My family is not vegetarian/vegan but I like cooking and we eat a lot of meat-free meals. I've never been someone who diets, and my strategy/approach to food has always been to eat more vegetables rather than to eat less of "X, Y, or Z" (whatever you consider to be bad) - and that seems to work pretty well for me. Some of my go tos:
Indian food generally works really well if you want to eat plant based. I like vegetable korma for an easy weekday meal (that can be pulled together with pantry staples and frozen vegetables if you haven't been able to make it to the grocery story. If you're okay with cheese, palak paneer is a really good way to up your spinach intake (I was super low iron in each of my pregnancies so this was something I made a point of doing).
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Soups are great for easy weekday meals and getting rid of leftovers- if you're okay with that for a spring meal.
One I tried recently that was really delicious (my young kids even liked it!) was roasted butternut squash and feta - just google a recipe. Obviously this is not vegan due to the feta, but it is vegetarian.
My husband's favourite is a blended curried carrot/red lentil one I do. I don't have a recipe for it as it evolved out of me trying to use up some ingredients we had on hand (as many of my meals do), but the ingredients are roughly:
- one onion
- several cloves of garlic (my use of garlic is extravagant by most people's standards so use your judgment as to how many)
- grated ginger (I keep mine in the freezer so i always have it on hand)
- 4-5 large carrots (or more - honestly whatever you have)
- a sweet potato or yam (totally optional)
- about a cup of red lentils
- 4-5 cups of soup stock
- various spices: I usually add garam masala, cumin, coriander, curry powder, and turmeric (red curry paste would also be good)
- 1 can coconut milk
This one freezes really well and tastes better days later. Like most soups it's really good with crusty bread. If I'm having company, I'll be "fancy" and serve with toasted pumpkin seeds, chopped fresh cilantro, and a greek yogurt drizzle, but that's not necessary.
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Life Affirming Nacho Dip - Oh She Glows - Should be available online. Roll your eyes at the title all you want (I did) but this is a staple meal in my house - my husband loves it too. And yes, I will absolutely justify eating nacho dip as a dinner if it's entirely plant based
. Whenever I make marinara/pasta sauce I always freeze some so it's ready to go for when I want to eat this. The recipe is very flexible so you can add quite a lot to it and it still tastes great.
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Cowboy Caviar is delicious and super easy to make for weekday dinner (and leftovers hold up well for lunch the next day). Essentially, if you haven't noticed, I love a meal I can eat on a chip.
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Thai noodle salad with peanut sauce, cabbage, carrots, bell peppers, and edamame is delicious and has great texture. It comes together pretty fast. Sometimes I'll add protein on top like crispy tofu - but i don't think it's necessary.
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Glory Bowls - Whitewater Cooks - I know this is available online so just google it. This one is a little more labour intensive for a weekday (for me at least) but I love making it for meal prep for weekdays as all the elements hold up separately in the fridge really well and you can just throw them together for lunch, pour the dressing in, shake, and boom - delicious.
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I am the queen of big grain salad, usually with some sort of bean in the mix for protein. Faro, Bulgar, and quinoa are my favourites. I am at the point now where I rarely use a recipe but the internet is not short on them.
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Do you follow any food-based instagram accounts? I find them to be useful for getting meal ideas. Erin Ireland is good for realistic plant-based recipes ideas.