• Vegetarian dinner – create a base from your favorite ingredients
• What is there for a vegetarian dinner?

Nowadays, a vegetarian diet is becoming increasingly popular and affordable. Growing awareness of agriculture, animal slaughter, and their impact on the planet is leading to more and more people adopting a vegetarian diet or significantly reducing their consumption of meat and animal products each year.

When embarking on a plant-based cooking adventure, it's worth gathering a wealth of ideas and recipes that will make preparing nutritious meals easier without getting bored. In this post, we'll share how to prepare a filling and delicious vegetarian dinner.

Vegetarian dinner – create a base from your favorite ingredients

Vegetarianism comes in many forms and variations. However, it is based on the exclusion of meat from the diet and the abstinence (or partial exclusion) of animal products such as dairy, eggs, and honey. The choice of individual products or their inclusion depends on various factors: ethical, economic, or health. When creating your own vegetarian menu, it's worth taking a step-by-step approach to see what works for you.

The basis of the products from which you prepare a vegetarian dinner can include several main groups, such as:

• Vegetables, fruits and herbs, including legumes (soybeans, peas, beans, chickpeas , lentils, peanuts, etc.)
• Cereals (and derived products) and groats,
• Mushrooms,
• Nuts, kernels and seeds,
• Algae .

When embarking on your vegetarian journey, choose simple, minimally processed products . By buying bulk items such as dried peas, groats, or a larger amount of olive oil, you can prepare many semi-finished products yourself, which often require the addition of preservatives to improve their shelf life.

What is there for a vegetarian dinner?

There are various ways to cook vegetarian meals. First, however, you need to make sure your meal contains the right proportions of valuable fats, carbohydrates, and, of course, protein. Meat is considered the best source of protein, which is easily absorbed by the body—but it's not the only one. Legumes (such as chickpeas, lentils, peas, or beans) provide large amounts of protein and can be prepared and seasoned in a variety of ways. Mushrooms are also a good meat substitute.

When planning a dinner, it's not worth limiting yourself to simply avoiding animal protein, but rather finding a suitable substitute. The best method might be to modify your existing recipes so that meat and animal products can be replaced with plant-based ones. In addition, there are a growing number of protein-rich meat substitutes available on the market, such as:

• Tofu, tempeh or yuba made from soybeans,
• Cereal derivatives, including wheat, such as seitan
• made from vegetables or vegetable protein, such as “meat” DOBI.

Other ingredients can also be substituted, such as cow's milk (which can be replaced with plant-based drinks), eggs (for baking, you can use 3 teaspoons of ground flaxseed mixed with 1 tablespoon of water instead of 1 egg), and butter or lard can be replaced with vegetable fats. Cheese substitutes made from soybeans or nuts are also available.

Remember to supplement each meal with fat. The most valuable are unrefined vegetable oils (cold-pressed), which we add to slightly chilled foods to preserve their properties. Also, keep things varied. Sprinkle the finished meal with chopped nuts, toasted seeds, sesame seeds, or fresh onions. Inactive yeast flakes or sprouts are also an excellent addition, providing the body with a dose of microelements and vitamins.