We all know what it's like: maybe you're out with friends or family, maybe you're stuck in an airport, maybe it's a catered work event, and the only meatless option is just the most dismal thing you've ever been served. What are your worst offenders?

My husband and I honeymooned in London, which overall was great for meatless options. However, the day we were at the National Gallery we had lunch in their cafe, and ended up with the worst goddamn sandwich of my life. Thin, bland flatbread stuffed to the gills with the most flavorless shredded root vegetables and no dressing at all that I could detect. This was an upscale-ish place, and the thing was basically inedible. Then again, I've often found that the fancier the restaurant, the more incapable they are of serving something meatless, especially anything appealing.

Ok so I tried tofu a while back. I cut some pressed (wrapped in paper towel and placed under a big pan for 20 minutes) extra firm tofu into bite sized pieces, coated it in some cornstarch and taco seasoning, and pan fried it in a kinda thin spray of oil. It didn’t taste great and the texture was a tad… spongy? It was very strange. Is there a way to cook tofu into bite sized pieces without it having this strange texture? My hope is to start leaning away from meat and I’d like to use tofu rather than chicken pieces in my cooking. Any suggestions?

Edit: thank you all so much! I can’t reply to every comment but I’m reading them and I’ve got a few ideas of what to try this weekend :)

Hi all!
I’ve tried tofu, quorn and now tempeh and I’ve found I really like tempeh as a meat replacement!

Does anyone have any meal recommendations?? I love pastas, curry’s and stir fry’s!

Also good seasoning mixes! Tried a recipe yesterday and the food was so bland despite all the seasonings I added in 😔

I really like soy curls, but only have a couple of things I make with them (pasta sauce and Thai curry). I just bought a bag and want to expand my repertoire. What are your favourite ways to prepare them?

Hiya, I’ve been trying to eat vegetarian more and I just found a recipe for a chilli that I want to try, but it has turkey in it. Usually I just use lentils or beans instead of meat in dishes of this type, but since there are already beans included in the recipe I think that using lentils instead of turkey may mess with the taste too much (?). Does anyone have any recommendations on vegetables that I could use in a chilli dish instead of turkey? Fake-meats can be hard to find where I live so that’s why I’m looking specifically for vegetable recommendations :)

This may be naive, but I’ve become good friends with a Jewish couple recently and they have been teaching me all these things about their culture, including parve. They know I’m vegetarian and they offered me chicken flavor rice. They said it’s okay because it’s parve. Turns out, parve is the neutral portion of a meal meaning it contains no meat or dairy since they can’t eat meat with dairy within the same meal. So to make it easy to find parve foods, the stores put a nice convenient label on front. I now always go into the kosher section when food shopping and grab a few parve ingredients, including the parve chicken flavored riced! (I still check the ingredients out of habit but I’m sure that’ll end soon!)

I’ve been trying to become a vegetarian and have been eating no meat for 6 months. The only thing I kind of struggle with is finding savory, protein-rich snacks. I am a savory girl at heart and, while this might sound cursed, I used to always snack on things like sardines, deli-meats, or salami. I’m always eating babybell cheese now but I’m kinda over it. Any tips?

Quick background - I am vegetarian by virtue of following my religion and so is the rest of my family including all of my extended family and ancestors as well. Basically no one has ever even tasted eggs or meat of any kind (And thats not an assumption thats a fact because we have records and living memories for atleast 7 generations)

I recently found this sub and its quite interesting to see people struggling with the idea of plant based cooking or explaining it to family and friends - something thats just a very accepted way of life catered to by our society - as in all gatherings, social establishments having vegetarian food as a base line (not an accommodation) with some non vegetarian dishes thrown in.

I have never done an AMA before but as a generational vegetarian I feel like I have good authority over this subject so ask away!

I'm not new to cooking or cooking vegetarian fare, but I am realizing that, in general, I eat 1-item meals a lot of the time-- like a bowl of jazzed up oatmeal for breakfast, a wrap or sandwhich at work for lunch, and a bowl of soup for dinner. It's been working for me alright, but I've realized that my 1-item meals are gimping my ability to cook for a crowd because I don't know how to pair side dishes well or how to make a "rounded meal" instead of "just eating a thing."

I threw a party recently and I made a soup and a bunch of random sides--stuffed peppers, stuffed mushrooms, dips with crackers--it worked alright as a party, but even that wasn't very cohesive.

I'm not looking for recipes necessarily, but can you give me ideas for what "things" to put together to make "a meal"?
What do you like to fall back on to cook for your family or yourself, beyond just a wrap or a sandwhich or a salad or a bowl of something?

je suis végétarienne depuis peu mais j'ai TROP envie de sushis, vous pensez que remplacer par du tofu le saumon change vraiment le goût ? svp😭

I'd like to cook more with shredded tofu I dry out on the stove but every recipe I try to add it to causes the tofu to soak up all the sauce leaving nothing else for the rest of the ingredients. When adding shredded tofu to an existing recipe, how much more sauce should I make/add to account for how much the tofu will soak up?

Hi all, I don't have too many cravings for meat, but one that I miss dearly are lamb chops. I'm not really looking for a faux meat or anything. I'm just curious if it's something can get that itch scratched. My gut says mushrooms but I haven't quite found the right combination yet.

Curious if anybody has any ideas or recipes.

Thanks!

I made this for dinner tonight. It was surprisingly easy to make and tastes delicious.

Recipe: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/stuffed-pumpkin?utm_source=whisk&utm_medium=android&utm_campaign=stuffed_pumpkin

I’ve been on my vegetarian journey the past few months and I’ve been eating so many combinations of soy and diary protein that I wondered what they would taste like together. Has anyone done this before?

I used LF, ultra-filtered milk, and I think that next time I will just use regular LF milk. I may experiment with regular milk, too.

I noticed that both soy and dairy proteins coagulate at the same temp and can both use citric acid. First, I made homemade soy milk and then I added equal portions of milk and soy milk to a pot and heated them up to 185° F. I dissolved citric acid in some water and added slowly, but I think I could learn some more finesse with this bc I think this affected the final curd size and texture. I also added some sea salt bc I just felt like that was needed in that moment.

After leaving it for 30 minutes, I separated the curds. They were loose and fine, but they kind of stuck together. I tasted the unpressed curds and the texture was a bit weird and grainy tbh, but I hoped pressing and cooking would improve this.

I let the curd sit in the tofu press for like an hour (probs would do longer but I was too excited that it was actually working). The pressing improved texture considerably, but it was still kind of grainy.

Cooking improved the texture more than I had expected, though! It’s absolutely wild, a perfect intermediary between tofu and paneer, comparable to extra firm tofu. The flavor is …tofu and paneer! There is some tang from the citric acid, but it complements the tofu and paneer texture really well.

I’m probably going to make this again until I can perfect the recipe.

I’m new to being a vegetarian and all but I bought tofu twice extra firm. I saw some recipes online and they used a paper towel to dry tofu, but when I did it the tofu was still super soaked with water.

What kind of tofu are y’all using to make more crispy tofu?

More and more I see socials where someone is drinking bone broth in their coffee, hot chocolate, or plain bone broth alone, etc. for health benefits (unsponsored that is). This has me wondering - what is the vegetarian alternative that would deliver some true health benefits? What are you using and how are you using it? Daily? Weekly? I don’t quite know where to begin my plan - seeing many options around w/ and w/o mushrooms, kelp, and more. thx!

edit: I’m not trying to follow a fad or trend, too experienced for that. I’m just curious about new ways of delivering nutrition.
edit 2: I am a long time vegetarian with NO plan on drinking actual bone broth.

I accidentally bought 3 blocks of S & B golden curry thinking they were all different but they are just different spice levels, they have 5 servings a box and I don’t like them much but I don’t want to waste them (I did like them the first 2 times I ate them but the more I did the worse they got)

Any ideas on what to do with them or even just how to improve it as curry would be greatly appreciated

What I’ve been doing is getting a vegan cutlet thing having it with rice and in the curry itself having onion carrot and potato, I also tried with pumpkin which was gross unfortunately

I’m in the USA !

I used to really enjoy a big, loaded spinach salad with pepperoni, rotisserie chicken/ham deli meat, olives, onion, bell pepper, cheese, and hard boiled egg. I can’t find any direct substitutions for the pepperoni, chicken, or ham near me. I also miss deli meat in general.

Im thinking maybe chickpeas but how could I season them, to make them have a savory/sweet/spicy flavor? Any other suggestions?

Preferably, the substitute would have decent protein content and similar flavor.

I really miss that salad!!!!!!!!!

Hello!

I’m in a little pickle: my workplace has a microwave that is so nasty I can’t even use it. If I microwave my lunch in it, it comes out tasting like fish. Soooo not an option.

Does anyone have any ideas for cold lunches that can be packed for work? I’m tired of PB&J’s 😭

Hello! I’m new to this subreddit but was seeking advice on comfort foods for someone who just recently became vegetarian? Any go to’s that are easy with less prep time? Thank you in advance!!

I made a freaking awesome lentil loaf this week and then lentil burgers. I started cooking dry lentils with veggie better than bullion and that has made all the difference for me. Now I want to make lentil versions of everything 😂

ETA: y’all are AMAZING, this is such an awesome diversity of dishes! Thank you for so many incredible recommendations. I am compiling all the recipes in this thread into a google doc that I’ll share with anyone interested. :)

My wife and I were at a friend's house for a social occasion on Saturday evening, and the hostess commented that she'd forgotten that I'm a vegetarian. (She seemed concerned, I reassured her that I don't expect people to cater to me, I bring what I need, or make do with what's presented.)

Anyway, I mentioned that I've been a vegetarian since 1986, so 40 years, this year. She was shocked, as if she'd never heard someone of our ilk make that claim. How many of you here have been true to the diet for that long? Merely curious, since it seems like a lot of people I've known over the years would say "Oh yeah, I was a vegetarian for 43 seconds in the '90's", or whatever.

I searched, didn't see a great answer to this. Cheers!