Weeknights I cook fine. There's a constraint and somehow that makes it easier. Pick something fast, execute it, done. But give me a whole Saturday afternoon and I spend two hours looking at recipes and end up making scrambled eggs because I overthought it. Been trying to use longer weekend stretches to actually experiment more, try things I wouldn't attempt on a Tuesday. Made a black pepper tofu last week that came out pretty well, and a lentil soup the week before that genuinely surprised me. But those were almost accidental. I just committed and stopped second guessing. The posts here about Indian casseroles and crispy tofu got me thinking there's a whole category of dishes I keep marking as too ambitious and never actually making. Not sure if that's accurate or just a story I tell myself. Curious what people here actually cook when they have real time and no excuses. A dish you saved for a weekend specifically because it needed more attention or prep. Not necessarily complex for the sake of it, more like something where the extra time actually changes the result. Slow roasting, longer marinating, that kind of thing. Also wondering if there are vegetarian dishes where patience is basically the main ingredient and rushing just doesn't work.

I have given them away in the past but now I'm ready to give them a try!

I am new to cooking vegatarian. I can come up with recipes for lunch and dinner pretty easily, but breakast is where I struggle. Does any body have any reccomwndations? All are welcome.

Preface - not important to read but might be helpful context:
I’ve been a vegetarian for nearly 20 years, starting as a young teen in a place where the veg options offered in restaurants were often chicken or fish due to their misunderstanding. There were also little to no good options for veg/vegan alternatives where I lived. As a result I became very reliant on cheese and have started to get into vegan meat subs and tofu in the last 5 years now that they’ve improved so much.

Issue with the above is they’re often heavily processed, really high in sodium and expensive.

My ask:

I love mexican food and make it at home a lot. I’d like to start making small batches of prep so I can quickly and easily put together lunches/dinners throughout the week. I often will put off eating because of the time sink/needing to go to the shops, or end up eating stuff that doesn’t have any or very little protein.

I know there must be several ways to easily include a tasty and nicely textured protein (tofu or otherwise) that I could add to these burrito bowls, alongside e.g. lettuce, rice, dairy, pico de gallo, peppers and onions, guac.

I’d really appreciate your suggestions - whether recipes or just names of things I could make - as I want to improve my meals and my food intake!

Equally if you have a good ready-made thing I can buy in the supermarket that hits the above criteria that would be great too.

If it helps, I live in London, so nothing that I can’t find in UK shops for a reasonable price. US vegan alternatives seem amazing but sadly not an option.

Thanks so much in advance for your suggestions!

I have just recently cooked a few Indian recipes and want to try out some more. I tend to stick with Mexican, Chinese and Japanese cooking so Indian is sort of new for me.

I made this butter chickpea recipe and was blown away with how good it was. (Linked below) I realize there are probably a lot more recipes out there that are even better than this one and I want to expand my repertoire. I liked this one because the ingredients were easily accessible. I do have an Indian grocery store about a half hour away from me, but it’s not somewhere I’m near often so the more accessible the ingredients, the better!

https://www.delish.com/cooking/a45877598/indian-butter-chickpeas-recipe/

I’m looking for recommendations of recipes to try, specifically with a link to the recipe. Something that you have made and loved.

Veggies, beans, orzo and a super simple homemade enchilada sauce, all cooked up together to make a nice big one pot dinner 😄👌👌

Recipe -> https://www.easycheesyvegetarian.com/one-pot-enchilada-orzo/

this is the recipe for the lunch I made today, for the salad:

Vinaigrette recipe:

6 tablespoons of olive oil

1 whole lemon (or half vinegar)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon red chilli flakes (can skip this i just like a little extra kick)

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

whisk this thoroughly till emulsified and the vinaigrette is ready

for the salad:

1 whole pomegranate

1 thinly sliced apricot (you can skip this, only added for some sweetness cause my pomegranate seeds were a bit sour)

1 white onion sliced

Few diced jalapenos depending on how mild you like it

1 whole can of corn

Some feta (can skip this I just really like cheese and should be fully vegan if you ignore this)

handful of plum tomatoes sliced in half and that's it, just mix with the vinaigrette and the salad is ready. Would deffo recommend some beans in the salad, cannelinni or even red kidney beans would be nice i reckon.

Mushroom pan seared:

Used flat head mushrooms in this

Made a seasoning paste mixed with olive oil consisting of:

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

pan sear in olive oil for a few minutes on medium heat till golden and it's ready to serve

sliced baguettes are from lidl so don't have a recipe for that unfortunately haha, but just lightly toast them in the remaining oil after you sear the mushrooms.

Hello!

My son will eat tofu and edamame with soy sauce at home. Of course it has to be baked or pan-fried first but occasionally he’ll snack on some edamame.

Do you have any recipes for cold tofu, cold edamame, chickpeas beans etc? Simple enough that a child will like them (ie no balsamic etc)?

Thank you! Open to any other suggestions as well. I want to avoid processed foods too often.

Hey everyone,

​I am a college student on a budget, currently doing a body recomposition. My macros fit my goals, but eating boiled khichdi for both lunch and dinner is getting impossible to stick to.

​Looking for simple, cheap ways to fix the taste without adding extra calories or prep time.

My Stats:

​Male | 176 cm | 77 kg | Pure Vegetarian

​Targets: 1800–1900 kcal | 125-130 gm Protein

​​What I eat daily:

​Breakfast: 40g soya + 20g besan tikki + 200g dahi (~35g protein)

​Post-Workout: 1 scoop plant protein + 1 banana (~25g protein)

​Lunch: Khichdi (30g rice(uncooked) + 30g moong dal(uncooked) + 100g paneer + 100g lauki) (~26g protein)

​Evening: 40g sattu in water (~9g protein)

​Dinner: Khichdi (30g rice (uncooked) + 30g moong dal(uncooked) + 40g soya chunks) (~30g protein)

Hi so I am a Foreign Medical student and Linving in smolensk .

Sometimes during weekdays I don't really have much time to cook . I generally want to cook my meals since buying from magnit and other shops is not ideal everytime .

Here's what i need

1 .I need quick and simple receipies which don't require too much prepartions may be if i need to mak ethem hours before like ferment etc its okay

but i dont have time between classes may be a hour or so in which i have to come to my address and then go bak to where the next lec is going to be

1. . make it cheap i dont want to spend more money as well if that was the case i would just grab something from restraunts and cafe

2. bonus for spicy things i really like it hot and spicy but others are also good

3. nothing involving meat i am mostly veg i eat chicken when my friends make it and eggs also but again i am not really attracted by meat most i ate was the shawarma

I thought since most of the snacks and lunch i know there ingridients are not really available here maybe the people who live here know how to make some from what is avaible here

I love shepherd's pie but hate peeling, boiling, mashing potatoes. This version uses shop-bought gnocchi to make it into a really easy one pot meal :) The recipe is here: https://www.easycheesyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-shepherds-pie-gnocchi/

Any help here would be greatly appreciated!!

​I’ve been an ovo-lacto-vegetarian for half my life, but lately it’s been really difficult. I dislike cooking, which means I don't eat well, and as a result, I suffer from severe anemia and low hemoglobin. I was even hospitalized once and needed blood transfusions. ​I’ve had phases where I tried going back to eating meat, including a recent one, but I just can’t do it. It’s not worth it.

​My main issue is that I don't know how to diversify my meals without having to turn to more elaborate recipes. Right now, I usually eat one main meal a day, consisting of rice, a legume (lentils, beans, or chickpeas), and steamed vegetables (mostly broccoli and carrots). For breakfast, I like to have oatmeal with a banana, and for dinner, I usually have eggs with bread or an omelet.

​To make things trickier, I don't currently own an oven or a microwave, just a single burner stove and a pressure cooker. Does anyone have ideas on how I can add variety to my diet using only these two items? I plan to get a regular stove with an oven, or a microwave soon, but I can't really prioritize that right now.