Two Vegetarian Versions of Classic Recipes
Sometimes people think that vegetarians have very restrictive diets. Far from it! Vegetarians can have almost every recipe just by changing some of the ingredients. Next, we’ll tell you how to make vegetarian versions of classic recipes.
Whether you’re a vegetarian or not, you will find these recipes interesting and delicious. They’re healthy and allow you to include new dishes in your recipe book. Also, most of them are a great way to encourage younger members of the family to eat more vegetables.
Vegetarian meatballs
Meatballs with tomato sauce, has to be the ultimate in classic recipes. Even though there are less and less people who make this dish themselves, and instead choose precooked meatballs, we urge you to try this!
You’ll see that making your own homemade meatballs is really worth it. They’re much healthier and most importantly, you are assured that all of the ingredients are natural.
Ingredients for four people:
- 2 garlic cloves
- 17 ounces of eggplant
- Half an onion
- 8 tbsp of bread crumbs
- 8 tbsp of chickpea flour
- Salt
- Half a glass of water
- 1 ounce of spinach
- Olive oil
Preparation:
Start by peeling the eggplant and cutting it into small cubes. Leave it on a strainer and cover it with salt for five minutes. Then, wash the salt away. This way it won’t make your dish taste bitter.
In a pan, lightly drizzle some olive oil and fry the onion and the garlic. Once they’re cooked, add the eggplant and the finely chopped spinach. Then add some salt (to taste) and cook everything on a low heat for 10 minutes.
In a bowl, put the chickpea flour and half a glass of water. Mix it all together. Then add the contents from the pan. If the dough is too soft, you can add some bread crumbs. Add them slowly as you keep a check on the consistency.
Finally, all that’s left to do is to shape and cook the meatballs. We recommend that you don’t make them too large, because they may not cook as well or the centers may stay raw. You can cook them in a deep fryer until they’re golden brown or put them in the oven (healthier version).
Vegetable lasagna
Lasagna is one of those recipes that everybody loves! If your children don’t like vegetables, this is a good way to encourage them to eat them. It’s also a perfect meal that you can make beforehand, and whenever you need to serve it, you just reheat.
Next, we’ll show you how to make a completely vegetarian lasagna. Remember that you can modify this recipe and use the same ingredients to make cannelloni. We’re sure you’ll want to make this recipe again and again.
Ingredients for four people:
- 8 lasagna sheets
- 7 ounces of fried tomatoes
- 7 ounces of cheese (preferably the kind of cheese you can melt)
- 8 ounces of mushrooms
- 8 ounces of squash
- 5 ounces of spinach
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Oregano
Preparation:
To make this vegetarian version of the classic recipe, you must start by preheating your oven to 330 degrees. As the oven begins to heat up, you can start to make this original lasagna.
In a pan, heat up some oil and fry the squash (you must cut it into cubes beforehand). Once that’s ready, set it aside on a plate and sauté the mushrooms in the same pan. Add the oregano and they’ll be cooked in just three minutes.
Set the mushrooms aside and use the same oil to cook the spinach. You’ll be left with three different plates that contain the three main ingredients to build the lasagna.
Find an oven dish that can fit the lasagna sheets, and oil the dish, using a brush. Place two lasagna sheets in the oven dish and spread some fried tomato over them, add the eggplant and the squash as well. Sprinkle some cheese on top and put in another two lasagna sheets. Cover them with tomato, mushrooms and cheese. Place the last two sheets on the top and cover them with enough cheese and oregano.
Put the lasagna in the oven for half an hour, or until the cheese begins to brown.