Calling all vegetarians: Recipe assistance required.

Cafe Society
1

Hi all! Does anyone know any vegetarian recipes which meet the following criteria?

A). No eggs or nuts (allergies).
B). No tofu, no mushrooms, and no fungi such as Quorn (just don’t like them).
C). No fish.
D). Quick, and can be made in 20-25 minutes or less.
E). Healthy.

If you do, please post them and I’ll be forever in your debt. All the vegetarian recipes I google either contain something I don’t like or take nearly an hour to cook, which, frankly, is just way too long for me.

Thanks in advance.

2

I have a vegetarian chili recipe that meets most of those requirements, save the cooking time. I use a crock pot, and it cooks for 9 hours. (I’m off to work now, but will check back in later.)

3

Is soya out? What about seitan?

4

Uh… penne in tomato sauce. Or arrabiata. Ensaladilla rusa (a cold salad of chopped up potatoes, green beans, carrot, green peas (optional) with mayo or similar sauce). Gallo pinto (rice with beans). Or, in more general terms, stop thinking “vegetarian” and think “recipes that don’t have meat or fish and where any egg present is optional”.

5

There are a done of recipes that meet this description.

Most obviously, salad. Throw together the fresh, raw vegetables and fruits of your choice. If desired, add a little bit of feta cheese, croutons, or other toppings. Then dressing. Done.

Quesadillas. Take a tortilla. Put cheese in the middle. Fry it.

Lentil soup. Put lentils and water in a crock pot. Add carrots, celery, bell pepper, onion, or other vegetables of your choice. Also spices. And salt and pepper. While it has to cook for an hour, you don’t need to be watching it. Just let it simmer on low heat.

6

Bean burritos. When I make them, I usually cook canned pinto beans on a lowish heat with chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, oregano, and some water. After about 20 minutes it should resemble refried beans.

7

A nice one that’s pretty enough to serve to company - cut an acorn squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Microwave cut side down for 12 minutes and up for another 3. Meanwhile, mix some black beans with a chopped up chipotle pepper and some of the adobo sauce it came in. Stuff squash with beans, dress up with a bit of sour cream or yogurt on top. Lovely, healthy, looks fancy.

8

First thing I thought of was ratatouille. Easy to make, and if you cut up the vegetables the night before, or buy them pre-cut, it only takes 20-25 minutes to cook.

9

Black bean quesadillas – drain a can of black beans, add some salsa (store-bought or homemade), heat over low heat, mash up a bit or leave as is, spread the mixture on a tortilla, sprinkle with cheese, fold the quesadilla into a half-moon, brown in a skillet, George Foreman grill, or oven.

Black bean and sweet potato burritos – start sauteing some onion, garlic, and chili powder in olive oil. While that is cooking, bake, microwave, or boil one big sweet potato for every two people. When the sweet potato is done, scoop out the insides and add it to the onion mixture. Add a can of drained black beans and heat it all together. Mash it up a bit or leave it as is. Fill burritos with this mixture, adding cheese if you like it.

Add hot sauce, salsa, sour cream, hot sauce, peppers etc. to both recipes to taste.

Search for vegetable, bean, and lentil soups and vegetarian chili. They take longer than an hour to cook, but that is unattended time. Crockpots are great for soups and chili.

What else – red beans and rice, pinto beans and cornbread, black bean and corn nachos, baked potatoes topped with veggie chili and cheese or broccoli and cheese.

10

I recently discovered the Budget Bytes website, and while I haven’t cooked any of the recipes from there yet they generally look both good and simple. There’s a vegetarian section, and many of the recipes meet your restrictions. Prep time and cook time are listed for each recipe.

11

Awesome work everyone! Very helpful, thanks a lot :slight_smile:

12

Some of my favourite things to make:

Rice paper rolls (noodles take seconds and use any veg (carrot, cucumber, avocado, capsicums/peppers, green onions) with different sauces)

Fritters/Burgers (I do usually use egg to bind them … but easy to do with some frozen veg mixed up with flour and a bit of milk … can use black beans, beetroot, plantains, zucchini, corn … anything you like!)

Roasted Veg (take longer than your timeframe … but if you cut them into small chunks they are a great easy to prepare and leave whilst you do other things)

Risotto (so many variations … can use precooked rice if you want to speed it up … I like pumpkin, blue cheese and spinach)

Tortillas and beans in all sorts of forms … small can of beans, some other veg, some tomatoes … add some spices … put on tortilla with avocado (tonight I had tortillas with eggplant dip, spinach and tomatoes)

Baked eggplant with tomatoes and cheese (just slice the eggplant, top with tomatoes and cheese, bake for about 20 mins)

I like beets - have them as a salad with green leaves, sesame/pumpkin seeds, goats cheese

Pasta with pesto … use any green leaves in a food processor (I can get lots of spinach and other greens this way, that I just couldn’t eat as salad) … I don’t make pesto like the full rich versions … very little oil, a touch of cheese and some garlic … mixed through hot pasta.

“Pizza” … use thin flat bread … add toppings that you like … yum!

It’s great to have a collection of easy ideas!

13

Also lots of Indian and Thai options if you go the jarred sauce route. Buy sauce of choice, add veg of choice, simmer while cooking whatever beans/noodles /rice the cuisine calls for. Put together when done and eat, with probably two or three meals worth of leftovers.

My favorite go-to is glass noodles (mung bean) and peanut sauce. I make my own sauce and the whole thing takes about 15 minutes.

14

I divide my veg recipes by “hot” and “cold” and think of things like mushrooms, cheese, beets as being the ‘meats’ or main part of a dish.

Mostly I need to pack stuff for 2 lunches a day plus something to snack on. I do shift work so a 12 hour day is really about 14 hours.

I really don’t mind a lot of cold stuff, but sometimes feel I need a ‘hot’ meal. This is a weak area for me.

The cold stuff is pretty easy- I just make about 5 salads and take a bunch of servings of them. My faves are broccoli raisin, carrot raisin, Asian slaw, broccoli slaw with poppy seed dressing, shaved asparagus with olive oil, salt, pepper and parmesean shavings, zucchini and/or yellow squash flash sauteed with onions or else blanched and dressed with avacodo sauce (guacamole, really). I really like cauliflower and peas together. And cauliflower roasted, either plain or Indian seasoned, or pan fried.

My other fave is carmelized onions. You can add any other veggies that you like- I add mushrooms, peppers, spinach and/or tomato just to mix it up. I like it plain, in a sandwich, on top of black beans or refrieds, with added grains, in a tortilla, or stuffed into some poblano peppers and baked, etc. This basic can be used so many different ways.

Lots of Indian foods are vegetarian. If you like that kind of seasoning, you could save some cooking time by buying pre-made sauces or sauce mixes at the grocery store.