Especially the cream of chicken soup he mentioned. 
I just made a zucchini-sundried tomato-tuna-lemon pasta where I’m pretty sure you could leave the tuna out of and replace it with something if fish isn’t on the allowed list. This was an “I can’t be arsed to put on clothes and go to the store, let’s see what I have in the cupboards” dish, so the amounts are pretty much based on what I had available and can probably be varied according to taste.
- 1 zucchini, chopped up into bits
- sundried tomatoes (mine came in a can with oil, which I used for cooking - adds flavor) chopped up into bits
- 2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 can tuna (optional)
- juice of 1 lemon
- parmesan
- fresh basil
- salt, pepper
- pasta (I used basic spaghetti)
Chop up the zucchini, onion, garlic and sundried tomatoes. Throw some of the oil the sundried tomatoes came in into a pan and use it to cook. Throw all the ingredients into the pan, stir around for a while, lower the heat to let everything kind of stew in its own juices. Start the pasta; when it’s nearly cooked, season the veggies with salt and pepper and pour in lemon juice. I like more of a tangy flavor, so that’s why I added the lemon juice later on. I think it would probably be less strong if the lemon juice was added earlier.
So, when the pasta is ready, dump it into the pan with the vegetables, stir everything around, move it into a bowl, add more lemon juice if you think it still needs a bit more, throw parmesan on top and add some fresh basil.
This turned out pretty good.
I just made this up, but it’s super easy so maybe you’ll want to give it a try as a snack. I used to eat it all the time and still do occasionally.
Mix black beans and salsa, spread over flour tortillas. Sprinkle cheese over them. Bake until cheese is melted and tortillas are firm. Cut like pizza. Dip in sour cream.
I was vegetarian as a teenager and gave it up when I was pregnant, so my veggie dishes aren’t so much vegetarian recipes as they are “food without meat”… we still eat vegetarian pretty often though, and Mr. Dorky figured out this concoction:
Crescent dough
cream cheese
feta cheese
black olives
sundried tomatoes
spinach or broccoli
cilantro
just roll out 1 tube of crescent dough, slap everything on there, top with a layer o’dough, and bake for like 20 minutes. It’s like a lazy calzone but everyone in our house inhales it. I think it’s the weird-but-good factor with feta and cream cheese together.
Also, Boca and Morningstar farms makes veggie products, including recipe crumbles. These replace ground beef. So for a vegan(no meat, dairy, or bi-products):
1 box S&B Golden Curry (we get it from Walmart in the “Ethnic” section)
zucchini, eggplant, carrots, or whatever veggies you want
1 pkg boca crumbles
thumb-size piece of ginger root
2 Tbsp soy sauce
onion/garlic to taste
cook the veggies, medium-high,until they’re fork-tender. I only use zucchini and red onion really. Then push them all to the edges of the pan, toss in the soy sauce and the Boca crumbles. grate fresh ginger over the top and you just stir-fry it until it’s hot. Don’t overcook. this is like a 10-minute max. Pour in water until everything is swimming, crank up the heat, let the water boil, then pull it off the heat, break up the curry and dump it in. stir until it melts, then put it back, on lowered heat, for about 5-7 minutes. Stir the whole time. Dump it on some jasmine rice or rice of your preference.
This is the most flexible recipe I know of and I have made it for guests, dates, potlucks. The secret is the S&B. You could cook shoelaces and bike tires in that stuff and it would still taste amazing.
And a link: http://www.giverecipe.com/… it’s a Turkish woman who makes a LOT of vegetarian stuff. Some of it can be labor intensive, but it’s all really really REALLY good.
Just a warning, it’s very important to get detailed information from them. Are they lacto-ovo? Pescatarian? or Vegan? If you don’t know, your only safe recipes will be strict vegan.
I’ll second this. A lot of different people use the word “vegetarian” to mean a lot of different things. It’s like “kosher” that way, and for the same reason. There’s no central authority who gets to decide what “kosher” or “vegetarian” means for everybody.
Incidentally, this is a large component of the reason why, if you say you’re vegetarian, some people ask seemingly stupid questions like “do you eat chicken”. It’s because some people who do eat chicken use the word “vegetarian” to describe how they eat. Should they do that? Maybe not, but good luck trying to convince them of that.
Yep. And it’s definitely possible to have tasty variety for your guests. My friend has a New Year’s Eve party each year, where the guest list includes:
- two vegetarians
- one vegan
- one gluten-intolerant non-veg
- one 100% lactose intolerate non-veg
- one vegetarian Kosher
And she’ll have crock pot meatballs, Vietnamese spring rolls, hummus, spinach dip, pitas, rice crackers, fresh fruit, flourless chocolate desserty thing that’s also vegan and amazing, etc etc.
Spice rub:
3 tablespoons ground coriander
3 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1-1/2 tblspoons black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil (more if needed)
Your favorite salsa (sweet and sour salsa works well)
Holoumi or paneer cheese, cut into 1" cubes.
Stir together spices in small bowl, add oil to create a paste. Marinate the cheese cubes in the herb paste for maybe 15 minutes. Thread onto skerews and roast in a baking dish at 400 (or grill) until warmed through, about 15 mins. The cheese doesn’t melt, but serve quickly after taking from oven so it’s soft. Spoon the salsa over the top.