Margherita pizza with rocket, parmesan and chilli oil

Just a heads up, Parmesan contains calf rennet so it isn’t vegetarian.

Further reading:

Cheese

Well that was scrummy. I followed the recipe pretty bang on apart from adding in a large carrot and swapping the peas for chickpeas. Also fried the onions and spice mix first and served with homemade chapattis. Very full now as we ate it all between two!

Anyone got a good veggie recipe using seeds?

We’ve got loads in the cupboard and they only get thrown into pseudo-healthy flapjacks (the disappointing kind)

^ I often use 50:50 mixed seeds* (along with either a grain, veg mince or dark green lentils) to make mince for chilli, bolognese/ragu sauce, shepherds pie etc.

Usually soak the seeds overnight in stock and then add to the recipe. Bigger seeds worth blending first.

Here’s a simple shepherds pie with sunflower seeds

https://www.exceedinglyvegan.com/vegan-recipes/mains/vegan-cottage-pie-sunflower-seed-mince

And a chilli recipe. This looks good to me, I cook lots of different chilli non carnes and it checks out

Sunflower Mince and Kidney Bean Chilli

* Not sesame, mustard or poppy seeds for obvious reasons

I always throw toasted seeds onto a hearty salad such as halumi and roasted veg

It’s old skool but lovely and creamy and crunchy and tomatoey, and easy.

https://cranks.co.uk/recipes/creamy-leek-croustade/

You can do a sunflower seed risotto.
Spelt also works well for this.
Last night I cooked a southern Indian mixed vege curry based on that in Anjum Ansnd’s Indian Food made easy book.

This vegan tagine is a really good winter warmer. Dead easy to make and proper tasty.

Delicious Magazine Vegetable Tagine

The Bosh Easy Peasy pasta is our go to currently. The recipe calls for an hour in the oven but I’m sure it’d work in a slow cooker.

How about a ‘winter warmer’ stew?

1 large / 2 small onions
Carrot
Parsnip
1/2 swede
Couple of spuds
Half a bag of Quorn steak strips
1.5L of veg stock

Lug of oil
Bay leaf
1tsp thyme
1tsp rosemary
Pinch white pepper
2tsp Marmite
1tbsp tomato purée
1tsp onion granules
1tsp garlic granules
3tsp gravy granules (Bisto Best onion gravy)

Peel all the veg. Slice the onions and fry in the oil until starting to soften. Dice swede, carrot, parsnip in ~1cm cubes and add to the onions. Fry for a few minutes more.

Add the stock, potatoes cut into ~2cm cubes, and all the herbs etc. Simmer until the veggies soften, then add the Quorn. Give it another 15 minutes, by which time the potatoes should just be starting to break down and thicken the stew.

Exact quantities of veg isn’t critical. Goes well with dumplings (veg suet, flour and whatever herbs you want to add).

This also works in a slow cooker, fry the onions first as above for best results and use less stock.

Made scruffs lentil curry last night. Highly recommend it, delicious, filing, easy, cheap and healthy (I assume?).

I have learnt that lentils give me wind though, and when they spend 10 hours in a slow cooker getting curried it has quite the effect. The cat was riding the duvet like a magic carpet last night.

Talking of winter food, just had a bash at this

I’d rate it pretty well. Maybe a little less red chilli powder than stated (unless you like to belch flames from your arse) I used only a tablespoon and a half. A few teaspoons of cocoa powder or squares of dark chocolate wouldn’t go amiss either. If you do cocoa, add a spoon of sugar. Season to taste this is a low salt recipe with no oil so also a boon for weight loss.

For the refried beans component I sourced a bag of Gran Luchito for £1.50 local supermarket. Am sure canned ie El Paso etc will work equally they’re mainly for protein and thickening. I went with the buckwheat grains for the mince component. Anyhoo…

Yum.

Thanks Cougar, just polished off some Fajitas, bloody lovely!

I’m going to give MR’s curry a go at the weekend, having added his frankly wonderful bean casserole to my regular recipes I’ve learned that I need to fast beforehand to make space. I’ll report back…

^ nick glad you enjoyed thanks for the feedback 😀

Ate the last of the curry sauce yesterday, cooked it up with roasted potatoes and roasted cauliflower florets for nice chunky textures. Added a bit more coconut cream. It’s a very strong curry so reduce masala powder/garlic to taste if first attempt is pungent for taste. Best served with rice.

If you’re up for the challenge this is a beautiful rice recipe. Best I’ve tried:

https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/biryani-rice/

Thanks Cougar, just polished off some Fajitas, bloody lovely!

Eeeexcellent. Cheers for letting me know.

Anything that doesn’t have tofu in it

Vege lasagne.
Roasted spuds, pumpkin and parsnips plus a decent salad.
Pumpkin soup.
Mushroom, dried Tommies with Mascarpone. (Pasta)
Walnut zucchini risotto.
Pumpkin risotto.
Schwäbisch Käse Spatzen with salad. Look this up. Dead easy and yummy AF.
Porcini tortellini.
Falafel.
Indian curry (most curry dishes are vege).
Arrabbiata.
Chestnut mush.
Pesto.

The other half is a dedicated vegetarian…. Much to my benefit.

Bookmarked having recently began trialling vegetarianism.

Schwäbisch Käse Spatzen

That’s easy for you to say.

Pumpkin soup.

This is really good:

https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/nanas-magic-soup.html

I use regular milk as coconut milk just dominates the flavour and I’m not a fan of coconut soup.

OH makes the Hairy Bikers’ veggie bolognese recipe-

https://www.copymethat.com/r/o4O2fM2/mushroom-and-lentil-ragu-hairy-bikers/

which also works for mince & dumplings and in a pie if you miss that sort of stuff. I prefer it to Quorn and soy mince.

I’m not a Jamie Oliver fan, but just made his Aubergine Kuzi (as made for Joanna Lumley on the Friday Night Feast series) and it’s bloody gorgeous. I substituted soya yoghurt to make it vegan.

Recipe

I have a curry baby, and enough left over to feed myself for the rest of the week. Very very nice, even I did spend most of the afternoon making it.

Parp….

^ just seen this, thanks for the feedback nickc! Yes it’s time-comsuming process…am hoping to simplify/improve it next try.

Off the back of the other thread looking for some more interesting recipes. Currently adding extra garlic and chopped nuts to this

Great base for a roast dinner and already pleased a meatloaf lover with it, begging for seconds. For me it just needs a little more oomph in the flavours and texture so I think the augmentations could do the trick.

More here, I tend to like their comforting hearty approach! (See also the best damn chilli upthread)

https://mypureplants.com/

Thread resurrection.  Yes I’m on a vegetarian resolution for 2021, wanted to for ages but the excuse of living with carnivores can no longer stop me. Great recipes above – any ideas for sangwiches / lunches? Other than cheese…

^
Not big on lunches working from home, so I don’t tend to scoff anything other than a small bowl of soup (usually homemade lentil/veg) and some nice bread. Sometimes canned cream of tomato soup. Sometimes homemade (another variant) soup/stew.

For ‘on the run’ scran I have been known to take a Mozzers vegan cornish pastie or some couscous salad bowl, veg sticks and hummus. More often a couple of decent veg samosas go down best. Delicious cold.

Sandwiches don’t travel so well, I find. A snap-top or screw-top container with either soup or a hearty salad bowl* seems to do much better.

Also trying to cut out cheese so if making a sarnie it would be salad and a thick spread of hummus (hummus can be cheaper, better and easy to make at home) with plenty of leaves, sliced toms and fresh onion.

*Was raised to believe that ‘salad’ was a webbs lettuce leaf and a slice of tomato and cucumber, maybe a boiled egg, stick of celery. Couldn’t see the excitement and nine was encouraged. Then in the 90’s I by chance went to the hippyish café (Quarry Café) in Machynlleth and had a ‘salad bowl’. It was transformative. Diced beets, tater salad, pine nuts, some big round grains, walnut, onion, garlic, dark juicy leaves, etc etc. Went again the next day and it was a whole different selection! Totally satisfying and unlike anything I’d eaten before. Looking online it seems that ‘hip’ term of late for those big old wholefood salad bowls is ‘buddha bowl’ 🙄

Anyway. The sky’s the limit on that. Could see how it might be slightly defeating to make one just for one person though, ie if co-habiting meatatarians have broken taste buds and/or are specifically militant against veg/variety

Hummus and salad sandwiches have been a staple for WFH last year.

Lunches are usually leftovers so stuff like stir fry, chilli, ‘shepherds’ pie, roasted veggies, pretty much anything!
Heck veg sausages are a particular favourite either in a sandwich or mixed into couscous with salad, herbs or dressing.

Anything goes just make sure you have good leakproof pots!

Heck veg sausages are a particular favourite either in a sandwich or mixed into couscous with salad, herbs or dressing.

Off the back of some thread or other I recently tried a 10 pack the Heck meat-free magic ones. £2 a pack seemed a really good price compared to many others. I thought they cooked up well, were plump, had a very much like a British pork sausage if a little bland. Solved that with a little homemade English Breakfast Sausage seasoning that I keep in a jar . The vegan sausage saviour! They made a top sarnie on their own, or with egg and HP sauce. Or whatever. Good find, thnks STW.

It’s a bit long winded but I usually make up a big batch of this mushroom ragu and fridge or freeze it in portions (only two of us in our house). As good if not better than any beef ragu (and no, I’m not vegetarian).

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/nov/16/yotam-ottolenghi-mushroo-recipes-ragu-aioli-lasagne?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Ah the Heck vegan Breakfast or Beet goes on are our go to. For ‘pork replacement’ the Cauldron ones are pretty darn good

Dishoom Black Dahl and the Broccoli Salad

Have a flick through the Guardian as well, Rachel Roddy has excellent Italian dishes and I’ve not had a duff one that’s vegetarian.

Sonia Sodha as well in the Guardian has great dishes Vegan well worth a look.

Just look for flavours styles that interest you. It’s obviously a lot more fun in the summer as there’s amazing fresh in season stuff available that needs very little work to make it super exciting!

Thanks Scruff9252, just made some lentil curry as per your older post. Had to use a tin of chick peas no split peas due to none available in the shops here but it was good. Only had about 2 1/2 hours simmering, not the proscribed 6 as I only went shopping at lunchtime but still made a great meal.

Good food inspiration all through this thread. Thanks all.

As lap13 said, “leftovers” is good for lunch but I’d perhaps have used a slightly more appetising word!

Rather, small-batch cook. Stuff that takes a bit of work like your curry there, back when I lived on my own if I was making something like that I’d do enough for four meals rather than one. One portion on the table, two in the freezer for Ron, the fourth in the fridge for tomorrow’s lunch. Do that for a week and you’ve got a fortnight’s selection of ready meals.

I’m not vegetarian or vegan but the misses is vegetarian so tend to make lots of vegetarian food with a bit of meat on the size. Did this tonight (well roughly as I always play around with what goes in to suit flavours).

https://www.lazycatkitchen.com/roasted-brussel-sprout-pasta/

We do it with roasted vine tomatoes with truffle oil (10 mins) and some bacon for me and fake bacon for the misses ( the salty the better to contrast the bitterness of the sprouts).

Great recipes above – any ideas for sangwiches / lunches?

Have you got a microwave available? If you do anything slightly more liquid (curries, chillies, etc) make an excellent reheated lunch, just make sure you’ve got a decent selection of tupperware. Accompany them with naan or similar.

Don’t worry Cougar we’re well up on the left overs thing. Two of us fed last night, a whole box (the standard unit of freezing in this house) is in the freezer for later and a smaller portion of leftover curry and rice each just had for lunch with some instant naan bread warmed under the grill. Nice change from cheese and pickle sarnies.

Tonight we are feeling especially lazy with the extra faff of home school so a box of Bol from a 5 box batch has come out of the freezer to add to pasta. Variety and low faff cooking half the week is a winner.

Just shared a tofu stir fry with daughter#1 – crisped up some diced tofu in batches, then cooked some veg (carrot+pepper), then cooked some aromatics for a minute (ginger, spring onions, chilli), added the sauce (soy sauce+vinegar+honey) to the aromatics, cooked for another minute, then chucked the veg+tofu back in to mix it all up. Served with egg noodles. And very nice it was too!

Cougar
“As lap13 said, “leftovers” is good for lunch but I’d perhaps have used a slightly more appetising word!”

Well yes, I did mean purposely cook extra, not use scrapings from mine and the husband’s plates and the dog bowl… 🙄 😁

🤣

I know this, it was just kinda “what’s for lunch? Oh, ‘leftovers,’ om nom nom!”