Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with vegetarian and recipes

Vegetarian cookbook recommendations sought!

Phire — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:22:19 -0800

Give me your favourite vegetarian cookbook that has illustrations of simple but delicious meals, and offers the nutritional information for each meal. I'm starting to cook by recipe, rather than throwing anything I have in the kitchen into a pot and improvising. At the same time, I'm trying to decrease on the amount of meat I have on my diet. Though there are lots of awesome websites with an abundance of information on cooking veggies, I find the wealth of information makes it hard to find one starting point. So I'm asking for your recommendations for a vegetarian cookbook with the following criteria:

Simple meals: I really like the concept of the Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourment, which restricts each meal to 5 ingredients or less. I'm not terribly fussy about an absolute limitation on number of ingredients, but simple to make would be good - I'm pretty pressed for time. Michael Smith's Best of Chef at Home is a good standard for how simple I'd like the instructions and prep to be.

Nutritional information: Rather than laboriously looking up every ingredient online myself and then calculating the portions, I would prefer if the book listed these for me. This is totally essential.

Illustrations: These are more or less optional, but pretty pictures totally motivate me to cook.

Optional: This is totally nitpicky, but if that book only focused on cooking actual meals rather than desserts/drinks, that'd be great, too. I drink water and eat fruit, and having a book that spends 1/5 of its real estate on smoothies and cakes that I won't be making seems like a bit of a waste.

Does my dream cookbook exist? Thanks in advance for any help!

How actively do vegetarians avoid gelatin?

zennie — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:10:32 -0800

How actively do vegetarians avoid eating gelatin? I'm probably going to use gelatin in a dish that will be part of the cater service at a party for people I don't really know, a few of whom will be vegetarian. I've been disastrously unsuccessful adjusting the recipe using various non-animal-source replacements (agar-agar, gums, starches, and so forth). It would be my preference not to use gelatin (I am not required to make this dish vegetarian), but I'm all out of time for experimentation.

I'd like to be able to estimate the impact of having to use gelatin as an ingredient.

Given that there's a range of reasons for vegetarianism and individuals go about it in their own way, how often is an exception made for gelatin? What about fish-based gelatin?

Looking for a name for this type of diet.

bchaplin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:24:34 -0800

Mostly vegetarian diet with some meat, lots of fruits and vegetables, few carbs, no dairy. Is there a name for this type of eating, and where can I get recipes? For health reasons I want to reform my eating habits. I just read the book Eat to Live and am completely won over to the idea of eating that way, but the issue for me is the implementation. I'd like to greatly increase the fruits and vegetables I eat, but not give up meat entirely. I do want to forego dairy food, though, and cut back on carbs. I've tried it for a few days, but honestly, my cooking expertise ends at chopping up a salad or steaming greens. Is there a name for this type of eating? I need to find some simple, easy-to-do recipes if I am going to be successful.

Feed us!

teraspawn — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:35:40 -0800

What should we cook for dinner tomorrow? We're vegetarians, bored of curry, chilli and pasta with sauce. Help us feed our friend with something that is either unlikely to go wrong, or easy to make in advance and not too horrifyingly expensive if we do it wrong. Because you never know. We're looking for something new to try.

Anything with lots of garlic and chilli in is always a hit with us :) We are completely out of ideas.

Bittman & Bittman

Bezuhin — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:54:04 -0800

Overlap between Mark Bittman's cookbooks? I have the new version of Bittman's "How to Cook Everything." I recently bought "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" as a supplement, but there seems to be a significant amount of overlap between the two. For example, the section on Vegetables and Fruits appears more or less identical in both books. I'm not a vegetarian, just looking for additional non-meat recipes to mix things up. Should I just return "Vegetarian?"

Recipes for vegetarian and lactose intolerant significant other

karyotypical — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:05:40 -0800

What are some good recipes that me (vegetarian) and s.o. (lactose-intolerant) can enjoy? I'm a cheese loving, bread and butter vegetarian (re: most of my cooking experience is limited to frozen meals and grilled cheese sandwiches). The S.O. is lactose intolerant (doesn't even like the taste of fake cheese, but can drink milk in small quantities). We're not in a big town, but I have access to basic vegetarian staples.

I'd like to make him a nice meal that both of us can eat and enjoy, but I'm not sure where to start (I'm worried vegan dishes will be too complicated/not as tasty, plus I don't want to be limited by no eggs/butter/honey, when both of us like those ingredients). Any suggestions? Bonus points for simple-to-fix, fancy-looking, or all-around tasty meals that fit the bill.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Vegetarian equivalent to Bon Appétit or Gourmet Magazine?

imposster — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:42:07 -0800

Is there a vegetarian equivalent to Bon Appétit or Gourmet Magazine? My wife really enjoys reading food magazines but since we've gone mainly vegetarian, we find most of the recipes in these magazines aren't useful to us. I'm aware of Vegetarian Times and Vegetarian Journal, but the recipes seem pretty mundane and health oriented. The magazine wouldn't have to be exclusively vegetarian, but we'd something more related the way we eat. She has enjoyed Cooks Illustrated and Saveur, but again, most the those recipes are meat based. Thanks for any suggestions.

Nurse, get me 50cc's of miso onion soup, STAT!

kaseijin — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:36:45 -0800

I need the recipe for Whole Foods' miso onion soup. Like... now. Seriously. I had this soup for the first time today, and it is like unto a drug. I do not think I will be able to function properly this fall if I can not make a giant pot of it. It was quite possibly the best vegetarian onion soup I have had.

What I remember from looking at the ingredients on the placard: miso, vegetable stock, onions, bay leaf, salt, black pepper, flour, bay leaves. There were some smaller leaves in it, too. Parsley or thyme would be my guess.

I could experiment and experiment around these ingredients and maybe come up with something passable, but it is my hope that somebody, somewhere out there, has this recipe.

Please hope me, hive mind!

Vegetarian recipes for cold weather

harriet vane — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:59:02 -0800

Has anyone got any good vegetarian recipes for winter? I'm not a vegetarian, but I'm teaching myself to cook more meat-free meals for environmental reasons. I did ok during summer, but now that the weather's turned cold, I'm finding it harder. Tell me your favourites! I've already got a bunch of great soup recipes, but would love to hear more if you've got a tried and true favourite. My husband does great curries too.

My usual winter standbys are casseroles, stews, roasts, and bakes, so anything similar only minus the meat would be good. But as long as it's hearty and filling, I'll give it a try.

We haven't got any other dietary restrictions. I'm not an experienced cook, but I'm willing to give anything a try :)

-sizzle-

mustcatchmooseandsquirrel — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:53:45 -0800

What [vegetarian or fishy] foods can I grill? Living on the street filter: After moving out of my apartment I'm staying with a friend until she has to move out, too. She has a big gas grill that we want to use as often as possible. We paid to replace the propane tank near the end of last summer so the tentative goal is to grill enough to use it all up!

In the past I have made naan, salmon, tofu kabobs, portobello mushrooms, and corn on the cob. What other vegetarian or fishy recipes are there that can be made on a gas grill? I definitely like cooking projects so recipes can be as complicated as necessary.

Oh no! Not butternut squash risotto again.

Xurando — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:25:15 -0800

As a multi-decade ova-lacto-pesca-vegetarian, I am bored to tears with my diet. Help me revitalize my meal planning/diet. Meat is still not an option. For the past 15 years or so i have been using the same cookbooks and basically the same few recipes. I need something new both cookbook wise and recipe wise. The criteria I want to use is that meals should be relatively quick to make (45 minutes max. and should utilize everyday ingredients. I'm tired of going to the store for arugula or pine nuts.

make me an old school vegan foody for one weekend

brinkzilla — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:47:24 -0800

I'm having vegans over for dinner. Vegans that know how to cook. Foodie vegans. Hip, cool, foodie vegans. Did I mention that I am not a vegan, vegetarian or hip? I can cook a great porkloin, My seafood dishes come out delicious. I can even think of some great vegetarian pasta dishes, but the world of vegan cooking is very scary to me.

It seems that vegans build skills through the years in finding the perfect tofutti sour cream substitute, egg replacements non-dairy yummos.

So, how do I make a yummy meal for a wonderful couple that is a bit above serving them a plate or grilled vegetables and tofu. I'd like to give the impression that I am versatile in the kitchen, which I might be, I've just never tried before.

Extra credit for recipes that taste great, are easy, but look way beyond my ability.

Points taken away for obvious links to vegan food websites. I've done that google search already.

Make me a old school vegan foody for one weekend.

Tasty turnips?

mediareport — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:17:13 -0800

A crate of homegrown turnips showed up in my life yesterday. I've never cooked with turnips before (hell, I don't recall ever eating them before). Do you have any particularly delicious ways of using turnips? I know I can treat them like mashed potatoes, which sounds good. I checked the small section on turnips (two recipes) in Bittman's How To Cook Everything; it made me hesitate, since he says to only use the ones smaller than two inches in diameter so they aren't "woody." These turnips are all sorts of sizes. Is it really that bad to use the bigger ones? Thanks in advance for helping me not waste this bounty.

Visitors from the Planet Vegan

majick — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 08:41:02 -0800

Ack, I'm not vegan! But I've got a friend with three kids under 9 who is, and they're coming to stay a few days. This hapless carnivore and starchivore needs your culinary assistance to feed adults and kids. I know the basic rule of vegan cooking -- use no animal products whatsoever -- and will have a chance to make one grocery run before the horde descends upon me, but this is a dietary restriction fundamentally incompatible with my cuisine. What can I make that my (also carnivorous) and her (also vegan) children will all eat, but that will also delight adults? I need breakfast and dinner ideas, since lunch isn't my problem.

Please share your vegan-friendly ideas for family meals that won't cause a couple of carnivore kids to start throwing food at me! I realize I can probably squeak by with pasta and some clever saucework, but I'd like to try a little harder than that.