Vegetarian Recipes For A Balanced Vegan Diet Part 1

This follows my previous hub about Vegetarian diet.

Most people believe that a vegetarian diet is uninteresting and tasteless. It only needs a bit of creativeness to turn a few dull ingredients into a memorable dish.

Here I list a few vegetarian recipes picked up from different cultures and cuisines.

Beans With Tomato Sauce
This recipe is taken from the Armenian cuisine. It is best consumed ater a few hours of refrigeration. It can be accompanied by pitta bread and a plate of spring onions, green chillies,radishes, fresh peppermint and pickles.
It will stay fresh in a sealed plastic container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days.

Ingredients:
2 lbs of green string beans
5 tbsp of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
pinch of salt
ground black pepper
pinch of chilli powder
1 green pepper
3 ripe tomatoes or a can of diced tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste

Halve the beans and remove the stringy edges from it. Wash and pat dry them.
heat the oil in a pot and add the beans, crushed garlic, chopped onion, chopped green pepper, salt, pepper, chilli powder, tomato paste and tomatoes. Stir the whole mixture once or twice and let it cook for at least 50 minutes on medium heat stirring once in a while.

Let it cool in the pot for 1 hour before storing it in a plastic container.

Ich
This is another traditional Armenian Recipe to be consumed after refrigeration. Fill lettuce leaves with the Ich and enjoy a yummy vegetarian meal.

Ingredients:
3 chopped tomatoes or 1 can of diced tomatoes
1large onion
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 lemon
2 cups cracked wheat (Bulghur , found in supermarkets or mideastern specialty shops)
1/2 small bunch of parsley
2 spring onionions
salt
white pepper
chilli powder (optional)
4 tbsp olive oil

Chop the onion and fry in the olive oil until soft and a little brown in color. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, juice of one lemon, pinch of salt and a little bit of white pepper and a small pinch of chilli pepper (optional if you like your food hot). Let is simmer on a low heat for 1/2 hour.
put the bulghur in a mixing bowl, add the tomato mixture on top and let it rest for half an hour.
chop the parsley and spring onions and add to the bulghur mixture after it cools down. Toss the mixture as you would with a salad.

Mujadara
This is a traditional Lebanese dish. It would taste lovely with tossed salad and assorted pickles.

Ingredients:
2 cups brown lentil
1/3 cup of olive oil
1 cup cracked wheat (Bulghur)
2 large onions
salt & Pepper
4 cups of water

Wash the lentils and put them in a pot. Add 2 cups of water and let it boil and then bring the heat down and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Add the cracked wheat and another 2 cups of water. Again bring it to the boil and let it simmer until there's hardly any water left.
In the meantime, chop the onions and fry them in the olive oil until they are brown and crispy.
take the lentil mixture off the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes. After that pour the fried onions and the oil over the mixture and toss the whole mixture lightly to spread the onion mixture. Let it rest for a while. This dish is better consumed cold.

Broad Beans Casserole
This dish can be consumed hot or cold. You can have it with sliced pita bread.

Ingredients:
1/2 kilo broad beans (frozen, canned or fresh if in season)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 lemon
1/2 bunch of corriander
Salt & white pepper

in a pestle and mortar beat the chopped corriander and garlic. Fry the chopped onions and then add the corriander mixture. add the broad beans, salt , white pepper, juice of 1 lemon, 1 cup water and bring it to the boil. Let it simmer for 25 minutes. Then let it cool down.

Okra Casserole
You can use canned, frozen or fresh Okra for this dish. the recipe is very similar to the broad beans casserole, except you add 2 chopped tomatoes and 1 tbs of tomato paste to the mixture.
This dish is nicer when its cold.

Because we are limited in the amount of words and space on the hubs, I will continue these unique recipes in the following weeks with a series of hubs. If you've enjoyed these two articles please follow me in the next few weeks with the new hubs about more vegetarian recipes.