Please help a vegetarian who can't cook!

[Everrgreen]

I've been vegetarian for 4 years now and I still suck at cooking delicious vegetarian meals. Every once in a while I will pull out a cookbook and test a new recipe, but usually supper consist of potato or rice and 1 or 2 steamed or roasted vegetables. Lunch is often a cheese sandwich. People always assume I eat beans every night and know a hundred different bean recipes. I don't. Not at all. I lie though, because I'm embarressed to say that I never cook beans. Well except for the soy that's in fake meat products

Please help me!! It matters so much more to me now that my DS is eating solids. I feel like my diet is so boring and unhealthy. I want to do better!!

If you have any easy, quick recipes I would love to hear them (perhaps involving beans??). Or a cookbook recommendation (but one that doesn't have recipes involving a million expensive ingredients and tons of time). Or any advice at all.

[oceane]

if you buy canned beans you can't do anything wrong! chilis and lentil soup are so quick and easy that way. just use herbs and spices you like in a mix of jars of tomato and vegetable broth, add any kind of bean (I use kidney, chickpeas and black beans but I can't get those canned) and possibly cauliflower chunks, simmer until done.
lentil soup: same base but just cook the lentils in the tomato base until tender. works well with thyme.

I have heard good things about the Dreena Burton books in terms of being easy with not too exotic ingredients but that's a vegan cookbook.

[wytchywoman]

Canned beans are definitely the way I go. I just don't have time for food that is really fancy. I cook really really simple things. Pasta, burritos or tacos, casseroles, etc...You don't have to be a gourmet chef to cook food that is tasty and healthy.

[Keeta]

Go to the library and check out Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison and/or How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. Both are super comprehensive, use simple ingredients, and are not overly complicated. Oh and delicious. Another one I like is Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon - but it can be slightly more complicated at times. All 3 are huge and have TONS of recipes, and I think all three have complete chapters on beans.

[Inci]

I've been vegetarian for 9 years and I'm not a very good cook, either. But I do eat meals that are healthy and tasty, while simple! Here are some of my "staples":

Breakfast burritos (at any time of day):
- Stick a frozen tortilla on the oven rack to warm up, with the oven on the "warm" setting, with sliced cheese melting on top of it (optional)
- While the tortilla is warming, fry an egg, then put it on the tortilla.
- Add some kind of vegetable - e.g. chopped tomatoes, broccoli that you've sauted in the same pan with the egg, raw spinach, or whatever.
- Top with salsa and/or guacamole and/or sour cream

Sweet potato peanut butter soup:
- Chop up about 4 or 5 sweet potatoes (peeling is optional) and a large onion (more or less if you want), and boil in vegetable broth until soft enough to mash with a potato masher. (OR, blend with an immersion blender).
- Add a few big spoonfuls of peanut butter (the kind without sugar), and mash it up some more with the potato masher.
- Cook a little longer, with a cover on the pot if the soup bubbles too much...it always does for me.
- Add salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste

My favorite pasta, although it's weird to other people:
- Cook spaghetti as usual
- Heat a jar of spaghetti sauce, along with some fake meatballs (e.g. the frozen kind), and nutritional yeast
- Pour sauce on spaghetti and top with a can of crushed pineapple, and parmesan cheese

Pizza, the cheating way:
- Use a pre-made crust. Top with a jar of pizza sauce, shredded cheese, and fresh chopped veggies.

Simple things like oatmeal or salad can be a meal, if you add enough stuff to it. I like oatmeal cooked in coconut milk with frozen raspberries and honey added, or oatmeal with walnuts and banana chunks and milk. Salads can include nuts and seeds, or various cheeses, chopped boiled egg, fake bacon bits, croutons, chickpeas, green peas, pomegranate seeds, etc., etc...

My favorite squash:
- Slice a delicata squash into rings about an inch thick, and bake until soft.
- Slightly toast some walnuts, on a baking tray in the oven
- Top each squash ring with a dollop of ricotta cheese, sprinkle with walnuts, then drizzle with honey

I frequently eat a lot of hearty "snacks" that count as meals for me... e.g. cottage cheese with fruit mixed in (pineapple, grapes), apple slices with PB, an avocado with honey mustard dressing (I chop the avocado in half and remove the pit, then fill each little hole with dressing, and eat the avocado with a spoon), carrot sticks with hummus. Sometimes my breakfast is butternut squash soup - the pureed kind that comes in a box - drunk from a mug like it's a smoothie!
You can turn chips and salsa into a meal by mixing the salsa with cottage cheese (or plain yogurt), beans from a can, nutritional yeast, guacamole, etc.

[umsami]

Canned beans are easy.

Egyptians eat something called fuul which is pretty easy to make. It starts with canned fava beans, but you can use white beans or garbanzos. There are two versions: Easiest is heat up the beans... and then drain them (save some liquid) and mash them well with a fork. Add in 2-3 cloves of garlic (use a garlic press and you don't need to struggle with chopping)... some salt, pepper, and a little olive oil or bean liquid. You can add in a hard boiled egg if you want.... or some chopped salad (cucumbers, tomato, onion, lemon juice). Put it in some pita bread and you have a sandwich. The more advanced version would involve adding two glugs of olive oil to a pan and then sauteeing (cooking in the oil) some chopped tomatoes (can use drained canned chopped tomatoes) and onions until golden and carmelized. Then add 2-3 cloves of garlic..sautee for like 10 seconds....and add in the drained beans. Mash the beans while the heat up in the pan. Add salt, pepper, and cumin (optional). You can also add in 1-2 T of tahini (sesame seed paste).

I agree with the cookbooks above. Another two that came to mind are "The Starving Students' Vegetarian Cookbook" and "The Teen's Vegetarian Cookbook." The "teen" books tend to be oriented towards beginning cooks.

Oh, also the Moosewood Low-Fat Cookbook is one of my favorites.. .simple recipes too. There was this pasta with chickpeas and tomatoes that was really good and easy... oh and killer homemade chocolate pudding.

[EnviroBecca]

What you need are Honey Baked Lentils. This recipe has changed my life! It takes just a few minutes to mix up from cheap, shelf-stable ingredients; then you stick it in the oven for an hour while you go do something else. It's delicious, it's nutritious, it reheats well, it's great with any vegetable, and it's a comforting meal for cold winter nights.

I have many other recipes on my site, including several bean ones. Important tip for canned beans: Drain and rinse them before using, to remove the stuff that gives you gas!

Hummus is a great source of protein and fun to eat as a dip or sandwich filling. Fantastic Foods makes an instant hummus mix that costs less per serving than prepared hummus, and since you can mix up only as much as you want at one time you don't have to worry about it getting moldy in the fridge. You just add hot water, olive oil, and lemon juice.

Try adding nutritional yeast flakes to your potato, rice, or buttered/oiled vegetables. They're high in protein and B vitamins (often lacking in vegetarian diets) and I love the flavor--kind of like cheese.

Asian stores sell seaweed sprinkles that add protein and flavor to rice or potato. The variety I like are called norigoma furikake and also contain sesame seeds. If you are sensitive to MSG, check the label--some brands contain it and some don't.

When my son was a baby, one of his favorite foods was black beans and spaghetti sauce mashed together. (We had one of those baby food grinders and put them through that; a blender or food processor would work, or just mash with a fork.)

[Purple*Lotus]

This is my problem too. I don't have time to cook. I don't enjoy cooking. I don't want to cook. I hate the whole process, actually. But I love to eat

Mainly my diet consists of frozen Amy's meals. Good, but expensive.

I am heading to the library to get the suggested cookbooks!

[ceeveg]

One of our favorite meals is a sort of clean out the freezer/pantry meal :

2 potatoes, diced, peeled and cooked until just tender (you can use frozen cubed potatoes in a pinch)
About 10 oz of frozen spinach
1 can chickpeas
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
2 tsp curry powder
1 can unsweetened coconut milk

I usually put a little olive oil into the pan, then add the frozen spinach, cooking until warmed through. Then I add the potatoes, then the chickpeas and tomatoes, stir in the curry powder, and finally add the coconut milk.

I let it simmer on the stove covered, and then reduce the heat and let it thicken up a little.

Great served over ww couscous, which cooks in no time. Also good with naan, tortillas, rice -- or even as a sort of soup.

Very easy and my 16mo LOVES it

[somegirl99]

I like The Peaceful Palate, the recipes are quite simple but tasty. The Vegetarian Starter Kit also has nice simple recipes, you can download it as a PDF to print or order a hard copy.

You might also want to see if there are any vegetarian cooking classes offered near you. I don't know if there is a Whole Foods close by, but they frequently have classes. Or if you have any vegetarian friends who cook, try cooking a couple of meals with them, you might learn some good tips.