Vegetarian recipes

[BenSr]

With the school year starting up again, I'm going to be taking over the cooking again. The new challenge will be that my stepdaughter has decided to go vegetarian, which my wife is ok with her doing, so I need some good recipes to accommodate that. On top of that, we're cutting down on meat consumption because it's expensive, so there will probably be a couple meatless days a week for all of us. My wife had a good recipe for veggie burgers, which I'll gladly share another day.

The two big things I'm looking for are things that are affordable, but can supplement the protein not being taken in from giving up meat. She'll have eggs, as well as some milk and cheese, but I'm not very competent in the bean area, so any recipes with that would be helpful.

Thanks in advance, gentlemen!

[jeffb]

This book is the best. Lots of good recipes...We love the book. Vegetarian cooking for everyone. (http://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-Cooking-Everyone-Deborah-Madison/dp/0767927478/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251808664&sr=8-1)

We're raising our kids vegetarian. My wife has been one since she was 13. She's also a pediatrician and isn't worried about the kids not getiing enough protein. I am not one, but I am at home to make meal time easier...I don't mind it we generally eat pretty well...

Good luck!!!

[fondestpie]

we went veggie after our first was born. as much as i dislike PETA they have several good recipes that we use.
On the subject of tofu however i have some advise.

It is a great source of protien.
there are several diffrent styles of tofu. soft, firm, silken, extra firm, cubed and prebaked are the most common, it took awhile for us to find a brand that worked for us.

beans, legumes, tree nuts, will provide tons of protien, you can get alot of your calcium from leafy greans.

secondary to that there are meat analogs you can try.go to the local Asian Market they normally have Textured soy protiens in the shape and size of all your favorite meat products. dont getme wrong itwont taste the same.

sublingual B12 is really the only suppelment we use, andeventhen thatcan be agumented with brewers yeast.

have fun with it, dont get to bogged down in the science of it and just enjoy the new culinary exp.

[silviomossa]

We have some books from the Moosewood Collective that are good. This site also looks promising: http://www.vegetariansrecipes.org/

[Electriclime]

This is the only tofu recipe I've tried so far; pretty darn good too.

http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2009/08/22/lifestyle/food-recipes/alton-browns-tofu-chocolate-pie.html

[BenSr]

Thanks for some of the ideas, guys. I'm trying not to go too heavy on soy-based recipes. Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon says to be careful about too much of it, so some of the tofu things might be just an occasional thing.

Now to sift through some of those recipes and find ones that everyone likes, because I am NOT making six different things a night! I'm also banning the word "ewww" unless a bug is crawling in someone's food...which would technically make it not a vegetarian meal.

[Hockeyfan]

Then again, plenty of bugs eat 100 percent vegetarian diet, which should make them pretty much a great part of a veggie diet. Oh and cows too.

[BenSr]

Last Friday, I was working on a potato soup. As I mentioned when I started the thread, I have a stepdaughter who's vegetarian. My family also tries to go meatless on Fridays, so with a little experimentation, I designed a delicious vegetable broth. The potato leek soup I made with it didn't come out so great, as it was more milky than creamy (flavor was nice though), but the broth was perfect:

2-3 large carrots
2-4 stalks celery (depending on size)
2-4 potatoes (depending on size - the potatoes I had were gigantic)
2 onions (skin on for more richer broth)
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp black pepper
salt to taste

Fill a large stock pot with water (leave enough room for the vegetables). Quarter potatoes and onions, cut carrots and celery into halves or quarters, leave garlic cloves whole. Add to water and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Let simmer for at least an hour. Recipe makes a lot of broth, so you may want to have jars that can be frozen for storage. I had a sore throat that day, so I felt like I could have just filled a huge travel mug with the broth and chugged that.

If I make chicken or turkey stock, it's usually in the crock pot, so I'm going to try and experiment with a crock pot version of the vegetable broth next time I make it. Based on my experiences, it's probably a longer cook time, but I'm guessing that's it.