I'm hoping to move to a more vegetarian mode of cooking. I need some dinner recipes that will satisfy my Midwestern, beef-loving boyfriend. What's your go to?
I like to cook risotto a lot, it's really easy to do and you can put anything you like in it. You can also substitute hummus for cheese to make a delicious vegan alternative. I like to start by chopping garlic up in to small pieces, then I saute it in extra virgin olive oil until it's light brown, then I take it out and leave it aside and get on with whatever else I want to add to the mix. Peppers, peas, spinach are what I usually gor for but sometimes I treat myself to chestnut mushrooms. No set recipe, but after the vegetables are fried/sauted, however you like them I then add the arborio risotto rice and stir it around, leave it a while to soak up the oil and turn a little brown, then pour on boiling water and leave the lid on, 15-20 minutes for the rice to soak up the water and then you just add the cheese, hummus, or whatever you like. I like to use cream and cheese when I am making mushroom variety... and plenty of crushed black pepper in right from the start. I always put black pepper in. Fresh chopped rosemary goes well with the creamy mushroom, put that in at the start too. Risotto is very easy to make, just experiment. If you add too much water just let it steam off. If you don't add enough then just add more. And my own personal touch is to add the sauted garlic in at the end, delicious crispy garlic croutons, and I like to add a few on the top after serving too. Careful not to to overdo the garlic though or it will taste too bitter and spoil everything.
Vegetable broth I cook a big pot of veg broth every few weeks and freeze half of it. I use it for soup, and as a base for other dishes like curries, anything really. It's easy but time consuming, and you have to be careful not to put in too much pearl barley. Sautee chopped onions, nice fresh sweet ones in a big pot with some crushed black pepper, then add boiling water and broth mix. You can buy the mix separately, but best to use a ready made mix to begin with as it's really easy to over estimate the pearl barley, and then you end up with a pot of sludge that smells like dog food. I don't know times, 1-2.5 hours simmering I guess, then add chopped potatoes and carrots to the mix and simmer some more until they're nearly soft, then add some red split lentils if you like and simmer until you have soup. You'll probably want to add some veg stock in there along the way, I like to add some in at the start and then near the end again. I like some butter beans in there but I tend to cook the butter beans separately, you'll need to soak them in water for minimum 8 hours then simmer for 45 minutes until soft. I always opver cook them... Soak some marrowfat peas over night too and add them to the broth mix too. Takes about 4 hours in total. When it's ready I let it cool down and I separate the potatoes, carrots and butter beans out as much as I can with some soup and leave them in the fridge and use it over the course of a week in various things like curries, the rest of the soup I put in to tubs and freeze and take out when I need them. Potatoes and carrots don't freeze so well so that why I do that. It's both easy to make, and easy to fuck up but the key is to not add too much pearl barley.
