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WHETHER YOU’RE A full-time vegetarian or a carnivore who just wants a break from meat, it’s always a smart move to mix up your menus, cutting out chicken, beef, pork and other classic Irish dinnertime staples for a while.
Vegetarian recipes used to get a bad rap: people worried a recipe would be too complicated, too filling, not filling enough, or that it just wouldn’t appeal to everyone at the table.
But by now there are so many delicious veggie-based recipes out there, it’s simple to satisfy the taste buds of even the most diehard carnivore. And with the right recipe, you won’t even think about whether your meal contains meat or not.
From enchilada bakes to flavour packed veggie burgers, most of the below meal ideas can be batch cooked and stored in the freezer for later. Try one of these for a vegetarian meal that’s exciting, vibrant and full of flavour…
1. Lentil shepherd’s pie: A meat free shepherd’s pie is great for cooler evenings when you’re craving something really comforting. First, heat some oil in a large frying pan and fry some finely chopped onion, garlic, carrots, mushrooms and celery. Add a glass of red wine and allow to simmer for a few minutes to boil off the alcohol. Pour in a tin of chopped tomatoes, a stock cube, thyme, tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper. Next, add a tin of drained lentils and stir, adding hot water if the mixture needs more liquid. Bring to a simmer, then transfer to a gratin dish. Top with mashed potato, grated cheese, and bake in a hot oven for 20-30 minutes, until the topping is golden. Looking to go vegan? Skip the cheese, and swap normal potatoes for sweet potatoes for a moreish taste, as in Deliciously Ella’s recipe.
2. Creamy gnocchi bake: Start off by boiling a pack of gnocchi in salted boiling water for about 2-3 minutes (or use your favourite pasta if you can’t find gnocchi), then drain and set aside. Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan and sauté finely chopped onion and crushed garlic. Once soft, add a tin of tomatoes and some chili flakes, and simmer for 10 minutes until the sauce has started to thicken. Stir through a dollop of crème fraiche, a handful of spinach leaves and season with salt and pepper. Add the cooked gnocchi and mix everything together, then transfer to an oven proof dish. Top with grated mozzarella and bake for 30 minutes, until bubbling. Serve with garlic bread to soak up that wonderfully rich sauce!
3. Spinach and bean enchilada bake: Fry onion, garlic and peppers in a pan for a few minutes before adding the spices; a mixture of ground cumin, paprika and chili powder. Next, add a half tin of chopped tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes, until the sauce has thickened. Add in a tin each of drained cannellini and black beans, a bag of baby spinach leaves, and stir to combine. Place a tortilla onto a board or plate and spoon the mixture into it, repeating until all of the filling has been used it. Pour the other half tin of tomatoes over the top, sprinkle with some grated cheese, and bake for 15 minutes. Serve with a squeeze of lime, sour cream and homemade guacamole.
4. Potato and chickpea curry: This creamy Thai curry is very speedy to make – perfect for weeknights! First, gently heat oil, crushed garlic and ginger in a pan, stir for a few minutes and add in a heaped tablespoon of Thai massaman curry paste and fry for a minute or two. Ambitious enough to make your own paste? Honestly Alessandra’s recipe lists everything you’ll need (much of which you may have to hand already). Next, add in the veg – a mixture of peppers, cubed parboiled potatoes and asparagus. Pour over a tin of coconut milk and simmer for 20 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked, then add a tin of drained chickpeas. Simmer for another 2 minutes, and serve with rice and some chopped coriander.
5. Halloumi and portobello mushroom burgers: Coat the portobello mushrooms with olive oil, then season and bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes. While they’re cooking, prepare the rest of the ingredients; slice a block of halloumi, some red onion and tomatoes. Brush the halloumi with olive oil and fry for a minute on each side until caramelised. Top some burger buns (I use brioche buns here) with some pesto and mayonnaise, sliced onion and tomatoes, as well as the mushrooms and halloumi. Top with rocket, and serve straight away with sweet potato fries.
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some of us actually don’t wake up in gutters after drinking, nor do we drink excessively. why should the majority be punished because a small amount of people can’t control their alcohol intake….????
@David Peate: why should none drinkers be punished by having to pay the health care costs of those that drink?
The harm drink does is well documented, even to those that “think” they don’t have a drink problem.
Outside of the health costs the society costs are even greater, anti social behaviour, broken family’s and road safety issues.
@Barry: fully agree. Now, let’s also extend that reasoning to smokers and obesity
@Thomas Sheridan: let’s also extend it to people who don’t have children who contribute tax towards our education expenditure! See where this leads us?
@Thomas Sheridan: why and how are you being punished for people being fat and/or smokers?
@Darren: and all the people who do sports who end up in our a&es every weekend
@Anne Marie Devlin: and the elderly. They cost us a fortune
@Anne Marie Devlin:
@David Peate: we’re all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
@Darren: great post, spot on
@King B: Sugar tax for a start.
@Paul Mcnevin: 15cent onto the price of a bottle of coke , some punishment.
@David Peate: it doesn’t actually increase the price for those buying one or two drinks. All it cuts down on is the multi buy offers. People need to do more research
@FastBuck: looking down on people from the gutter, I used to perfect meslf, what a lonely place to be!!
@Anne Marie Devlin: they worked and paid taxes to fund their health care in their old age, majority now pay for their own health care, that’s a hidden fact of Ireland today.
@Barry: drinkers pay huge vat and excise charges that non drinkers don’t have to pay which more than offset health costs. Also they die younger so don’t need geriatric care!
It’s cheaper in other countries like France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, etc.
@Euge80: Exactly. There is no evidence at all that minimum pricing will have a positive effect. Blocking drink advertising and sponsorship would have a much bigger effect
@Mickety Dee: if you ban alcohol sponsorship you’re left with paddy power style sponsors amd tiny prize money.
@King B: No, cigarettes sponsors were taken away from Formula 1 and it’s still going well. You have a temporary void and it gets filled by someone else and quickly.
@Mickety Dee: minimum pricing will have a positive effect for the “premium” brands
@Fred the Muss…: F1 is still going well , you obviously don’t know a whole lot about the sport. Remember the f1 Jordan team? They were sponsored by Benson and hedges for most of the 90s , when tobacco advertising was banned teams like Jordan couldn’t afford the premium drivers anymore. They went to the wall. Now the traditional teams , Ferrari, McLaren they will always have huge money but for the mid-tier teams money has to come from elsewhere.
Maldonado a few years ago was brought in by lotus because he was backed with oil money from Venezuela.
Sergio Perez of force India had Mexican “business” men back him so essentially they were paying to race.
@King B: It’s meant to be the most elite racing championship in the world , yet you have ordinary drivers paying to be there. That doesn’t help f1′s public perception, which affects sponsorship money because it’s affected the viewership. It’s a vicious circle and I feel banning alcohol sponsorship would bring around a big change in the sports we love.
Advertising doesn’t make you start drinking or smoking, what it does is affect your choice of brand when you choose to so I really don’t see an issue with it.
We have the 2nd most expensive alcohol prices in the EU
@Craic_a_tower: no we have the most greediest politicians
whoever did this survey was well over his limit!!
Punish the many for the actions of the few
I might just take up smoking weed and pay drug dealers money instead of paying tax to our government,the country is being run by dopes.
@Paul Mc: well maybe the government should now look at controlling the use of drugs. It would be safer than alcohol and there would be a lot of revenue to be made, it would become a controlled substance therefore eliminating the crime aspect and drug dealing.
It would be a win win situation
@Paul Mc: I hear meth is great.
@Lisa Quinn: who told you that?
@Lisa Quinn: Meth is great, I get so much done when I don’t sleep for ten days.
@Alan Biddulph: yeah it’s some buzz it’s like a silver bullet to the head
@Alan Biddulph: there a guy that comments on here Maurice O Neil pure trump supporter,hit him up he’ll sort ya out
@Alan Biddulph: lololol!
@Mark Dowling: that is far too sensible an idea for these lot to consider.
@Aaron Jones: my pimp
Name and shame these shops selling alcohol that cheap. I have my credit card ready
@Trevor Devlin: Bottle of white wine is €4 in Aldi.
@Cian – Wash your: 3.99 if you pay by card
I roam around Supermarkets sampling their hand sanitiser, sometimes I bring a dash of orange
@FartyTowels: I have to bring my hands to a AA meeting next week
AAI bleating on again about minimum pricing. I wish they’d just go away and let people enjoy a drink in peace!!
Alcohol Action Ireland are a miniscule lobby group that are funded by the government to agree with government policy.
Minimum prices just means that the 2 liter bottle of cider for €3.79 just goes up in price, who would won’t to drink cider at that price, it won’t stop people who depend on alcohol form drinking, it just hits them harder in the pocket.
@Heisen berg1:and could lead to some turning to petty theft in order to fund their drink addiction. Excellent!
This crowd at it again looking for another excuse to tax an already over tax product the majority of people do not low grade alcohol to any excess anyway
You can’t do this. Oh don’t do that. You’re not competent enough as an adult to make your own decisions.
We’ll only give ya drink from this time to that time.
Another disgusting example of mammying by the state. The list of examples goes on
Oh No. Not low risk alcohol consumption (
Only rich people should be allowed to get drunk.
In times like this some people quote Shakespeare, WB Yeats or Séamus Heaney. I would like to quote Junior Soprano. “Go $h1t in your hat” we have enough to be worrying about buzz off the busy bodies we will police ourselves.
If you’re willing to drink Devil’s Bite then increasing the price won’t save you either. Taxing alcohol doesn’t have any effect on consumption. Neither does limiting sales hours for alcohol. None of these measures work.
@Julian Friesel: Nothing wrong with Devils bit. https://www.irishpost.com/outandabout/14-best-irish-ciders-154907
Oh give me a break. More nanny state and interfering idiots. I understand alcohol is a problem however just because drugs are expensive it doesn’t stop people using them. Or gamblers or other addicts losing their homes for them.
Yeah that’s it. Tax the poor. Watch now as we will see an uptick in petty crime associated with alcoholics going to greater lengths to fund their addiction.
While I agree we shouldn’t need Mammying, maybe removing some of the low hanging fruit helps those who can’t help themselves. Some people will spend regardless but maybe not all. That said, I imagine the knock on inflation in lower-mid priced alcohol already above minimum, will be worth watching. Any studies on that? E.g. If the 4 euro bottle becomes say 7 euro, well the bottle that is currently 7 will want to differentiate itself so will become maybe 9, and so on up in the teens at least I would think. Suppliers/producers/supermarkets will increase prices already above the minimum level to show those wines are superior to the now 7 euro plonk. It will impact everyone buying reasonable amounts at a reasonable price. Realistically though does it just makes trips up North more attractive…
@Sarah-J. Mc Hugh: that’s what i do every Xmas go into in the north as I live 20min drive away from it ,last Xmas 60 cans of Heineken cost me €52 plus there 5% where out here there 4.3%
The bar in Dáil Éireann sells drink for half price as well …
@satguy: No it does not
@Gary Kearney: it’s sold cheaper, they get it discounted TAX PAYER PAYS the shortfall.
We must be due a budget soon so…
Yea if they’re drinking pure p!ss.f right off it’s all we have left.drinking our bottle of p!ss at home( with no more than 6 people from 3 households)
If they think for a minute this will stop problem drinking they need the head examined.The first thing a person with a problem buys is their drink. So everything else will suffer, food rent etc
These are proven facts and why will they change now.
Its a fraction of the price in most EU countries, yet its made out to be a huge problem here? Bull…..
Defend Alcohol Action Ireland. Nannystate tw@ts
3 litres of hand sanitizer?? Is It after getting mad cheap after the shortage??
@Ben: it needs a bit of black current
Maybe they should invest in services to help people who have alcohol problems, rather than raising the price! It wont stop people drinking they will just have less to spend on food
@Siobhan Rosemary: or just raise the age to 21, it might help some
Wait until home brewing takes off among young people in response to this. You can make a beautiful IPA, cider, stout or even liqueur for ingredients costing as little as €15 for a 40 pint / 20 litre yield – and those ingredients are impossible to regulate or price inflate to stop home brewing, since they’re used every day in ordinary cooking, baking etc. Once that genie is out of the bottle, they’ll *never* be able put it back.
AAI and other authoritarian groups, as well as the VFI and anti-competitive lobby groups, are massively playing with fire by pushing for this.
@Patrick FitzGerald: Homebrewers are not the target here. Alcoholics don’t have the time or patience to wait for their alcohol. A homebrewed beer takes a minimum of 4 or 5 days to be drinkable but it will be fairly rubbish if not left for a few weeks.
Of course it is categorically proven time and again that those who are the most dependent on alcohol are the least sensitive to price increases.
@Reuben Gray: Young people who like to pre-drink in house parties at the weekend before heading out are the target, as the government repeatedly pointed out when they were first contemplating the law – and those people absolutely *will* be willing to engage in home brewing if this law comes in. Hell, it’s the main reason I learned how to home brew myself.
#Nannystate
Whoever thinks minimum pricing will help this issue is deluded.. think about it. If someone has to pay a little more, are they really going to not drink.. will an alcoholic say oh i have to pay an extra 5 euro, o think ill leave it.. will the parties where people pay hundreds for drinks, drink less be ause they may have to pay an extra 20?
Education is what is needed on the effects and harm of alcohol.. this is why itsnso much cheaper in the likes of Spain etc with fewer issues.. people aren’t short an extra few euro to keep doing what they are doing.. the only way this would ever work is to make the prices 10x higher and then it’ll just fuel a black market.
I’m so surprised our government or drink aware can’t see that.. Education in schools is whatnis needed
Great news
We can reach our sugar levels for even less so where’s the hullabaloo.
Minimum unit pricing only suits the big companies. For instance a 4 pack of beer with just 4% alcohol will cost almost €8. A naggin of vodka ie 6 shots for Smirnoff, Huzzar or Absolut will cost €5.25
I can’t be the only one who reads the headline and thinks, “Good”
More government control under the guize of health and safety.
Great, bonus if it tastes nice also ,prices are crazy high for everything in this country as it is
Great, bonus if it tastes nice also ,prices are crazy high for everything in this country as it is, and you can go to Spain or Portugal or uk and get fed and watered for a smidgine of the cost here
Whoever done this survey is obviously a member of the Green Party , sticking their policies down everybody’s throat.
It’s our life and our money. What a joke. How many gluten free beers will you get for €8 !!!!!
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