Vegetarians?

[Rosyrain]

I am hoping that there are some vegetarians out there, or at least some of you who cook a lot of vegetarian dishes. I had lunch at my new neighbor's house today and she is a vegetarian and made a wonderful spread with things like cheese stuffed peppers and bean salads. I would love to return the favor, but I am not sure what I could really make as main course dishes. Are there any resources or cook books you all could guide me to?

 

[marlingardener]

Right off the top of my head, when I prepare a vegetarian dish, I substitute mushrooms for meat; do a pasta primavera with assorted vegetables and an Alfredo sauce; and of course, quiches lend themselves to all sorts of vegetable combinations (broccoli and onion, mushroom and spinach); and frittatas like the potato and onion, or mixed herbs, or spaghetti frittata. You can also make soups with a vegetable stock base.
If you want, I can post any of the above recipes, and I'll take a wander through my cookbooks to see what alternatives they offer.

 

[Owdboggy]

Our youngest daughter is Vegetarian (not because of problems with killing animals as such, she just does not like the taste of meat). Her main complaint is that everyone assumes that she will eat cheese all the time. So if I were you I would look out for recipes which do not rely heavily on it.

 

[zigs]

I eat fish, but not land animals.

Eat a fair bit of Quorn & soya products.

Some stuff here

 

[Ian]

I'm a bit meat eater, but I always enjoy vegetable curries. We had these two dishes last night and I can highly recommend them. They're from the River Cottage "Veg Everyday" cookbook:

Aubergine and Green Bean Curry: http://thisismondayclub.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/aubergine-and-green-bean-curry.html

Spiced spinach & potatoes: http://www.anulaskitchen.com/2013/01/spiced-spinach-potatoes.html

I couldn't find a link to them on the official website, so I've posted links on blogs where I found them listed.

We also made some onion bhajis to go with it, but I'm not sure where @Becky got the recipe for that from - but there are 100's out there and all easy. We just shallow fried them in a little oil.

 

[Trellum]

I am hoping that there are some vegetarians out there, or at least some of you who cook a lot of vegetarian dishes. I had lunch at my new neighbor's house today and she is a vegetarian and made a wonderful spread with things like cheese stuffed peppers and bean salads. I would love to return the favor, but I am not sure what I could really make as main course dishes. Are there any resources or cook books you all could guide me to?

Hi there! Have you tried searching for something on Pinterest? I swear you'll not be disappointed, I have found the most good looking and tasty vegetarian recipes over there! The most amazing salads ever! You need to give it a try!

 

[R.R.]

I'm not a vegetarian, but I posted a recipe here a few months ago that uses no meat or animal products of any kind.

It's called samfaina, and it's a typical Catalan dish: https://www.gardening-forums.com/threads/samfaina-recipe.3496/

 

[Rosyrain]

Thank you all very much for your assistance! I am saving some of these links so I can go back and research them further. Perhaps I might become a vegetarian...especially with the meat prices these days!

 

[Cereus]

There's a lot of Asian food that you can cook that's vegetarian friendly. You can always substitute the meat out for other things easily and no effect to the dish. My mother was a vegetarian because of a disorder of some sort that made it difficult for her to eat red meat. She only ate fish and veggies.

 

[kevinkimers]

Vegan Lasagna and Vegan pizza (crustless) are my two fav's. (these are great for low carb diets too.... for meat eaters use regular cheese and add meat)

Vegan pizza is the easiest. You sub the crust with Egg plant rounds lightly covered in flour and fried and you sub the regular cheese with any type of substitute cheese. Make it like you would individual pizzas. Cook until cheese is melted and browned slightly.

Vega Lasagna is you substitute the noodles with egg plant or you can use zucchini and yellow squash. You use any substitute cheeses you want and tomato sauces. Make like you would lasagna on it bakes for 15 minutes.

Hope that helps

 

[zigs]

Thank you all very much for your assistance! I am saving some of these links so I can go back and research them further. Perhaps I might become a vegetarian...especially with the meat prices these days!

I saw an arguement program back in 1984, the meat industry versus vegetarians.

It was so obvious that the meat industry didn't give a toss about the animal's welfare, it was just a commodity to them, I thought right you buggers, that's one customer you've lost for life.

 

[R.R.]

I dream of the day when I'm finally gonna be able to afford all my meat from organic, local sources.

 

[Cereus]

I saw an arguement program back in 1984, the meat industry versus vegetarians.

It was so obvious that the meat industry didn't give a toss about the animal's welfare, it was just a commodity to them, I thought right you buggers, that's one customer you've lost for life.

It's a double edged sword.

I hate how they treat animals and yet look at how much food people consume in this country. It's astonishing. Not only that, but there's trade offs to if we allowed all farmers to go free range because it'd completely deforest what's left of the US forests and demolish the ecosystem at such a large scale if we were to keep up our rate of consumption and production. Brazil and Argentina are facing these problems of massive deforestation and the environmental impacts that their free range cattle have on their countries. Those two are huge producers of South American beef/poultry and have been razing the Amazon and surrounding forests to the ground to clear way for more space for cattle.

The Dust Bowl in the US happened in the 30's because of our destructive farming practices. Most of the Midwest at one time was actually forestland, especially in the state of Indiana, but because of the pursuit and growing need for food, people razed down all the forest land in Indiana and turned it all into farmland. The results was the Dust Bowl in the 30's and a hard reassessment on how we could do commercial farming to prevent the same issue from happening again.

I'm not arguing for the farming practices that we do in the States, but there's no easy solution because these farmers also have to keep with EPA standards as well, have to make money and keep up with the growing rate of consumption as the world keeps populating with humans. 100 years ago it wasn't nearly as impactful hence why cattle were risen free range. However as the population in the States boomed and quality of life rose, so too did the demand for more food.

 

[zigs]

Oh i'm aware of the problems the population faces with food production, the worrying thing is that we'll increase to at least 11 billion before it starts to decline again, so for a few generations meat will be an expensive luxury or on the ration.

You can grow 10 times as much food on a bit of land than you'd get back if you were raising an animal on it.

Agreed, not all land is suitable for farming, much of our food is already being grown hydroponically so i'd expect to see much more of that in the future.

 

[kevinkimers]

I saw an arguement program back in 1984, the meat industry versus vegetarians.

It was so obvious that the meat industry didn't give a toss about the animal's welfare, it was just a commodity to them, I thought right you buggers, that's one customer you've lost for life.

On the larger whole, your right. However, if you buy only local meat (which you can do if you either look on the package and see locally grown or ask the manager of the store which ones are. If you can't get it that way, visit the local cattle ranches and talk to them. They can tell you where to get local meat or they might sell it to you) you get the chance to see how the cows are treated. If you don't have access to local meat, you can look up the information on the different ranches and choose the ones that you want to buy from that way. I buy only local meat and I live right next to the cattle ranches that the meat comes from so I see how they are treated. They treat them very well here where I am at. LOL I actually heard the rancher calling them by names the other day. He is awesome. He can tell you the very day every cow was born and he names them when they are born. I couldn't do that if I tried.