5 Easy Vegetarian Recipes
SOMETIME LAST YEAR, WE STARTED EATING A LOT LESS MEAT, but I needed help finding easy vegetarian recipes to add to our weekly meal plan.
We’re not a vegetarian or vegan household, but I feel it’s important to incorporate several meatless recipes into our weekly schedule for several reasons.
Besides obvious health benefits, it’s also friendlier on our budget.
We’ve never been huge red meat eaters, but like the occasional burger or spaghetti bolognese. We eat chicken and seafood and I have no intentions of ever giving up cheese. We’re just eating it all a bit less (spare the cheese, because YUM).
So naturally, I did what anyone would and started a Pinterest board full of vegan and vegetarian recipes to help expand our palettes. There’s been some winners… and some big flops. I’ve got 5 of my favourite easy recipes to share with you all, so make sure to pin the image below and keep reading!
I’m saying “we” a lot in this post because everything has to pass the husbands taste test in order to become a favourite.
While I’m happy to cut back on meat, Dan’s been more reluctant. I’m the one that cooks 99% of the food in this household, however, so I can be you can guess who makes the dinner choices LOL.
I always consider how ‘hearty’ a meal might be for Dan; He works out of the home and is gone 11 hours a day with one very short lunch break a day. So it’s important to me that he’s not starving half an hour after dinner.
I think we as a society often feel you need to have meat on your plate to satisfy hunger, which totally isn’t the case!
I’ve found a few recipes that we’ve come to love that are super filling, affordable, and have that “don’t miss the meat” feel. If you are curious about some of the other recipes I’ve recommended, you can find them In my Recipes category!
Something that often seems to get pushed to the forefront of vegetarian and vegan cooking is tofu. While we like it, we don’t love it enough to eat more than once every 2 weeks or so. These recipes balance a mix of protein sources and most of them are easily adaptable to your preferred tastes.
5 Easy Vegan Vegetarian Recipe Favourites
A collection of 4 easy vegan or vegetarian recipes that we love and don't break the bank.
This one is often requested by my husband, which is always a good sign! It's vegetarian, sumptuous and cheesy and totally hits the pasta spot.
Crispy Honey Garlic Cauliflower Buddha Bowl | Lindsay Pleskot, Dietitian
Lindsay is a local Dietitian and I've followed her on Instagram for ages now. Her recipe for honey garlic sauce for this is SO easy - you make it in the microwave! It's totally restaurant tasty and so hearty.
We love a noodle bowl and this one hits the spicy craving with a super-easy dressing. We both actually find it too spicy with the called for Sriracha, so here's your warning! This is one is great to get rid of the greens that might be wilting in your fridge, and you can adapt it to whatever veg you keep on hand (we like sliced cucumber, sauteed spinach, baby corn, roasted yam... whatever we have!)
This was a fast favourite for how easy it was! Slice the tofu and toss in the marinade at the beginning of your day or the night before. It soaks up the flavours well and once grilled (either on a grill pan or on a BBQ) it totally takes the place of pork in a traditional Banh Mi!
If you're stocking up your freezer, Quinoa Chilli is a great option for an easy rainy day meal! It freezes so well, is great for meal prep and has all the hearty flavour while you'd never know there was no meat. We aren't massive bean lovers so I stick to black beans only and it works great.
Do you try and limit how much meat you eat?
What’s your favourite vegan vegetarian recipe?
