As we should eat less meat but better, naturally every other or every third dinner should be vegetarian. But isn’t it hard!
Meat is easy to cook – it’s a centrepiece of a dinner, so all you need to decide is how to prepare it and what sides to serve with it. Vegetarian meals are more difficult: both coming up with ideas and executing them. But don’t even think about going down the road of fake meat products: they are nothing but ultra-processed food, with dubious nutritional value and negative environmental impact.
So here’s a handful of truly delicious, cooked from scratch, healthy and inventive vegetarian dinner recipes – and they are good enough to tempt even the staunchest meat eater.
A wholesome dish if there ever was one: beans are fibre and protein plus extra fibre from spinach and tomatoes. And it’s all incredibly delicious. You can use cooked butter beans from a jar but it’s cheaper to cook them from dried.
Tomato and spinach butter beans
RECIPE
Cabbage and walnut casserole is like deconstructed cabbage rolls. Baked with a savoury mixture of onions, spices and herbs, this Ottolenghi-inspired comfort food is perfect for any occasion. Topped with sour cream, it's a tasty and satisfying meal that's easy to make and sure to impress.
Cabbage and walnut casserole
RECIPE
Mejadra is the Middle Eastern comfort food. It’s a dish of lentils, onions and either bulgur wheat or, more commonly, rice. You might not believe that such a simple dish would taste so good but it really does. Use crispy fried onions and ready-cooked lentils for a speedy version of it.
The best of summer vegetables, peppers, courgettes, tomatoes and whatever else you fancy or consider a summer vegetable, are marinated with harissa, honey and fragrant spices. Roast them, then fold into couscous to mop up the juices.
Summer vegetables with couscous
RECIPE
Spelt available in the shops is usually pearled which means stripped of the ‘whole’ bran and husk. It’s because otherwise cooking wholegrain spelt takes hours. Good news though, it’s still nutritiously mighty and it makes a delicious risotto with dried porcini mushrooms: wholesome, flavoursome and effortless.
Spelt risotto with porcini
RECIPE
Chickpeas are usually presented in a sauce. Nothing wrong with that, but they are even better crunchy! Crispy popping chickpeas and roasted red peppers, spiced with chilli flakes and fennel seeds, with butter or olive oil in the vegan version make a fantastic main course.
Crispy chickpeas with roasted peppers
RECIPE
My favourite cheesy dinner: spicy lentils baked underneath a mass of molten cheese. I always recommend cooking lentils from scratch but to cut corners buy the ready-cooked ones in a pouch rather than tins. Which makes cooking them from scratch so much better value.
Spicy cheesy lentil bake
RECIPE
This gratin is a spin on dauphinoise potatoes, with sliced fennel and spuds baked in a creamy, cheesy sauce. It is very rich so well suited for your main course, with just a green salad for accompaniment.
Potato and fennel gratin
RECIPE
Thai noodles with cinnamon and ginger are unbelievably easy and unbelievably flavoursome. This recipe is a twist on Nigella Lawson’s one for Thai noodles with prawns. I make it vegetarian and I promise you won’t miss the prawns, however nice the original version.
Thai noodles with cinnamon
RECIPE
Provolone pasta bake with homemade tomato marinara sauce is quite simply the best pasta al forno recipe. The secret is a wonderfully tasty tomato sauce and provolone cheese - the best melting cheese for this type of dish.
Aubergine parmigiana, or parmigiana di melanzane is my absolute favourite. Layers of fried aubergine slices, mozzarella cheese, homemade tomato sauce and basil are topped with Parmesan, though that's actually not where the name is derived from!
Pancakes for a main course, by all means: with the delicious savoury filling of spinach and blue cheese. And the pancakes in the recipe are crêpes - European pancakes, thin and - you guessed it - flat as a pancake.
Spinach and blue cheese pancakes
RECIPE