VEGGIE TASTY: Where I Head for Vegetarian Recipes...

/ 8 comments
Some of you may be aware that around the beginning of the year, I made the decision to become a vegetarian. Why? Mainly because I got bored of making/ eating meals based on or around meat! These are a few sites and books I've been enjoying using for veggie food inspiration and recipes...


BOOKS
My tip for buying veggie recipe books is to look over each section of the book before purchasing. I've found quite a few vegetarian cook books which only include salads, plates of boiled veg and the odd bit of pasta - how very uninspiring and outdated! However, I have found a few books I really enjoy...

'The Vegetarian Student Cookbook' published by Ryland, Peters and Small. This book is awesome! Covering everything from dips and starters to more impressive meals and desserts, you can find something for any occasion. Being a student cookbook, most ingredients are pretty cheap foods that you'd have in your cupboard already. Each recipe I've tried from this has been spot on - delicious, easy to make and uses accurate measurements. It also has a little symbol so you can see which recipes take 20 minutes or less - great for busy folk. I'd recommend this to any 'newbie' veggies as it's packed with tips! Buy from Amazon for around £7.

'Vegetarian' published by Love Food. I was really impressed by the 'Introduction' section to this book, which covers everything from where to gain key nutrients, to non-veggie ingredients you may not know about, to shopping tips and veggie meals for children. The recipes range from starters to desserts, though you may have to be a bit inventive with adding spices and seasoning as some recipes come across as a bit bland. Nothing a bit of imagination can't solve, though! Available from The Works for about £2 - £3.

Vegetarian Cookery by Vicky Smallwood. This book would be ideal for anyone wishing to introduce more vegetarian dishes to family meal times. There are plenty of hearty, filling meals in here, varying from snacks to sweet treats. I'd say that the measurements tend to be slightly out, but if you're used to cooking your instinct should save you! My Mum managed to find this for £1.99 from the Works, RRP £7.99.


WEBSITES
BBC Good Food - There are THOUSANDS of recipes stored on here and they all look delicious! You can search for your fave ingredients, check out the ratings and read the nutritional values for each meal. I always cast an eye over the comments for each recipe, often people leave excellent tips and ideas.

Jamie Oliver - I haven't actually tried anything of Jamie's yet, but I have heard good things! He has some really lovely looking meals and I've always thought he's pretty inventive with his ingredients. Plus, how can you not love him?!

4Food - 4 have a real mash up of vegetarian recipe contributors, from River Cottage to bloggers - everyone seems to be able to have their input! There's also a 'Veggie Kids' section, which I imagine would be undeniably useful for quick, tasty, fuss free kids meals.

Cook Veg - This is a fab place to discover some fool proof recipes with the 'Most Popular' section! There's also a forum to check out in case you need any help, or just to see what everyone else is loving food-wise recently.

BLOGS
Weirdly, I haven't found any purely vegetarian food blogs I can get into yet! I have found some great food blogs with vegetarian meals included, though. It's also really simple to pop in meat substitutes, like Quorn, to meat based dishes!

Fabulicious Food
A Taste of Home Cooking
The English Can Cook

There must be a heap more, but for now, these three are my faves!

Are you vegetarian? Vegan? What are your favourite recipes?

8 comments:

  1. As soon as I'm off to uni in September, I'm abandoning the meat & fish that I'm currently forced to eat.

    One of my favourite veggie meals has to be bean casserole - vegetable stock cube, little potatoes, beans (butter, kidney, etc), barley, tinned carrots, all mushed up in a pot and heated. makes quite a few meals and is scrummy x

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  2. I've been vegetarian my whole life and there aren't that many recipe books I'd actually recommend. Saying that I really like this one:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Food-Tried---Tested-Recipies/dp/0563488395/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1332189928&sr=8-2

    I find blogs so much better! I can print or save a recipe and then write it up in my recipe book once I've tried it and liked it.

    I've recently come across a couple that I've saved a lot of recipes from:

    http://www.shutterbean.com
    http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/
    http://whatkatieeats.tumblr.com/
    http://www.lottieanddoof.com/

    :) xxx

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  3. I might have to bookmark this page as you've got some great links. I gave up red meat in the new years and have started feeling so much healthier and happier now but I really need to learn how to work with vegetables so thanks a lot!

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  4. What a useful post, thank you! I've been a vegetarian for years now (despite my mum thinking it was a "phase" and telling me "if you don't eat the cows, the lions will". She wasn't even joking. True story).
    I think my favourite veggie recipe is any kind of stir fry, noodle-y, tofu kind of thing but I'll definitely take a look at some of those books/links. Will be very handy when I go to uni in September too!

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  5. I'm neither vegetarian nor vegan, but I do like vegetables.

    keepinghealthygettingstylish.com
    namastegurl.com
    eatmedelicious.com
    bittersweetblog.wordpress.com
    eatinglikeahorse.wordpress.com
    notjustapples.blogspot.com
    hipsterfood.tumblr.com --- This one is more of a gathering place for links to recipes, but there are some gems.

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  6. I have been vego for 4 years now and I found it difficult to find information as well. I ended up turning to ebay and buying a heap of cookbooks and was able to take recipes from there. I am not a super great cook so I am always looking for easy to prepare but healthy meals

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  7. I have been contemplating this for a bit now, definately will give it a shot!

    Great post!

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  8. I'm veggie and I eat a lot of Quorn, maybe not the best if you want to avoid "meat", but it's a great substitute and I don't feel like i'm missing out on anything, not to mention is 10x healthier for you.

    Theirs a blogger on the groupn blog that does soon good recipes, or a few good recipes on hello cotton too.

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