Recipe Requested non-meat-centric dinner ideas

[chefwp]

To the vegetarian and vegan KKFers, tell me the top 5 dinners in your rotation.
To the omnivore KKFers, tell me you favorite non-meat meals that have garnered a regular spot on your rotation.
All, thanks in advance!
Don't feel like you have to post recipes, I'm just looking for ideas. Of course recipes are welcome!
I'm not going vegetarian or vegan, but would like to incorporate more non-meat meals into my regular rotation.

 

[esoo]

This is fantastic
https://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/mushroom-bourguignon/

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

I'm far from vegetarian but I make a portobello mushroom sandwich that is really nice.

I use dark rye bread, toasted just on the outsides. Sauteed mushroom. Fried basil or sage leaves. Spicy, garlic (or whatever ya want) aioli. For the meat eaters, slip a couple pieces of bacon on it.

If dairy is okay, we also enjoy a good hearty homemade mac and cheese.

Veggie stir fry's are also a nice option. I go heavy on the heartier veggies like zucchini, mushrooms, and carrots so it stays "meaty" and filling. Using something like wheat noodles instead of rice is a nice change up.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

This lentil and rice dish I made for Christmas was awesome and could easily be the full meal:

Sspicy lentil and rice concoction. Just kinda winged it but turned out good. Red chili (maybe California?), cumin, smoked paprika, sumac, fenugreek, white pepper, turmeric, etc. Bell pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, onions, tomatoes, etc.

 

[miggus]

For me, what can be somewhat of a challenge is to get enough protein content into a veggie meal. That isn't a concern for everyone, but if veggie meals make up a larger amount of your food or if you train intensively, this becomes a consideration. Without that, everything's easier. So, my top 5 are:

- Indian Curry (or indian inspired curry ). It's very flexible, I prefer chickpeas as a base.
- Stirfry. Similar thing, you can combine what you have, Tofu or Tempeh are the obvious choices here.
- Linsen mit Spätzle (Swabian Lentils with homemade pasta). One of the few good vegetarian dishes Germany has produced.
- Burgers. Call me meat-ignorant, but the nice thing is again that you can make the patties in so many different ways.
- Lentil soup. It's important to use lentils that will disintegrate, i.e. yellor or red ones.

 

[chefwp]

This lentil and rice dish I made for Christmas was awesome and could easily be the full meal:

Cooked up this spicy lentil and rice concoction that I can just warm up tomorrow. Just kinda winged it but turned out good. Red chili (maybe California?), cumin, smoked paprika, sumac, fenugreek, white pepper, turmeric, etc. Bell pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, onions, tomatoes, etc.

Is that tahini on top?

 

[Lars]

Kuru Fasulye

Vegetable soups

Channa Masala

Pasta with broccoli and anchovies

This super simple pasta with cherry tomatoes

Falafel sandwich

Spinach and mushroom enchiladas with tomatillo sauce

Black bean burger

Pizza

@rickbern's Turkish lentil soup

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Is that tahini on top?

Plain yogurt (had it in the fridge) thinned with some cream and lemon juice.

 

[chefwp]

For me, what can be somewhat of a challenge is to get enough protein content into a veggie meal. That isn't a concern for anyone, but if veggie meals make up a larger amount of your food or if you train intensively, this becomes a consideration. Without that, everything's easier. So, my top 5 are:

- Indian Curry (or indian inspired curry ). It's very flexible, I prefer chickpeas as a base.
- Stirfry. Similar thing, you can combine what you have, Tofu or Tempeh are the obvious choices here.
- Linsen mit Spätzle (Swabian Lentils with homemade pasta). One of the few good vegetarian dishes Germany has produced.
- Burgers. Call me meat-ignorant, but the nice thing is again that you can make the patties in so many different ways.
- Lentil soup. It's important to use lentils that will disintegrate, i.e. yellor or red ones.

Great suggestions! The last one made me roll my eyes, not because it isn't also a great suggestion, but because I have a killer recipe for lentil soup that both my wife and I really love, unfortunately it gets strong protest from our two children

If dairy is okay, we also enjoy a good hearty homemade mac and cheese.

Oh yeah, mac-n-cheese is one of my favorite comfort foods, we definitely also make it the center of the meal sometimes with a greens salad or a green bean salad usually to accompany. It will never go into my 'regular' rotation though because I feel like it is a billion calories.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

I have Yotam Ottolenghi's book "Jerusalem" and it has some very nice veggie dishes in it but if I was going to get serious about leaning into veggies on a regular rotation (healthy) I would absolutely get his book "Plenty". It's all vegetables and I like his style.

 

[Heckel7302]

Pasta primavera. Not only is it vegetarian, you get to tiny dice loads of vegetables. My go to knife testing dish.

 

[M1k3]

My 2 favorites are:

Lentil Soup
Mushroom risotto

 

[timebard]

My 2 favorites are:

Lentil Soup
Mushroom risotto

Great minds and all that... made both of these in the last week.

I'm a big fan of veg and tofu stir fry with Asian noodles. Add a fried or poached egg on top if you need an extra protein boost. Indian curry with chickpeas or eggplant as a base are great.

I'm normally not a fan of quinoa, but my wife found a great quinoa mango salad recipe last summer with beans, veg, tomatoes, lots of herbs, avocado etc that's a great balance of fresh and filling.

 

[enrico]

Channa Masala

Yessssss

 

[MrHiggins]

As a New Mexican, I'd be remiss not to add: refried bean and potato burritos with green chile and cheese.

 

[MrHiggins]

Also, pizza is easily adapted to vegetarian.

 

[rgar4012]

These are our goto's:
1. Creamy avocado pesto with blistered grape tomato's
2. Channa masala
3. Dal bhat
4. portobello mushroom philly sandwich
5. bean/veggie/cheese quesadilla
6. black bean burgers
7. caprese salad
8. ratatouille
9. tomato bisque and grilled cheese

 

[rickbern]

I like three treasures from the ground

https://omnivorescookbook.com/di-san-xian-recipe/

 

[rickbern]

There’s actually a world full of eggplant recipes out there. @Lars this is a good one,

https://vidarbergum.com/recipe/aubergine-tomato-sauce-soslu-patlican/
Also, I posted this tian recipe, it really wants to be tomato season when you make it

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/provencal-tian.49006/#post-836985

 

[rickbern]

Sorry, I should have gathered my thoughts first.

Couscous with seven vegetables is a great vegetable entree

https://tasteofmaroc.com/moroccan-couscous-with-seven-vegetables/
Edit- use a veg broth or look for a different recipe. It’s also petty kid friendly with the raisin cinnamon thing

 

[Keith Sinclair]

With all those Indian, middle eastern spices can make vegetables taste good.

Fan of Falafel too in pressed grilled sandwiches.

 

[Jovidah]

My 2 favorites are:

Lentil Soup
Mushroom risotto

These were going to be my suggestions too except I always made both of them with chicken stock and usually there's also at least a small amount of bacon involved....
Anything that tastes good without meat usualy tastes better with it.
The spicy / Indian road is IMO the most fruitful road to go down since there you'll find the most dishes that are actually originally intended to be meatless, instead of just being adapted into a meatless variant.

If cheese is on the table, I've made plenty of salad like concoctions with feta in them that didn't completely suck; feta is IMO the best vegetarian bacon replacement.

 

[Beerzebub]

I'm not vegetarian but this has a regular spot on my rotation, and my son requested it for his birthday dinner when he turned eight recently so it must be good.

(Edit) This dish goes well with things like slices of eggplant roasted with lots of olive oil (and perhaps harissa), or seared/grilled zucchini, or ratatouille.

Pasta and chickpeas (non-soup adaptation) (serves 2-3)

250g dry pasta (small type, e.g. little shells, pasta mista, or fettucine broken up into short pieces)
1 can chickpeas (400g), drained and rinsed, or equivalent amount of boiled dried chickpeas
Salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed in mortar or minced
1 tsp fresh rosemary leaves minced and/or fresh thyme
2 to 4 tablespoons tomato paste and/or harissa (according to taste and desired heat level)
½ tsp Aleppo pepper
Additional olive oil, grated Parmigiano Reggiano, and optionally black pepper, for serving

1. Bring water to boil in a pot. When it’s boiling salt the water generously as you normally would for boiling pasta, bearing in mind that a few tablespoons of the pasta water will be used to season the dish. Add chickpeas.
2. After the chickpeas have been boiling for a few minutes, bring a saucepan to medium-high heat and add the olive oil, garlic, and rosemary/thyme.
3. Sauté for about 30 seconds. Before it begins to brown, add the tomato paste/harissa and Aleppo pepper (and optionally some black pepper can be added at this stage), stirring it in. Sauté for about five minutes.
4. Remove about half of the chickpeas from the boiling water (e.g. with a spider strainer). Add those chickpeas to the pan in which the tomato paste mixture is cooking.
5. Add the dry pasta to the boiling water that the remaining chickpeas are in, and set a timer for the number of minutes given on the package.
6. Sauté the chickpeas for a few minutes, then start smashing them (e.g. with a spoon). Continue to sauté the chickpea paste, keeping the pan hot enough that some moderate browning of the paste occurs. Add more olive oil as seems optimal.
7. When the pasta is almost done, add a large spoonful (about 2-3 tablespoons) of the pasta water to the chickpea paste and stir.
8. Drain the boiling pasta and chickpea mix (a fairly quick drain so it stays somewhat wet) and add to the chickpea paste, stirring.
9. Serve with drizzled olive oil, grated Parmigiano Reggiano, and optionally black pepper.

 

[Beerzebub]

With all those Indian, middle eastern spices can make vegetables taste good.

Fan of Falafel too in pressed grilled sandwiches.

My biggest breakthrough in making falafel was using one of these things to get a light and fluffy texture:

 

[SwampDonkey]

I'm not sure if these links from NYT Cooking will work but a few of my favorite vegetarian ish meals are:

Pickle-brined fried tofu sandwich. Treat it just like a pickle-brined chicken sandwich, but the tofu takes on a wonderful flavor. Will have non-tofu fans rethinking their stance

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes...ed-tofu-sandwich?smid=ck-recipe-android-share
Allison Roman's caramelized shallot pasta. Homemade or fresh pasta is a game changer with this recipe, I add a little ricotta for some creaminess and shrimp or scallops for protein, but chickpeas or tofu would do just as well. This is also a fun knife recipe since you're thinly slicing like 10 shallots.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020830-caramelized-shallot-pasta?smid=ck-recipe-android-share
This spicy (not really, maybe sassy) butternut squash pasta with spinach is a fall winter staple, as is the sage recipe below it.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes...sta-with-spinach?smid=ck-recipe-android-share
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes...sage-and-walnuts?smid=ck-recipe-android-share
I'm a huge green goddess fan, this recipe is interesting to me since it combines tortellini floaters in to the salad. I particularly like this as a meal on the third day after I smoke a giant pork butt or other piece of BBQ where I'm tired of eating heavy, smoked meat. I to add about a half cup of mayo to the goddess dressing recipe, seems to smooth out the Greek yogurt bite.


https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020264-green-goddess-pasta-salad?smid=ck-recipe-android-share
Lastly for vegetables I just like to make a big curry with sweet potatoes, butternut squash, broccoli, chickpeas, mushrooms, red onion, and whatever else I have floating around. Hard to go wrong there and it's filling/easy to reheat for lazy lunches.

 

[Beerzebub]

Veggie Chinese dumplings can be good. I made some I liked (and even my family liked them) with a filling made from dried shiitakes, dried black fungus, chard, carrot, chopped glass noodles, and crumbled tofu, stir fried in oil with ginger, garlic, soy sauce and Madeira (nice sub for Shaoxing wine), and raw green onions mixed in.

 

[rickbern]

Haven’t made this, but this guy has a wonderful site, I’d try it. Seems super kid friendly

Eggplant “meatballs “

https://memoriediangelina.com/2011/08/07/polpette-di-melanzane-eggplant-meatballs/

 

[Jbpruner]

Tom Khah with tofu, coconut milk, thai basil, squash, and bamboo shoots

Chili verde (vegetarian) with chickpeas, over roasted potatoes, crema, and cilantro

Caramelized crimini mushrooms amd onions served over creamy polenta

Hard grilled zucchini and eggplant with chevre and Tuscan salsa verde

Bucatini with cherry tomatoes, zuchini, basil, capers, and Pecorino Romano

If your like recepies feel free to reach out

 

[esoo]

Just made this and it was tasty. Had it over egg noodles

https://vikalinka.com/creamy-mushroom-marsala-sauce/#recipe

 

[sansho]

mapo tofu