Any simple vegetarian recipes needing zero cooking experience?!
Is there any way I can learn the most basic skills required for cooking while keeping a vegetarian diet? Every "easy" recipe I've seen starts with too many ingredients and assumes you know basic techniques and terminology (like how to prepare vegetables or what they mean by simmer?) so it's really hard to begin. I'd like extremely simple recipes that were intended to be made by children if possible, with 3 ingredients at the most. Hopefully I can move on from there...
Answers:
I'm very fond of my vegan macaroni and cheese approximation, which can also be made lacto-vegetarian. I just cook some elbow macaroni, put it in a bowl, mix in maybe a tablespoon of margarine while the pasta is still hot so it melts and the pasta gets coated with it, then grate some vegan cheddar over it, mix and eat. I like to add some allspice, but that makes a 4th ingredient, so you can leave it out if you like.
Also, I don't know if you know this, so if you do, forgive my presumption, but right after you put pasta in boiling water, adding some olive oil or vegetable oil will help prevent it sticking together.
You can also google basic terminology, or maybe ask whoever does the cooking in your family.
the Vegetarian 5 Ingredient Gourmet is my favorite easy vegi cookbook.
if i can do it. anyone can.
and it's just fairly common ingredients too. nothing fancy.
if you don't want to buy the cookbook. her site has lots of recipes. i'm sure some of them are easy.
http://www.vegkitchen.com/category/navas…
In a microwave safe bowl mix together some canned beans, almost any beans will do but I'd recommend black beans or kidney beans, some canned whole kernel corn, and some salsa from a jar. Heat in the microwave to desired temperature, about 1-2 min. depending on the wattage of your microwave and the amount of food..
http://allrecipes.com//Recipes/everyday-…
Make fried rice: rice
oil
soy sauce
First cook the rice according to box. The heat up some oil in a pan, and add the rice. Pour soy sauce on it and stir it around.
Those are the basic steps. But it easy to jazz it up. I almost always add onion, garlic, and egg. Add any of your favorite veggies. Vegetables are added to the oil before you put in the rice. Add the rice when the vegetables are a bit soft.
I add my egg towards the egg. Clear the rice to the edge of the pan to make a spot for the egg, break it open right into the pan and stir it around with your spatula. Keep the eggs constantly moving so they dont burn in the pan.
Its a nice idea to sprinkle a bit of salt in there too.
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Chickpea Tacos: one can chick peas
one packet taco seasoning
tortilla shell
Drain the can chick peas half way, leaving a bit of the liquid. Put is pan on medium heat. Let them get hot and soften a bit in their lipuid, and then add HALF the packet of taco seasoning. Mix around. Take off heat when liquid is evaporated. Put in tortilla.
To get more fancy, saute (brown in oil) some onions before the first step of adding the chick peas.
And of course you can eat with peppers or beans or salsa if youd like.
A couple more easy ones:
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=4893.0
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=8786.0