Food Delicious Vegetarian Cooking

Are vegetarians less gamey when you cook them?
On a serious note, I do not have much experience with this area of cooking but would be happy to try it.

 

Are Shiitake mushrooms significantly different to cook with? My main experience with mushrooms has been sautéing them in butter and garlic to have with steak or mixing them in with Tetrazzini.

 

I had never even heard of lentils before moving to this area. Now I live just miles from the self proclaimed "Lentil Capital of the world"
Mushroom barley soup sounds good.

 

I found this on reddit the other day and I'm thinking about trying it out.

3 1/2 cups stock or water
1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into thick wedges
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Large pinch saffron threads (optional)
2 teaspoons Spanish pimentón (smoked paprika), or other paprika
2 cups Spanish or other short-grain rice
Minced parsley for garnish.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Warm stock or water in a saucepan. Put tomatoes in a medium bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle them with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Toss to coat.

Put remaining oil in a 10- or 12-inch ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, saffron if you are using it, and paprika and cook for a minute more. Add rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is shiny, another minute or two. Add liquid and stir until just combined.

Put tomato wedges on top of rice and drizzle with juices that accumulated in bottom of bowl. Put pan in oven and roast, undisturbed, for 15 minutes. Check to see if rice is dry and just tender. If not, return pan to oven for another 5 minutes. If rice looks too dry but still is not quite done, add a small amount of stock or water (or wine). When rice is ready, turn off oven and let pan sit for 5 to 15 minutes.

Remove pan from oven and sprinkle with parsley. If you like, put pan over high heat for a few minutes to develop a bit of a bottom crust before serving.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Credit: http://www.reddit.com/r/VegRecipes/comments/j6syr/vegetarian_paella_delicious/

 

I'm not much of a recipe guy, pretty much every meal I make starts with general proportions and working until it tastes good. In general, I find that as long as something is seasoned well and doesn't rely on the meat for flavor (lo Mein, stir fry, etc.) tofu in cubes roughly the size of the bits of pork or chicken called for in the recipe work well; it's seemed to me that celery salt in place of standard salt helps to compensate for the lack of savoriness.

 

In addition to the veggie patties, do you guys and gals have any suggestions for heartier vegetarian meals that a meat lover might enjoy? Dieting, trying to incorporate veggies into the mix, not wanting red meat or chicken every day, but am not a tofu or steamed veggie kind of guy.

 

There are a few recipes I'm going to share that I've come across.

One of Martin's favorite meals is Spanakopita. So I found a recipe to make it for him at home. Found here.

Other recipes I enjoy to make:

Eggplant Rollatini

Pasta Melanzana

Spinach & Cheese Stuffed Shells

Awesome Broccoli Cheese Casserole

 

My favorite way to cook tofu is to slice or crumble firm tofu into a little bit of canola oil over medium heat, and then fry it til golden. I then pat off the extra oil with a paper towel, then coat the pieces in a sauce, usually of the barbecue variety. It's not the healthiest way to serve tofu, but it's the "meatiest" way I've found, so even boyfriend loves it.

2 Tofu Tips:

I find that GMO tofu is harder to digest, so I recommend searching for a good non-GMO brand in your area. If you're in Toronto, the best place to get tofu is at Ying Ying Soy in the basement of St. Lawrence Market.

If you want extra-meaty tofu, freeze it before you want to cook it. When it thaws rinse the tofu in water then press all of the liquid out.

 

I only wish that I could learn the art of Indian vegetarian style cooking.
We have friends from India. The wife can take any sort of vegetables and whip up a delightful pungent flavorful dish.
I am a dedicated carnivore but Indian vegetarian meals are totally fulfilling and make me forget about the meat.

 

I've made Eggplant Parmesan before, and my mom told me to salt the eggplant slices then place them in layers between paper towels in a dish in the fridge for a few hours.
Presumably to get the bitterness and moisture out.

It seemed kind of extreme. It worked, but is there an easier process?

 

Baraka thanks, will definitely give that a try. Does not sound hard to make at all.

Eggplant has two lovers: Salt and olive oil.