Best resources for a lazy vegetarian

Cafe Society
1

I’ve been moving more and more towards becoming vegetarian. Some of it is for health reasons, some of it is for environmental reasons, but in any case, it just feels right.

The problem is that I don’t have much money and I’m fairly lazy. Most vegetarian cookbooks and websites assume that you want to use all organic (which I think is a waste of money) and that you can spend a lot of time and money making amazing dishes. But today my lunch was a can of lentil soup that I got at Albertson’s for $1, and it was just fine.

Does such a website exist that has vegetarian recipes that are easy to make, not calling for expensive or hard-to-find ingredients, and will be good for the whole family?

2

Food network has tons of recipes, which they (IME) give accurate ratings of difficulty level.

3

Some good advice on these old threads:

hope that helps!

4

But what about good vegetarian web sites? Preferably ones that don’t assume that just because you are vegetarian, you are also interested in yoga and colonic cleansing.

5

Learn to cook rice and beans to perfection for as many different types of rice and beans as you can find. Then start to add vegetables.

Seriously, this is harder and more involved than it sounds. It’s fun, delicious and practical as hell, tho.

6

Idk about websites, but cooking beans is about the easiest and cheapest thing there is. If you use a slow-cooker or pressure cooker, even better.

Lentils are also super cheap, and fast to cook. Just google recipes.

Oops, ninja-ed.

7

If you can handle profanity, Thug Kitchen has a ton of approachable, vegan recipes.

The posts are pretty funny if you don’t mind the type of humor employed there.

8

I don’t have a specific recommendation, but there are lots of “easy” vegetarian cookbooks out there aimed at teens or college students. I remember them having easy recipes.

What are you hoping to get out of a cookbook or website? Most easy vegetarian recipes aren’t rocket science. Are you looking for basic cooking skills? Just some new ideas? or easy recipes that taste more complex?

9

Give up. Have a burger. :wink: :smiley:

The rice and beans suggestion was a good one. Mrs. L.A. once made pinto beans with just a little bit of liquid smoke that I would have sworn had pork in it. I could sit down and eat a bowl of plain rice with nothing in it, but you could add mixed vegetables and soy sauce. Takes 20 minutes.

Steamed asparagus is good, and you can make a Béchamel sauce and have creamed asparagus spears.

There’s something I’ve made a couple of times that was very good. Get a chub of polenta (or get a box of corn meal and make it yourself – it’s cheaper, but I just get the pre-made chub) and slice it up. Put it into a small baking dish. Add sliced zucchini and coarsely-chopped onion. Top with marinara sauce and bake.

Fettuccine alfredo is always good.

The vegetarian websites may assume that you want to use organic ingredients, but that doesn’t mean you have to. Just use regular, non-organic veg.

I like ‘family style tofu’, though I haven’t made it in forever. Here’s a recipe.

10

also, make friends with the chickpea.

11

The best vegetarian food I’ve ever had has been at Indian buffets. Plenty of them are exclusively vegetarian.