Top 10 Vegetarian Tips and Recipes for Meat Eaters

If you've been living on planet carnivore for the last few years (perhaps with your fingers in your ears) then you may not realise that eating meat every day isn't that good. It’s not good for your health, the health of the planet and the welfare of the animals that you’re eating (or which animals you think you’re eating if you fell foul of Horsegate).

The UK government have recently got on board with this idea and in doing so they are in good company. Recent campaigns such as Paul McCartney’s Meat Free Monday and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Veg Every Day! have also got some meat eaters thinking about what they eat.

So here’s what I implore you to do, invite a bunch of your most avid meat-eating friends over and treat them to a vegetarian feast that will delight their taste buds and turn their minds to the benefits of going one, perhaps two days a week without meat.

Although I was born a vegetarian, my partner Ed is a staunch carnivore as are many of our friends so I face this challenge almost daily. Here are my top 10 tips for cooking veggie food for a meat eater:

1.    So much room for mushrooms: There’s a reason why meat eaters love to feed vegetarians mushroom stroganoff and risotto, it’s the texture. Particularly the big, fat portabellas; when paired with strong flavours these fleshy funghi can be a great alternative.

2.    Everyone loves a pie: It’s almost irrelevant what’s in it, provided you top your dish with a layer of buttery pastry your diners will be putty in your hands. My favourite option is a Peppered Mushroom and Stilton Pie by Simon Rimmer that satisfies tips 1 and 7 too.

3.    Smokin’: I can’t get enough of smoked paprika and Ed loves it too but anything smoked is ok by me, cheese and tofu are both ideal. It adds another dimension to a dish, something I just can’t put my finger on. Also, since so much meat and fish are smoked it is reminiscent of them too (ideal for carnivores that have come to tea).

This Smokey Bean Chilli wouldn't have been nearly so tasty without it.

4.    Create don’t emulate: you only have to look at my last post to see that I love a vegetarian burger but I wouldn't try and feed it to a carnivore I was looking to convert (at least in part). There will always be comparison and meat eaters are unlikely to come down on the side of the veggie alternative.

My one exception to this rule is mince, soya and quorn options are excellent and I've been told their taste and textures are spot on.

5.    Spice is always nice: Indian food (particularly Gujarati cuisine) is almost tailor made for the vegetarian diet. Vegetables, pulses, paneer and even tofu are wonderful vessels for the strong pungent flavours typical of this cuisine.

When I'm looking for inspiration I often turn to Tastefully Veggie for Indian inspiration.

6.    Supper club time: If you are also part of the “I want to eat less meat” set then perhaps you could host a supper club with a veggie theme. Invite over your friends and task everyone with a different dish. You’ll have a feast on your hands without the work and get to try all the different dishes. You could send the invites out with blank recipe cards for people to fill in too, making sharing that much easier.

7.    Say cheese: It may not be that healthy or low fat but cheese will give your food a unctuousness that does away with any need for meat whilst the good dose of protein will stave off hunger pangs later on. The general rule in our house is ‘if in doubt, add cheese.’

8.    Variety is indeed the Spice of Life: If you’ve got time on your hands then I highly recommend mezze or tapas. Having a multitude of dishes sprawled across your dining table demonstrates the how varied a veggie diet can be. HFW dedicates a whole chapter to interesting mezze in Veg Every Day! a book I would wholeheartedly recommend.

9.    Easy Peasy: If you haven’t got a huge amount of time to spare then cooking something quick and easy can be just as good (if not better) than going all out. Food that’s quick is accessible, if your diners can go home thinking “I could make that” then you’ve had a success. The Black Bean Soup I made a couple of weeks ago is one of those; it was ridiculously simple and exceptionally tasty.

10.  Don’t preach: This is perhaps one of the most important of all the tips, whether you are vegetarian, flexitarian, pescetarian or vegan no one likes to be told what to do (LOL at the irony of me telling you what to do by suggesting that you don’t). This is a chance for you to show off your culinary skills a bit and perhaps start off a friendly discussion but be careful not to cross the line into evangelism!

This blog post ended up being a fair bit longer than I originally intended but if you have the motivation to read to this point I hope you also have the motivation to host your own veggie dinner party. If you do, then let me know how it goes.