Dating a vegetarian...

[Wolfman Jack]

Some recipes can be made vegetarian by just omitting the meat: spaghetti with marinara sauce, taco salad, burritos made with vegetarian refried beans, etc.

I made the recipe below when working down at the dispatch center on my forest. I made one pot vegetarian and the other with meat. Everyone loved it.

Jambalaya

Also, some recipes that we eat for everyday are vegetarian. Like for example minestrone soup, red beans and rice, etc.

I personally love veggie burgers. I dress them up like I would a hamburger with all the traditional fixings and they are great.

Good luck and don't be afraid to experiment!!

An excellent suggestion SierraCook! I'm a vegetarian myself and the choices are virtually limitless!

I would add that you can also make vegetarian recipes "meatier" by substituting other ingredients for the meat. For instance, I make a lot of vegetarian jambalaya myself and simply substitute red kidney beans (or whatever beans you like) for the meat. A lot of people use things such as tofu or eggplant (tofu sounds awful and if you just eat it as it is, it is awful, but once you get a little olive oil and spices working with it and let it pick up those flavors, it's quite good). Same thing with vegetarian paella or almost any rice or pasta based dish. I end up with a lot of broccoli in things too. Whatever you both like, use it! Chances are once you get all the spices and flavors mixed together you won't even really miss the meat (unless you're one of those folks determined to make a point of it, although it seems you have an open mind).

Also, it's important to know what category of vegetarian your girlfriend falls into. If she's a vegan, you'll have to avoid the cheese and other dairy products, as well as the eggs. So it's just a matter of determining what's off-limits to her. Good luck and I hope everything turns out great for you!

 

[The Little Penguin]

I would add that you can also make vegetarian recipes "meatier" by substituting other ingredients for the meat.

Mushrooms are one of my favorites for that!

(tofu sounds awful and if you just eat it as it is, it is awful, but once you get a little olive oil and spices working with it and let it pick up those flavors, it's quite good)

Yeah, I always think the whole "tasteless tofu" thing is a bit of a cheap shot. If I just boiled some potatos, and dropped them, plain, onto a plate in front of someone who'd never tried them before, they'd probably think they weren't a big potato fan.

Then you could make them some rosemary-olive oil roasted potatos and their opinion would likely do a 180!

 

[Wolfman Jack]

Mushrooms are one of my favorites for that!



Yeah, I always think the whole "tasteless tofu" thing is a bit of a cheap shot. If I just boiled some potatos, and dropped them, plain, onto a plate in front of someone who'd never tried them before, they'd probably think they weren't a big potato fan.

Then you could make them some rosemary-olive oil roasted potatos and their opinion would likely do a 180!

Yes, mushrooms are delicious! I use them all the time. Another excellent "filler" for vegetarian dishes!

And suddenly I have an almost uncontrollable urge for some rosemary-olive oil roasted potatoes....

 

[BreezyCooking]

Bravo Little Penguin!! I completely agree.

We use tofu frequently & particularly enjoy it's sponge-like quality to soak up whatever great sauce we've concocted. THAT'S the point of it.

If you're just eating it plain & then complaining about its lack of taste, you're completely missing the point & good things about using tofu.

 

[The Little Penguin]

We use tofu frequently & particularly enjoy it's sponge-like quality to soak up whatever great sauce we've concocted. THAT'S the point of it.

A question on that... I've know some people will boil the tofu for a bit in water before adding to a recipe, with the idea that this makes it retain flavors better. Thoughts?

 

[BreezyCooking]

I've never heard of that, & frankly it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

In fact, the exact opposite is true. Many people - myself included sometimes - will press blocks of tofu between 2 plates (the top one weighted) to extract as much moisture as possible so that when the tofo is added to the dish, it will expand due to sucking up all the sauce. What the heck would boiling do??? Absolutely nothing. The only time I boil - & I really mean "simmer" - tofu is when using it in soups, as in Chinese Hot & Sour Soup &/or Japanese Miso Soup.

There's absolutely no other reason to "boil" tofu. If it doesn't automatically desintegrate into nothing, it will end up soggy & blander than bland, sauce or no sauce. Yuck. Don't do it.

 

[devora]

My question is, what's the best resource for vegetarian recipes?

It's not a site but a book: Sundays at Moosewood. Fabulous book. And altho it doesn't have the reviews you requested it is a very popular and long-lived restaurant.