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Just popping in to recommend the America's Test Kitchen Complete Vegetarian Cookbook. My wife is a full vegetarian or whatever you'd call it (no rennet, gelatin, etc. but eggs & dairy are OK) and I am, generally speaking, not, so it can be tough to find recipes that are vegetarian but still leave me feeling pretty satiated. Plus the book is great if you're not the most proficient cook in the world; it explains a lot of techniques and how to choose/break down more obscure ingredients. It does miss a couple of vegetarian things, like I don't think it ever discusses rennet, and some recipes call for parmesan (is there parmesan without rennet in the US? I've never found a conclusive answer). But otherwise it's probably the best cookbook purchase I've made in a couple years, trumping even Thug Kitchen. Also, looking for a bit of advice... I'm looking to go meatless (but I don't care about rennet or gelatin all that much) to kind of support my wife in her dietary choices. Any advice for a confirmed omnivore on making the switch? Right now Mondays are my only evening off, so they've become de-facto vegetarian dinner nights, and I'm thinking of going completely meatless for the entire day to try and develop the habit, but any other tips would be great. In particular, good meat substitutes (either fake meat/Morningstar stuff or tofu/tempeh/seitan) is either hard to come by or expensive, so I'm kind of at a loss for what would be good, filling protein options besides beans and nuts.
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Jul 16, 2016 03:33
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MockingQuantum posted:In particular, good meat substitutes (either fake meat/Morningstar stuff or tofu/tempeh/seitan) is either hard to come by or expensive, so I'm kind of at a loss for what would be good, filling protein options besides beans and nuts. Every culture in the world that's been around for a while has had poor people and, generally speaking, those people have learned to cook tasty, filling food without including a lot of expensive meat. There are tons of vegetarian recipes from all over the world that have been around for ages. Find those, and cook them. Broadening your horizons and learning some new cooking skills is ultimately gonna yield much tastier results. If that all sounds too scary maybe look into taking a cooking class with your wife or something. Also don't get too hung up about rules or terminology. Nobody gives a poo poo whether you or your wife are a full anything. If you run across people who do give a poo poo, run far away from them. Also also on the subject of rennet free cheeses, try making paneer sometime. It's super quick and easy, all you need is some milk and lemon juice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfPx3A56R3s Illinois Smith fucked around with this message at 10:50 on Jul 16, 2016 |
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Jul 16, 2016 10:41
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Illinois Smith posted:My main advice if you want to go meatless is to not just cook the same recipes you did before but subbing in any of that stuff for the meat. Because that's just gonna taste weird for everyone. Cool, thanks. I've been digging into a lot more varied cuisines, and in particular my wife and I both love Indian/Bangladeshi/Pakistani food, so I think we have a lot of options there. And I've actually made paneer before, it's crazy how easy it is! And yeah, thanks for the words on terminology.... I've wandered into communities online that do get pretty hung up on it, glad to see this isn't one of them.
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Jul 16, 2016 17:45
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The enormo Sundays at Moosewood cookbook is great if you haven't seen it. It's organized by country/region.
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Jul 16, 2016 19:20
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BigFactory posted:The enormo Sundays at Moosewood cookbook is great if you haven't seen it. It's organized by country/region. Awesome, thanks for this! This is exactly what we've been looking for recently.
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Jul 16, 2016 20:30
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This might be a really dumb question, but bear with me. Currently, I'd say most of my lunches and a lot of my dinners are just sandwiches of the meat+cheese+veggies+spread+bread variety. I love it because they're quick, relatively cheap, and filling. What are good, quick vegetarian sandwich options that are still filling and relatively cheap (besides PB&J)? My wife does a lot of Tofurkey sandwiches, and will occasionally make hummus sandwiches when we have some handy, but any other good staples?
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Jul 17, 2016 19:02
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Egg Mayonnaise / Egg Salad? Sounded gross and bland to me as a kid but I've become really fond of the stuff as an adult, especially if it's freshly made (more taste than the supermarket versions) and you can mix in all sorts of pickles and peppers for flavor variety. Egg mayo with shreds of peppadew and spinach leaves, yum.
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Jul 17, 2016 22:10
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gegi posted:Egg Mayonnaise / Egg Salad? Sounded gross and bland to me as a kid but I've become really fond of the stuff as an adult, especially if it's freshly made (more taste than the supermarket versions) and you can mix in all sorts of pickles and peppers for flavor variety. Egg mayo with shreds of peppadew and spinach leaves, yum. I just made a batch of mayo last night (and some excellent tartar sauce) and I hadn't even considered an egg salad sandwich. That's what I'm having for lunch!!
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Jul 18, 2016 08:50
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I like making mock tuna sandwich filling with mashed chickpeas. Just add (vegan) mayo, celery, green peppers, spices, sunflower seeds, raisins, whatever and its pretty good!
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Jul 18, 2016 13:55
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My girlfriend and I have been doing at least 2 meatless days during the week lately. It was initially kind of a chore, but as we've kept with it, the accompanying mindset shift away from "Meat is the centerpiece to every meal" has come about, and it's way easier. We'll sometimes find ourselves having a completely meatless Mon-Fri on accident when doing our weekly meal plan just because we use 2-3 of our main favorites. We're FAR from converting over to full time vegetarians, and still do steaks, sausages or charcuterie on the weekends, but it becomes really easy to go without during the week once you get used to it. I was surprised to not see either of my 2 favorites mentioned in this thread so far: Messir WoT (the lentil brother of Doro Wot) - Super rich, thick, spicy, filling. Just goddamn delicious. Also freezes extremely well so I make large batches. I use this berbere recipe instead of the one in the linked recipe. I also fry about 2 tbsp of tomato paste in with the spices once the onions are done, before adding the lentils. It definitely deepens the flavor and adds something to the texture. I don't have the patience to make injera, so I just make some homemade naan and it works great. Mujadarrah - Again, very filling. I add a hefty amount of cayenne, or put a big dollop of sriracha on top next to the sour cream for some heat. They are great, and both have the benefit of being VERY cheap
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Jul 18, 2016 22:38
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MockingQuantum posted:This might be a really dumb question, but bear with me. Currently, I'd say most of my lunches and a lot of my dinners are just sandwiches of the meat+cheese+veggies+spread+bread variety. I love it because they're quick, relatively cheap, and filling. What are good, quick vegetarian sandwich options that are still filling and relatively cheap (besides PB&J)? My wife does a lot of Tofurkey sandwiches, and will occasionally make hummus sandwiches when we have some handy, but any other good staples? Are coldcut sandwiches for dinner a staple of your diet because you and your wife basically need to cook 2 dinners 5 or 6 nights a week? How about you stop eating meat so you can only cook one dinner a night and have it be better than a ham sandwich or whatever. And eat leftovers for lunch. Not eating meat isn't nearly as hard as you think it is.
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Jul 19, 2016 02:06
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BigFactory posted:Are coldcut sandwiches for dinner a staple of your diet because you and your wife basically need to cook 2 dinners 5 or 6 nights a week? How about you stop eating meat so you can only cook one dinner a night and have it be better than a ham sandwich or whatever. And eat leftovers for lunch. Not eating meat isn't nearly as hard as you think it is. Not what I said, nor is it really an answer to my question. I never said not eating meat was hard. My schedule doesn't really line up with my wife's, so we actually rarely eat meals together. When we do, I cook a vegetarian meal. I was asking for vegetarian alternatives to plain cold cut sandwiches because I want to go meatless, not to accommodate her diet, and I asked for sandwiches because I kind of hate cooking, especially when it's only me.
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Jul 19, 2016 05:54
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MockingQuantum posted:Not what I said, nor is it really an answer to my question. I never said not eating meat was hard. My schedule doesn't really line up with my wife's, so we actually rarely eat meals together. When we do, I cook a vegetarian meal. I was asking for vegetarian alternatives to plain cold cut sandwiches because I want to go meatless, not to accommodate her diet, and I asked for sandwiches because I kind of hate cooking, especially when it's only me. If you hate cooking it's a different story I guess. Prepackaged fake meat really isn't much more expensive than real meat, but coldcuts are pretty expensive really unless you're buying the lips and assholes pressed meat varieties like $1.99/lb Bologna. Fake Bologna is pretty good IMO. But I couldn't eat sandwiches 2 meals a day 5 days a week either. That's a lot of bread.
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Jul 19, 2016 15:25
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We made some stuffed mushrooms last night that were terrific. Large portobello caps. Sauteed diced zucchini and bell pepper with onion and garlic. Mixed in some chopped sundried tomatoes and cooked barley, then stuffed the peppers and baked at 375 for about 20-25 minutes. Topped with some crumbled feta. Very meaty and delicious!
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Jul 19, 2016 15:34
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I mean, there are hundreds of vegetarian sandwich recipes available online or in cookbook form (here's 50 of them to start) but if you hate cooking a lot of those might be too involved if the maximum amount of effort required you're willing to put up with is of the meat+cheese+veggies+spread+bread variety. If you' don't want to cook big batches of salads or chili or other stuff you can take to work easily then I guess just find some fake meats you like / can tolerate and sub those in for the meat in your sandwiches. They're out there, like the local vegan store has pretty good seitan chorizo that I buy sometimes. It's not really something I^d want to eat every day though.
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Jul 19, 2016 15:54
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I like veggie Bologna a lot. But not the tofurkey brand. That's gross.
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Jul 19, 2016 17:23
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You could switch to having nice things on toast instead of sandwiches Avo toast is the obvious one here, but sautéed garlic mushrooms on toast is great and here in the UK baked beans on toast is pretty much a staple. Other nice things for toast include: Hummus Roasted bell pepper (we can get these jarred) and cream cheese Leftover veggie curry Ragout
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Jul 21, 2016 07:48
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We started roasting a bunch of stuff every week. Red peppers, green peppers, green beans, sweet potato, carrots, onions, etc. We'll do a batch on Sunday and keep them separate(ish) in the fridge and use them during the week for different things. I imagine you could do 5-6 veggies that work really well in sandwiches and use that during the week with other ingredients. For example, a roasted onion and cheddar sandwich. Or peppers, onions, and cream cheese. Could even mix it up and do things like roasted eggplant, labneh (if you can find it), and tahini.
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Jul 21, 2016 08:51
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MockingQuantum posted:This might be a really dumb question, but bear with me. Currently, I'd say most of my lunches and a lot of my dinners are just sandwiches of the meat+cheese+veggies+spread+bread variety. I love it because they're quick, relatively cheap, and filling. What are good, quick vegetarian sandwich options that are still filling and relatively cheap (besides PB&J)? My wife does a lot of Tofurkey sandwiches, and will occasionally make hummus sandwiches when we have some handy, but any other good staples? Roasted red peppers with feta cheese or halloumi, and possibly a dollop of pesto if the cheese isn't too salty for you. Cooked beetroot and halloumi with salad leaves (works better on slightly firmer bread, like flatbread or ciabatta). Spicy falafal with cucumber and either yoghurt or plain mayo instead of spread. Mini onion bhajis, mango chutney, cucumber and red onion. Hummus and egg are both good suggestions too!
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Jul 21, 2016 20:30
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Lady Demelza posted:
Oh you loving legend!
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Jul 21, 2016 21:23
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Shakshouka really needs a mention in here. Because spicy tomato sauce is the best bed for eggs.
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Jul 21, 2016 23:00
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Have a jar of tahini on hand. It lasts forever and is the best on sandwiches if you don't have hummus left. You need tahini to make hummus, anyway.
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Sep 15, 2016 02:23
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I've recently been getting into vegetarian cooking since I've moved to a new place that has a fantastic greengrocers near by and I'm enjoying the challenge of thinking about cooking without a 'centre piece' which you normally get from meat of fish. Favourite meal so far has been a fig salad with goats cheese and a mint/mustard dressing.  Its very easy to make but its also very reliant on the ingredients, and off course figs are quite hard to get hold of and ridiculously season dependent at the best of times. The recipe is from Anna Jones's 'A Modern Way to Eat' which is a really good vegetarian cook book. Its probably best described a veg version of Ottolenghi, lots of tasty recipes but often with lots of steps and obscure ingredients that will be quite hard to find if you don't live in a large city. But if your really into cooking I would defiantly recommend it. This book also has my favourite everyday breakfast, which is super easy to cook and ridiculously tasty, which was published here as 'Turkish Eggs' https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/14/summer-vegetarian-recipes-anna-jones although I don't usually bother with the herbs on top. My other top tip of the moment is for feta and avocado on toast. Nothing difficult here just mush up an avocado with olive oil, chill flakes and some salt and sprinkle some feta on top. What really makes this dish amazing is to toast your sour dough and once its ready rub a clove of garlic all over the bread. The toasted bread should act like a grater for the garlic and it will pack and amazingly tasty punch. I honestly can't recommend doing this enough, its also really good way to do toast with other things too, particularly fresh tomatoes.
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Sep 16, 2016 20:20
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Butch Cassidy posted:Shakshouka really needs a mention in here. Because spicy tomato sauce is the best bed for eggs. Shakshuka has become a staple in my household. When I first made it, I used two serranos, three bell peppers, an onion, and a shitload of garlic. It was too spicy for my wife and I wasn't a huge fan of how the eggs cooked in it, with the yolk harder than we both preferred and the whites a bit underdone, even when I covered the pan. Lately I've been using two bell peppers, two zucchini, an onion, a metric assload of garlic, and omitting the eggs entirely (sacrilege?!). It's an accidentally vegan recipe that's extremely healthy, delicious, and filling. It's also great as leftovers. Whatever you do, don't be shy with your spices. I use a lot of chili powder, turmeric, paprika, and garlic and onion powders. It's the best. The worst part is waiting for it to reduce.
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Sep 17, 2016 06:14
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Eggplant also plays well in place of eggs. But I usually wind up with a more eggplant parm-ish thing when I start out to go eggless and wind up shifting gears during prep.
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Sep 17, 2016 06:51
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