Help me go vegetarian!

Cafe Society
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Mod, CS seemed like the right place for this, as it pertains to cooking. Please move the thread if I’m wrong!

At 30 years old, I have high blood pressure (145/90 with meds) and high cholesterol. I’ve had these conditions for roughly my entire life. I keep reading about the health benefits of a vegetarian diet, and I think I’m ready to give it a shot. I’m not going to swear off meat forever, but I’d like it to be something I eat every couple of months instead of every couple of days.

The problem is, I don’t know how to do this. Can anyone suggest a good beginner-level vegetarian cookbook? I’d like to utilize beans over tofu for protein, and I’m not against eating fish, although my wife is.

Any suggestions for books or easy-to-read websites would be greatly appreciated!

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Well, there’s Mark Bittman’s veg compendium, “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.” He’s not a vegetarian himself but tries to eat veg more often to help his weight, blood pressure, etc - so in that respect, you might like instead his “The Food Matters Cookbook.” Not the “Food Matters” companion book, but the cookbook with 500 healthy recipes. He’s a superb food writer, so I tend to pick him fairly often when recommending cookbooks.

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Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison is fantastic: lots of recipes, and every single one we’ve made has been delicious. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

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How are you with Indian food? Do you find the flavours too intense? Have you or the missus any experience cooking it?

Owing to the hundreds of millions of vegetarians in India, the flavour and texture diversity of Indian vegetarian cooking is GODLY. And no, it’s not all heavy curries and suspicious brown gloop. :slight_smile:

Manjula’s Kitchen of Indian vegetarian joy.

If you folks don’t already cook Indian food, some amount of stocking up in the kitchen will be required.

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That’s awesome you’re taking the steps to break out of the habit of eating meat. I was a vegetarian for approximately a year, more than 10 years ago, and I still have no desire to eat meat everyday.

I’m not much of a cook but I’ve tried a few recipes from epicurious.com. I’m sure they have some vegetarian recipes for you to try. Also, if you like mushrooms, they’re a great meat substitute and they’re really good for you. I throw them in just about everything.

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This is a great book. Lots of straightforward recipes and lots of basic principles you can improvise from.

I also recommend this one.

As Aankh says, Indian food is wonderful and very vegetarian friendly, but it can be complicated to cook. You’ll also need a lot more spices than the standard American kitchen typically has sitting around. The spices aren’t hard to find – you can get the great majority of them in a decent supermarket, and even mid-sized American cities tend to have an Indian grocery where you can find the others. But, unless you happen to have cumin, coriander, tumeric, fennel, etc., already in stock, you’ll need to get them. We love Indian food at home and cook it often. My wife and I refer to Yamuna Devi’s The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking as “The Bible”.

You might also want to take a look at One Hot Stove, a blog written by a friend of my wife’s. The blogger has a lot of recipes and is a fine writer as well.

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That is true without a doubt, but it might not help wmulax93’s goal of getting healthier.

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Hey now, paneer cheese fried in butter is perfectly healthy!

(A lot of the dal dishes we make at home are actually pretty good for you, being mostly beans, tomatoes, and other veggies. But, yeah, many of the recipes in “The Bible” are “sometimes foods”.)

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And that’s one of the misconceptions about Indian food.

Sure the restaurant-style ‘eat out’ food is rich and fairly unhealthy, but the stuff we cook everyday? Hells no! That’s why I linked to that specific site…it’s all about the everyday healthy cooking.

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I have to add that I don’t follow any of her recipes per se. They are all just generic homey things to make. You could probably get away with lowering her oil directions etc etc a fair bit without affecting flavour significantly.

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I recommend the website Vegetarians in Paradise. The owners are actually Vegan, but you’ll enjoy trying out a lot of new things. There’s even an article about how to ease yourself into vegetarian eating.

[shameless plug] If you are interested in using more beans in your diet, check out the column in Vegetarians in Paradise called “Using Your Bean.” I happen to write it. [/shameless plug]

(and I don’t get paid, so that’s not a commercial endorsement)

~VOW

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Could you change the amount - and type - of meat rather than the frequency?

Add nuts to every meal for the protein, saute the vegetables in the meat juice, long simmered sauces with small amounts of meat?

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Thanks for the responses, everyone. I love Indian food, but stocking the spices is pricey for now. Some of the other links are really, really good, and I had totally forgotten about Epicurious, so thanks for that reminder!

j66, I already eat smaller portions when I eat meat. I think trying vegetarian cuisine for a while might be beneficial, but I’m not shutting the door on delicious chicken wings forever! I’d just like to get to 165 pounds (I’m at 187 now) and get my BP and cholesterol under control. I’m hoping this change can work.

I’m also an active person, although Phoenix has been too hot for running for the past few weeks. I’m running a 10k in October and I put in 12-18 miles/week when it’s not 115 out. Cuisine seems like the next variable to tackle; if this doesn’t work, then I’m stuck on meds forever!

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I didn’t mean just smaller portions, but using it more as a flavoring.

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Some of the Lebanese dishes–baba ghannoush, hummus, falafel, stuffed grape leaves (can’t remember the ethnic name) are very satisfying. The garlic & olive oil have got to work on the cholesterol, and you could always cut back on salt.
Substituting chickpeas in dishes is a nice variation. I also make blackeyed pea salad often, although I toss bacon in it. The peas are smoky tasting on their own.
Make certain if you’re buying dried beans that are unfamiliar to you to cook them rather than just rehydrating, especially kidney beans or limas.

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It can be a bit expensive to get started, but it’s totally worth it. In an omnivore’s diet, the meat itself is often responsible for a fair amount of the flavor, and some people who go vegetarian without learning how to use herbs and spices can find that it all tastes a bit bland.

And you don’t really need a whole lot to start off with. Six or eight will give you a good start, and you can gradually build from there as you begin to try new recipes. A great place to get high quality, fresh, aromatic herbs and spices is Penzey’s. You can order online, and they also have a store in Phoenix, according to the website.

I’ve been vegetarian for 18 years, and it’s definitely true that you can be vegetarian without actually having a very healthy diet. My meals are generally pretty healthy, but i still like chocolate and candy and chips, and have to be careful not to overindulge in those things.

I love all types of beans and pulses (lentils, split peas, etc.), and i also like different varieties of tofu. We have a great pan-Asian market nearby, and i love to get a whole bunch of great greens and other vegetables like bok choy, you choy, pea shoots, bean spouts, long beans, etc., and just make a big stir-fry with some tofu, using green onions, garlic, ginger, chilis, fresh mint, and fresh Thai basil. Served over rice or noodles, it’s really quick, easy, and healthy.