Vegetarian Recipies Please?

[patrick1]

I'm a really lazy non-meat-eater (OK I eat fish but we'll set that aside). Pasta or noodles or baked potatoes form one corner of most of my meals. Another corner has salad in it. Another corner has veg, stir-fried, or curried, or mixed with a ready supermarket sauce, or with a few herbs thrown over it. Another corner has some yummy bread. There are always eggs around, and avocados and fruit, and rice crackers to nibble, and nuts to nibble or to put in a nut loaf.

I think people are over-recommending cheese. Maybe that's because I'm a heart disease man, though, and I know what so much cheese has done to me (OK 25 years of smoking didn't help either, but it wasn't that that was depositing the fat in my arteries).

Good luck to you and your daughter

patrick

 

[BlackShanglan]

Dear Vella,

First, let me suggest an excellent book: American Wholefoods Cuisine, by Nikki and David Goldbeck. I used this when I became a vegetarian at about fourteen, and it is crammed with excellent recipies and, more importantly, very good nutritional information about protein complements and how to create balance meals withouth meat. 1300 recipies plus great sections on how to use different ingrediants and dishes to create complete proteins in the diet. I am no longer a vegetarian, but it stood me in good stead through five years of lacto-ovo (milk and eggs) and a brief run of vegan (no animal products of any kind). I still use some of its recipes, including a superb gazpacho.

I will recommend a process as well - although of course one has to take it with a grain of salt, as it is the way my parents handled the issue, and of course one always likes to think that one has been raised well. Seriously, however, I learned a great deal this way and it has had long-lasting affects on my health and nutrition.

The process was that my mother agreed that I was permitted to develop a vegetarian diet that met my own moral and ethical principles. However, we had a long (but friendly) talk about how this would involve increased responsibility. Because she loved and cared about me (good way to approach the issue), she didn't want to see me harm my health. Therefore, I was welcome to be a vegetarian, but I had to work with her and eventually work on my own to ensure that I was eating nutritionally balanced meals that didn't require my mother (who worked full time) to cook a seperate menu for me.

This turned out to be a great thing. I learned more about nutrition than anyone of my age, and even when I was at school and out of superivsion was still eating relatively balanced lunches when the rest of my friends were eating junk food. I learned not only how to balance proteins, but why I needed protein, and how much in relation to starches and sugars, and what fiber was good for, and what role calcium and iron played as well. Give calcium and iron careful attention, by the way; they are easy to forget. Calcium should be OK if your daughter is lacto-ovo, as there are now wonderful low-fat diary products of all sorts on the market. Iron is trickier to get; she might look to broccoli, spinach, and also to molasses as good sources of iron in relatively high concentration.

I also learned to cook, and throughout college cooked more meals and more varities of foods than anyone I knew. Although lazy in my older age and inclined to all variety of naughty "treats," I still have this great advantage: I do actually know what healthy food is, I can cook it relatively easily, and even when I am eating "bad" there is still a balanced meal on the table including vegetables. I just eat more of the bad parts than I am meant to. I honestly feel that it's had a long-term affect on my health; although my weight is not ideal, my blood pressure has always been excellent and my cholesterol is low despite my brother being on a very strict intervention for having his soaring (this is a genetically linked condition, but I think that we eat quite differently). I also learned to plan out meals; I sat down each weekend and made out menus as my mother did. I ate what the family was eating when it was something I could modify or eat part of, and I planned my own meals when they needed to be different. I went shopping with my mother or made up a list that we added to theirs, and so I learned basic strategies for meal-planning that help me to this day.

This can be a very positive thing for your daughter, whether or not she decides to continue with the vegetarian lifestyle. Just make sure to guide her in the right direction now. There are some fad behaviors that can be associated with vegetarianism, and these are best headed off at the pass with good nutritional advice beforehand. I don't mean that vegetarianism itself is a fad, but there are those who come to it via an obsession with "purifying" their diet, and if that's not monitored closely it can develop into a problem as more and more foods are deemed "toxic" or "impure." If you work with your daughter now to help to examine how a vegetarian diet becomes a balanced diet, you'll be giving her a dose of good science and healthy attitude toward food that should help to keep her from going off the rails and being tempted to demonize various foods. A healthy diet is nearly always a diverse diet that incorporates a wide variety of foods, and the more you can do at the beginning to foster that attitude, the better off you will be. This can be fun; I can recall some happy moments with my mother as we came to grisp with dishes or even foods that neither of us had cooked before. We enjoyed the challenge, and I learned that it's a great thing to try something new.

One last note. If you're worried about how much time you will have on your hands, or your daughter will have on hers, there's a site that might be of some use to you (although it does cost money). It's called ediets (www.ediets.com I think), and although it's primarily geared to weightloss, it does this very useful thing: it helps you plan meals and shopping lists quickly and easily. You begin the week by choosing your meals for the week; it then gives you a shopping list and your daily menus, so that on any given night you're not pawing aimlessly through the fridge trying to find something to eat, but instead have exactly what you need and a little set of notes on how to make it. They do a decent range of vegetarian meals, and they give careful attention to nutritional balance. If you want your daughter working out balanced vegetarian meals but aren't sure you've got the knowledge or resources, that might be a place to go.

(Apologies for the length of the post, but I hope it helps) -

Shanglan

 

[shereads]

They're my anti-depressants (and they work better than the Rx variety).

That's what I keep telling The Voices when they order me to kill.

 

[shereads]

vella, also realize this might be a phase and she'll probably get over it... lots o'people I know went through it myself included.

How did it happen to you, Carson? For me, it was when I was 8 years old and visiting relatives who didn't know that chicken is supposed to be purchased ready to cook, under a sheet of clear plastic. My dearest, kindest aunt called us kids out to the back yard to see how fast a chicken's suddenly headless body can run before it falls over.

My older cousins had grown up there, and thought it was a laugh riot. Especially when one of the faster chicken bodies ran in my direction.

Perdita had a similar story involving the family bathroom and a freshly headless chicken that jumped out of the sink while she was, um, using the facility.

 

[cantdog]

To kill is not really anti-depressant in the long term, shereads. It does feel like a real zing at the moment, though.

That's what put me off moral vegetarianism, Shang. The sheer work involved studying this stuff. But I agree with every line of your post.

I do not much like the fake-meat things, the pseudo-sausage, the relatively egglike stuff, and whatnot. I make my own veggie burger things, since I can use eggs, largely from spinach and mushrooms. They taste like spinach and mushrooms, which I like, and I think of them as if they were a sort of mushroom latke. Not fake-something-else, but real spinach and stuff.

Same with tofu. Fried crispy, tofu in a sort of julienne shape is nice in an east Asian context. My daughter does a thing with crumbled tofu and nut butter and spices which makes, in the end, a vegan keema for use in Indian food or East African.

You can get into it pretty deeply. Your Wholefoods cuisine book is a good one.

cantdog

 

[impressive]

That's what I keep telling The Voices when they order me to kill.

Hell, I just listen to The Voices. (Look over your shoulder.)

 

[matriarch]

I spent the last 17 years of married life with a veggie.

No big deal.

Not at all.

Just go get yourself a decent, vegetarian cookbook, and away you go.

Also experiment. Just try things out. Most times they work. You soon know if they don't. Courgettes and aubergines (zucchini and egg plant to you colonials), were a standard, often used in place of meat in a lot of recipes. I like courgettes.....cannot abide aubergines....slimy....*shudder*.

If you wish, I'll mail you some of the recipies which were my standards over those years.

Beans were hardly used, rice and pasta were used extensively, as was an enormous variety of vegetables, which we mostly grew ourselves.

I get really annoyed when people assume cooking for vegetarians is hard or complicated. It isn't.

For him, it wasn't a matter of ethics, up until that point he had eaten all of his meat practically raw..(eeeuuukkkk), but woke up one day to the fact that red meat was not doing him any good digestively (personally I think it was not cooking it enough). Stopped eating red meat, then white. In the end, would only eat fish because it didn't upset his stomach.

On my own, I still eat a lot of vegetarian, simply because its easier, cheaper, and quite often, tastier.

 

[Guest]

Cheese and cumcumber sarnie?

(Sorry, I feel for you, Vella, I don't do "veggie".)

Big Mac, anyone?

 

[impressive]

Cheese and cumcumber sarnie?

(Sorry, I feel for you, Vella, I don't do "veggie".)

Big Mac, anyone?

Oh, I do "veggie" very well -- alongside a 14 oz grilled Porterhouse steak.

 

[matriarch]

Oh, I do "veggie" very well -- alongside a 14 oz grilled Porterhouse steak.

14 oz!!!!!!

Jeehosephats, woman!!

 

[Guest]

Oh, I do "veggie" very well -- alongside a 14 oz grilled Porterhouse steak.

PMSL!!!

Ok, yeah, when you put it like that, so do I.

 

[BlackShanglan]

One of the easiest and best vegetable dishes I eat:

Take a selection of vegetables with a Mediterranean slant. I usually use red and green peppers, whole cloves of garlic, "grape" or cherry tomatoes, red or white onion, and some fennel. Zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, asparagus, and (sorry EL) eggplant also work well.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Chop the veggies in large chunks. I usually chop pepper into pieces about 1 1/2" square, onion in similar chunks or wedges, squash (if used) a little smaller.

Throw all veggies in a large bowl and season with a little salt and freshly ground pepper. Drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil over them. Mix them around to coat.

Line a baking sheet with tinfoil (makes cleanup easier). Pour the veggie chunks onto the foil and spread them out so that they are in a single layer.

Throw them in the oven. Cook them about ten or fifteen minutes, give them a shake/stir (eventually they will start to stick a little; just leave anything that sticks too much) and cook some more. They are usually done in 20 mins, dependent on how big you cut them and what you are cooking. To know that they are "done," I look for veggies that are "caramelized" to some degree - dark brown areas where the natural sugars have turned smokey-sweet, especially in the peppers and onions.

Scrape it all into a big bowl. Some of it (tomatoes) will lose shape; not a big deal.

Eat.

Good with nearly everything - including all sorts of grilled and roast meats if the family wants to eat together. For a vegetarian, try serving it with rice or bulgar pilaf with a green salad on the side. If you add a handful of chickpeas to the salad, you've got a good protein balance and an easy meal.

 

[Liar]

Oh, I do "veggie" very well

I did a veggie once. They're just like regular folks in that department.

 

[Guest]

you guys are all so awesome. I love all these posts and im trying really hard to get into the groove. I will take most of the advice posted here as well as the recipes! hell, i could even go for a roasted pepper - cheese sandwich right now... yum!
i dont mean to put veggies down, i just dont understand it all. im carnivore and im stayin that way but i will help her with this choice shes made. i'd hate to see her suffer physically so i am trying to help her learn how to cook.
now, that being said....how about recipes... deluge the thread wiff em cuz ill use them all as long as theyre idiot proof...
*hugs* you guys.. youre da bestest!

 

[lil_elvis]

you guys are all so awesome. I love all these posts and im trying really hard to get into the groove. I will take most of the advice posted here as well as the recipes! hell, i could even go for a roasted pepper - cheese sandwich right now... yum!
i dont mean to put veggies down, i just dont understand it all. im carnivore and im stayin that way but i will help her with this choice shes made. i'd hate to see her suffer physically so i am trying to help her learn how to cook.
now, that being said....how about recipes... deluge the thread wiff em cuz ill use them all as long as theyre idiot proof...
*hugs* you guys.. youre da bestest!

I see the evil plot now...you're going to steal all of our recipes and write "Vegetarian Cooking for Dummies"

Hope this one isn't too cerebral

Veggie Gratin

Software
2 med onions
8 fresh plum tomatoes
2 zucchini (about the same diameter as the tomatoes)
1 tsp thyme
olive oil
grated parm cheese

Hardware
8-10 inch nonstick fry pan
8x10 inch baking dish (like pyrex)



cut onions into large dice, simmer in olive oil and a pinch of salt, covered until cooked down. Remove lid, raise heat until lightly browned (it is important to get the water out of the onions, otherwise the gratin will be sloppy)

preheat overn to 350 deg F

while onions cook, slice tomatoes and zucchini into quarter inch slices

spread cooked onions in bottom of baking dish

layer alternating rows of zucchini and tomatoes over onions, overlapping by about two-thirds (about one third of the slices should be exposed)

sprinkle thyme over top along with a few grinds of black pepper

cover everything with a light layer of parm cheese

bake 30-40 min until bubbly, veggies well cooked and cheese browned

Options include substituting eggplant for the zucchini and subbing cheddar, swiss, romano, or gruyer as the cheese

Normally served hot, but also good at room temp

 

[canadiancutie]

My recipe suggestion would be Thai Pad with tofu. Even the boxed varieties of it aren't bad; add the tofu and bean sprouts and life is good.


Yui

Pad thai has fish sauce!!! unless you make the veggie version...which takes a ridiculous amount of time haha. Anyways, www.vegweb.com is super duper good for recipes. Congrats to her on deciding not to have things killed for her convinience hopefully she sticks it out. you should tell her to try samosas. yummiest food on the planet.

 

[Dar~]

one of my faves.

Chop 7 or potatoes into one inch pieces,
Mince one or two medium onions
mince six cloves of garlic
mix together

Add two bunches of fresh spinach (rinsed and chopped)

mix together
add a good sized drizzel of extra virgin olive oil
add salt and pepper, (however much you like)
and add two or three tablespoons sage.

shake ingredients in a big bowl or bag until mixed around well. cook in little foil pockets at 350F for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are soft enough to mash with the back of a fork.


HEAVEN!!!!! Also high in iron and b vitamins b/c of the spinach. (if she eats chicken, grilled chicken breast tases good baked into it also.

 

[Guest]

I see the evil plot now...you're going to steal all of our recipes and write "Vegetarian Cooking for Dummies"

Hope this one isn't too cerebral

BBBBAAAAAHHHHHAAAAAaaaa.
like i have the attention span to compile it all...wait a tick! what a fab idea. no, really, im like my mom... ill collect the ones that sound appealing...even those that dont and ill try just about anything. thankyou handsome. and thank you guys... im lovin this

 

[lil_elvis]

BBBBAAAAAHHHHHAAAAAaaaa.
like i have the attention span to compile it all...wait a tick! what a fab idea. no, really, im like my mom... ill collect the ones that sound appealing...even those that dont and ill try just about anything. thankyou handsome. and thank you guys... im lovin this

I'm being serious now.

Just one word of caution for Kat. There are three (I think it's 3) essential amino acids necessary for proper nutrition. These are readily supplied by eating meat, otherwise you'd normally have to have a variety of beans to obtain them all. Since she has ruled beans out of her diet, please make sure she researches this thoroughly. Looks like a lot of good resources have been given.

I haven't read all of this thread thoroughly, so excuse me if I'm repeating someone else's post.

 

[Guest]

I'm being serious now.

Just one word of caution for Kat. There are three (I think it's 3) essential amino acids necessary for proper nutrition. These are readily supplied by eating meat, otherwise you'd normally have to have a variety of beans to obtain them all. Since she has ruled beans out of her diet, please make sure she researches this thoroughly. Looks like a lot of good resources have been given.

I haven't read all of this thread thoroughly, so excuse me if I'm repeating someone else's post.

no worries. im not taking this lightly, though its my way to kid around.
cantdog already chastised me, but he doesnt know my ways...
its easier for me to kid about the serious stuff... my kids know that.
next week is pay day and ill be able to afford the proper vitamins then. until that time, itll have to be what i can muster up. im doing what i can on a severely depleted budget. shell be well taken care of... shes my kid... shes my heart.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I'm being serious now.

Just one word of caution for Kat. There are three (I think it's 3) essential amino acids necessary for proper nutrition. These are readily supplied by eating meat, otherwise you'd normally have to have a variety of beans to obtain them all. Since she has ruled beans out of her diet, please make sure she researches this thoroughly. Looks like a lot of good resources have been given.

I haven't read all of this thread thoroughly, so excuse me if I'm repeating someone else's post.

There are 9 essential Amino Acids. They're called essential because your body can't make them. You have to get them through the diet. Meat, fish, eggs, etc. contain all the 9 essentials and so are called "complete" proteins. Foods that are missing one or more of the essentials are called, logically enough, "incomplete" protein sources. I don't think any one vegetable contains them all, but I could be wrong.

Rice and other grains, like wheat and barley and even corn (technically a grain; it's related to grasses) are all low in Lysine, one of the essential amino acids and are incomplete. Beans and legumes (and peanuts count) are high in lysine, so eating rice and beans gives you all of the essentials. That's why some sort of grain & bean dish is at the heart of all the world's vegetarian cuisines: it gives you complete protein. So does peanut butter (legume) on bread (grain). The two foods are called "complimentary". They don't have to be eaten at the same meal.

Everyone's always worrying about vegetarians and protein, but in my experience, I've never once met a vegetarian who was suffering from malnutrition or even heard of one, except for some crazy macrobiotic poeple who tried to live on nothing but brown rice for months. Milk and cereal, PB&J, rice and soy sauce, all these are pretty good sources of protein.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Is it terribly wrong that my computer recipe file has a whole sub-folder labelled "Lit Recipes"?

We're such a pack of sheep in wolves' clothing. We get together on an on-line porn site and start a recipe exchange.

Shanglan

PS - One other thing to check if your daughter likes spicy or more exotic foods is to check out some Indian recipes. There's a strong tradition of vegetarianism in India and a nice, vibrant range of recipes that spring from it. Middle Eastern cuisine has a fair bit too - I still eat hummus.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Cheese, pepper, and olive Paninis (grilled sandwiches)

Get a loaf of good french bread and cut it into slices (cut on the diagonal so the slices have some size) Brush one side of each slice with extra virgin olive oil (or dip them into a bowl containing some)

Put a large pan or griddle on the stove on medium-high heat.

Make sandwiches using sliced mozarella cheese, a couple of bottled roasted red sweet peppers, and some chopped salad (stuffed green) olives. Make sure the bread is oil-side out.

Now, the secret and most important part is to put a weight on the sandwiches when you grill them. You can use a brick wrapped in tinfoil, or a pot half-filled with water, but you've got to lay the weight on those suckers. Then you ust grill them like grilled cheese sandwiches.

These things are very good and pretty addictive.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

no worries. im not taking this lightly, though its my way to kid around.
cantdog already chastised me, but he doesnt know my ways...
its easier for me to kid about the serious stuff... my kids know that.
next week is pay day and ill be able to afford the proper vitamins then. until that time, itll have to be what i can muster up. im doing what i can on a severely depleted budget. shell be well taken care of... shes my kid... shes my heart.

Don't worry, there are ways around it as others mentioned. Mediterranean is actually good tasting vegetarian, italian dishes are perfect and easy to make meat optional and if you want to get fancy, pastas with olive oil are usually really good, especially when you grate parmesian. Lasanga is a good meat optional pasta dish that tastes great.

For mexican, do what I adopted when I was rooming with a vegetarian in ungrad and have make your own burrito dishes where you make rice, beans, some carne asada and sides of salsa, guacamole, and cheese and have people take a tortilla and pick the toppings they want (it worked because I like burritos without rice and beans and she would have just rice and beans). Another good mexican dish is Breakfast Burritos. As long as she isn't hardcore (meat can't be cooked in the same pan as veggies) these meal works great because she'd basically have a potato and pepper burrito and it'd taste pretty good.

Israeli meals are pretty decent and easy to make. The chickpea is one of the few vegetarian items that tastes really f-ing good while being simultaneously very healthy for you.

Asian dishes are also usually vegetarian because in some countries (such as Japan) non-fish meat is a rarity and a delicacy. As stated stir-frys are really easy vegetarian dishes and taste good. You can even make some terriyaki chicken as a side dish for yourself. Indian food is also perfect for harmony because you make a straight curry and rice meal, bam. Mix in some chicken on your plate and voila.

It's actually not too hard to be plain and if you want a traditional meat dish like sloppy joes sometime, make sure you have enough side-dishes for her to get a meal on. Like mashed potatoes and green beans and maybe a small rice dish.

If she wants to get fancy and heavy into things like tofu and bean curd, get her started on cooking for herself. She's going to college soon anyway and being able to cook for herself will come in heavy handiness.

But overall, having dishes that are tasty for you while not infringing on her vegetarian diet shouldn't be too hard. It's not all tofu, bean curd, and tastless organic things in strange pots.



Oh and the ultimate for ease: Quesadillas. Fry up some peppers and possibly barbeque a small chicken up (optional). Then take a tortilla, pile a bunch of cheese on it, maybe add the peppers and a tiny amount of hot sauce. Put another tortilla over it and either cook it up (no cooking oil) on the stove until the tortilla bubbles, flip it and ditto. Wait till both sides turn a little light brown on the bubbles. Or just throw it into the microwave until the cheese melts. For yours do the same thing but sprinkle in some barbequed or marinated chicken if you want to and voila. Overall done in less than 15 minutes and they taste great.

 

[teresawrites2u]

Dizzy goes the girl...

Even if this is 'cause she has a crush on someone, who cares. The only meat I've had in the last nine years is my hubby.

The library has TONS of free reciepe books, send her on a mission just like everything else a good education is importain.

I aggree with: make an entre that everyone can eat and cook the meats sepprate, have her help with the main dish. Noone said that the veggies had to be the side!

I'm the laziest gormet in the world. Frozen mixes, don't forget pizzas/ salads with pasta, veggies and beans / for breakfast hasbrowns with anything / and have her thrown on cheese, beans, or fake meat. If you want me to get nitty grity for you just let me know and I'll hook you up.