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Vegetable Main Dishes


Darienne

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We are not vegetarians nor vegans. We are Less-Meatarians (Mark Bittmanism)and I am on the lookout for delicious main dishes consisting of only or mainly vegetables. Hot, cold,lukewarm, whatever. Perhaps with a bit of meat...sort in the Chinese style.

We eat a lot of Chinese food...but right now I am off this cuisine...Ed never is...and love Middle East, Mediterranean, North African dishes, Caribbean.

Please: not too HEAVY or reliant on grains, rice, legumes, wheat products, etc, if possible.

I do make moussaka, lasagna with cabbage (not too yummy), and a mishmash of this and that. And next I'll try Mark Bittman's latest recipes: grilled corn; roasted vegetables assembled in a springform pan (can't recall the name of the dish).

Thanks.

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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I love a good aloo gobi for dinner - potato and cauliflower are hearty, so it's filling, but they're also cheap and last in the crisper well, so I can buy the ingredients early in the week and still rely on the ingredients being usable at the end of the week. It reheats well for lunch the next day, too.

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Time to get back to Indian food. Ed loves curried anything. We used to eat a lot of Indian food. Had forgotten about it. :sad:

And ya gotta love a dish for which you can buy the ingredients several days (weeks, sometimes) ahead of time.

Thanks.

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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What about ratatouille? It's a vegetarian clean-up-the-garden casserole with eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini and what all.

Forgot to mention it. We eat a lot of it, roasted I like best, with rice or quinoa or couscous.... Without eggplant, my life would have little meaning. Oh, and Brussels Sprouts too.

Roasted summer vegetables and roasted winter vegetables too.

Thanks judiu :smile:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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For my husband's primarily vegetarian family my favorite is eggplant parm. I usually coat my slices of eggplant in a light flour and egg batter, but even so, it doesn't amount to a lot of wheat product. In season, if you are ambitious, the tomato sauce can be made with fresh tomatoes.

In July and August I'm actually very happy to make corn the main event. Last summer I was really into corn fritters and corn pudding and corn soup with roasted green chile. Or just a couple of buttered ears of corn and some simple tomato salad on the side. But I can make a meal of just corn and peaches, so I'm a cheap date. Fresh shelling beans baked slowly in olive oil with tomatoes and fresh herbs makes a pretty tasty main. Recently cathyeats posted a recipe for quinoa with corn and roast chiles. My lazy version was without grilling the corn (I sauteed the corn and scallion in butter briefly), and upped the amount of corn to the 1 cup of quinoa, and it was delicious. That was a main in my book. Never had quinoa and corn together, but it was yummy combo.

We also like to have grazing dinners, which is sort of a kitchen sink production. Crudites, babaganouj, hummus, various salads of corn and beans, with mexican flavors or more traditional succotash, etc. I like it when there's no distinct "main," but lots of variety. I eat far less animal protein in the summer.

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Here are some of my favorites:

VEGETABLE COUSCOUS PAELLA

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/4688

BLACK BEAN PATTIES WITH CILANTRO AND LIME (I serve these with a yogurt/cumin/cilantro dip/sauce:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=665259

FAUX FRIED EGGPLANT (I use less Parmigiano Reggiano and more bread crumbs, since I find it too salty otherwise, and serve this as a main dish with thin spaghetti on the side):

http://www.recipezaar.com/59115

VEGETABLE TEMPURA WITH HONEY-MUSTARD SAUCE (I make an Asian dipping sauce):

http://www.recipezaar.com/Vegetable-Tempura-With-Honey-Mustard-Sauce-141291

VEGETABLE CHILI

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/4420

CURRIED COUSCOUS SALAD WITH DRIED CRANBERRIES

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=226616

THAI-STYLE PASTA SALAD (I make more dressing than indicated):

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/7270?section=

PASTA WITH ROASTED VEGETABLES AND GARLIC BROTH

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/101816

VEGETARIAN TORTILLA SOUP (I increase all the spices significantly, plus I use low sodium chicken broth instead of vegetable broth, and add a can of corn, unsalted):

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/4421

There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with CHOCOLATE.
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068-2.JPG

Slow-roasted cherry tomatoes. Cut cherry tomatoes in half, sprinkle with a scant teaspoon of kosher salt and maybe 2 tablespoons regular olive oil, then roast at 200 F for 6 hours. Quick version is 350 F for 90 minutes.

Then combine with goat cheese (I used manouri cheese, a semi-soft Greek sheep's milk cheese similar in flavor and texture to feta) and fresh pasta.

Tomatoes can be made ahead. If you roast enough of them -- say, about 2 lbs. worth, you can turn it into confit and can them.

This was Friday night's dinner and let me tell you, the wait was worth every minute. I have some leftovers, probably for tomorrow's breakfast. Scrambled eggs with tomato confit is a stroke of genius.

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http://www.citytv.com/cityline/food/recipes/cheeseeggs/article/45295--tortilla-bean-tomato-cheese-pie

Hi Darienne:

I have made this numerous times except that I sub ground pork for the beans and regular cheese for the "light". It is a recipe by Rose Reisman which I gather she made when she was on Cityline, on City TV which is think is based in Toronto. If you have trouble opening it I will copy and paste it for you.

Loved the picture of your dogs!

Elsie

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This time of year at our house, it's All Tomatoes, All the Freakin' Time.

Tonight's dinner is Gazpacho. Tomatoes + More Vegetables + Blender = Dinner in 10 minutes. With no heat. And leftovers. What's not to love?

Last night we had Chile-Coated Grilled Zucchini & Eggplant with Cilantro Lime Dressing from Chris Schlensinger's Thrill of the Grill. If you don't have that book, and you like to grill, I can't recommend it highly enough. And that particular recipe we live off of all summer long. Served over sushi rice, it's dinner for two. Or leave out the rice, and serve it as a side.

I have lots more ideas involving fresh tomatoes, along the lines of SobaAddict's gorgeous contribution, but I'm afraid they would all be disqualified because they involve pasta or bread. I still consider them light meals, but one gal's snack is another gal's heartburn...

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Thanks to all. :smile: I am overwhelmed by the response. I'll be cooking for weeks with all of this. Not to mention that I got out some of my Sainsbury cookbooks and found some lovely recipes to try.

Merstar: all I can say is WOW!

SobaAddict70: as always your photos represent your lovely dishes

ElsieD: yep, downloaded it just fine. Thanks, as always, for your help. Glad you liked the pups.

Lapin d'Argent: love your eG name. And thanks. And I don't avoid bread, pasta, etc. I just don't want them to be the center of the dish, as in say many spaghetti dishes.

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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Soups are a perfect way to eat a lot of vegetables. A lot of the middle eastern and african type ones use some couscous, rice, legumes or something like that to fill it out, without being overwhelming in that aspect. They really are one bowl meals. I like to team it with a salad for freshness but often don't bother.

This is one of my other, slightly less obvious, vegetable-y meals.

http://www.culinate.com/columns/front_burner/everyone_loves_vegetable_fritters

I go very light on the batter so it's pretty much just vegetables with enough batter to help them adhere well. They're so flexible, I use whatever we have lying around, serve them with a sauce/mayonnaise/chutney/whatever and flavour in any way I feel like... could be indian-style spices, asian twist, it's fun to try out different types.

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This is one of my other, slightly less obvious, vegetable-y meals.

http://www.culinate.com/columns/front_burner/everyone_loves_vegetable_fritters

I go very light on the batter so it's pretty much just vegetables with enough batter to help them adhere well. They're so flexible, I use whatever we have lying around, serve them with a sauce/mayonnaise/chutney/whatever and flavour in any way I feel like... could be indian-style spices, asian twist, it's fun to try out different types.

Thanks Stuart. I immediately dismissed the fritter notion, until I read the recipe. Sounds like a good idea and I'll try it. I don't do any deep frying at all...but these are not deep fried. Good one.

Soups are good unless they are 'soupy'. We eat soup for supper (we eat our big meal at noon) and so soup for lunch/dinner is less than exciting. Make it thicker and you have stew. :smile:

Thanks again.

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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This is something we try to do a fair bit as well. Some vegetable-focused things we enjoy:

Salad Plate

In summer I frequently keep a variety of salads in the fridge: potato, coleslaw, macaroni, quinoa, lentil, carrot, beetroot, pressed cucumber, etc. Usually we have 3-4 in the fridge at any time. Then supper is just a matter of a spoonful of each onto a plate, maybe accompanied by a boiled egg or some ham (especially just after Christmas when we are eating the eternity ham) and some sliced/raw veggies or salad greens.

Hummus & Tzatziki plate

Grilled veggies (zucchini, peppers/capsicum & eggplant) with boiled potatoes (or, if they're very small, boiled in their jackets, then thrown on the grill for a few minutes), served with homemade hummus and tzatziki. grilled pita is nice, but optional.

Turkish Zucchini Pancakes

I make these often, with whatever fresh herbs are available, generally omitting the nuts and cheese. We eat them as a main with greek yoghurt (with or without a bit of garlic stirred in) and sprinkled with sumac with sliced tomatoes (roasted tomatoes in winter) on the side.

Green Pancakes with Lime Butter

We've made this three times now, and in some ways I prefer them to the Turkish Pancakes as they don't need quite so much oil to fry up well. I mentioned these in another thread and noted that I omit the tablespoon of baking powder and add another couple beaten egg whites instead. Good with a green salad (sense a theme here?) and the leftover butter really is delicious with roasted cubes or wedges of sweet potato. Next time I make them I may add a grated & squeezed zucchini as well.

Potato Pancakes

I make them with shredded raw potato that squeezed out, a grated onion (one small-medium onion per two large potatoes), egg, a tablespoon or two of flour and some chopped parsely and/or dill when we have it. We always eat them with homemade applesauce rather than sourcream. And you can eat the rest of the applesauce for dessert with a bit of sugar added!

Roasted Pumpkin Salad

Toss 2cm cubes of butternut pumpkin with salt, pepper and olive oil and roast at 180C for 20 minutes or so. For the last 5 minutes add croutons made of ripped slightly stale italian loaf (this is a great dish if you had bruschetta the night before) and a handful of pinenuts, almonds or other nuts. Plate up with loads of parsley leaves (or rocket/arugula or spinach) and drizzle with some additional olive oil and a few drops of balsamic. We like some shavings of parmesan over this as well. The jagged egdes of the croutons get lots of nice crisp on them and it makes a good contrast to the softness of the pumpkin.

Colcannon (or some variation thereof).

Homemade perogies topped with fried onion and greek yoghurt (bacon an optional extra)

The ones I make have potato in the dough and are soft enough that they don't need frying, so we just eat them boiled. If we don't have onion, or I don't feel like making the house smell of fried onion, we top them with those asian fried shallots that you often get on top of laksa.

Pomme de Terre a la Pierogi (or it could be called Kartoffel nach Perogiart)

Hot boiled potatoes with perogi toppings. Nice with a bit of sauteed green cabbage. For when the freezer has no perogies...:hmmm:

There's a lot of potato action going on there! When I was growing up my father was very potato focussed and we rarely ate rice and noodles, so when I moved out I barely ate potatoes for years. Now I'm becoming more and more obsessed with them.

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Antipodean...ya gotta love that word. Thanks Sandra.

Also the spinach angle. I do love spinach so it's no problem. A home favorite is Spanakopita (with Moussaka). I'll try the Paneer dishes very soon. First, of course, I have to make the Paneer. :smile: No problem from what I can see.

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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