With Lent upon us, now is as good a time as any to add to your repertoire of meatless recipes. Although many Americans eat meat three times a day, any vegetarian or vegan will tell you that you don’t really need meat to eat well. If you want something other than good old fish sticks and tuna casserole for dinner, read on.
Jackfruit carnitas tacos with a spicy chipotle sauce are a quick, easy meaty-feeling vegan option. Another almost effortless option is zesty sizzling ginger scallion sauce with pan-seared tofu. “Blackened” snapper with a salad of crunchy pickles will also light up your taste buds with little effort. Orecchiette, little pasta “ears” with breadcrumbs and broccoli rabe, is a texture fest that leaves you feeling like it was hours rather than minutes in the making.
Don’t be scared off by seemingly labor-intensive dishes. A vegetarian paella has fewer ingredients and many fewer steps than the classic version. No-boil noodles let you make a pan of lasagna without having to deal with the hassle of the pasta pot and noodles sticking together. Using bechamel sauce instead of tomato sauce for lasagne further reduces the preparation time. The luscious eggplant timbale is sort of like a reconfigured eggplant Parmesan — just as delicious and notably eye-catching.
Most of these dishes — and those below — can be prepared in an hour or less and are suitable for both casual and special-occasion meals. You may not be eating meat on Fridays during Lent, but you don’t have to do away with beautiful, delectable dinners full of flavor and texture.
These salmon skewers with tamarind sauce, adapted from a recipe by chef Marcus Samuelsson, make a quick weeknight meal and also work well if you’re planning for company.
Aromatic paella is made with artichokes and mushrooms, garlic, olive oil, saffron, mushroom broth and rice. Not a sausage or a piece of chicken, a shrimp or a mussel to be found.
This simple pasta dish is all about textures--crisp-tender broccoli rabe, slightly chewy orecchiette, crunchy garlic bread crumbs and creamy ricotta cheese, which melts into a sauce.
Lasagne is a layered, luxurious delivery system for flavor, made with thin egg noodles and bolstered by silken pools of the thickened buttery sauce known as besciamella in Italian.
A simple side of salmon gets showered with an Italian-style salsa verde, made with dill, walnuts and lemon, as soon as it comes out of the oven to add brightness to the rich fish.
Jocelyn Ramirez of the L.A.-based catering company Todo Verde shares her secret to vegan carnitas in her cookbook, "La Vide Verde." Made with jackfruit, this recipe is easy.
Tender, light fillets of sole are baked quickly in a hot oven, then topped with a warmed Provencal-style salsa of Moroccan olives, capers, tomatoes and fresh basil.
This eggplant cake-like creation has just enough cheese to add umami without being heavy. The sweet-acid tomato sauce balances the rich, fried eggplant.
This pot of lentil soup uses red lentils, turmeric and ghee plus a healthy dose of homemade berbere, the addictive Ethiopian spice blend that dyes the soup red and jettisons the flavor.
Fresh ginger root and green onions make a wonderful spicy ginger sauce for quickly pan-fried tofu, steamed baby bok choy and stir-fried shiitake mushrooms.
