gearing up for the new year healthy/fitness regime again. am well sorted with lentil dahl, pasta bakes, quorn biriyani et al but need some new inspiration as my weekly menu is well and truly stuck in a rut.

anyone got any quick and non-meat recipes, links to sites or recommendations of books to buy?

thanks

Risotto.

Cheap, multiple variations, quick.

Garlic, tin of tomatoes, tin of chickpeas, couple of chillis, load of cheap green olives (or expensive nice ones if you’re rich) cook until the chickpeas are soft and eat with a chunk of bread.
You can sling some red wine in or some sun dried toms to make it a bit richer if you fancy / have them in the kitchen.

got this book for christmas

haven’t made anything yet but loads of the recipes look good.

chilli and mushroom risotto is a favourite of mine. leave the mushrooms out and stir them in, with some rocket, just before serving.

c.. nice one. i like that combination, very versatile.

that cookbook looks interesting, just the thing i’m after.

one from me is tagines. you can get a tagine itself very cheaply (under 20quid) from lakeland and even something as basic as carrot and chickpea tagine, which even as i type sounds really dull, is great.

I made loads of Spanakopita when I was a vege. Not quick the first time maybe but make a big one and keep in the fridge. Add some pine nuts for the protein and the spinach gives about as much iron as you can get from veg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanakopita

A tagine is on the list of things to buy this year. That spanakopita looks amazing… mmm

My girlfriend took me to a vegetarian deli in Edinburgh for lunch the other day when we were sale shopping i got a spicy bean burger with sesame seed crust and it was brilliant. They looked like the type of thing you could make a batch of then part cook and freeze.

Un-tried recipie

The two simple vegan meals I cook most often are;

Vegetable stew
Whatever veg you like
Pearl barley
Butter beans
All boiled up in a saucepan.
For a bit of variety, add dumplings made by mixing up some Sosmix and rolling it in to balls.

Pasta
Cook a load of pasta in one saucepan.
In another pan, fry some mushrooms and onions.
Add sweetcorn, celery, peas, peppers and tinned tomatoes.
Drain the pasta, stir the whole lot together.

spicy bean burgers are great, you can also use them as a sort of chicken tikka substitute – which probably does’nt make sense (we like chiken tikka served with a rocket/spinach type salad, yoghurt and rice. just use the beans instead of chicken). the recipe we use for the beanburgers is a gillian mckeith but way more heavily spiced as all her stuff is very bland).

been looking at rose eliot books, she has a sitre with some sample recipes…. looks like some good food here

Two forums worth a look.
http://www.veganfitness.net/viewforum.php?f=3
http://www.veganforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?3-Food-Drink

Lentil Dal (eg http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3342601) + Brown Rice.

Quick, easy, dirt cheap, tasty, healthy. Perfect.

my version of dahl…

250g (i use 125g red split and 125g whole green for a better texture).
approx…
1/2tsp chilli
2tsp tumeric
2tsp garam masala (own mix)
1tsp cumin
1tsp corriander
maybe a pinch of cinamon
black pepper and sea salt.
tin toms
veg stock
red onion
2x garlic cloves

basically slice and fry onions. add garlic. add spices (cook for a min). add tin toms and some stock. add lentils. add more stock to get consitency you like. cook til lentils done.

when lentils done you will have loads of dahl so take out what you don’t need and freeze. with the rest either eat as is or add things like spinach (really good), chickpeas etc.

the mix without lentils is a decent basis for hurried curries. quorn chunks are good and if you add a little coconut and almond then stir in a tablespoon or so of youghurt to finish voila ‘cheeky chicken korma’.

Mmm curry. I’m craving spicy food after Christmas. Going to make this tonight http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1325/tamarind-chickpeas 🙂

Sprout* concullen – just made it now!

Mashed spuds, cabbage with garlic, chili, salt & pepper.
Add a good helping of stilton cheese & grill til cheese is melted!

*Used left over sprouts instead of cabbage.

Chickpea Curry

Beef-Tagine-with-Prunes

Hominy is brilliant if you can find it – corn that has been slaked in an alkali – use it as a base instead of pasta etc.

What about fish/ Will you eat fish? Fish is very good for you. something like grilled fresh sardines are incredibly simple, and delicious. Bit of salt and pepper, whack under grill for a few minutes, squeeze of lemon, serve with peas and new potatoes. Very healthy. Or what about prawns? I love prawns, me. Very versatile, and mainly protein. You need protein. Low fat, too! 🙂

Oily fish will give you excellent nutrition, and are full of omega things. You could make something like Putanesca with anchovies, which again is delicious.

fish is a very good call, and super cheap as i live just a few miles from newlyn.

i’d been thinking about mackerel (day fresh and 2 for a quid from the local seller), sardines and herring for a while now. only prob is that wife will not eat fish, but i think we will strike a compromise so i can once or twice a week.

for what its worth in the current issue of surfers journal there is a piece on fish and sustainability by yvonne chouinard (him of patagonia fame) and he states that the only fish to eat now are short lived oily ones like those. partly for health, partly for sustainability that the older lived fish are being driven to extinction by over fishing, and partly that said older fish by being in the water so long have adsorbed so many chemicals/heavy metals et al that they are virtually toxic. admittedly i hav’nt done the research to see how much of a one-sided tale it may or not be but its an interesting read.

grilled fish though, sounds good to me.

good call on the chickpea curry tootall, had’nt seen one where you crush some of them to thicken the gravy. good website as well.