Thursday, January 17, 2013

Four Quick Vegetarian Dinners

My wife and I are both still fully employed, even though we're getting very close to retirement age. Because of our busy lifestyles, we don't always have a lot of time to put together dinner. As a teacher, I'm often late due to faculty meetings, participation in extra-curricular activities, and staying behind to clean up my room and finish grading papers and exams. Since I do most of the cooking, I'm always on the lookout for a quick vegetarian supper that my wife and I will both enjoy.


Take a look at this spaghetti bolognese recipe which is decidedly NOT a vegetarian dish. It's very easy to convert this recipe, and others like it, into veggie-friendly meals. My ability to turn regular dishes into protein-packed veggie meals is why I call myself the Veggie Hero. I'll often have dinner parties that are fully vegetarian (and even vegan), and every single time I do this I get comments about how delicious the food is and how no one really missed the meat at all.

Here are four of my favorite quick vegetarian dinner options. These meals are easy to cook, very nutritious, and (in my opinion) extremely delicious as well.

1. Omelettes

I try to limit the amount of eggs we eat, since they're so high in cholesterol. But since our vegetarian diet is naturally low in cholesterol, the occasional dinner omelette is totally safe. Besides, egg protein is a major part of many vegetarian meat replacements, and you can do just about anything with an omelette. Just about any vegetable you can think of works in an omelette. A particular favorite of my wife's is a simple mushroom-spinach-cheese omelette that takes no more than fifteen or twenty minutes from start to finish.

2. Vegetarian Chili

I'm not a big Martha Stewart fan, but her recipe for vegetarian chili in the above link is both quick-to-prepare and fully vegetarian. This is a very satisfying meal that just happens to be healthy. You can serve this veggie chili to meat-eaters without telling them that it is meatless and I guarantee they won't notice any difference. It doesn't hurt that chili goes very well with our favorite wine, Malbec.

3. Veggie Burgers & Fruit "Fries"

French fries are a food item that I crave and, admittedly, miss. When I make veggie burgers, either pre-fabricated patties sold at the grocery store or my own black bean creations, I like to pair them with fake fries that I make out of crisp apples. I buy the biggest, freshest, sweetest, and most crisp apples and julienne them into perfect French fry shape. No, they're not as satisfying as the salty, ketchup-covered fries of my childhood, but they're extremely healthy, and they complement the flavor of any veggie burger you can think of.

4. Vegetarian Soups

If you are a vegetarian, you have to be careful when ordering "vegetable soup" at a restaurant. 99% of the time, these vegetable soups contain beef or chicken stock and even pieces of actual meat. When I make soup at home, I can control every ingredient that goes into it. The extremely-aromatic and totally vegetarian soup recipe in the above link is a huge hit, no matter if I'm serving it to vegetarians, meat-eaters, or anyone on any kind of diet.

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