Source for Vegetarian Recipes

[temom]

I would like to add more vegetarian dinners to our meal line up, and I was wondering what your trusted "Go To" place is for reliable yummy recipes?
Also, if there are any patient vegetarians with a minute, how do you plan your meals? For instance, we normally have a meat and 2 or 3 vegetables with it, and avoid starches when possible. How do you plan your plate, assuming that you are not having a one dish meal, such as a casserole?

[kaitlinnegan]

There are tons of options out there for vegetarian recipes -- it kind of depends what type of things you're looking for. What types of meals do you like to eat on a regular basis? Anything you've been wanting to try? I'll give you some examples of what Bob and I have on a regular basis - see if anything piques your interest.

Tacos or burritos with Boca fake beef crumbles cooked up with taco spices, refried beans, Spanish rice, veggies, salsa, guacamole, with or without cheese (vegan Daiya brand pepperjack)
Asparagus risotto with green salad or bread on the side
Mac and cheese - vegan for me with a homemade sauce made from either tofu or cashews, with broccoli or steamed kale mixed in
Barbecued tofu on buns with fries or salad
Lentil soup
Miso soup with tofu and scallions -- I often mix in brown rice and greens to make this a full meal, or have a salad on the side
Big salad with lettuce and spinach, tofu, garbanzo beans, fresh veggies, nuts, dressing
Veggie lasagna - I like mine with spinach, mushrooms, and tofu "ricotta"
Pizza with tomato sauce, lots of veggies, with or without vegan cheese on top (Follow your heart brand mozzarella)
Pasta with mushrooms, olives, and Morningstar Farms faux chicken strips
"Beef" stroganoff with mushrooms and Gardein beefless tips over pasta

I think that covers most of the things we have in frequent rotation these days. We do tend more toward one dish meals, but you can easily do a veggie meal with beans, tofu, or faux meats being the protein part of your usual meal. We definitely don't avoid starches - grains are an important part of a vegetarian diet. Of course whole grains are best, but we do eat refined grains as well. You can't easily do an Atkins-style vegetarian diet that is healthy and has sufficient variety. The recently updated diet guidelines from the USDA and Harvard University do continue to recommend grains as a part of a balanced diet.

I have tons of vegetarian cookbooks, and a few of them I use very regularly. Let me know if you want recommendations. A couple of my favorite websites for vegetarian recipes:
http://www.allrecipes.com - very easy to search for vegetarian recipes, or traditional recipes that could be made vegetarian with the substitution of veggie broth for beef or chicken broth or using faux meats. Definitely look carefully at the reviews - I only like to make things that have plenty of reviews, and that didn't need a lot of tweaking.
The Post Punk Kitchen - all vegan recipes (vegetarian, no dairy or eggs). These tend to be more adventurous, but there are some classics here as well

[missfleecy]

I eat a lot of vegetarian meals at restaurants. Maybe you can use these ideas for inspiration? Here are some I can think of from the last month or two:

• Veggie Lovers Pizza Hut Pizza.
• Fettuccini alfredo.
• Black bean burritos.
• Cheese quesadillas.
• Tofu pad Thai.
• Malai kofta.
• Palak paneer.

It's not really hard to do particularly at Italian, Indian, and Thai restaurants. I don't make most of that stuff at home though, other than fettuccini alfredo. I don't think I could ever make malai kofta, although it is my favorite food. It has 30 to 40 ingredients and apparently takes many, many hours; I doubt there is even a good recipe on the Internet. Some things are best left to professionals!

~ Miss Fleecy

[temom]

Wow, thanks Kaitlinn! We have in the past month pretty much cut our meat consumption in half. It started with hubby and I doing a 5 day micro nutrient diet, that was no meat products at all. It was easy to cut our meat in half after that. However, this diet did not include any legumes or protein heavy hitters, so it isn't sustainable. The reason we are avoiding heavy starches (I'm thinking white potatoes, bread, and pasta)is that we are still quite overweight, and those starches had a lot to do with getting there, even though our pasta consumption was either whole grain or whole wheat We love grains, but I guess we need to learn to only have a tad, not a plate full, and not have them as the main dish.
This experiment has shown me how much I love fresh vegetables, and I loved the new to me spices that gave everything a new twist.
It looks like your regular rotation has meat substitutes. I have not tried them, are there any available that are low sodium? I rarely use salt in my cooking, as my fingers swell up at the slightest bit.
Does your vegie lasagna have a high sodium count? I tried making it with tofu instead of ricotta (for the 50% of the family that is lactose intolerant), and it was over the top salty. I have since found that Lactaid makes a lactose free cottage cheese, and I use that instead. But since you are vegan, that rules that out for you.
I will check out allrecipes and the post punk kitchen, and see what I can come up with.

Missfleecy, I will have to google those last 3 on your list, as I have never heard of them before!

[kaitlinnegan]

You're welcome Theresa! Regarding salt, many commercially available meat substitutes do have a fair amount of salt. I'd say it's moderate compared to how most people would season meat, but if you're used to cooking without salt, they might have more sodium than you want. You'd have to read labels to find out if they will work for you.

Tofu is really pretty low sodium compared to cottage cheese or ricotta. Perhaps the lasagna recipe you used had a lot of added salt? If you used tofu and made your own sauce from low sodium canned tomatoes, it could be extremely low sodium. Other low sodium proteins include tempeh (fermented soybeans), low sodium canned beans or dry beans cooked without salt, nuts and seeds, and, if you're up to the challenge, homemade seitan ("meat" made from wheat gluten).

[temom]

Kaitlinn, the Post Punk Kitchen site is awesome! My goodness, my mouth is watering. So far I've read through 5 or so entree recipes, and they all sound wonderful! I do wish, however that tempeh (I don't have a clue how to spell it) wasn't so expensive here. i love it, but is too expensive to have more than once in a great while.

[kaitlinnegan]

Kaitlinn, the Post Punk Kitchen site is awesome! My goodness, my mouth is watering. So far I've read through 5 or so entree recipes, and they all sound wonderful! I do wish, however that tempeh (I don't have a clue how to spell it) wasn't so expensive here. i love it, but is too expensive to have more than once in a great while.

That's too bad about tempeh - around here it costs the same as tofu, about $2 for a package. You can freeze it without affecting the texture, so if you do find it at a reasonable price, you can stock up. Another meat substitute you might try is TVP. It is like burger crumbles, but without any flavoring added. It should be low sodium. I haven't made anything with TVP in a while, but you can add it to things like chili to give it some meaty texture, or reconstitute it in vegetarian beef flavored broth and use it as you would ground beef.

Here are some veggie blogs for you to peruse, if you so desire:
Fat Free Vegan - not really "fat free," but no added oils. Lots of good recipes, and feel free to add oil if that's how you prefer to cook (I can never seem to saute anything successfully without oil)
Vegan Feast Kitchen
Mark Bittman's blog - he is a food writer for the New York Times, he is not strictly vegetarian but kind of semi-vegetarian, so he will often post veggie recipes
The Vegan RD - a great resource for up to date veggie nutrition information.

[Bama]

Kaitlin, do you have any recipes using quinoa? DD and I have been eating it mixed with steel cut oats, but last weekend I made some quinoa burgers for us. We also added some to a granola recipe. Pretty good and a great source of protein. I keep looking for more ways to cook it.