I am looking to get rid of meat for the most part in an effort to save some money and I was wondering if anyone has any tasty vegetable dishes they would like to share, recipe wise. What are some of the vegetables you cook the most with? I would love some ideas that are potato based because we do eat a lot of them.
I've been a vegetarian for over 20 years. There are endless possibilities to create tasty, inexpensive dishes that don't contain meat. One of my favorite is baked veggies. It's an easy dish that doesn't require much input. Simply put a few drops of olive oil in a baking dish, cut up some vegetables, sprinkle them with salt, oregano, chilies, or whatever you prefer, cover them with another dish or aluminium baking sheet, and leave them in a medium oven for 30-40 minutes. Turn the veggies once in a while to bake them evenly. You can eat these sweet tasting delights with a home made sauce, using avocados or tomatoes, or you might want to try a delicious tahini, garlic and lemon sauce. Happy experimenting!
Wow. Thank you for sharing this recipe to us here. Really seems delicious. I am not a good cook but I do love experimenting, specially when it comes to veggies.
I just found a really yummy vegetable soup recipe on food.com, called Hearty Vegetable Soup. It uses V8 juice as the soup base and then you can pretty much add any vegetable you want. I am going to make it, along with grilled cheese sandwiches this week for dinner.
Although I'm not a vegetarian and don't usually eat vegetable only based dishes, I incorporate a lot of veggies in my diet. I love most vegetables, but among my favourites are egg plant, courgettes, carrots, tomatoes, onions, peppers, mushrooms, bean sprouts and garlic. I use these and more all the time and often roast them and mix them up with pasta.
Our family can't agree on potatoes lol, so we make them into "tater tots" more often then not, because we'll all eat them. That's just boiling, shredding, shaping and baking them. No oil, no salt. Otherwise I don't tend to share recipes on here, because I don't use processed foods (for example, instead of V8, I would use tomatoes and my own stock.. again, no oil, salt or any other unnecessary ingredients.. just veggies and possibly grains depending on the soup). I highly recommend allrecipes.com so you can omit any ingredients you don't want results for and Pinterest for the sheer genius in the variety people have come up with for any type of diet. It's harder for me to find whole foods recipes, but since you're ok with processed (and dairy?) you'll find tons of recipes to suit your needs. Good luck
I must admit I don’t eat potatoes very often, but they are quite versatile. I do enjoy mashed potatoes, and you can even turn them into dumplings. And then there are quite a few ways to bake potatoes, from the simple to the elaborate. I tend to rely on brown rice and beans (black or garbanzo, usually) with a mix of veggies. Broccoli, spinach, carrots, onions, and garlic are my most frequently eaten veggies. When I can, I’ll add tomatoes and peppers. Experimenting with flavors keeps the combos from being boring, plus it’s cheap to boot.
Eh, I'm not a big potato person because of the crazy carbs But I made this amazing roasted cabbage dish one time. You basically just take slices of cabbage, bake them in a glass dish with garlic, olive oil, onion salt, and garlic powder until they're toasty brown around the edges. SO GOOD. I also added sliced radishes one time, and it really took away from a bit of the spiciness of the radish and just made them delicious to eat.
mmm crazy carbs are my favourite. Don't be afraid of actual food.. it's the factory produced, faux food carbs that make you fat, your body relies on the real thing.
Lentil Rice!Lentils are healthy delicious and dirt cheap. Boil the lentils for 25 min then add the rice and cook to desired firmness. Times will vary with what type of rice you use. Add pretty much any veggie too. I make this once a week.
I'll second this suggestion, and point out that it's a perfect combination: lentils are high in protein but are missing some of the essential amino acids. Rice is high in those amino acids; by combining the two, you get a so-called "complete protein", so don't let anyone convince you lentils are a poor source of protein. I really like making a rice and lentil curry: fry up some vegetables (I like onion, carrot, potato, and Brussels sprouts or green beans), pour the cooked lentils over the top and add some curry paste or powder. A bit of butter brings out the flavors (and helps to balance the meal-- it's good to have a mix of carbs, protein and fat). Then just serve it in a bowl with rice, and maybe a hint of chutney. If you're not thinking about going vegan, you can also add some egg for even more delicious protein.
Thirding lentils. I don’t cook them super often, they’re more of a supplemental ingredient for me, but I really enjoy them when I do. I love them in homemade soup and I’d like to experiment more with them. They might become my secondary go-to!
So many things! Tonight I had Briam which is a delicious greek meal, many recipes for briam contain potatos. I made a potato one this week. What's good about it is the only fat is from the olives as it contains no meat or dairy, its easy to overdo the dairy if your not careful when vegetarian. I also like to use beans and nuts in place of meat/dairy. Potato ideas:Jacket potatos, potato bakes, vegetable shepherds pie aka cottage pie
Layering slices of potato with tomato, onions and vegetarian cheese and baking in the oven is a lovely dish. Also soy or quorn mince fried with onions, and Worcestershire sauce then put in oven dish and topped with mashed potato and baked for 30 mins is delicious too. My favourite vegetarian dish has to be stir fry though because you can add any vegetables you may have in the house.
