vegetarian meals - are you doing this more?

The price of meat has gone way up and I’m really not enjoying eating it for a range of reasons.

Do you find that you are doing more vegetarian meals?

What are your favourite simple meal ideas without meat?

I really enjoy a simple salad or a pesto pasta sauce with sun dried tomatoes.

When have done ‘meat-free Monday’ for years. It’s a great way to mix up our routine and try new things. I also have a few go-to dinners that can have the amount of meat adjusted, like a stir fry or pasta dish. It’s just as good with a single chicken breast vs one for each person.

I think it’s a Jamie Oliver recipe, very stripped back. Roasted cherry tomatoes seasoned with your fav herbs and olive oil, mixed through angel hair and a sprinkle is good parmesan.

The best gnocchi I’ve ever had was with rich tomatoes sauce at Guy Grossi’s little cafe, again very stripped back but I guess you’d need to love the tomatoe

Roasted eggplant slices with sliced tomatoes and shredded cheese, hold back on the seasoning though, the hours spent salting the eggplant is enough.

Enchiladas with spinach, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes

My DH makes a mean cauliflower curry

We try and only have one or two meat meals a week. It doesn't always work out that way. Chicken, beef/pork mince, bacon and sausages are what we purchase most often to cover 15+ different meals between them, and every now and then we'll buy steak, pork roast, ham hocks, fish or silverside. The meat in our dishes is rarely the focus.

Our vegetarian meals are: curry (any vegetables with tinned beans of any sort, with any type of curry paste and a can of coconut cream - massive range there), chopped salads (change out the veggies and fruit) with croutons and fried haloumi, soups (roast pumpkin, roast tomato, lentil), pesto pasta (different pasta and pesto), roasted veggies with gravy/white sauce, fried rice, stir fried noodles with wombok etc.

Whenever guests are over, however, they want meat in everything. It's sort of annoying to make a really nice meal and have a few people say, "Gee, this would have been great with a steak". I think steak and three veg sorts of meals are the most boring dinners ever, but I personally know so many people who will always go for them when going out (as if the most expensive option on the menu will be the best???). Don't understand the obsession with steak.

/rant lol

I have always eaten a lot of vegetarian meals as my mum is mostly vegetarian, so we never ate much meat growing up. I now cook meat 2-3 times a week but otherwise we have a lot of pasta (with beans in the sauce), pizza loaded with veggies, salads, soups, tacos or tortillas (with beans also). I love curries and would cook those too, except I'm the only one who'd eat them.

I really like Aldi's marinated tofu. I cook it and add to salad but could be used in a stir fry.

Omelettes and quiche feature in our diet with DS having fish once or twice a week.

Eggs are becoming my big go to meal base. Eggs on toast for a Sunday night dinner is fast food without the big M.

Not really. We do have a low meat meal weekly ( so a salmon or bacon pizza, or a pasta with a little bit of meat). DS is underweight and doesn't eat much for breakfast or lunch, so dinner is the main chance to get meat protien into him. In fact he ends up eating a larger portion than DH and I. He's also picky which makes it harder.

However we are also doing fish more, and frozen fish is still reasonibly priced.

We still eat lots of meat. We just pay a fortune for it.

We do order meat online now, it’s cheaper than the supermarkets, and convenient. We have a deep freezer that we store it in and we buy a big box of meat every other month.

Although, I mostly cook mince, chicken, and sausages, so it’s not too expensive on a typical weeknight. DH does big expensive cuts on the BBQ on the weekend, and they usually have leftovers.

I haven't eaten much meat for the past two years. I have fish once a week, but that's about it.

I mostly eat bean and lentil based meals for lunch and dinner.

We eat a lot of soups, curries, falafels, lentil koftas (similar to falafels but made with lentils), mexican inspired bean dishes, vegetarian pizza, pasta with lots of beans / lentils in the sauce, stir frys.

I gave up meat and most animal products for health and environmental reasons. I do have two people in the house who eat meat, so I mostly make vegetarian / meat based versions of the same meal for the meals.

I agree that meat is expensive. Even mince is $ these days. Chicken is reasonably priced though though.

We eat far less meat these days. I really want off cooking meat at home when I was pregnant with my first. Especially red meat . 10 years ago I would have been horrified, I loved meat and thought it was essential especially for dinner.

We eat a lot of beans- cannellini, chick peas, kidney beans/black beans. We do a tomato/garlic/onion based dish with beans of choice, then herbs and spices to suit, top with cheese, put under the grill. So good.

Eggplant Parma is great. Or roasted eggplant halves, topped with garlic, tomato, basil & cheese, then grilled.

We use lentils and or/paneer when making Indian style curries. I really like paneer, and we have discovered 1kg blocks of it made in Australia made by Melba Cheese Co, which we portion and freeze.

We make a lot of homemade pizza.

Lots of pasta, especially for my kids and my work lunches. Usually tomato/garlic/basil based and then I put chili and olives through mine.

We still cook meat from time to time, mainly chicken, occasionally pork mince which I find less gross than beef for some reason.

I like red meat, but I prefer to order it when we go out somewhere nice than to cook it at home.

I’d like to eat less meat but I have a carnivore husband and at least one child. I’d happily only eat meat 2-3 times a week. It does end up impacting my iron levels unfortunately as pulses are not the most agreeable thing for my gut even though I love them. (I love tofu but last I had to it, it was not great). I grew up a vegetarian and only been a so so meat eater anyway. We do eat a bit of fish, well they eat fish and i eat some vegetables/salad as I don’t eat seafood due to intolerances and what I do tolerate is disgusting.

Things the kids like are:

Black bean and pumpkin Mexican. (Black beans, cubed pumpkin, corn kernels, tomato, onion mixed with fajita/taco/enchilada spices. I use it as a filling for any of these things. They particularly like it in enchiladas).

Split pea Dahl (sooo good)

Before my body decides it doesn’t agree with tofu, we used to marinate it in soy, a bit of honey, garlic, or use teriyaki sauce or it’s good with satay. Then fry it until it’s crispy and add into stir fry, with noodles. It actually pretty versatile. I grew up eating “tofu” burgers mum used to make and they were amazing. Also in wraps. Mum also got my friends eating it. The trick is marinating it. You also need to squeeze the liquid out before marinating it. (I don’t like soft tofu either).

We do a number of salads but using chickpeas tossed in salt and cumin or salt and lemon, or white/black beans. You can make heaps of interesting salads

Um I didn’t actually realise until I was 13 that nachos was made with mince

We’ve tried a few times but the kids and I really struggle with things like beans and lentils. I do keep trying but I have struggle with certain food textures and find those sort of meals really tough. We have a few pasta and veg dishes in rotation, and when we do bolognese it’s made with mushrooms rather than mince, or a mix of both.

I'm not very good with vegetarian, usually a meat free meal at our place has eggs. I do try to stretch meat further though by adding beans/mushrooms etc. Anything mince based I blend up a 4 bean mix (just a texture thing for me) and chop mushrooms to bulk it out. Makes bulk cooking easier without having a increase the meat. I also get big roasts on special and stretch them across multiple meals (roast lamb becomes shepherd's pie, roast chicken becomes sandwiches then soup). Each reiteration usually has less meat and more veg but still delicious

Dh likes meat less than me but we have the odd vegetarian meal but not regularly, I am trying to cut back on red meat a little though

We’ve tried a few times but the kids and I really struggle with things like beans and lentils. I do keep trying but I have struggle with certain food textures and find those sort of meals really tough. We have a few pasta and veg dishes in rotation, and when we do bolognese it’s made with mushrooms rather than mince, or a mix of both.

Dahl is a good one with lentils. This is a vegan recipe but we eat dairy so I use ghee as the oil and don't use ground coriander, cardamon and cumin, I fry the seeded versions of these spices and crack them open in hot ghee in a separate pan then add the cracked spices and seasoned ghee mix to the simmering dal holus bolus (which I start first, sans those particular spices). I find you end up with a much better flavour that way. It pretty much comes out a pea soup texture but in less than half the time.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/spicy-lentil-dahl-recipe-1001539

Quinoa and roast veg is one of my ultra simple ones. I'm happy to eat it plain but will sometimes add a dollop of hummus or some salad dressing, chilli sauce.

Another simple one I had today was along same lines, pearl barley with frozen peas, corn, edamame stirred through, then some salad dressing (I think its tahini, lemon, garlic) and sri racha sauce. Takes a while for the barley to cook but you just dump it in the pan and leave to simmer.

Frozen edamame are I think a good option for people that don't like beans. The texture is more like peas. Don't get the canned ones though!

I've made some simple creamy pasta sauces, like a fake mac n cheese, using blended silken tofu. DH says they taste 'odd' though, personally I think they are fine.

This is absolutely delicious and very easy to make. I serve it with rice

https://www.happyveggiekitchen.com/halloumi-bake/

You mentioned you like pesto, I often make this:

Cover the base of a pyrex type baking dish with cherry tomatoes. Add a splash of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar. Not too much, just to enhance the flavour a little. Season with cracked pepper and bake at 190 until the tomatoes are soft but don't fall apart. Take out of the oven oven pour over cooked pasta shapes, I like spirals. Dot over good quality pesto, the fresh sort you buy from the refrigerator if possible. Stir through and grate parmesan over the top. I serve with a buttered baguette.

Chickpea Casserole

Chop & fry one medium onion until soft. Add about 400 grams roughly chopped mushrooms and cook for a few minutes until soft. Add one drained and rinsed can of chickpeas, one sachet of tomato paste and 2 tins of good quality chopped tomatoes. Swish a little water around the empty tomato tins and add that too. Simmer for a few minutes and add a big handful of roughly chopped fresh basil. I serve it over couscous and grate cheddar cheese on top. It can be frozen and makes a very quick meal if you have some in the freezer.

We do about 50% vegetarian meals. I find that I like meat less and less as I get older (except lamb!) and I feel worse when my diet does get quite meat heavy.

Favourites include dahls - few different recipes - try mixing things up by using chana dahl install of the normal lentils for a different texture.

Beans - I find that adding smoked paprika gives bean dishes a really 'meaty' flavour and using a bean with capsicum, tomato onion, paprika, cumin and oregano sauce in something like tacos or on rice is every bit as satisfying as a beef based dish.

Make your own falafels - soak chickpeas for a day or 2 then pulverise, add some seasonings (salt, coriander and cumin is the classic), form into balls and shallow fry. Ignore all the recipes that use tinned or cooked chickpeas and do not add useless fillers like breadcrumbs.

Sweet potato pancakes are a big hit with the kids. Make a normal pancake batter and mix in mashed sweet potato and possibly some cooked corn as well. Savoury versions get served with a salsa, or have them sweet with maple syrup and even mascarpone if you're feeling fancy.

The other thing to mention is that a little bit of salami goes a LONG way in flavouring things like beans or lentils if you're feeding people who are resistant to going full veg.

Yes, I’m moving away from meat big time.

Grew up meat and three veg, and really love the taste of meat but apart from that there is no good reason to eat it.

1) Masses of meat are so bad for your health (esp. red meat) - and partly because your body just has to work so hard to break it down

2) The cost financially

3) The cost to the environment

4) Those poor animals, farmed for consumption. Many of them living horrifically depressed lives on the coneyor belt to your plate*

So over the past few years I’ve been slowly brainwashing myself away from meat. Though I still eat meat probably 2-3 times a week. Learning more delicious veg recipes, is the best place to start, I think, so this thread is great.

*Just watched the movie ‘Gunda’ this weekend. Poor pigs :’-(

Just further to what egg said, stretching meat out can be a good way if people are resistant. Adding meat to soups with legumes and veg mean you can add much less than you would for a meat and veg meal. Lamb shank soup with chickpeas is a good example. I can make a huge pot with just one shank, dried chickpeas and spices, plus the usual veg.

Things like risotto are easy enough to make vegetarian because they are also so high calorie anyway. I always make my pizza vegetarian too.

I'd like to, but navigating the fussiness in the house is a big barrier.

It's mostly mine. I have big problems with certain textures, and can't stand vegetarian staples like beans, avocado, mushrooms, eggplant or sweet potato. And the things I do like - sauteed veg with haloumi, or shakshuka - the kids don't. As a result most of the vegetarian meals eaten in this house are spinach and ricotta cannelloni/ravioli/whatever, or a cheese sandwich.

I’m doing red meat 1-2 dinners, one fish, one chicken and the rest veg. The tricky bit is that I think veg meals need to still have protein. So incorporating legumes, tofu or eggs. I’m constantly looking for new recipes to include these.

But yes I’ve noticed my spend at the butcher is less and less.

Roasted eggplant slices with sliced tomatoes and shredded cheese, hold back on the seasoning though, the hours spent salting the eggplant is enough.

 

I NEVER salt my eggplant. I think the older varieties had a tendency to be quite bitter, but this is not so much the case now.

My favourite eggplant recipe is to cut an eggplant into steaks - bbq or grill it (you do need quite a bit of olive oil), then top with a mixture of feta, mint and as much chilli as you can handle. If you want to be all fancy pants then roll it up and it looks flash, otherwise just eat.

I am but mostly because my workplace provides meals and they are very meat heavy. I feel eating meat in two meals a day is too much.