Vegetarian Recipe Ideas

**Heka** · 15 Jul 2014 04:53

Originally Posted by thalassa

About 10 year ago...if you are an officer or chief, on a larger ship its doable--they have their own stores. But for them to cook one dish for two or three people for the general enlisted crew? Not gonna happen. Sure, I could eat salad every day (on a smaller ship, which gets stores more often because it has to fuel more often), but that's no good either in the long run...and on a bigger ship, where you get stores less often (since it hold more cargo), the fresh veg is gone after about 2 weeks, leaving you with cottage cheese and canned fruit and rice.

I'm not a vegetarian anymore because I'm not fundamentally against eating meat...I never was a vegetarian for that reason anyhow. I was a vegetarian because I had/have issues with most industrial scale agriculture, including raising meat (and eggs). I have issues with land and water use for raising livestock.

But that can be "fixed" with conscious shopping. I get sausage, chicken, and eggs from a small sustainable family farm at the farmer's market, and seafood from the locally fished seafood guy at the farmer's market...heck, I even get cheese from the goat lady and the mozarella guy at the farmer's market. When friends hunt, we get deer sausage. We go crabbing... And we really don't eat much meat...maybe 2-3 meals a week.

IMO, most "vegetarian foods" that you can buy (fake burgers and the like) are just as bad as non-veg processed foods. We just try to eat as non-processed as possible. Though we have a few exceptions--the kids love ramen noodles and canned ravioli and perogies (I love perogies too), and Scott likes hot dogs (blegh). And...yeah, I'm not cooking 4 separate meals for 4 people!

That sounds like me. Im glad you can be ethical and use local produce and still get your meaty goodness. For now I'm happy being vegetarian. I don't really have your options. I don't know if I will ever eat meat again, but if I can get a situation like yours I may.

**Jembru** · 09 Aug 2016 14:40

I'm in scrimp mode at the moment because JP is between jobs. My favourite discovery is my chickpea burgers! I actually had the idea to make something similar using lentils but then I saw them make chickpea burgers on a show called 'Eat Well for Less' (BBC). On the show they mixed sweet corn with the chickpeas but I've been using whatever I find lurking in the freezer or at the back of the cupboard! Chickpeas are so cheap to buy dried and I always have some soaking because I use them in my salads for work.

My favourite burgers are to throw cooked chickpeas, lentils and chopped onions together in a blender with a bit of flour, pinch of rock salt, black pepper and chilli flakes. I form the mixture into patty shapes and grill them for about 5 minutes on each side. You could probably fry them too, although I haven't tried this yet.

I've tried different variations, including one where I added peanut butter, and so far they've all been decent. They're high in protein so are a good poor person's substitute for shop bought vegetarian burgers and so far I haven't had to buy anything in to make them. JP has a 4-week work placement coming up so we'll be stocking the cupboards back up then, but even if we didn't have that money to look forward to, it would cost less than £5 to replace the ingredients I need for the burgers, and that would keep me in burgers for weeks!

Just thought I'd share this little tip with the other veggies around here, in case you ever need to pinch the pennies but don't want to miss out on nutrition!

**B. de Corbin** · 09 Aug 2016 17:12

The chick peas sound good...

**Medusa** · 09 Aug 2016 20:00

Speaking of veggies eh....
So I'm wanting to branch out of my comfort area. I'm trying to try something new each week with my new meal plan. So this soy stuff. I've been looking at soy for beginner recipes. But anyone want to share any quick soy ideas I might try? I'm really iffy on the texture. But the thought of smothering it in sauce sounds 'ok' to me. Maybe a soy snack to get me started.

**anunitu** · 09 Aug 2016 20:19

Some Chinese cooking uses a lot of soy cakes..seems frying it in a wok gives it a nice texture. Only had it prepared in a restaurant,so not sure how one really cooks it like that.
My experience was from an ALL vegi restaurant in SF that was run by Buddhist monks. Must say they do vegi right...

- - - Updated - - -

Ok,found a Buddhist vegi cooking site.

Site here.

**Jembru** · 09 Aug 2016 20:32

Originally Posted by Medusa

Speaking of veggies eh....
So I'm wanting to branch out of my comfort area. I'm trying to try something new each week with my new meal plan. So this soy stuff. I've been looking at soy for beginner recipes. But anyone want to share any quick soy ideas I might try? I'm really iffy on the texture. But the thought of smothering it in sauce sounds 'ok' to me. Maybe a soy snack to get me started.

Are you using the chunks that you soak in water, or something else? I eat a lot of soy products but I don't really do anything exciting with it because I'm a lazy cook. I cut the chunks into smaller bits and add them to noodles, I chop tofu into miso soup or if I can afford the 'atsuage ' (the stuff that's fried so that it has a golden coating) or 'aburaage' (thinner version that you can use like an envelope and stuff like a sandwich -and yet the Atkins world hasn't picked up on yet!) I just eat it as a snack. I eat edamame as a snack too, or if I have the shelled beans I add them to salads. I eat natto straight from the carton (even my Japanese friends raise their eyebrows at this height of laziness and lack of creativity).

My favourite snack when I lived in Japan was kind of crisps (chips) made from soy and peas. They're now available in the uk so I'm really thrilled. They're called 'snapea' and are high in protein which is rare for that kind of snack and only 96 cals a bag. Definitely worth grabbing if you can find them in the US (if you have an oriental supermarket you'll almost certainly be able to find them, but in much bigger bags).

I guess what I'm saying is that I snack a lot more than I make proper meals...

That was a lot of brackets I'm a single post.

**Medusa** · 10 Aug 2016 14:22

Lol. I've never bought any. That's why I'm asking. I don't think I want the silken stuff. I'm thinking I could eat the stiff stuff. Maybe in a broth. That might be good. Something spicy to cover the bland taste.

**Jembru** · 10 Aug 2016 14:49

Originally Posted by Medusa

Lol. I've never bought any. That's why I'm asking. I don't think I want the silken stuff. I'm thinking I could eat the stiff stuff. Maybe in a broth. That might be good. Something spicy to cover the bland taste.

Then I definitely advise you to try the fried tofu first. I know you're watching your diet but it's not THAT bad, especially if you press it with a paper towel first to remove any excess oil. Some health food stores keep lovely flavoured varieties with herbs and spices. They're not the cheapest, but they're really tastey!

The soy chunks I mentioned are to be approached with caution. They smell and taste like pet food (don't ask how I know this). When used creatively they can work well (it's actually what is used in pot noodles to provide the 'chicken' bits), but if you're new to soy it could put you off for life!