I am a vegetarian and have been since the age of 12. Back in 1987 it was not popular, not many restaurants/cafes would cater to you here in England.
Nowadays it is easy, most places even cater for Vegans, which I never thought would happen.
There are a few recipes I make regularly. If I am short on time, I have a pasta sauce recipe that is really easy to make and contains no onions or garlic.
Ingredients
1 * 400 gram tin of tomatoes
1* Capsicum/Pepper
100 grams Courgette/Zucchini
1 tablespoon oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried mixed Italian herbs (you can substitute oregano/basil)
1/4 cup of cream or soya cream
Optional 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
To make this I put tinned tomatoes in my blender to make them in to a smooth tomato paste.
I then chop up the Pepper and Courgette into pieces.
Once this is done, add one tablespoon of oil into a pan and fry the Pepper and Courgette for about 3 minutes on a high heat.
Then add the tomato paste, sugar, salt, Italian herbs and ground pepper, and cook this on a medium heat with the lid on for 5 minutes. You can add a tablespoon of tomato ketchup at this point to make the sauce richer.
Take the lid off, turn the heat down to low and add 1/4 cup of cream to this, you can use soya cream, which is what I normally use.
I then add the cooked pasta of my choice
This recipe is enough for 200 grams of dried pasta, to make the protein content much higher, I use pasta made from lentils. There are various brands I have used, all with success. Today I used red lentil pasta from a German online shop called KoRo, it contains 26 grams of protein per 100 grams, compared to an average of 12 grams with regular wheat pasta. You can also increase the protein content by adding cheese on top, I normally use grated Cheddar.
This pasta has a long shelf life and is an essential item in my food storage. I have a year's supply in, as it's cheaper to buy it this way.
I hope you enjoy my recipe.
All photos taken by me.