Vegetarian Meals For Meat Eaters

As the noted food writer Mark Bittman says in "Everything Vegetarian," Americans are increasingly becoming "flexitarians." More and more in the 21st century, Americans eat both vegetarian meals and those with meat. Noted chefs feature vegetarian dishes in their restaurants and home cooks serve meatless curries, enchiladas and pizzas. As authors Isa Moskiwitz and Terry Romero note in "Veganomicon," tofu hotdogs are frequently nowhere in sight.

Baked Pasta

Pasta has long been the fall-back vegetarian meal, and it's true that baked pasta dishes like lasagna and baked penne are hearty and filling enough for most meat eaters. Prepare any baked pasta without meat, or add tofu crumbles hidden in the sauce for extra protein. A variety of options exist beyond a basic red-sauce. Bittman's cookbook includes scores of pasta variations, including adding mushrooms and a white cream sauce, eggplant slices with garlic and parsley, a seafood lasagna and a baked ziti with goat cheese and olives.

One-Pot Meals

Add beans to any one-pot meal you already make to quickly switch it to a vegetarian meal. Add a combination of black beans and pinto beans to chili along with 1 tbsp. of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for a smoky hotness that will get raves from chili lovers.

Moskiwitz and Romero use red and white beans in their jambalaya recipe in "Veganomicon." They saute seitan, a vegetarian protein available in the refrigerator case, along with bell peppers, onions, celery, garlic and tomato paste. Then they add 2 cups of rice, 1/2 cup of broth, 1 can of diced tomatoes and a bit of cayenne, thyme, paprika, celery seeds, salt and pepper . This gets baked for 30 minutes for a Cajun-inspired dish served with hot sauce on the side.

Grain Dishes

Meat eaters can eat as much as they want of dishes made with rice and whole grains, since they are low-fat and healthy. Experiment with bulgur salad with peanuts, polenta with cheese and vegetables or rice pilaf with almonds and raisins.

Ina Garten, author of "Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics" recommends both wild mushroom risotto and spring green risotto as great last-minute dinners that you can cook in 30 minutes. The mushroom version takes 1/2 lb. of mushrooms sauteed in 6 tbsp. of butter with 1-1/2 cups of Arborio rice and 1/3 cup of shallots. Garten adds 4 cups of stock and 1/2 cup of white wine in small batches, stirring constantly for 30 minutes total. She finishes the dish with salt, pepper and 2/3 cup of Parmesan cheese.

Garten's green risotto is made the same way but uses chopped leeks and fennel instead of shallots. Garten adds chopped, cooked asparagus and frozen peas 15 minutes before the end of the cooking. She also adds lemon zest and 2 tbsp. of lemon juice in addition to salt, pepper and Parmesan.