[lovemygirl]

I've gotten a little lazy lately kind of just alternating tofu or black beans as the main ingredient in our dinners. I need some new ideas without using processed meat replacements like quorn or gardein. What are your favorites?

 

[jessandreia]

Chickpeas. I like to do sauteed chickpeas, green beans, onion and season it with salt and black pepper (sometimes garlic too). Accompany it with roasted baby potatoes or rice, or whatever you feel like.
Red kidney beans is my favourite type of bean to have with rice. I also like fava beans with potatoes and hearts of palm, with some olive oil and minced garlic.

 

[BlueMts]

Tofu - firm for some meals, fluffy for others.

TVP

Nuts

seitan -find your own amino acids because it doesn't have any.

Chickpeas

 

[Spudulika]

Setian is great, you can make your own from vital wheat gluten flour. Put it in stews, fajitas or sandwiches
Quinoa is nice for salads, or you can use it on the side like rice or couscous if your main meal is predominant vegetable based (eg: vegetable curry)
Just using soya milk in your breakfast smoothie, will bump up your protein intake quite a lot for the day (I use cronOMeter and can always see a reduction in protein intake when I've switched to almond milk or oat milk)

 

[tetramino]

I would add:
- buckwheat, which strictly speaking is not a cereal like wheat, and which is a complete protein. As a porridge (the Russian kasha), or as pancakes (galettes).
- lentils, which can be cooked in so many ways.

 

[silva]

Tofu - firm for some meals, fluffy for others.

TVP

Nuts

seitan -find your own amino acids because it doesn't have any.

Chickpeas

Heck yeah it does!
http://www.bertyn.eu/en/seitan/proteins-in-meat-fish-tempeh-tofu-quorn-or-seitan

I cook a different batch of beans, or mixed beans, every Sunday and make dips, spreads, soups, casseroles, sides with them for the week.
I love tempeh and tofu, and have experiment with a different way to make seitan at least once a month. I often combine gluten with beans

 

[Evanaxon]

I usually do tofu, beans, or fake meats such as Boca burgers.

Sent from my ZTE B2017G using Tapatalk

 

[hgw]

I put almonds, walnuts, carrots, celery, onion, either tofu, chick peas, or black beans, and cooked brown rice in a food processor and shred. Then I add herbs, spices, cashew milk, and ww flour for consistency. mix well and bake. Sometimes I sprinkle the top with sesame seeds or top with sliced tomatoes and marinara sauce. Makes a nice "meat" loaf.

 

[ruthwfortunato]

Mushroom, potatoes, chickpeas, peanuts... a lot of so-good things xD

 

[Mr. H.]

Before I was vegan my meals were always pretty standard. My plates were generally meat at 6 o'clock and a veggie and a starch at 10 and 2.

When I became vegan I was sort of stumped at what to do for 6 o'clock. I think it was Colleen Patrick Geaudeux who talked about a paradigm shift. where your vegan meals were layered vertically. Like pasta at the bottom with pasta sauce on top. or rice at the bottom and stir fry veggies on top.

It also means that you stop thinking about protein being the thing at 6 o'clock. For instance, in the pasta dish - the pasta on the bottom contains most of the protein. or in the case of the veggie stir fry, the tofu in the stir fry contains most of the protein.

then there are all the just meals in bowls, like chilis and soups. And the stuff that is just a big mixture like casseroles, lasagna, and eggplant parmigiana.

 

[Citrus333]

The protein thing is puzzling to me. Almost everything has protein, usually in surprising amounts. We tend to get way too much protein. A good veggie platter is sufficient. A baked sweet potato, steamed broccoli, corn, and sliced tomatoes make a nutritious meal without slamming your body with too much protein. A quick search shows that this meal has more than 23 grams of protein. Even the meat-eating nutritionists say that protein need only be 10% of your daily calories. IIRC, WHO (World Health Organization) says it's actually much less. It's easy to get protein...better to worry more about other nutrients.

 

[David3]

Even the meat-eating nutritionists say that protein need only be 10% of your daily calories. IIRC, WHO (World Health Organization) says it's actually much less. .

Hi Citrus, and welcome to the forum.

Please be careful to substantiate your statements by provinding links to reputable sources.

The World Health Organization does not recommend a protein intake of less than 10% of daily calories. In fact, the WHO recommends that people intake 10%-15% of calories from protein (see Table 6 of this report): http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/5_population_nutrient/en/
.

 

[David3]

A baked sweet potato, steamed broccoli, corn, and sliced tomatoes make a nutritious meal without slamming your body with too much protein. A quick search shows that this meal has more than 23 grams of protein. .

Could you provide links to your protein-content information, and how you got a protein total of 23 grams? It doesn't appear to be correct.

I find these numbers:

1 whole sweet potato only contains 2 grams of protein: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/generic-organic-sweet-potato-1-medium-baked-565697639.

1 cup of broccoli contains 3 grams of protein: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/657659889

1 entire cob of corn contain 2 grams of protein: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/136476090

1 tomato contains 1 gram of protein: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/634765432

There is only 8 grams of protein there. Unless you're eating several sweet potatoes, and/or a few plates of vegetables, I don't see how you will get 23 grams of protein from this 1 meal.

Please, please be careful with your claims on this forum. New vegetarians rely on us to provide accurate nutrition information.
.

 

[Citrus333]

I should've been clearer. The minimum recommendation of WHO is 5% of daily calories. And that 5%, according to my meat-eating primary care physician is sufficient. But whether it's 1, 2, 5, 10, 15 or even 20 percent, my point stands...we tend to consume far too much protein.

Thanks for the welcome, but it's actually a sort of "welcome back". I've been here twice before and both times life got overwhelmingly busy and I didn't have much time for, well, anything.

 

[Spudulika]

Beans beans beans. And soya products in all forms, including milk.

 

[Citrus333]

Could you provide links to your protein-content information

I can't post links (so please stop asking), but I can tell you that I did a quick search using terms like "sweet potato protein". There are wide and wild differences about the protein in corn, ranging from a couple of grams to 16 grams. I used the amount listed for yellow corn, since that's the most common. If the source was wrong, so be it...but it's a better idea to simply present your own information without the pedestal-standing or finger-pointing.

Please, please be careful with your claims on this forum. New vegetarians rely on us to provide accurate nutrition information.

Please, please be wise enough to know that a variety of sources will turn up a variety of answers. There are probably dozens of reasons for why there's such variation in information when it comes to food. For example, some sources identify only "sweet corn", while others only identify "white corn" or "yellow corn". Some refer to a full cob of corn, others to a cup, and still others to the weight. Sometimes, but not always, the differences are between field corn and so-called sweet corn. ::shrug:: Moreover, there simply isn't one source that is 100% accurate 100% of the time.

Your point about new vegetarians is well-taken, however the bigger truth is that no one should ever, ever take one person's opinion or information as fact (nor three, four or ten persons' opinions or information). Everyone should be sensible enough to fact-check and fact-check some more. Even sources considered to be reputable can be wrong. After all, we have the world at our fingertips, so checking for ourselves isn't just easy, it's paramount.