Vegetarian-Meat eater marriage

Teomima

Wed, May 02 2012, 1:11 am

I'm a vegetarian married to a meat eater. While I do cook meat for my husband and children, our house is mostly vegetarian. Meat is expensive and my husband had heart trouble so what ends up happening is I just cook plenty of chicken or turkey for shabbat and he eats leftovers during the week when he wants meat. Otherwise, other than things that are dairy, I cook everything else parve. In fact, I only have two fleishig pots. All my good pots and pans are pareve.

I don't really get why lots of people thing a vegetarian main has to be carbs or a " meat alternative". A well crafted vegetarian dish is a perfect main. I completely second what someone said about Indian food, plus I often cook vegetarian fried rice with tons of various veggies and egg inside, things with beans like veggie chilli and cholent, oh and food.com has an amazing recipe for a bourbon chicken sauce I often pair with cooked sliced carrots and broccoli and other veggies which is incredible.

Being a vegetarian, be defition, means eating vegetables, so they're more than just 'sides' to us.

Soul on fire

Wed, May 02 2012, 7:38 pm

here are some good websites...

http://vegandad.blogspot.com/

http://www.theppk.com/

http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/

http://megatarian.blogspot.com/

http://tofu-n-sproutz.blogspot.com/

http://thisiswhyyourethin.blogspot.com/

here is my favorite cholent recipe.....with my alterations in red

Vegan Cholent (Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook)

2 Tbs Olive Oil
 1 large onion, cut into medium-dice
 3 garlic cloves, minced
 1/2 tsp of tarragon
 1 tsp of caraway seeds (I omit these)
 1 tsp salt
several pinches of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup vegetable broth
 2 bay leaves
1 cup peeled, sliced carrots (about 1/2 inch thick)
 2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch chunks
 2 medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch chunks
 1 (15-ounce can) tomato sauce (ketchup)
3 cups water (+ 1 cup vegetable stock for crock pot method)
 1/2 cup barley
1 cup canned and drained lima beans or green peas
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
(instead of canned beans I use 2 1/2 cups of goya dry 16 bean mix....so tasty/ you can also change the amounts of barley vs beans if you prefer it that way, I've done that too and it's still yummy)

Preheat a large soup pot over medium heat. Saute the onions in the oil until translucent, 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic, tarragon, caraway seeds, salt, and pepper. Saute until the garlic is fragrant, about a minute more.

Deglaze the pot with the veggie broth. Add the bay leaves, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomato sauce, water, and barley together. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the potatoes and carrot are tender. Add the lima and kidney beans and cook until heated through. (I deglaze the pot and then dump it all into a crock pot on low and leave it till shabbos day oh also if you use dry beans you will need to increase the amount of water or broth to make sure the beans cook thoroughly)

I have lots of other recipes too if anyone is interested.
like chickpea cutlets, different curries, veg pot pie, shepherds pie, "meat"loafs/balls, burgers, lentil sloppy joes, stews (like african peanut stew...so yummy!)

Gsanmb

Thu, May 03 2012, 6:40 pm

Also I find things like tacos, chili, etc. to be staples for us (I have one vegetarian in the family but we eat veg 6 out of 7 days...only meat meal all week is erev Shabbat).

I make 'tacos' with red lentils and this way you can also add all the cheese, sour cream, etc. that you like, no worries!

Red lentils are great because they sort of 'melt' and give a nice meaty texture without looking too beany.

I use beans in most Mexican style dishes and it's fine. I tend to stay away from soy and TVP for the most part as I don't believe it's so healthy the way it's grown and processed in the US.

Moosewood Restaurant cookbooks are excellent; also the Enchanted Broccoli Forest is great. Best advice: go to the library and browse the cookbook section; take a few out that look interesting before you invest in buying them.

I also developed a bookmarks file of great recipes I loved that I found on the internet and then transferred some of the recipes to Tastebook.com and made myself a lovely cookbook.