Bored and in need of Vegetarian recipes!

kym117
kym117 Posts: 315 Member
Hi, my name is Kim and I am in desperate need of new and exciting veggie recipes. I only cook for myself as my husband is a meat and no veg man so I am looking for something I can cut to suit one person, low in fat, around 300 cals per serving, nutritious and delicious! (I don't ask for much!) Can anyone help me?:flowerforyou:

Replies

  • wordena
    wordena Posts: 177 Member
    Beans are your friends. Open several cans for a bean salad. Or only one and some whole grains or pasta. Or get out your slow cooker and look bean stew! Easy and guilt free. Especially when only cooking for one. Husband might even eat them as a side. Like baked beans on toast next to his giant steak.
  • RunningMs
    RunningMs Posts: 52 Member
    I like to have stuffed sweet potatoes. Bake sweet potato until tender, scoop out inside and mix with veggies,black beans and seasoning. Put potato mixture back into potato skin, top with a touch of cheese and bake until the top is golden.

    Another favourite is mini omelettes baked in a muffin tin.
  • lisalsd1
    lisalsd1 Posts: 1,519 Member
    Buy the Veganomicon. It's a vegan cookbook. My daughter used to be allergic to dairy and eggs, I thought this book had some good recipes...especially baked goods.
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
    Stir frys.

    Do you eat eggs? Quiches and omelettes are great.

    Burritos. You can sautee onions and peppers (and whatever else you like) ahead of time, keep canned beans drained and rinsed in your fridge, add cheese (if you eat dairy) and if you want more protein you can make a tofu version of taco meat with soy pretty much exactly like you would ground beef, rice if you want keep it all in the refrigerator in separate containers- and throw together and heat up in the microwave. I keep burrito fixin's on hand all the time so I can always throw together a quick nutritious meal.
  • curlytoes79
    curlytoes79 Posts: 95 Member
    Do you like cabbage? I have a recipe for a comforting cabbage soup that's great for winter. Not exactly exciting, but I love it...

    1/2 head cabbage, chopped or shredded
    1 large potato w/ skin, chopped
    1 large onion, chopped
    3 carrots, chopped
    3 celery, chopped
    2 cloves garlic, mashed
    8-9 cups veggie stock
    1 package Lightlife "steak" strips
    1 Tbsp olive oil
    1/4 tsp dried thyme
    1/4 tsp dried basil
    1 tsp. dried parsley
    black pepper to taste

    Combine all ingredients in a stock pot over med-high heat. Simmer and cook until carrots are tender (~20 minutes).

    If you don't like the veggie steak strips, you can substitute with beans - I prefer great northern beans, but you could use kidney beans or something red if you want to add color. The recipe as written works out to only about 60 calories/cup. To make the stock, I use salt-free bouillon cubes along with a couple of salted ones to keep the sodium down.
  • pjc80
    pjc80 Posts: 2
    Beans, lentils and sweet potatoes!

    Sweet potatoes: everything you'd do with potatoes, tastier and with masses of vitamins. Wedges rubbed with a bit of olive oil, chilli and salt are delicious, and RunningMs's stuffed baked sounds like heaven.

    Beans: as people have already said, stews, burritos, side dishes. Veggie chillis with loads of kidney beans, tomatoes, onion, peppers are lovely (especially with a bit of cheese on top - and sweet potato wedges on the side! This is me at least once a week. Bonus: the chilli keeps really well.)

    Lentils: my favourite things are soup and daal.
    Soup: saute an onion and some garlic, add lentils and lots of liquid, usually stock and at least double the quantity of lentils (needs a lot of flavour, so pick a couple from stock or water plus dried mushrooms, tomato puree, Marmite, Worcestershire sauce!), leave it be for 20-30 minutes, boom. So moreish.
    Daal: lentil curry - lots of recipes on the Internet but your basis is sauteeing onion, garlic and spices (curry powder, cumin, cardamom, chilli... whatever you've got!), adding the vegetable you want (sweet potatoes, tomatoes and/ or mushrooms work really well), letting it steam on a low heat with the lid on for a few minutes, then adding your lentils and liquid (less than for the soup - equal to or slightly more than the quantity of lentils, you can always add mroe if you need it), leaving with the occasional stir for ~20 minutes.

    I love Isa Chandra Moscowitz at www.theppk.com (she has lots of books too) for really delicious vegan stuff. ETA: her low-fat cookbook is called Appetite for Reduction and looks really good.
  • Laughter_Girl
    Laughter_Girl Posts: 2,226 Member
    I agree with the others that you should incorporate beans and lentils. Both are yummy and satisfying. I don't particularly care for the taste of sweet potatoes (don't like them at all actually), but if you can, eat those too.

    I get a ton of great recipe ideas from www.allrecipes.com. Give it a try, and read the comments for extra tips.

    Wishing you the best!
  • Leesaf85
    Leesaf85 Posts: 1 Member
    My OH is a "meat and potatoes" man too and I just swap whatever starchy carb side I cook for him for a veggie option for myself, load up with extra steamed/grilled/roasted veggies and use the same main for us both. This really helps me cut down on kitchen time and I also don't feel deprived, because our dinners basically look the same [albeit VERY different sizes!]

    I also replace most oil with a herb flavoured low-sodium stock that I make from fresh herbs when they are getting a bit past it and stock cubes - I make a couple of ice-trays worth at a time and just chuck 1 or 2 into a frying pan to melt or add in place of wine/oil you are meant to add to a sauce.

    I'm insulin resistant, so I need to eat protein for every meal, but you can easily leave the meat out and just use the same sauces.

    Eg:
    * Hidden vegetable bolognaise on spaghetti for him and zucchini pasta for you
    [veggies, onion, garlic blitzed in food processor and sauteed in a littlestock before adding meat, tomato paste, tinned [or fresh chopped ripe] tomatoes, more stock and a little splash of red wine if you're feeling cheeky - think of the antioxidants! He'll never know it's got extra veggies in it. You can just have the pasta sauce for you if you want and add the mince at the end for him. I actually use turkey mince for mine as it's the leanest red meat you can get and the same price as the other kinds of mince at my local woolies.
    [pasta needs a veggie spiralizer/twister from any kitchen shop]

    *any stir-fry on plain rice for him and riced cauliflower for you
    [you can keep most of the veggies for yourself and given him extra meat]
    [leftover riced cauliflower freezes very well [freeze before you cook it]. 1 whole cauliflower head will usually do 6/7 serves of "rice" for me.

    * cauliflower pizza base
    [4 cups riced and cooked cauliflower, 2 Tbsp grated parmesan or crumbled goat's fetta, 2 eggs, 2 Tbsp fresh chopped herbs, salt and pepper combined and formed into a 'thick crust" sized base shape on baking paper, bake at 180C fan for about 20 minutes, add topping and cook for another 10-15 minutes, depending on what you put on top of it. I find this so filling that I usually eat about 1/3 of it and that's all I can manage!]
    [normal base and meat-lovers for him, vegetarian for you!]

    *Butter-less butter chicken
    [chicken and rice for him, steamed mixed veggie chunks and riced cauliflower for you]
    [sauce is just stock in place of butter and oil, pureed ripe tomatoes, onion, garlic and heaps of indian spices. I also remove my portion, then add a little tin of light coconut milk to the remainder for him and cook for a few more minutes.

    *dehydrated zucchini or sweet potato chips are a fantastic popcorn replacement for the movies!
    [no oil, whatever seasoning you want to play around with - I'm partial to BBQ flavour - made from equal parts smoky paprika powder, onion powder, garlic powder, english mustard powder and a little ground sea salt.

    Let me know if you want any more info - hope these help!
  • Two great websites for vegetarian and vegan recipes:

    Post Punk Kitchen - http://www.theppk.com/
    My New Roots - http://www.mynewroots.org/site/

    It is tough cooking for one, so I highly recommend making a full recipe you can eat all week for lunch or dinner. Chili with tempeh is great. Thai soup with tofu and noodles. Stew with tvp nuggets and veges.

    If you are in a pinch, go for boca burgers, beyond meat chicken (whole foods), or a guilty pleasure morningstar riblet! Morningstar also makes breakfast sandwiches. But, with anything frozen, have to watch out for the salt.
  • I know this sounds weird but I like to bake acorn squash & after letting it cool, I put it in the blender with a little salt, pepper, garlic powder & milk to thin it out. This "sauce", in my opinion, goes great over pasta :)
  • writergeek313
    writergeek313 Posts: 390 Member
    Buy the Veganomicon. It's a vegan cookbook. My daughter used to be allergic to dairy and eggs, I thought this book had some good recipes...especially baked goods.

    I have this book and Appetite for Reduction and like Appetite for Reduction better. The recipes seem a little less labor-intensive, and many of the recipes I've tried freeze and/or reheat well. I also really like that she provides the nutrition information for each recipe. This is my most used cookbook, and I'm not even a vegetarian!
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,218 Member
    I made a leek and mushroom lasagna last week for a veg friend that loved it, and it can easily be reheated in single portion sizes.
    I"m a semi retired chef and I really don't follow recipes but I'll do my best to recall what I did and write a recipe for you. lol

    Ingredients:

    1 ounce of dried mushrooms- porcini are good, reconstituted.
    2 tbsp of olive oil
    2 large or 3 small leeks, chopped
    10 ounces of your favorite fresh mushrooms, sliced
    1 to 2 tbsp of fresh oregano, or other herb, chopped
    2 eggs added to the crumbled feta below,
    6 ounces of feta, crumbled
    4 ounces of goat cheese
    6 ounces of cheese that is hard like emmental, graded
    salt and pepper
    around 15 lasagna noodles, precooked.

    Sauce:

    2 tbsp of a light olive oil
    3 tbsp of flour
    1 cup of the dried mushroom stock
    2 cups of home made vegetable stock or no sodium boxed
    salt and pepper.

    Method:

    Oven at 350. Use hot water to reconstitute the dried mushrooms. Use a large frying pan and over a medium heat add the oil and sautee the leeks until golden about 7 or 8 minutes, add the mushrooms and sautee for another 5 minutes. Add the reconstituted porcini's and the oregano and cook for another 5 minutes or so and season with S&P.

    To make the sauce heat the oil over a medium heat and add the flour and cook the roux for a few minutes to remove the flour taste and add the warm porcini stock and whisk vigorously, add the vegetable stock immediatly after and continue to whisk until a creamy consistency without and lumps. The viscosity or thickness should represent a creme anglaise or basically coat the back of a wooden spoon so that you can see the wood for a few seconds when you run your finger through it.

    Assembly:

    Spread a little sauce on the bottom of a 9x11x2 glass pan or similar. Lay 1/3 of the noodles or evenly over the sauce. Lay 1/3 of the leek/mushroom mix over the noodles and 1/3 of the cheeses and then 1/3 of the sauce, repeat until all ingredients are used and season as you go. You can grate some parm over the top and I'd recommend it. Cook for about 40 minutes. makes 12 portions......don't ask me the nutritional data, I didn't calculate it. lol, Cheers.
  • sistrsprkl
    sistrsprkl Posts: 1,010 Member
    Veggie soups/chili, roasted veggies, rice & beans, salads, pasta, pizza... That's what I eat, you can make all of it healthy. I also have a meat-eating husband so I make a lot and freeze portions. Easy for later. I always have a few veg soups in the freezer.
  • snootmaster
    snootmaster Posts: 69 Member
    Buy the Veganomicon. It's a vegan cookbook. My daughter used to be allergic to dairy and eggs, I thought this book had some good recipes...especially baked goods.

    I have this book and Appetite for Reduction and like Appetite for Reduction better. The recipes seem a little less labor-intensive, and many of the recipes I've tried freeze and/or reheat well. I also really like that she provides the nutrition information for each recipe. This is my most used cookbook, and I'm not even a vegetarian!

    I love the Appetite for Reduction cookbook also and find that most recipes are good to eat for several meals during the week.
  • Princ3ssj
    Princ3ssj Posts: 25 Member
    Appetite for Reduction is great... omg CAULIPOTS! Hubby would eat them too. promise.

    I cook for one. I meal prep, portion everything out and put some in the fridge and some in the freezer.

    Go to meals for me are;
    caulipots, a green(broccoli or kale) and blackened tofu

    stir fry using hifi pasta

    butternut mac n cheese(use the elbow macaroni from Trader Joes, theyre HUGE and make you feel like youre eating a giant portion) and a veggie side

    spicy kimchi tofu bowl

    fasolia gigantes with spinach barley on the side

    feel free to message me if you have any questions or want some more ideas :)
  • kym117
    kym117 Posts: 315 Member
    wow guys, thanks so much for the ideas recipes, websites and books they are great!
  • Replacing hamburger with cooked lentils works well in dishes like lasagna. My kids love this :)
  • MorgueBabe
    MorgueBabe Posts: 1,188 Member
    I forgot how to make links clickable!
    These are some of my favorites. My meat eating boyfriend will eat them with some chicken on the side sometimes or just eat them the way are.
    http://thevword.net/2012/10/veganmofo-paula-deen-and-tofu-georgia.html I make this is Quorn and not Tofu as I am allergic to soy.
    http://allrecipes.com/recipe/quinoa-and-black-beans/
    http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spiced-quinoa/ we both really really like this one.
    http://www.savvyeat.com/maple-roasted-brussels-sprouts/ NOM
    http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/smashed-chickpea-avocado-salad-sandwich/ This is like an orgasm in your mouth
    http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/rotini-white-beans-escarole-50400000115201/ I add kale and spinach to this
    http://theveeword.blogspot.com/2012/10/veganmofo-bobby-flay-and-eggplant.html will be high in calories but omg nom
    http://www.buzzfeed.com/search?q=vegetarian if you browse buzzfeed they have a bunch too
    http://blissfulbasil.com/2013/07/30/bbq-pulled-pork/ OMG NOM
  • kym117
    kym117 Posts: 315 Member
    I forgot how to make links clickable!
    These are some of my favorites. My meat eating boyfriend will eat them with some chicken on the side sometimes or just eat them the way are.
    http://thevword.net/2012/10/veganmofo-paula-deen-and-tofu-georgia.html I make this is Quorn and not Tofu as I am allergic to soy.
    http://allrecipes.com/recipe/quinoa-and-black-beans/
    http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spiced-quinoa/ we both really really like this one.
    http://www.savvyeat.com/maple-roasted-brussels-sprouts/ NOM
    http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/smashed-chickpea-avocado-salad-sandwich/ This is like an orgasm in your mouth
    http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/rotini-white-beans-escarole-50400000115201/ I add kale and spinach to this
    http://theveeword.blogspot.com/2012/10/veganmofo-bobby-flay-and-eggplant.html will be high in calories but omg nom
    http://www.buzzfeed.com/search?q=vegetarian if you browse buzzfeed they have a bunch too
    http://blissfulbasil.com/2013/07/30/bbq-pulled-pork/ OMG NOM

    sounds some lovelies in there but I think I have to try the avocado-chickpea salad sandwich first :laugh:
  • Princ3ssj
    Princ3ssj Posts: 25 Member
    buzzfeed actually is really helpful now that its super popular. They have 3 feeds just on vegan superbowl foods, crazy!(crazy awesome)

    Ohsheglows.com is my go to for new ideas, how to veganize or 'health up' an omni dish. and of course all thinks PPK :)
    happy eating, friend!
  • kiittenforever
    kiittenforever Posts: 478 Member
    From myrrecipies:

    - Black bean burgers
    - Sweet potato fries
    - Kale chips
    - Eggplant lasagna, eggplant parmigana
    - Dips: Hummus, guacamole, bean dip, spinach dip, roasted red pepper dip etc.
    - Burritos, quesadillas
    - Veggie chilli and soups
    - Quinoa dishes
    - Lentil dishes
    - Chop suey w/ bean sprouts and veggies
  • JustineMarie21
    JustineMarie21 Posts: 437 Member
    Cauliflower Wings Serves 2(Sounds weird at first but not when I tell you it tasted like chicken wings or something covered in sauce you'd get from a Chinese takeout place.)
    - Chop half a head of cauliflower into bite size pieces and roast at 410 for 15 minutes.
    -Take out of oven and let cool while making the sweet and sour sauce.
    -After sauce is made and a frying pan is hot get another bowl and whisk in 1/4 egg whites and 1 tablespoon of corn starch. This will make the cauliflower have a ''fried'' texture.
    -Toss cauliflower is mixture and saute until nice and golden then add sauce and stir until thickened. Add s and p to taste and serve.

    Eyeballed Sweet and Sour Sauce:
    Tablespoon brown sugar
    1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
    2 Tablespoons ketchup
    1/2- 1 Tablespoon vinegar
    2 Tablespoon pineapple juice
  • Chawanmushi. This is delicious and easy to make. I love it. I watched the video and her recipe is very good. You don't have to use kamaboko or chicken, you can use mushroom, a bit of noodle, tofu, whatever you want.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUm1zM_IetM
  • Dare2Believe
    Dare2Believe Posts: 140 Member
    I'm vegan & hubby is a die hard meat & potatoes guy. Cooking can get frustrating at times. But lately I have been doing this: make meatballs for his spaghetti, I eat just the pasta, he gets meat tacos, I make black bean tacos (really good), he gets beef fajitas I get veggie fajitas. This made my life a bit easier. Lunches for me consist of veggie wraps, homemade veggie burgers with baked, spicy, sweet potato fries, falafels, veggie soups or bean chili, etc.

    My favorite recipe sites are fatfreevegan.com and myplantbasedfamily.com and I like the YouTube channel simple daily recipes.