your digestion.

LyndaW wrote:Whilst admitting to be an omnivore, I do quite often cook vegetarian meals, just because we like them!

I would caution a rapid changeover however - I once used soya mince and suffered the most agonising cramps all through my digestive system!  a body's system needs a bit of time to adjust.  Same goes for people abandoning a vegetarian diet - my niece was vegetarian for a couple of years and then ate a nice big steak.  She was hospitalised for a week.

Here's my veggie meals (I can give recipes if required)

Macaroni cheese (obviously)
French Onion Soup
Cheesy Veggies
Potato & Onion Casserole (with cheese)
Curried Eggs
Omelettes, varied, including Spanish Omelette
Fish
Fish Pie
Kedgeree

I hate macaroni cheese but I do like the last 4 very much! Thanks for the suggestions! I think I might try curried eggs this week.

I love curried eggs!

Caryll wrote:I do several potato dishes, but my favourite is potato provencal - if you want the recipe just say.

I also tend to use a lot of fresh herbs. I grow Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley, Coriander & Mint on my allotment, and buy fresh Basil from the supermarket as & when I want it.

And yes, Lynda, you have to be careful introducing new food types - soya does that to a lot of people. I'm not keen on it, but if I do have it I can't have too much! Just leaving out meat, however, does your body no harm at all as long as you're sensible with the veg you're eating (many & varied!). BUT. Suddenly eating meat after a long period without it can cause havoc with your digestion.

I love fresh herbs too they make such a difference!

I also like baked potatoes with tuna melt

How could forget baked spuds! With prawns and coleslaw - yum yum

I like baked spuds as well - I have butter & cheese on mine, with some freshly ground pepper and whatever herbs I've got at the time sprinkled on top!

Ill write out a list of what ive ate over the past week. Be prepared, if you are not careful you can go up in weight because you tend to eat more cheese and pasta and you are not as full for as long because you don't have the meat to digest.

Carbohydrates take longer to digest than meat. That's why they're recommended as a lunchtime meal when you're on a diet. You feel fuller, longer.

The only reason I wouldn't advise lots of pasta is because it doesn't have a high nutritional value. You also tend to rely on sauces to give flavour, and that's normally where the extra weight comes from!

I have been vegetarian all my life. My mum used to work in a slaughterhouse, and she had to leave, and after that, she wouldn't touch any meat apart from fish ever again! So after she had us, she brought us up vegetarian. I have never eaten any meat in my life, apart from fish, (which I haven't eaten for about 20 years!) I too love animals too much, and the thought of putting flesh into my mouth repulses me. I feel so sad when I hear piggies squealing on the farm, or get stuck behind a lorry full of chickens! Also, it annoys me that people go mental about people eating horse meat, or cats and dogs, but I see no difference between eating a cow and a horse, I just don't get it! I see all animals equally. I can't bear the thought of them being abused in dark sheds. xxx

I can't bear the thought of ever eating meat either. I used to be a pescetarian growing up, but once I was old enough to make up my own mind, I cut out the fish completely. I only ever used to eat things like fish fingers anyway, but I'd sooner just cut out all of it.

Don't get me wrong - I don't ever condemn somebody for eating meat. Our ancestors, way back in time, would have been omnivorous. Humans are designed to be able to consume meat. Nowadays, it's a personal choice for some people to turn to vegetarianism and it shouldn't be forced on anybody.

Also, a vegetarian pie recipe for anybody if they're interested (it's my best dish and I love it!):

Filo pastry (fresh is better than frozen and easier to work with, in my experience)
200g of spinach
100g feta cheese
Small bag of pine nuts
1 or 2 eggs
Jar of sundried tomatoes in oil
Ground black pepper
1 loose-bottomed cake tin, preferably 22cm

You can switch up the ingredients to the amounts you want, as it's a very versatile dish.

Filling:

Put the spinach into a large saucepan and add a couple of tablespoons of water. Cook this until the spinach is starting to wilt (or longer, if you prefer). You may have to divide your spinach into to lots if it doesn't all fit in the pan. Once cooked to your liking, tip it into a sieve to cool down, then squeeze out excess water.

Roughly chop the spinach and sundried tomatoes and place in a mixing bowl.

Crumble the feta into the spinach and tomato mix.

Mix the egg(s) into the bowl as well, until the mixture clings together loosely.

Add the pine nuts. This is optional, as pine nuts can be expensive.

Season to taste with the ground black pepper.

Pie crust:

Carefully unroll the filo pastry. Take a sheet and brush one side of it liberally with the oil from the sundried tomatoes. Alternatively, you can use olive oil.

Drape the sheet of pastry, oil side down, into the cake tin so that it covers the bottom, but some of the pastry hangs over the side.

Do the same thing to another sheet of pastry, only a bit further around. Keep doing this until you have three or four layers of pastry on the bottom of the cake tin.

Add the filling.

Pull the draped sides of the pastry into the middle, over the top of the filling. Carefully scrunch it up around the top of the pie. Brush over some more oil onto the top.

Place in the oven for 20/30 minutes or until the pastry turns crisp and golden. Heat should be about 180C for a normal oven and 160C for a fan assisted oven. If it's a gas oven, put it onto gas 4.

Nom nom nom!

Yum, yum!!!!

Wow that sounds amazing Caryll, and i am about as far as you can get from a veggie!