Ideas for BRITISH vegetarian food?

Question

Hi there,

I'm having friends for a 'Great British Meal' on Sunday afternoon. I'm trying to let my friends know that British food really is great (one is an arrogant Frenchman who thinks British food is rubbish!).

I'm planning on a soup to start with, then a help-yourselves main course with rack of lamb and salads, then ice cream.

However, one of my friends is a vegetarian, and I don't really know what to make for her. I need something which is British and seasonal, not too time consuming to make, preferably something I can make in advance, and also something which the non-veggies would also like.

Any ideas??

Thanks,

Nicola

Answer 1

If the BRITISH-NESS is whats most important.. i think u really have to go with a pie!  

But if you want to try & keep the dishes similar... maybe you could make your own nut cutlet, but aim for a chop from the rack of lamb shape??

To me, British food is heart warming stuff... pies & stews etc... apple pie for pudding etc.  

Theres loads of websites that can help you out.

Answer 2

Traditional roast dinner with a veggie roast (all the supermarkets do them) or nut roast and veggie gravy.

Vegetable pie and chips.

Potato rosti's with a veggie topping (starter)

Vegetable casserole with (or without) fake meat pieces and crusty bread/rice whatever.

Sausage and mash with veggie and onion gravy.

Some kind of veggie quiche/tart with new potatoes and salad.

Traditional fry up with veggie sausages, veggie bacon etc

Veggie haggis (found in supermarkets again) with whatever the scots have with it. Neeps and tatties whatever that is!!

Veggie bubble and squeak.

Veggie burger with chips.

If you shop around you can get veggie steaks made from seitan. Of course you can get Quorn but they're not vegan.

Waitrose do veggie fishfingers so fishfingers and chips for the kids?

I could probably come up with a lot more but it's early! I may get back to you!

Wherever possible it would be worth trying to source vegan ingredients or have vegan options as more and more people are becoming vegan and products such as quorn are unsuitable. (There's a pub near me that has a page of veggie food (great, they're trying!!) but it's all quorn products and unsuitable for vegans) Redwood foods are all vegan and a lot of Frys and some of Cauldron are. Also have some soya milk on hand for tea and coffee and soya margarine for the bread. If you do things like that you will soon be recommended in the veggie books etc. A lot of people have dairy intolerance anyway so it wouldn't just be for the vegans!

Answer 3

Vegetarians are quite difficult to cater for with typical 'British' food. Try Toad in the Hole with Quorn (non-meat) sausages? And the rest meat? Or Yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes and vegetables?

http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Cooking/How%...

(Or buy them)

Desert: Apple Crumble

http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes/pop...

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/desse...

Some more ideas from there:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/veggi...

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/veggi...

For more, I suggest you look through a few of Jamie Oliver's and Gordon Ramsey's recipes on the links.

PS. The French nick most of their food from other cultures and it really isn't that good - the quality of the food in France and the UK is about the same now. (Italy etc. is a different matter...)

Answer 4

beef wellington minus the beef! ha ha ha

good luck finding a good brittish vegitarian dish

what i hear alot in the uk is:

for a vegitarian option, you can **** off

lol !

Answer 5

My favourite British veggie recipe is a vegetarian shepherds pie:

Little bit of olive oil

1 onion

4 cloves garlic

120g bulgar wheat

1 tbsp dried oregan

1/2 tbsp dried basil

375 ml veg stock (Bouillion veg stock is best)

1/2 tin of tomatoes

1 tin of chickpeas (400g tin)

100g froze peas

4 or 5 new potatoes

a small handful of fresh parsley

Chop the onion and fry for about  5-10 mins. Then add the garlic, basil and oregano and cook for another 5 mins.

Once the onion is cooked, add the bulgar, veg stock and the tomatoes. Cover and cook for around 10 minutes or until the liquid is mostly soaked up. Add a little bit more water if it all evapourates before 10 minutes is up.

While thats cooking, pierce the potatoes and microwave them in hot water for around 5 mins.

Then mix in the chickpeas and peas, and a little bit of pepper if you like before moving the misture into a casserole dish.

Slice the potatoes and put them on top and sprinkle the parsley over.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 200 C gas mark 6.

Serve!

This is delicious and is my favourite recipe at the moment. I tend to cook it at leat once a week.

Enjoy!

Answer 6

I see the problem. The only recipes I've got with me on my pen drive are vegetarian versions of meat dishes, and most of those are 'foreign'. Mind you, the French can't talk: their idea of vegetarian is onion soup using beef consomme .

I will try to check my culinary library when I get home. There are loads of dishes which, whilst not being 'vegetarian' per se, just don't happen to contain meat.

PS. I've had an idea! Good old cauliflower cheese. As British as it gets. Suitable for the vegetarian as an alternative main course with the salad. Also used as a side vegetable with meat dishes. (I will still check tonight, to see if I can find anything better.)

Answer 7

You can make a normal thing just using quorn instead of meat.    The quorn bramley apple sausages are nice, you could make toad in the hole....shepherds pie with the mince...you can also buy plain or seasoned quorn fillets (like a chicken breast)  look in both the fridge and frozen sections in the supermarket.

I'm a vegetarian but my meat eating boyfriend will happily eat quorn.

Answer 8

A delicious vegetarian pie made with soya mince, onion gravy, carrots contained in puff pastry.

These always go down a  treat with my veggie friends and meat-eater friends.

You could make them if you have time, or buy the Linda McCartney Country Pies which are really good!!

Answer 9

We make egg Mayonnaise with eggs from a local free range farm.

Chop the eggs (once they're hard boiled) and mix them with Mayonnaise either from the shop or from a recipe book.

You could also make a veggie cottage pie with veg and soya mince. Be careful with then gravy to make sure it's veggie as many aren't.

I think you arrogant Frenchman friend will have to eat his words when he tries the food:-)

Answer 10

One of the best British dishes is Toad In a Hole, just replace meat sausages with vegetarians sausages, or you could do bangers and mash.

The alternatives are there to pretty much make whatever your doing in meat, you can do with vegetarian substitutes.

But the toad in a hole is your best bet delicous, British and very easy to make.

Answer 11

Thanks for turning into vegetarian because of you more and more animals will save teir lives

Proteins: Body's protein needs can be provided by either animal or plant sources. Mixed protein diet obtained from various plant sources is better than animal protein and is recommended in diabetes, renal diseases and liver diseases. Mixed protein diet from different plant sources has been the pattern of diet in India for all vegetarians.

Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are mainly found in plant foods; like cereals, grains, fresh and dry fruits, legumes, vegetable, greens, nuts etc. plant carbohydrates include' large amounts of starches, sugar and fibers which are important for gut functions. The body is better suited to a high carbohydrate diet than a low carbohydrate diet. In fact 55% of the food intake should be carbohydrate. All animal products do not contain carbohydrate which is essential for body.

Fat: Plant fats differ from animal fats in two different ways 1) they are cholesterol free 2) they generally contain more polyunsaturated fat and less saturated fats. Plant fats usually have higher polyunsaturated fat value than animal fats.

A diet which is low in cholesterol and which contains fat of a high PIS value is associated with a lower incident of coronary health disease.

Vitamins and Minerals: plant foods are rich in many vitamins and minerals.

Vitamin D: Vitamin D is obtained by exposure of skin to sun light and this is not a problem in India.

Calcium: The vegetarians can meet their needs for calcium from dairy products. Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) Dark green vegetables are good sources of Riboflavin as are legumes and whole grain cereal.

Iron: The problem of iron deficiency is relatively common but vitamin C significantly enhances absorption of iron hence it is advisable for vegetarians to include with each meal a food high in vitamin C which as lime, citrus fruits or juices.

Zinc: Zinc is found in large number of plant foods.

Fiber: Fiber is found only in vegetarian food like whole grain cereals, legumes, greens, fruits, vegetable etc.

Thus in vegetarian foods all requirement of nutrition for body growth and maintenance is fulfilled. One can have a complete and balanced diet provided we take enough food which is as close to nature as possible in maintaining sturdy and disease free body. It is equally helpful in curing many diseases.

ADVANTAGES OF VEGETARIAN DIET:

More & more evidence is surfacing that directly links a prolonged non- vegetarian diet to diseases as cancers, heart diseases, diabetes, asthma just to name a few.

1. LOGEVITY: Vegetarian can expect to live 4-10 years longer then the non-vegetarians.

" Source: Seventh day Adventists study

2. LESS HEART DISEASE: Because of low fat, saturated fat and cholesterol content of the vegetarian diet the risk of heart disease is lowered. High blood cholesterol levels are associated with increased risk of heart disease.

3. LESS CANCER: Up to 40% of all cancers are diet related. Cancer death rates have been associated with obesity and high fat / low fiber diet. Vitamin A & C are thought to be protective against colon cancer. Low fat diets protect against prostrate and breast cancer. Indoles, lignans, isoflavones, protease inhibitors which are present in plant foods and shown to be potent anti carcinogens.

4. LESS BOWEL DISEASE: Diverticular disease and appendicitis occur more frequently with low fiber intake as in meat diet.

Answer 12

homemade soup!!

Answer 13

Mushroom stroganoff? lasagne with rataouille? stuffed peppers? cheese and tomato flan made with English cheddar?

Answer 14

Here you go...

http://www.vegsoc.org/cordonvert/recipes...

The link above has a bunch of British veg food recipes (to click on) with local ingredients by season to choose from including:

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The opposite of our "Global" index - vegetarian variations on traditional recipes from the British Isles and recipes using traditional British ingredients

Special Features:

Season to Taste

A collection of recipes based on seasonal, locally produced ingredients (local to the UK). One per month and an extra one for August!:

- Intro Page

- Seasonal Produce Chart

- Curly Kale & Potato Cakes

- Jerusalem Artichoke & Mushroom Pithivier

- Crumpets with Beetroot, Cheese & Rhubarb & Ginger Marmalade

- Pommes Anna with Pesto

- Warm New Potato & Asparagus Salad

- Grilled Vegetable Tian

- Summer Tagine

- Mixed Berry and Fennel Salad

- Spiced Blueberry Sauce for Ice-cream

- Spinach & Almond Pie

- Carrot & Lentil Sesame Bites

- Chestnut & Pumpkin Seed Croustade Cups

- Pumpkin & swiss Chard Risotto

- Leek & Caerphilly Cheese Crumble

- Ale and Mushroom Puff Pastry Pie with Champ

- Aubergine, Potato & Chick Pea Balti

- Blind Scouse

- Canal Floddies

- Cornish Pasties

- Dovedale & Beetroot Layered Yorkshire Pudding

- Haggis

- Cornish Saffron Soup

- Spicy Vegan Hot Cross Buns

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Good luck and hopefully you'll find several you like yourself and will make more often. Do be sure to try them out ahead of time though to make sure they work before Sunday's event.

Answer 15

Be very cool if you could find a vegitarian version of some really gross english meat dishes: Haggis, steak & kidney pie, Black pudding (blood sausage), ect