[Poolfield2]

Dried are way cheaper though

[Caralou]

Chick peas are wonderful to bulk up meat free meals. I love chickpea curry, hummus, salads with them tossed in with garlic and olive oil dressing or falafel. Stuffed peppers as mentioned or stuffed aubergine. Aubergine tagine with apricots is yummy or vegetarian mousaka using mixed beans instead or mince. Hearty bean or vegetable soups are great as well. Marinade grilled vegetables and stuff them in pitta breads for quick lunch snacks. And none of them have sight of cheese in them! Although I do eat meat and dairy again I still eat very little of it, maybe once or twice a week, I do eat more fish now though and find it really fills up a meal healthly as well.

[mumofstig]

Isn't it strange that most of the tasty veggie recipes are foreign

[Mosslane]

Strangely enough I was just going to say that. We lived in Bulgaria for a while and I aquired several good veggie recipes. this is a favourite over there.

Rice and Courgette Mousaka

1 bunch spring onions
60ml oil
2 Tbsp water
7 small courgettes
2 medium tomatoes diced
8oz uncooked rice ( white or brown)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp black pepper
4 cups of water

Topping
4 eggs
Natural yoghurt - 1 large tub or 2 small - around 600mls
1/2 tsp salt
chopped dill and parsley

Clean and chop the spring onions and put in small pan with oil and the 2 tbsp water. Cook until soft. /slice the courgetes into 1/4 inch slices and then quarter these. Transfer the onions to a large baking dish and add courgettes, tomatoes, rice, salt and seasonings. Cover with lid or foil and put in pre heated oven (200c) until rice is soft.

For the topping - beat eggs into the yoghurt, and salt and herbs. Remove the cover from the mousaka and pour the topping over the mixture. Return to the oven without covering and cook for about 30 mins until top is firm and starting to brown.

Serves 6 generously.

[cob nut]

I often cook veggie meals as we aren't that fond of meat, I don't use quorn although I don't dislike it or soya, now that I do dislike....do you like pasta? if you do you may like this recipe which also uses a lot of the veggies from the allotment.

1 Onion sliced
garlic crushed (as many cloves as you fancy)
1 Courgette sliced or diced (depending on your preference)
1 large bell pepper sliced or diced (can be red, yellow, orange or green)
1 can of tomatoes or fresh tomatoes when in season.
2 tablespoons tomato puree
2 tablespoons tomato ketcup (optional)
2 teaspoons dried basil
4 ozs dried pasta
cheese for topping.

Heat a little olive oil in a saucepan & add the onions & garlic cooking until translucent, then add courgette & bell pepper & cook for approx 10 minutes or until it is cooked enough for your liking, add the basil, tomato puree, tomato ketcup & canned tomatoes (I chop mine) & mix well, continue to cook for approx another 10 minutes stirring ocassionally, whilst this is cooking put pasta on to cook.  When pasta is ready drain & then mix with the veggie mix, transfer into an ovenproof dish & put either grated cheese or thinly sliced cheese on the top & place under the grill to melt the cheese.

I have found that you can make this dish in advance & heat it up in the oven later just adding the cheese just before serving.  I make this amount for 2 servings.  

[titch]

Get some large mushrooms (portobello are lovely)

make some cous cous up and add some fried onion, pepper, anything you like really - when i say fry i mean tiny bit of oil and cook till soft and brown ( if i have some a little bacon is good too)
add the fried veg to the cous cous, use this to stuff the peppers, drizzle with olive oil and bak in the oven for 1/2 hour to 45 mins - delish - could serve with salad or more cous cous with some roasted veg in

one of our faves is sliced potatoes layered with onions, plenty of salt and pepper (sometimes thinkly sliced swede too) add stock to almost cover , cover the dish with lid or foil and bake on med heat for at least 1 1/2 hours - longer is better - for last half hour take off lid and dot with little marge or olive oil to brown - good on its own or with any steamed veggies

roast any veg you like ( i use peppers, onions, cougettes, tomatoes, butternut squash) and when done add to cooked pasta with plenty of black pepper - if you like you can blitz the roasted veg in blender to make sauce - i like it in little pieces os chop small beofre roasting - yum - a little cheese on top is nice too