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Comment by yummybear | Hacker News Reader

As a cooking enthusiast I struggle with finding vegetarian recipes that are appealing to me, my wife and kids, even if we’d like to eat more vegetables.

As a “carnivore” or at least omnivore, most dishes feel like they’re either missing some part (i.e. “dinner is just a salad”) or trying to imitate a meat product.

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You probably aren't using vegetarian foods with enough fat or protein. Veggie based meat substitutes often have ridiculously low fat contents so I have to add oil to get some umame flavor out of them. Like tofu grind that you might use as a substitute for ground beef is like 5% fat whereas hamburger is 10-20%. Adding some olive oil makes a huge difference.

Legumes like lentils and chickpeas are also very filling, and you can easily make them into amazing curries with very little effort by slightly overcooking the lentils, pan toasting the chickpeas, mixing them together with some coconut milk and whatever spices go with your palate. I like to use curry leaves, garlic, cumin, thai green chiles, salt, and onion as a base. The fat from the coconut milk will nicely improve the texture of the lentils (which have too much protein and fiber relative to fat to have the right texture) and as it cooks down you'll get something akin to a coconut milk korma or a close enough approximation that you can take it from there and just have it with rice or blanched spinach.

Cold turkey could be hard. Try transitioning slowly. As a start, just cook more veggies and load up your plate with them. Roasted broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, etc., can be amazing. You can also substitute less-bad meats (turkey burgers instead of cow, etc.) or try out some of the veg. substitutes.

Oh yeah, adding a fried egg to blanched spinach and quinoa is also very filling. If you're willing to eat eggs they can be extremely versatile with vegetables.

Going slowly would be my recommendation as well. I transitioned to lacto-ovo vegetarian over the course of somewhere between 2-3 years. First was red meat, then poultry, and then fish. Even there, I had tiny goals -- I started with, "I won't buy this at a supermarket, but I'll eat it if I'm offered, or at a restaurant."

I'm also a really picky eater, and it took about that amount of time for my palette to start to change, to the point where I now really enjoy salads, mushrooms, tofu, and well-cooked veggies.

Changing a pallet is hard, it's OK to do it gradually, and it's OK to experiment and find setups that work for just you. I'm still working on softer veggies like baked beans; everyone says they're really healthy, but I saute about 90% of the veggies I eat. There's something about steamed or boiled veggies that just grosses me out.

But there were other foods I thought I'd never like before, and it's been really interesting especially over the last 4-5 months to go back and try foods that I dismissed before and discover that I suddenly like them a lot more.

> Cold turkey could be hard. Try transitioning slowly

Aim for reducetarian and go with the flow. Experiment, and think in terms of possibilities; not limitations. That being said, artificial restrictions can aid as extrinsic motivation, stimulating you to experiment. It could also lead you to conclude that it is too <fill in> (e.g. boring), thereby giving up, while the reason is that you did not put in enough thought, time, and -ultimately- effort.

For no particular specific good reason (apart from having lived as full-time vegetarian for ~10 years, vegan ~2 years and reducetarian for another ~10) I can recommend the book Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. [1]

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8086216-plenty

Have you tried cheese and beans and cooked vegetables? Look up Asian and Indian/Nepali cuisine for ideas.

https://www.amazon.com/BOSH-Simple-Recipes-Amazing-Plants/dp...

Indian and Thai food is amazing. They might not be strict vegetarian as they still use fish sauce or ghee, but it's doable.

Also consider that your taste buds adapt, after a while going veggie you may find traditional cuisine too much fat or salty

In my town there are excellent vegetarian restaurants. Great inspiration and ideas for self cooking.

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