But I'm quite happy about tomatoes.

[slemslempike]

I want to eat more things that aren't meat, but there's actually a shortage of things that aren't meat that I actually like. (Things that go in main meals, anyway - if someone can come up with new information about the ideal supper being soft serve ice cream and butterscotch sauce then I will be DELIGHTED.)

So, does anyone have a recipe for vegetarian main meals that are not terribly difficult to cook, and contain none of the following:

mushrooms
cauliflour
aubergine
courgette
sweetcorn
cheese that isn't cheddar
kidney beans
beans in general I don't have much experience of other than baked beans
I don't think I like spinach much either
leek
celeriac
artichokes

I'm not big on chickpeas or lentils (though a minor part might be okay), and I don't like things to be very spicy. I tried to look through books and online things but they all seemed to centre on either mushroons or courgette, or presume an awful lot more cookery skills than I have. I think I might have to stick to fish fingers but I thought I should at least try.

Comments

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't worry. I'm coming to things from the Human Skeletal Remains in Archaeology and Mesolithic diet point of view; it's fine to eat a meat-only diet as long as you include fat and bone marrow, and it's fine to eat a really mixed diet with lots of different meat, poultry and fish and as big a variety of veg and fruit as possible, given the constraints of the North West European climate. And with regard to the last item, only mushrooms would figure on the list; so if you can tolerate the taste of brassicae (for genetic reasons I can't) why would you have to bother about spinach? It doesn't really have that much more iron than other greens - somebody put a decimal point in the wrong place and confused generations, and anyway as with all green vegetables, your system can only extract a small proportion of the iron unless it's eaten in conjunction with haeme iron, i.e. meat.

Your body can only handle the protein from pulses properly if it's in conjunction with the protein from cereal grains, which provide more carbohydrate than we really need nowadays, what with transport, heating and low levels of physical exertion. Baked beans on toast works well if you don't mind the extra calories.

How are you on stir fries? I'm not a great enthusiast for packaged vegetables, but a stir fry pack plus chicken or shrimps is quick, easy and extremely good in terms of nutrition.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I want to eat less meat because I can't really afford to buy meat that's more ethically farmed - I'm quite happy with my nutrition, but I quite like the vegetables I like and want to eat more of them.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

As long as you have small quantities of meat, that sorts the minerals. For the rest, just find out what vegetables (and fruit, don't forget fruit) you like and bulk up on them. Look on the supermarket shelves and experiment. I did a lot of that at a time when I had £10 a week to feed myself and two dogs on.