Vegetarian dishes

Food & Drink, Events and Entertainment
1
I'm not a vegetarian but for the next year I will be working in a household where I will have to cook vegetarian dishes. The children are ovo-lacto-vegetarian.

The mother eats meat, but rarely, so when she will ask me to cook this for her I will do it, but the children don't eat meat.

I searched on some websites, online magazines and found some interesting or/and easy dishes but I would like to have some recipes that you tried, something you like and please tell me some tips and tricks.

2
Tips and tricks - look for hidden animal products in items you'd not expect them to be!

It depends on how strict the people are you're cooking for. Are they vegan, or ovo-lacto vegetarian? Is fish ok (pescatarian)?

Keep in mind that things like gelatin are meat-based, and many cheeses are made with rennet - which can only be extracted from the stomach of a dead cow, so most vegetarians won't want cheese with rennet. Unfortunately, I don't think I ever saw a package of cheese labeled in Switzerland with the rennet content/lack of rennet.

3
Thank you for your answer. I edited my post: they are ovo-lacto-vegetarian.

4
try www.videojug.com

and search for keywords vegetarian...

any recipe you can think of is there

5
Ask the mother for recipes- she'll know what they like best and what goes down easiest, from there you can work on variations on the main recipe themes.

6
The mother will tell me what the children want to eat and she will give me the recipes but I want to cook something without having the mother telling me what to cook, I want to do something on my own initiative.

7
POLENTA PIZZA - hoping that the kids like polenta!

cook, 2minute polenta according to pack instructions

spread thinly, about 1-2cm high, allow to cool

before serving, mix tomato paste with water to form a sauce, spread over polenta.

Top with cheese, basle, veggies, and grill, until cheese melts.

8
As a veggie (spouse induced), I should let you know that it important to make sure that some nutritional components are met in a veggie diet:

Protein (legumes, soy based products, etc...)

Iron: there are two forms of dietary iron: heme and nonheme. Heme iron is derived from hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that delivers oxygen to cells. Heme iron is found in animal foods that originally contained hemoglobin, such as red meats, fish, and poultry. Iron in plant foods such as lentils and beans is arranged in a chemical structure called nonheme iron. This is the form of iron added to iron-enriched and iron-fortified foods. Heme iron is absorbed better than nonheme iron, but most dietary iron is nonheme iron.

Vitamin B12. Lack of this nutrient causes pernicious anemia. The vitamin occurs naturally in animal foods, but it is in fortified cereals, fortified soy milk or enriched nutritional yeast.

Read up well on the subject to make sure you're giving the family a nutritionally rounded diet, Indian vegetarian food tends to address these issues well, purportedly. But what do I know, I'm neither a doctor nor an Indian chef...

You could always get take out from King's Curry and feed it to the family, they'll be in awe of your culinary capabilities...

9
Hi,

I'm not vegetarian, though I do tend to cook/eat a lot of vegetarian/macrobiotic dishes.

There are some great recipes at this site (this link is to the macrobiotic section, but they have vegan and others):

http://www.edenfoods.com/recipes/browse.php?tags_id=25

I also get a lot of recipes from here:

http://www.wholeliving.com/eat-well

http://www.wholeliving.com/special-diets

I also like Mark Bittman's cookbook, "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian":

http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Every...8755443&sr=8-3

10
Hey, I am a nanny for a veggie family as well. First off, how old are the kids? They can be very picky at around age 3 I had a few not soo great days with him for lunch hehehe. I bought this cookbook

http://www.amazon.com/000-Vegan-Reci.../dp/0470085029

I am sure you can order it other places for cheaper but I posted the amazone so you can look inside and see. It is a great book! It is vegan (no cheese ect.) but with families being veggie and having different levels of strictness I just go with vegan. I can't have milk so it is great for me Let me know the ages and I can send you some recipes to try. Best of luck

11
Thank you all for the links and tips&tricks .

I have found some interesting recipes on the websites you gave me that I didn't find on other websites I have searched.

If you have more tips&tricks please write them here .

Thank you.

12
I made a Thai chilli beef salad for lunch, on the basis that in the "West" we like to eat salads to cool down and in Asia they eat spicy food to cool down.

Well, it didn't work, but anyway ...

I'm sure it'll be almost as tasty without the beef.

Hmm - it's full of fish sauce which is usually anchovy extract. They're almost vegetables, right? Anyway, there is a veggie substitute and Thai/Asian stores will sell it. In fact, most Thai food can be made substituting tofu or aubergine for the meat depending on the dish.

13
I am a vegetarian myself you would be surprised how many possibilities veggies have ( not in switzerland though except, if you go to HILT )

here is one

around 90 recipies on this website:

http://www.bakespace.com/recipes/Ovo...Vegetarian/67/

14
miss bean- Thank you for the website and for that pic .

Faux Philly Cheese "Steak" Sandwiches with Lemon-Dill Mayo sounds sofisticated but it seems it is easy to prepare it. I'm crazy about bell peppers and dill .

It looks interesting and I don't like avocado but I hope the kids do .

15
I have tried lots of recipes from the cooking websites you all gave me.

I would like to try more. Any more ideas/websites?

I found some other websites than the ones you all gave me but I would like more as I have a very demanding and gurmand family (the family I work for) and they always want new things! .

They liked what I cooked until now! I'm happy about this and I don't want to let them down so I have to keep trying new dishes .

Thank you!

16
Does anyone knows more vegetarian dishes or websites?

17
Me and my wife are (lacto-ovo) vegetarians by birth and its very natural for us to live on vegetarian food because we are from India where its part of the culture and upbringing in a surprising 40% of the population.

Here are a few recipes, but feel free to browse the rest of those websites... and remember, Indian food ("real" Indian food) is not always spicy, although it can be a lot of work sometimes.

http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/almond_croquettes.htm

http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/

http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/amla_beetroot.htm

http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/lucknowi_bharwan.htm

http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/chickpea.htm

http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/palak_lachcha.htm

http://www.theveggietable.com/recipes/ratatouille.html

http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/Recipe....cipe&MenuId=28

http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/Recipe....ipes&MenuId=31

http://foodgawker.com/popular/favorites/page/3/

Cheers,

Nileblitz

18
Any indian veggie food is a safe bet, all are from raw ingredients and you can cook them from scratch you exactly know whats going into them.

19
here you go, almost 5000 recipes

http://www.epicurious.com/tools/brow...browse&att=161

20
Lots of Italian dishes are vegetarian. We are not vegetarian but we don't often eat meat.

Here are some of the things I make regularly:

You can make risotto with so many kinds of veggies and veggie stock. We often eat mushroom risotto. There is Risi Bisi, which is rice and peas from the north of Italy. Tomato risotto. Zucchini risotto.

You can make veggie lasagna with tomato sauce ricotta and aubergine or broccoli or spinach. I make my own ricotta so there is no rennet. It's super easy. Soup and salad: Minestrone, lentil soup, pumpkin soup, tomato soup. Rice and beans.

If you want a challenge try making gnocchi alla Romana with tomato sauce. These are soooo yummy. But I've never been able to make them.