Becoming a vegetarian: the best sites for meat-free recipes
Whether you’re a part-time vegetarian or you’ve been one for decades, coming up with new recipe ideas can be a slog. But despite the demands it makes on your culinary imagination, vegetarian food is certainly worth the effort. More and more people are eating less meat for both health and ecological reasons – so it’s never been a better time to be a vegetarian.
Thankfully, the internet is brimming with resources to liven up your meat-free repertoire. Here’s our guide to the web’s best sites for vegetarian recipes.
Finding veggie inspiration online
Veggie is a popular magazine in the UK, and its website is just as good. Here, you’ll find a variety of vegetarian recipes to suit every palate and cooking ability. So whether you’re just hoping to throw something together or you want a vegetarian dinner party recipe to wow your guests, Cook Vegetarian will have what you’re looking for. What’s more, if you create an account, you can manage your own virtual cookbook to ensure that you can always find your favourite recipes.
Alternatively, if you’re looking for quick weekday meal ideas, BBC Good Food’s vegetarian recipes have much to offer. Here, you’ll find everything from simple meat-free snacks and iron-rich dishes to barbecue ideas and easy recipes that children can follow. You’ll also find a range of recipes that you can make ahead and freeze, which is a great way to save time on week nights if you have a busy schedule.
The Vegetarian Society is a great resource too, for both recipe ideas and information on vegetarian nutrition. Even Tesco are getting on the bandwagon: their Real Food website has an extensive selection of vegetarian recipes as well. All their recipes are customer rated, and you can even buy a recipe’s ingredients from Tesco online in just a few clicks.
Being vegetarian is a great opportunity to try out new ingredients too. For instance, if you’ve never been sure what to do with Quorn, Quorn recipes online will shed some light. Substituting beef mince and chicken with Quorn mince and Quorn chicken-style pieces is simple, and will certainly help you lead a healthier, vegetarian lifestyle.
Vegetarian recipes from great chefs
Despite the meat-based nature of many of his most popular dishes, Jamie Oliver’s vegetarian recipes are a great source of inspiration too. His website is full of tantalising pictures and easy-to-follow meat-free recipes that can be adapted to suit your own tastes. Look out for some all-time highlights, like his creamy macaroni cheese and his simple but delicious pasta salad.
For more vegetarian recipes from an acclaimed chef, Yotam Ottolenghi’s The New Vegetarian column is a delight. This weekly column ran in The Guardian from 2006 to 2011 and although it’s no longer updated, the full catalogue of recipes is available online. Although Ottolenghi isn’t a vegetarian himself, his creative recipes have motivated a new generation of food lovers to appreciate vegetables for their own sake, and not merely as an accompaniment to meat. So if you’re stuck for meat-free meal ideas, this could be just what you need to kick-start your imagination.
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