More and more people are choosing to stop eating meat for health and ethical reasons and are becoming either vegetarian or vegan. But, many people wonder what food options and recipes would be good for them.
So let’s take a look at some tasty and nutritious vegetarian meals.
Bean Hot Pot
Beans are a great source of fiber, protein and vitamin B and they also work well with most dishes. Use up the leftover vegetables you have in your fridge, such as carrots and parsnips and add some beans to your pot. Cook slowly, adding seasoning to taste.
If you are a fan of spicy food, then you can spice up this dish with diced onions, garlic, pepper and chilli pepper. This will give the dish a good fiery kick to the taste buds.
Lentil Hot Pot
Lentils are a great option to use in hot pots for vegetarians, as they are both healthy and relatively cheap to buy. You can easily cook up an Instant Pot farro recipe in no time at all.
Lentils are a complex carbohydrate that are high in protein. They are also gluten free to perfect if you need to whip up a gluten free dish.
Lentils are a brilliant ingredient to use in a hot pot alongside mushrooms and potatoes. They really compliment one another.
Using plenty of flavours like garlic or a dash of chilli if you want to spice things up also work really well with a lentil hot pot.
Although you can cook up a lentil hot pot relatively quickly if you choose, to really bring out all the flavours it is recommended to use a slow cooker, cooking the meal throughout the day to really make the dish explode with flavour.
Smoky Bean and Vegetable Hot Pot
Similar to the above recipe, but adding some paprika to the dish will help it smokey flavour.
Butter beans work best with this dish as the paprika helps really bring out the flavour.
Pulses Hot Pot
Just like beans, Pulses are a great substitute for meat if you are becoming a vegetarian. Pulses really do keep you filled up for longer.
They are low in fat and extremely cheap to purchase. There are many different variations of pulses as well, so you shouldnt get bored of them too quickly. Be warned though, much like beans then can cause flatulence!
Vegetable Curry
Just because you have now decided to stop eating meat, it doesn’t mean you have to stop eating your favourite meals. Instead of eating chicken korma or hot beef vindaloo, substitute the meat for various vegetables.
Using nice starchy vegetables work best with a curry, things like parsnips and broccoli as with those types of vegetables you can cook them with a slow cooker to really help build the flavours in the dish.
Don’t forget to add the rice along with sides of onion bhajis, poppadoms and naan bread which are all suitable for vegetarians to help complete the meal.
Quorn and Bean Chilli Con Carne
For some meat dishes it can be difficult to substitute the meat for vegetables, so instead you can try using meat free replacements such as quorn. Quorn works perfectly in dishes that would generally have beef minced meat in them, like chilli con carne.
By substituting the meat for quorn really doesn’t change the dish too much and can basically be cooked in the same way as before.
Although cooking quorn isn’t ideal in a slow cooker so it is best to cook the rest of the meal in a slow cooker and then cook the quorn separately adding it to the dish at the end.
Potato Soup
Soup can be a great meal for those cold winter evenings. By adding potatoes to the soup will help bulk up the meal adding them important carbohydrates that the body uses for energy.
A slow cooker is great for making all different kinds of soup, particularly potato soup as it will slow and gently cook the potatoes making them nice and soft to eat.
Garlicky Noodles
If you are a fan of garlic then this dish is most definitely one you will love. This is a nice quick dish to prepare which you can use a hot pot for. It’s perfect as a side dish with a orietnal style meal or on its own.
If you like your meals spicy and hot, simply add some chilli powder and lots of black pepper with the noodles alongside the garlic to help give it an extra kick.
Vegetarian Fajitas
As fajitas already have lots of vegetables in them, this dish can be cooked by simply leaving out the meat.
But if you find them a little on the light side, then adding some sliced portobello mushrooms works as a good meat substitute. Add the same flavourings you would normally cook the chicken or beef with, but use them on the mushrooms instead.
The texture from the cooked mushrooms is quite similar so you really won’t be missing out much by taking away the meat from your fajitas.
Instant Pot Lemon Cake
Now we must not forget about dessert for those of you who have a sweet tooth. Children will really love this one. Instant pot lemon cake is really easy to make and can be prepared and ready to eat within under a hour.
Obviously most cakes like lemon cake are vegetarian, but if you are vegan make sure to take extra care when looking at the ingredients as most cakes will use dairy within them.
So as you can see, now that you have decided to become vegetarian it does not mean the end of good tasty food for you. There are plenty of options for you from using slow cookers to cooking a slow cooker for healthy, filling family meals.
And that’s not forgetting all the tasty desserts you can create for the end of the meal. So it’s time to get cooking, get yourself in the kitchen and get creative.