No fail vegetarian meals

And by no fail I mean - I can't possibly screw this up in any way.

I'm looking for 4 different vegetarian meals (we will have 2 each week).

Must be pretty cheap to cook, EASY to cook, tasty yet pretty low in fat. Hard?

Please help! :D

This is so easy peasy it isn't funny!


Naomi's Tomato, Basil and Lentil Soup

Finely chop and saute an onion in a big pot using olive oil.
Add a squeeze from a tube of basil (or fresh chopped)
Add one 375g pack of red lentils
Add one litre carton of (salt reduced) vegetable stock
Add one litre of water and extra veg-stock powder to taste
Add two x 440g tins of diced tomatoes

Takes 3 mins to assemble - about 25 mins to cook (bring back to boil, then simmer), however it's better the day after. Serve garnished with diced tomato and fresh basil - and HEAPS of pepper.

veggo pasta -

soften some chopped onions, maybe some garlic in a pan. add a tin of crushed tomatoes, some mixed veg (although mushies and celery would need to be cooked in the pan before the tomatoes are added!) and heat through. Serve over pasta - fettucini / penne ... very quick, very easy.

Hmm... anything other than soups? I'm not really a fan of soups :redface:

But it sounded lovely! LOL

veggo bol -

make up a bolagnese sauce, but instead of mince get a tin of "casserole mince" from Sanitarium - it's in the health food section and its yummmmmmy.

I've got a few variations of the one recipe based on pumpkin and red lentils.

1)Spicy red lentil & pumpkin soup

1.5 cups red lentils
olive oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
3 tsp cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1.5 kg butternut pumpkin
6.5 cups vegie stock
salt & pepper to taste

(i play around with whatever herbs are in the cupboard)

1. rinse the lentils in a sieve
2. heat the oil, cook onion 5 mins, add garlic & herbs & spices. stir for 30 secs and smell (yum!)
3. add lentils and coat in onion mix. stir in pumpkin and stock. increase heat and bring to boil. lower heat and simmer for 15-30 mins til lentils and pumpkin soft.
4. blend
5. serve

can be stored in fridge or frozen

2) Pumpkin Curry
So baseed on that recipe, i have also made a casserole/curry dish. Do same as above but not as much stock. You can have less pumpkin in the blended bit too. Then cook bigger pumpkin, beans, broccoli, carrot, potato.... in the blended mix. (You can steam these and add to blended mix or cook everuything together, remove these vegies before blending and then add them back in again)

Serve with rice.

3) Pumpkin Chilli
Another recipe is to add can crushed tomatoes, and can kidney beans, and have chilli-type spices plus the onion, pumpkin, red lentils (or omit red lentils and add extra can kidney beans).
Serve with rice

My mum does one with leftover veg.

Not a recipe as such, basically you just clear the fridge of anything that looks like it's about to die - onion, zucchini, pumpkin, capsicum, potato... you get the idea... saute it all in a frying pan, a little bit of water, chuck in a vege stock cube or two - Massell are the best - maybe some salt & pepper, then fold it up in some frozen puff pastry (I quarter the pastry squares) and cook in a hot oven for 15 - 20 min or until the pastry is cooked.
Yum :D

Vegetarian burgers: Buy packet of burgers. Pan fry or microwave. Put on bread roll with salad. Ta-da!

Spaghetti bolognese with casserole mince is good too! You can also use nutmeat if you chop it up finely (don't be put off by how it comes out of the tin, a la dog food, lol!)

Stir fry's are also super easy, I usually make a honey soy garlic sauce to go with it, just by splashing however much soy I want, and however much honey I want, and adding 1 or 2 cloves to all the vegies.

When I was a kid, my Mum used to make Nacho's using casserole mince as well, with a stack of salad on top. So the sauce is just casserole mince, tin or 2 or tomatoes, tin of beans, onion, garlic, whatever herbs you think! Simmer it, put it on top of corn chips, add cheese and salad. If you get low fat cheese and the healthier corn chips it could be good!

Ive got a veg lasagne recipe, I guess you could use reduced fat cheese to make it lower in fat?
Its not difficult but if you are making it from the raw ingredients (ie not usimg leftover pasta sauce) its time consuming to make (2 hours inc 45 mins when its in the oven)

Vegie fritters

grate whatever vegies you have
-carrot
potato
zucchini
onion
sweet potato
pumpkin
-tinned corn or add peas

add egg and mix

add flour if you want

make into fritters

cook on bbq or in pan

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Other ideas

baked potatoes

pita bread pizzas

tacos/fajitas

ricotta and spinach canelloni is easy

1 tub of ricotta- mixed thru the seasoning and chopped spinach
1/2 bunch spinach - steamed first then chopped
Seasoning - 2 cloves garlic chopped, salt and pepper to taste
1 pack of canelloni pasta tubes - fill the ricotta into the tubes (easiest way is to use a piping bag or a plastic bag and snip a little hole in the bottom)
8 fresh tomatoes gently simmer till juicy - pour over the tubes in a shallow baking dish

cook 160 for 40 mins and serve.


My other favorite is simply baked veges with a white sauce or mushroom gravy.
potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, onions, zuccini, - roasted in oven

serve with gravy & boiled corn cobs & peas on side.

I made a vege bolegnaise sort of thing the other day I put in-

1 onion grated
1 finely chopped capsicum
1 grated carrot
1 grated zucchini
2 handfuls baby spinnach leaves
grated pumpkin
jar of tomato pasta sauce

I just threw it all into the frypan with about 1/2-1 cup of vegie stock and left it to cook for about 20mins, then I blended it all with the stick blender. Mixed in about 1 cup of shaved parmesan. Poured it over some fettuccini and the kids loved it. I liked it too, it was yum!

Another favourite here is

Ricotta and Spinnach stuffed pasta shells

16 Canneloni shells
500g spinnach
250g low fat riccota
500g low fat cottage cheese
600ml tomato pasta sauce
1 cup vegatable stock
1 tbsp grated parmesan

Cook the pasta for 3mins in boiling water
Preheat oven to moderate
Boil/steam/microwave spinnach until just wilted. Drain and chop finely then squeeze out exess water.
Combine spinnach and cheeses in a large mixing bowl. Spoon mixture into pasta shells.Combine vege stock and pasta sauce in 2 litre baking dish.
Place shells into baking dish and sprinkle with parmesan.
Bake covered with foil for about 1 hourin moderate oven until pasta is completely cooked.

Serves 4
10g fat
2278 kj
71.3g carbs


It's actually really easy to make once you've done it once. And they are sooo yum!

Ummm I make bolognese with red lentils instead of meat ( I use lots of grated/diced veges anyway in it)...just the way you normally would substituting the washed/boiled/drained lentils in the meat bit. Otherwise great in the slow cooker (no preboiling use 2x sauces or extra water).

Chuck a can of beans and some chilli con carne mix in and you have chilli con carne - serve with bread/avo/sour cream.

I think risottos is easy to cook and often make that with roasted pumpkin but my mum argues black and blue that risotto is not easy so :dunno: if that's on your radar.

do your kids eat curry? like massaman or green curry? you can make them with just veges.

Here's a baked risotto. You could use whatever vegies you wanted I imagine.

My casserole dish is really small (the ingredients just fit), so it bubbled over through the lid a bit and there was still liquid in the dish, not absorbed. I pulled off the lid and cooked it another 10mins and all was well. So, if that happens, try doing that.

It was delish though. I added peas as well, and didn't use pinenuts, and used tasty cheese. Oh and no herbs and used liquid stock instead of cubes. So...it's a bit versatile. :D