Vegetarians, convince me!

[RickH]

We got given the recipe book "Bosh" which, even for a carnivore like me*, has some stonking all plant recipes - I'm away so can't quite any directly at the moment.

(*although my eldest daughter is a commited veggie, & Mrs H has veggie tendencies)

[Freddie]

I have to confess that in recent years we do now eat fish a couple of times a week,almost exclusively smoked mackerel,on a crusty bread roll with mayonnaise,along with chips and mush peas.

Second confession,I don't cook Mrs R2 does that and only allows me to wash up

That sounds good. Have you tried the Glenryck brand pilchards (sardines) in tomato sauce? Really delicious and goes well with crusty bread and butter

This isn't helping me eat more veg though...

[reohn2]

I have to confess that in recent years we do now eat fish a couple of times a week,almost exclusively smoked mackerel,on a crusty bread roll with mayonnaise,along with chips and mush peas.

Second confession,I don't cook Mrs R2 does that and only allows me to wash up

That sounds good. Have you tried the Glenryck brand pilchards (sardines) in tomato sauce? Really delicious and goes well with crusty bread and butter

This isn't helping me eat more veg though...

We prefer them in in oil.
Tinned mackerel in oil makes a nice salad with cubes of Feta,creamy Lancashire or Manchabo cheese with crusty bread drizzled with olive oil and plenty black and green olives in the salad

[al_yrpal]

Melt lots of butter in a large flat pan.
Drop 2 large portobello or similar mushrooms per person gills down with the stalks removed into the pan and cook for a few minutes.
Flip the mushrooms over and whilst cooking the other side drop lots of blue cheese into the mushroom cups. My favourite cheese is Roqueforte.
Put a lid on and cook for a few minutes until the cheese has melted.
Al

Sounds good, Al...like the basis of a risotto, do you ever make that? That typically calls for chicken stock for flavour. I suppose it could be made with vegetable, but I haven't tried.

Yes, mushroom risotto is a favourite. The secret ingredients are lots of butter to fry off the onions, some dried ceps and the water they are reconsituted mixed with chicken stock. Its got to be Chestnut mushrooms. Cook and finish off with a knob of butter stirring in a good scattering of grated parmesan. The risotto should be almost the consistency of rice pudding, stir for 25 minutes or so. Not quite veg, but very tasty.

Carluccio was the king of mushrooms. His recipe https://antonio-carluccio.co.uk/recipes ... on-funghi/

I usually do this risotto with fried chicken breasts with lemon juice and capers.

Al

[slowster]

I'd like some dishes where the vegetables are the centrepiece of the dish.

I suggest you get some italian cookbooks from the library, e.g.

The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

The River Cafe series, e.g. The River Cafe Cook Book and/or River Cafe Pocket Books: Salads and Vegetables.

Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes: The Best of Anna Del Conte

I think that when you want a dish where the vegetable(s) is the star of the show, that is likely to likely to entail one or both of the following:

- Buying only the best vegetables when they are in season, especially where very little is done to the vegetable to provide any added flavour when cooking. Examples of this would be steamed asparagus or insalata caprese - salad of tomatoes and mozarella: the average UK supermarket value tomato is probably not going to be good enough for such a dish.

- More work/preparation/variation than the classic British culinary technique of just putting it in boiling water. Examples of this would be caponata, aubergine parmesan or even something relatively quite simple like Broccoli sautéed with garlic.

-

[661-Pete]

No need to 'convince'' anyone - vegetarian food is not something you 'impose' on yourself, it's there to enjoy! But the idea of interleaving veggie dishes with your more usual bill of fare (meat, presumably) is a good one.

We have dozens of recipes in a database, culled from numerous sources. Some you may like, some you won't. Rather than post the lot - which would not be very helpful - perhaps you could give some idea of your taste? If you have any strong aversions - or indeed allergies - now is the time to own up!

As it happens, we're away for a few days with only limited time on the internet. Will get back to this at the end of the week.

[pwa]

Soup made from red lentils, some sort of stock, and lots of fresh parsley from the garden, finely chopped but hardly cooked so as to be almost raw. With a really nice bread of choice.

Any variation of mushrooms in white sauce (milk based with corn flour, small amount of cheese, dash of mustard, black pepper) over pasta.

And just have your usual meat dishes but reduce the meat and increase the veg. Add little treats like tiny marble sized potatoes in skins, roasted. Just to get a better balance. I used to eat meat but always liked the veg just as much. Spring greens, steamed, are something I can eat like sweets.

[francovendee]

Interesting, cheese seems to feature in a number of these recipes. Are there any that are tasty without this ingredient?

[661-Pete]

Interesting, cheese seems to feature in a number of these recipes. Are there any that are tasty without this ingredient?

Yes. Plenty.

[PH]

I'm not vegetarian, but an infrequent meat eater - I prefer my veg pretty plain, I have a dislike of it imitating meat. I do like decent oils which can enhance without obliterating the taste. Roast sprouts and chestnuts in peanut oil, with a squeeze of lemon and on a bed of steamed couscous, pretty much perfect. The big thing for me is not to overcook, that takes a bit of getting used to if you've always had your veg soft. If it doesn't offer a bit of resistance to your fork, it's probably overdone. Plenty of vegetables are IMO better eaten raw, or just cooked enough to heat them - broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms, spinach... and don't underestimate the variation in quality, I used to think all carrots tasted the same, well they do if you only ever boil them to death! Yet the ones I get from a farmers market are so tender you'd think the ones from a supermarket were made of wood.

[PH]

I used to eat meat but always liked the veg just as much.

Yes, proper full on Sunday roast, all the trimmings but no meat or substitute - the meat is used to being the centrepiece, but it's all the other stuff I like best.

[al_yrpal]

My runner beans from our veg patch are just forming. If you eat them raw when tney reach about 1/2 inch wide they are delicious. I always steam our our veg except swede which you have to boil to be edible.
Mushrooms arent vegetables, yet vegetarians eat them, many eat cheese eggs and fish too, never understood that?

Al

[pete75]

I'd like some dishes where the vegetables are the centrepiece of the dish.

Try this - it's delicious.



https://www.greedygourmet.com/recipes-b ... room-stew/

[mattheus]

Curries are fine and good, but man cannot subsist on curries alone and they are often heavily spiced to somewhat mask the flavour of the vegetables.

All the spices I've eaten in curry have been vegetarian. They're like super-veg - so tasty that you can only use small quantities in a dish.

Even mere meat flavours can easily be swamped by them

[pwa]

My runner beans from our veg patch are just forming. If you eat them raw when tney reach about 1/2 inch wide they are delicious. I always steam our our veg except swede which you have to boil to be edible.
Mushrooms arent vegetables, yet vegetarians eat them, many eat cheese eggs and fish too, never understood that?

Al

You are right to point out that mushrooms aren't vegetables (not plant at all) but I'm not sure why you are surprised vegetarians eat them. We eat salt too and that isn't vegetable matter. The crucial distinction for me is that it is not part of a sentient being. So it is fine. The word "vegetarian" is not connected to the word "vegetable". The similarity is a coincidence.

I eat milk, cheese and eggs because I am vegetarian, not vegan. I was vegan thirty years ago, and find myself leaning more that way in recent times, but for the moment it is flesh / blood that I avoid.

As always, you eat what you like and I'll do the same.