Calling all vegetarians

...I need your help!

We have a vegetarian coming to stay with us for 6 weeks on Saturday. DH and I, while we eat plenty of vegetables, are certainly not vegetarians!

I have a stack of foodie mags and recipe books (and, of course, Google) at my disposal, but I'd love any recipes you could share.

I should add that he's not "strictly" vegetarian. He's more of a vegetarian by proxy, so is happy to pick meat out of stuff, but I worry that by doing that, he's going to miss out on protein and iron etc. Also, being pregnant myself I'd really like some balanced, nurtricious meals.

I'm going to hit up the library tomorrow, too. So any books you could recommend, too?

Thanks in advance!

Alison Holst's meals without meat. I'm a meat eater, but I love that book. It's got heaps of yummy ideas. Some I adapt to add meat, and some I eat just as they are.

This is my current fav vege meal:

Spicy Bean Enchiladas

Ingredients:
1 onion
1 red capsicum
1 tbsp vege oil
420g Can red kid beans,
drained & rinsed
Can/Jar Pasta Sauce
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chilli powder (optional)
5-6 soft tortillas
Grated Cheese

1) Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius, chot the onion & capsicum into
small pieces
2)Heat oil in large fry pan over low/med heat, add onion and cook
gently for 5 mins until softened. Stir in capsicum and continue to cook
for 2-3 mins.
3)Stir in the kidney beans and half the pasta sauce. Sprinkle over
chilli & cumin and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and cook gently for
10 ins, mashing down some of the beans with a potato masher.
4)Divide the bean filling amoung the tortillas, roll up like pancakes
and place them side by side, seam side down, in a shallow oven proof
dish.
5)Poor over the remaining pasta sauce and sprinkle with cheese (not too
much!). Put in the oven and bake for 15 minutes until golden &
bubbling. Serve hot.

Cooks tip - reseal the tortillas and freeze.

I usually serve with a dollop of sour cream and/or guacamole.

Another one I love is homemade felafels served with pita pockets, yoghurt sauce and tabouleh or green salad. I oven bake instead of deep fry.

Ingredients:
1 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon coriander
3/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons flour

Preparation:
Combine chickpeas, garlic, onion, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper (to taste) in medium bowl. Add flour and combine well.

Mash chickpeas, ensuring to mix ingredients together. You can also combine ingredients in a food processor. You want the result to be a thick paste.

Form the mixture into small balls, about the size of a ping pong ball. Slightly flatten.

Spray lightly with oil and oven bake at 200 degrees celcius for 15 minutes.

A fav dish in our house is pasta with mushrooms, spinach & feta (and pinenuts, if only they weren't so expensive! grr)

Anyway I fry onions & mushrooms and then add the spinach and feta ( I use goats feta). One that is all cooked I toss in the cooked pasta. yummo!

Also things like Fritatta is good as well.
I make one with potatoes, cheese, and toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds (toasted with garlic salt, curry powder, ground cumin) . Creamed corn is a good addition as well

My current fave vege meal is stirfry udon noodles with tofu (buy firm tofu and fry it on its own for a little bit first so it kind of goes crispy on the outside) and lots of veges - snow peas, carrots, red/green peppers, baby corn and enoki mushrooms. Use garlic, soy and lots of chilli for the sauce

edited for spelling!

Edited by kiwisj

Yip meals without meat is a great book. I am not a big fat of eggs so for things like quiche, frittata etc I use less egg and more veges.
We get tofu over here that is already marinated so use that a lot in stir frys. I add lentils/chick peas to pasta sauce with lots of veges, super easy way to add protein.

I reckon being a vegetarian lends itself to being one pot cooking!!!Or am I just lazy tee hee.

SDs Mum made us leek and potato pie when she came over with her vege friend ... it was devine!

My fav vege meal is spaghetti with pesto. Simple but delicious.
And I love Alison Holst's meals without meat. There are so many great ideas in it. It is definitely worth it.

Thank you! All great ideas

Thanks for the link.
Mmmm sounds devine and looks fantastic.