Need veggie alternatives to salad for autumn and winter plea

teenysteaney

Hi

I really enjoy salads, like to vary the ingredients to keep them interesting etc and have done well on them over the summer, but now the weather is changing here in the UK I'm finding they're not so appealing. Typically for the time of year, I'm craving comfort foods and salads, even if I add a jacket potato, just aren't tempting me.

My usual autumn and winter meals tend to be risottos, root veggie soups, jacket potatoes, wholemeal pasta with homemade sauce or a veggie protein source plus steamed veg, but not only am I finding them a bit unexciting, they all seem to be heavy on the carbs and when I eat them I tend to retain water for couple of days afterwards, despite being well under in terms of sodium.

Does anyone have any suggestions for veggie meals that would be warming and comforting, without taking hours to prepare? I am trying to eat as cleanly as possible, but am not obsessive about it.

MrsODriscoll

I eat a lot of beans and chickpeas - I make a lovely red pepper and chick pea curry which is lovely on its own without any rice or bread. Also beany chillis and stews make a good filling winter meal.
Have a look at my blog http://holdthegoatscheese.blogspot.com for some tasty recipes and some really filling soups too.
I'd highly recommend the new HFW book, River Cottage Veg - it's on offer on Amazon - it's not totally veggie as it does use parmesan but a lot of the recipes are easily adaptable to being low calorie. Also the BBC Good Food site has some great veggie curry recipes.
Hope that helps :-)

teenysteaney

Thank you, I will definitely go and have a look at your blog and check out the HFW book. I've always avoided his stuff, assuming it would be too meaty, so that's a really interesting recommendation.

I use the BBC Good Food site quite a lot, but for some reason hadn't really considered curries, I tend to think they'll be too high in fat, so that's another great suggestion.

teenysteaney

Just wanted to thank you again for your suggestions.

My husband and I have just eaten a delicious lentil and sweet potato curry with brown rice, inspired by one of your recipes. I had to make some adjustments, as I didn't have all the ingredients in, but it was delicious and a really nice change.

I have put the HFW book on my Christmas list.