My Veggie Kitchen Heroes

Everyone has their own signature dish they make for guests.  Whipping out a roasting tray or a griddle pan and grabbing some garlic from the fridge or Rosemary from the garden, it seems we all have go-to dishes that never fail to delight.

But what do you do if you are normally a meat eater and now have a vegetarian in your midst?  You’ve been Master at Arms in your kitchen for years and suddenly your teenager comes home one afternoon to announce that they are now veggie.  Perhaps you’ve found out your son’s new girlfriend doesn’t eat meat just after you’ve planned a huge Sunday feast or maybe a colleague is coming round for the first time for a Friday night barbeque and they need a vegetarian option.

I’ve known competent cooks to go to pieces and raid the freezer at Waitrose rather than come up with something homemade (and by the way, I’d eat anything veggie from the freezer at Waitrose any day) but if you’re looking to stir up something fabulous of your own creation, it’s not that arduous to remove meat from a meal without removing the flavour.  I’ve not eaten meat for nearly twenty years now and if there’s anything that sets off an attack of guilty ungratefulness at someone else’s dinner table, it’s the sight of a Quorn sausage next to my dauphinoise potatoes and butter sautéed baby veg, no matter how pretty they look.

But you don’t really want to be cooking two meals when you’re already under pressure, so welcome to my new blog series: Vegetarian Kitchen Heroes.

I thought I would start with some basics

If you’re cooking for a vegetarian there are a few really important things to remember:

• Sounds obvious but please keep meaty utensils, plates and all other equipment separate.   Finding out that someone has put the chicken gravy spoon in with the mashed carrot and swede just causes sadness.
• Not all veggies are cheese freaks.  Have a chat with your herbivore friend beforehand to find out what they like to eat and then head off to have a look at anything by Rose Elliot (she’s published about a million different cookery books and her website is really informative too) or the Vegetarian Society website.  I use the BBC GoodFood site a lot as well.

  

• Vegan and vegetarian are two very different cuisines.  Cooking without any animal products at all can be a scary proposition but the vegan society have a vibrant and really rather helpful website.  Or rustle up a chickpea and coconut curry – rich, sumptuous and utterly comforting – I’ve made this BBC GoodFood version before and it’s delightful.
• Check sauces, bottled ingredients and accompaniments.  Did you know that Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce contains fish, Muller Light yogurt contains gelatine (derived from animal collagen) and most authentic pestos contain cheese made from rennet (from animal stomachs)?  Five gold stars if you already knew all of this but it just goes to show that you need to check what you’re cooking with before you serve it up to a non-meat eater.
• Easy on the carbs.  It’s very easy to cut the goodness, protein and beneficial fats from a meal when you cut the meat.  The last thing you want to be left with is a dull, stodgy mess so using nuts, wholegrains, cheeses, eggs and so many other great foodstuffs can round out a meal, making it wholesome and balanced.  Do your research and have some fun.
• Go on, try a bit.  In fact, have a go at trying it once a week, or even for a whole week.  You’ll bump into new flavour combinations, textures you may not have come across before and who knows, maybe even a few extra vitamins and minerals.  My brother is a chef and he was impressed by just how much you can enjoy cooking  and eating when meat is no longer the main attraction.

The basics over and done with, I’ll share the ingredients I really love to cook with over the coming weeks.

Are you already a vegetarian and can add to my list, have you had any veggie cooking disasters or have you found the above helpful and fancy giving it a go?  Please share, I’d love to hear your comments.

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