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Vegetarian main courses: Who needs meat?
Being vegetarian has never been so good! The days of choosing between cheese salad and an omelette are long gone with the huge variety of exciting veggie options now on offer. If you're looking for inspiration, we have selected some of Delia's best meat-free main courses here. If you want more, simply use the recipe search facility and click in the box marked vegetarian.
Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Lasagne
Baked lasagne is the most practical of dishes but sadly, because of over-exposure, the classic version is no longer the treat it used to be. This recipe follows the basic principles but incorporates the newer, smokier flavours of roasted Mediterranean vegetables. Even if you make it on a dull day, its dazzling colours will still be sunny.
Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie with Goats’ Cheese Mash
Although I am not a vegetarian, I really love this alternative version to meat, with its diverse combination of dried pulses and fresh vegetables. It's also extremely popular with veggie customers in our restaurant at Norwich City Football Club.
Almost Mayonnaise
This is adapted from Eliza Acton's recipe for English Salad Sauce, written in the 1840s. While hers used double cream, the recipe below uses eight per cent fat fromage frais. The vote from the team when we were testing this is that it's every bit as good as the original.
Roasted Tomato and Goats’ Cheese Tart with Thyme
This year I've also got this brilliant new recipe which once you've made, I guarantee you will go on making because it's just about the easiest and most sublime tomato recipe on record. It's great as a starter or as a main course with a salad.
Courgette and Potato Cakes with Mint and Feta Cheese
These quite brilliant little courgette cakes used to have to be fried, which is tiresome when you have much to prepare for a party. However, we have tried baking them in the oven, which works a treat.
Caramelised Onion Tartlets with Goats' Cheese and Thyme
When we made these tartlets for the photography, we couldn't stop eating them! Crisp, light pastry with such a luscious filling – and also lovely as a first course at a supper party.
Stuffed Yellow Peppers with Pilau Rice, Currants and Toasted Pine Nuts
The beauty of these peppers is that they can be made well in advance, then warmed through and filled with the pilau rice just before serving.
Warm Lentil Salad with Walnuts and Goats' Cheese
I think we should all be eating more pulses, so the more recipes that include them the better. In this warm salad, I've chosen the little tiny black-grey Puy lentils, but the green or brown variety will work just as well, given slightly less cooking time.
Asparagus, Cheese and Egg Tartlets
These delightful tartlets contain a combination of melted cheese, lightly sautéed asparagus tips and whole, lightly baked eggs. They are simple to prepare and just need popping into the oven 12-15 minutes before they are served.
Egg and Lentil Curry with Coconut and Pickled Lime
This is one of my very favourite storecupboard recipes. If you always keep a stock of spices and lentils handy and a pack of creamed coconut stashed away in the fridge, you can whip this one up in no time at all. It also happens to be inexpensive and highly suitable for vegetarians.
Feta Cheese, Spinach and Pine Nut Galettes
Galettes are very thin discs of flaky pastry which, unlike conventional tarts, have no sides. The concept is a good one because the pastry is barely there, yet it gives a light, very crisp background to all kinds of toppings, both savoury and sweet. This is a Greek combination where, authentically, the filling gets wrapped in pastry parcels.
Quattro Formaggio (Four Cheese) Pizza
This is the classic version of one of the most wonderful combinations of bread and cheese imaginable. You can, of course, vary the cheeses, but the ones I've chosen here are a truly magical combination.
Roasted and Sun-dried Tomato Risotto
Oven-roasted tomatoes, which have been slightly blackened and become really concentrated in flavour, are the mainstay of this superb dish. Add to them some sun-dried tomatoes, Parmesan, a hint of saffron and some creamy, nutty rice and you have one of the nicest risottos imaginable.
Mexican Enchiladas with Cheese
What are enchiladas? Well, they're Mexican wheat-flour pancakes that can be spread with some spicy salsa and stuffed with almost anything you have handy – in this case cheese – and then baked. An excellent light lunch dish served with a salad.
Courgettes and Tomatoes au Gratin
This is a very quick and easy vegetarian supper dish for two people, especially good if you grow your own tomatoes and courgettes and have a glut to use up. You could also serve it as a starter for four people.
Vegetarian Moussaka with Ricotta Topping
Yes, it is possible to make an extremely good Greek-style moussaka without meat, and even non-vegetarians will admit it tastes every bit as good. Serve it with a large bowl of crunchy salad along with some warm pitta bread.
Spinach and Ricotta Lasagne with Pine Nuts
This recipe is an absolute hit with everyone who eats it – even my husband, who professes not to like spinach! The combination of the four cheeses is its secret, and it is always on my top-10 list if I'm entertaining people who don't eat meat.
Sicilian Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes and Aubergines
Aubergines, tomatoes and Mozzarella are the classic ingredients of any classic Sicilian sauce for pasta, and roasting the tomatoes and aubergines to get them slightly charred adds an extra flavour dimension.
Spaghetti with Olive Oil, Garlic and Chilli
This one is pure pasta eaten and savoured for its own sake with the minimum amount of adornment – just a hint of garlic, chilli and olive oil.
Caramelised Balsamic and Red Onion Tarts with Goats' Cheese
The long, slow cooking of red onions and balsamic vinegar gives a lovely sweet, concentrated caramel consistency. These are then spooned into crisp cheese pastry cases and topped with melted goats' cheese and sage.
