By taking meat and fish from your plate, some people might be left thinking, “what will my meal be centred around? Where will I get my protein?”. Don’t despair, there is a huge variety of great dishes to rival your steak and chips, and I’m not talking about those dry tofu-based sausages you get in the frozen aisle. You can be wonderfully creative and adventurous on a vegetarian diet as well as keeping yourself nutritionally balanced.
If you’re a confirmed carnivore, why not join in the challenge of going veggie for National Vegetarian Week and see how well you do? Here are few of your favourite weekly dishes, to inspire your evening meals:
1. Chilli “Non” Carne
The great thing about chilli, is that you already have a great base of spices and warmth to work with, taking out the ground beef needn’t be a loss as with this recipe by Jamie Oliver, you can really pack out the texture with the mixture of beans. The crunchy tortilla and avocado salad adds a refreshing side too!
2. Pizza Perfect
Pizza is a fab dish that doesn’t need to be slathered with salami to be tasty, again, it’s about the textures and flavours you add to that dough base that count. Oregano and basil will give you your Italian aromas, but you can add sun blushes tomatoes, artichokes, olives, spinach, even an egg in the middle to give you a colourful, creative meal fit for the whole family. If you’re not feeling inspired by that, why not choose from a whole host of veggie pizza ideas in this dedicated blog post by Oh My Veggies.
3. Easy Potato Curry
Potatoes in curry add a great texture, give bulk and best of all, soak up all those delicious flavours. New potatoes are coming into season, and will be great for this really easy-cook recipe from Waitrose as a mid-week winner. Don’t forget a warm naan too for soaking up all that yummy sauce!
4. Nutty Noodle Stir Fry
Let’s not forget our favourite weekly staple either, the stir fry; leave out the chicken and prawns and just go crazy with your vegetables and sprouted beans for added crunchy texture and protein. Thai food is great for flavour, and this BBC Good Food recipe for a Thai style stir fry has a perfect time saving ingredient; Peanut Butter!
5. Best Bean Burger
So after a week of wonderfully healthy meals, you might want to go all out for your weekend and indulge in a tasty Burger. This recipe is for the ultimate Friday night feast of a veggie burger by Jamie Oliver. It’ fun to make, as well as eat. It takes a little time to create but, oh my, how the results are worth it!
So why not try it, fill your plates full of the good stuff this week and go Meat Free for National Vegetarian Week.
For information on what’s in this season, then why not use Reynolds’ seasonal guide to help you. Reynolds supply all our pubs with its fresh seasonal fruit and veg. They definitely know their onions!