Three vegetarian dinner ideas

Skylar and I share dinner-making responsibilities. My nights are Sunday and Monday; his are Tuesday and Wednesday; and the rest of the week we’re on our own—usually going out to eat or scrumming up a low-effort dinner. We “meal plan” in response to the CSA box, or at least as much as we can when each week’s contents are a surprise. I used to be an avid recipe bookmarker and cook, but now I make things up as I go along (a skill I learned from years of recipe-following, but still), or I Google around and peek at various recipes until I’ve cobbled together some inspiration for the ingredients I have on hand. 

But now that we cook this way, I’m less likely to try new recipes. I must rely on my inconsistent memory to recall a corn chowder I bookmarked in the dark days of winter. I like our approach to dinner now, but I have to consciously revisit my lonely bookmarks. Here are a few recipes that have recently made it through.  

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Spicy Red Bell Pepper Vodka Rigatoni

I saw a photo of this red bell pepper vodka rigatoni on Chloe Walsh’s Instagram. The navy blue bowl immediately made me nostalgic for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. 

We make spicy red rigatoni often, but I had never thought to make a sauce with red bell peppers. The recipe calls for a jar of roasted peppers, but I decided to make my own by following this Googled recipe. (Be sure to really char them so the skins peel off easily.) The extra peppers made a welcome addition to a veggie sandwich. 

I followed the recipe as written, and while it was not Kraft Mac, it satisfied the savory, subtly sweet craving perfectly. 

 

Asha’s Saag 

Not to sound like the year 2014, but I have a hard time with kale. If I’m making a salad, it’s the last green I reach for—coaxing raw kale into a palatable and digestible salad base doesn’t make sense when there is arugula or little gem right there. But we get kale week after week in our CSA box, and while I enjoy sneaking it into herby pestos and quiches, more often than not I push it to the side and make Skylar responsible. 

When I saw

Asha Loupy

’s recipe for saag I thought, ah yes, that is where kale should go. I followed the recipe rather loosely, swapping the green chilis with a Lemon Drop pepper from the garden, replacing the fresh tomatoes with tomato paste, and skipping the preserved lemon (but only because mine had turned). I didn’t have time to pick up mustard seed oil, either, but I have it on my list for the next time I pop into my local spice shop or Kalustyans. 

Rather than a food processor, I used an immersion blender to blend it smooth. I added oven-roasted cubed tofu with oil, cumin, and coriander, and served everything over jasmine rice. 

Crispy Potato Tacos

Anna Jones and Hetty McKinnon are both such gifts for vegetarians; their unabashedly veggie-forward recipes are a welcome salve to the “meat-posting” of mainstream food media. I haven’t yet picked up McKinnon’s newest book, “Tenderheart: A Cookbook about Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds,” but I was eager to try her carb-happy recipe published in NYT Cooking for potato tacos. 

I followed the recipe as written, though I added a few small sweet peppers from the CSA that I diced and sautéed before mixing in the potato mixture. I also added ground coriander and Burlap and Barrel’s onion and garlic powders (don’t bother with grocery store brands). Instead of corn tortillas, I used flour tortillas from Caramelo (I buy $100 worth at a time and keep the extra in the freezer). I loved this recipe, though next time I may add beans or cooked, crumbled tempeh to bulk them up. 

I skipped her salsa recipe and instead used a thawed salsa verde Skylar had made the prior month (he follows the recipe from these enchiladas). I tested her instructions for freezing the non-fried tacos and they worked perfectly. I’ll probably make a double batch next time to use for freezer-friendly convenience meals. 🌮