Vegetarian recipes

What counts as vegetarian on this page

A recipe is tagged vegetarian only when every ingredient that is not optional is free of meat and fish. That rules out the obvious and the hidden alike: chicken or meat stock, fish sauce, anchovies, gelatine, and standard dashi, which is made with bonito flakes.

Cheese is where most people get caught out. The traditional Italian hard cheeses are set with animal rennet, so a recipe that needs Parmesan, Grana Padano or pecorino is not tagged vegetarian here, however meat-free it looks.

Optional ingredients do not count against a recipe. Arroz e feijão lists smoked bacon as an extra, because some Brazilian cooks fry it with the onion, but the rice and beans are complete without it.

Eggs, beans and cheese: what anchors a vegetarian meal

Without meat in the middle of the plate, something else has to hold a meal together. Eggs do it in shakshuka, where they poach in a spiced tomato and pepper sauce, and in tortilla española, set around potatoes cooked slowly in olive oil. Egg fried rice needs little more than cold rice, eggs and a very hot wok.

Beans and pulses do it in chickpea stew, Cuban black beans, fava from Santorini and akara, the Nigerian black-eyed bean fritters. Cheese does it in spanakopita, baked feta pasta and cauliflower cheese, where a mustard-sharpened cheddar sauce blisters brown in the oven.

Planning a vegetarian meal from starter to dessert

For a starter, deviled eggs are ready in under half an hour, or set out a bowl of cacık, the Turkish yoghurt and cucumber dish. Briam, the Greek tray of courgette, aubergine, potato and tomato baked slowly in olive oil, works as a main course with focaccia beside it, and margherita pizza needs nothing more than a caprese salad next to it.

Dessert is the easy part, because custards, crumbles and cakes rarely need anything beyond eggs, dairy, flour, sugar and fruit. Apple crumble, crème brûlée, flan, banoffee pie and brownies are all here. Once you have chosen, the ingredients you still need go onto a shared shopping list in one tap, grouped by aisle.