Tasty failproof veggie dishes?

A favourite here is a macaroni/cauliflower cheese combo though I usually use penne, not macaroni. Lots of very cheesy sauce with a bit of English mustard added, cauliflower cooked al dente and very well drained, mixed with cooked pasta, breadcrumbs and extra cheese on top, whack under the grill to brown. One of dh’s absolute favourites.

I did it once for unexpected guests when I had a huge cauliflower and plenty of everything else - it went down very well.

I have posted this link before on Gransnet - but it is SO easy and super-delicious. It’s a spinach and feta pie:

SPANAKOPITA:
m.youtube.com/watch?v=eUTVesSFows

Although we aren't vegetarian I do try to make one or two veggie meals per week. One of our favourite things is so easy that I almost daren't mention it here .... I halve cooked medium-sized (5-7 oz) jacket potatoes, scoop out the flesh and then mix with a good dollop of garlic & herb soft cheese, plenty of grated cheddar and two leeks which have been gently fried in some olive oil until they are soft. Pile it all back in the shells, sprinkle on a bit of grated Parmesan and then grill until hot & golden. We have this with a big mixed salad and it's absolutely delish.

I am definitely going to try some of the recipes on here, thank you ladies.

I love vegetables, don't eat meat often, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recipes are always good, Nigel Slater has a gorgeous, rich winter recipe for stilton and onion pie. New Jamie Oliver series meat free meals has a lot of great recipes, longing to make the cauliflower cheese in a bread dough crust, bit like a quiche. Another thing I fo is for most recipes using beef mince I substitute some aduki beans that Icook, they don't need to be soaked and cook quickly, they make a lovely vegetable cottage pie.

Just a bit more on cheeses -

Re Parmesan...
I think you’ll find there’s a difference between Parmigiano Reggiano and Parmesan. You’ll find vegetarian versions of Parmesan on/in some commercially produced sauces etc but as someone said earlier, you won’t find Parmigiano Reggiano in a vegetarian form at all as it is a protected cheese and contains both rennet and lipase. It is possible now to reproduce something similar to the piquant flavour of lipase chemically - and that’s what’s used normally in the “better” vegetarian mozzarellas but there’s a big gap in the Parmesan area.

Ricotta is traditionally considered to be vegetarian- but given that it’s a whey cheese and made from the “left overs” of making other cheese, it can’t always be vegetarian as that depends on the cheese made before it. No rennet is added to make ricotta, so I think that’s where the confusion comes from.

Nanarose I’m planning to cook that dish today. Do you mean chilli peppers or bell peppers?

Eastern and oriental foods are often veggie. Egyptian food has some delicious recipes.

Tin of tomatoes, red peppers, onions, carrots, potatoes, celery, garlic, red wine if so inclined, teaspoon of smoked paprika to taste. Add a dash of Seeds of Change tomato based pasta sauce if Italian flavour wanted.

Chop carrots and potatoes to about 2 cm chunks.
Slice and fry onions, celery, garlic and peppers in olive oil. Add paprika, and tomatoes.
Boil carrots and potatoes until cooked as liked. Strain and put into pan with peppers and tomatoes.
Cook further until gloopy. Thicken with a little cornflour if needed.

Very nice with fresh bread on a cold day.

Thanks for all the good ideas up there, too.

Oh my - that sounds delicious KnightApril

Try this recipe - Vegan Mushrooms Avocado Pasta greenann.com/recipe/mushrooms-avocado-pasta/
Ingredients:
3.5 ounces Penne Pasta
5 ounces Mushrooms
½ Red Onion
AVOCADO SAUCE:
3 ounces Fresh Spinach
1 Avocado
½ Lime
3 minced cloves Garlic
1,5 oz Parsley
2 tbsp Almond Milk
4 tbsp Water
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
½ tsp Salt
Pinch of Black Pepper
It's Amazing!

arosebyanyothername - you can’t have vegetarian Parmesan, as true Parmesan is always made with animal rennet. But you can buy “Italian style hard cheese” which is very similar.

www.vegsoc.org/info-hub/veggie-need-to-know/cheese/

Loving these recipes. I’ve recently become vegetarian and tried most of the meat substitutes and discovered that apart from Greg’s vegan sausage rolls and Quorn crispy “chicken” nuggets, which we really like, the rest taste vile so we’re staying away from them.
Thanks for these recipes they sound delicious and I can’t wait to try them all. I’ve enough here to be getting on with for a while.

Witzend, that sounds good. It's worth putting in the effort or you end up with sludge!

Grannyknot ?

NotSpaghetti I'm going to make Spanakopitta today, I love how she uses her hands to mix stuff. It's is so satisfying!

I was given a hunk of yellow pumpkin by a neighbour this week and I sauteed it in butter last night with a good lot of Ras El Hanout spice and on a whim, I added a teaspoon of sugar. Oh my word, it was beyond delicious. I could have eaten a plate of that and nothing else.

I’ve seen a couple of recipes on here with Parmesan.
Where can you buy vegetarian Parmesan?

One I do fairly often is a cauliflower/macaroni cheese. Cauliflower al dente, lots of very cheesy sauce, breadcrumbs and extra grated cheese on top, whack under the grill to brown. A major favourite of dh.

In winter I do a main-course soup, which is deliciously tasty, warming and filling - also very easy and cheap! It can be vegan if you use vegan stock cubes.

Rice and red lentil soup.

2 chicken or veg stock cubes
1.75 litres boiling water
200 g red lentils
100 g risotto rice
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
2 large onions
2 tbsp oil
1 lemon

Dissolve stock cubes in boiling water. Add lentils, rice and spices, bring to boil, then simmer for 35-45 mins until lentils have dissolved and rice is really soft and tender.

Meanwhile, peel, halve and thinly slice the onions, add to oil in frying pan, cover and cook ver gently, stirring occasionally, for about 30 mins until very soft, then increase the heat and fry until very brown, caramelised and almost burnt. Drain on kitchen paper.

Stir into the soup, with the juice of a lemon. Add salt if needed. Can serve with a wedge of lemon added, if liked. The onions soften in the soup and give a lovely flavour.

Any left over goes thick, like dahl, and is equally delicious warmed up next day for a quick lunch.

I'm getting very hungry reading through all these ideas. Thanks, everyone!

And you can't beat dolmas - so simple, easy to make, cook and eat.

I love Tamale Pie - various recipes online.

My quickest and most popular (with me ) vegetarian recipe is to chop and saute onions, tomatoes (a can will do) with capsicum and garlic.
Season with any (or no), herbs and spices, to taste.

This makes a base for pretty much everything. You can then add mushrooms, celery, courgette, whatever you prefer.

If you want to add carbs, partly cook chickpeas or beans, potato, lentils etc in boiling water, then stir them into the sauce then bake at 180 or equivalent for 35 mins. This works with pasta too.

The same applies to any meat. Seal it first with a quick frizzle in oil, then put in a heat proof dish and cover with the sauce - bake as above.

If using fish - cook that separately to keep it succulent, rather than baking it with the sauce.

This basic sauce also makes a nice soup if you add other vegetables and some stock.

I sometimes add grated cheese to the finished dish.

If using as a basis for lasagne, I make a cheese sauce to top it before baking, and whip a beaten egg into the sauce. This brings it up, in cooking, into a light, fluffy topping.

Bon Appétit

My favourite veg stir fry...…

Chop and pan fry onion, corgette, mushrooms & sweet pepper until tender.
Add a few chopped sundried tomatoes and a couple of cloves of black garlic (much more flavour than white garlic and no bad breath)!!
Add a dash of soy sauce and some pepper and serve with fresh parmesan shavings.
Quick, simple and very delicious.

I use River Cottage Veg by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall a lot. He has some lovely recipes but more for adult tastes than children’s I think. I don’t use fake meats at all.

Anyone suggesting quorn, be aware that there's a high rate of allergy, about 10%. I am allergic but politely ate a quorn burger at a friend's house and spent the next day with a queasy, nauseous stomach wishing I'd been less polite!

For many years, mung beans and brown rice was a vegetarian staple in our household. By chance, it's vegan, here's one of many recipes.

www.veganricha.com/2015/08/brown-rice-mung-bean-kitchari-mung-bean-stew.html

We never had a problem bringing up our three as veggie but we cooked lots of different dishes, Rose Elliot was popular then, and we used to say that all must at least taste a mouthful before rejecting. It usually worked.

Just eaten Ricotta, mozzarella and spinach cannelloni in tomato sauce. You don’t even have to pre-cook the tubes any longer; much easier to stuff when you can stand them on end.