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High-protein vegetarian meals

Meat-free meals with plenty of protein from paneer, dal, beans, tofu and eggs. (508 recipes)

AboboiBambara beans in palm oil

Bambara beans, round and speckled, are one of West Africa's oldest crops, and in Accra they become aboboi: simmered for a long time until creamy, then finished in red palm oil fried with onion and pepper. Street sellers dish it out in the evening, often with gari sprinkled on top for crunch and sometimes with fried fish; this version keeps it meat-free and lets the earthy, chestnut-like beans shine. It is filling, protein-rich and costs little. Dried Bambara beans are sold in African and Asian shops; black-eyed beans cook faster if you cannot find them. Don't add salt before the beans are soft, or the skins stay hard however long they cook. Chef's tip: soak the beans overnight and use a pressure cooker if you have one, as unsoaked Bambara beans can take three hours and still stay hard, which is the most common disappointment.

125 minGhanaianVegetarianVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Jamaican peanut porridge

Before an early shift or a long day in the field, plenty of Jamaicans swear by peanut porridge, thick, nutty and filling enough to last until lunch; it is sold hot in cups from carts in downtown Kingston in the mornings. Roasted peanuts are blended with oats and water into a smooth paste, then cooked with milk until creamy and finished with nutmeg, vanilla and condensed milk. The mistake people make is cooking it over too high a heat, which scorches the bottom within minutes; peanuts burn easily, so stir and keep it at a simmer. This contains peanuts, milk and oats (gluten unless certified gluten-free). Chef's tip: toast the peanuts in a dry pan until they smell rich before blending, which deepens the flavour enormously.

30 minJamaicanBreakfast & Brunch
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Skyr

Skyr has been made in Iceland since the Viking settlers arrived: skimmed milk soured with a spoonful of the last batch, set with a drop of rennet, then strained until very thick, high in protein and mildly sour. Icelanders eat it every day with milk or cream and berries, or whisked into a drink, and skyrkaka is a favourite cheesecake. You need a few spoonfuls of plain shop skyr with live cultures as a starter. A common mistake is skipping the long, slow set; rushed skyr is thin and grainy. Chef's tip: strain it in the fridge overnight and stir it smooth before serving. Rennet is traditionally animal; use vegetarian rennet.

50 minScandinavianBasicsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Jamaican curried soy chunks

Ital cookshops in Half Way Tree and Papine sell curried "chunks" by the box with brown rice, steamed cabbage and a slice of ripe plantain, the Rastafarian answer to curry goat. The dried soya pieces soak up a deep, turmeric-gold sauce of Jamaican curry powder, thyme, pimento and coconut milk, and the potato thickens it as it breaks down. Most people skip squeezing the soaked chunks, which leaves them watery and bland; wring them out hard so they drink in the curry instead. Leave the scotch bonnet whole for warmth, or slit it for real heat. Chef's tip: fry the curry powder in the oil until it darkens a shade before anything wet goes in, the Jamaican "burn the curry" step that stops it tasting raw.

45 minJamaicanCurriesVeganSpicy
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sopa de chícharosSplit pea soup

When money is tight in Cuban homes, the pot of chícharos comes out: yellow or green split peas cooked to a thick purée with potato, calabaza pumpkin and a sofrito of onion, pepper and garlic. Most families cook it with a ham bone or chorizo; this version keeps it meat-free and gets its depth from smoked paprika and plenty of cumin. A common mistake is adding salt at the start, which can keep the peas from softening, so season once they have collapsed. Serve with white rice or crusty bread. Chef's tip: stir a spoonful of the hot sofrito into the soup right at the end, not just at the start, for a fresh garlicky lift.

75 minCubanSoupsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

KamaRoasted grain flour with kefir

Kama is a uniquely Estonian food: a fine flour of roasted barley, rye, oats and peas, sold in every Tallinn supermarket, stirred into kefir, buttermilk or yogurt with a little sugar or honey and berries. It was once farmers' food for the fields; today it is a fast, filling breakfast and the flavour of Estonian ice creams and sweets. If you can't find kama, roast equal parts barley, rye and oat flour with a little pea flour in a dry pan until nutty. A common mistake is eating it at once; give it a few minutes to thicken. Chef's tip: stir in the kama, leave for 5 minutes, then add the berries, so it thickens like a mousse.

5 minBalticBreakfast & Brunch
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Trini peanut punchPeanut butter milk drink

Bottled or blended fresh at roadside juice stands, peanut punch is what Trinidadians reach for after a long cricket afternoon, a hard gym session or a Saturday market run. Peanut butter is whizzed with cold milk, a little condensed milk, vanilla and a scrape of nutmeg until it is as thick as a milkshake and properly filling. It contains no alcohol, despite the name. The common mistake is under-blending, which leaves gritty clumps of peanut butter at the bottom of the glass. It contains peanuts and milk, so check for allergies before serving. Chef's tip: blend the peanut butter with just a third of the milk first to make a smooth paste, then add the rest.

10 minTrinidadianDrinksGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Haitian tchaka (vegetarian)Hominy, bean and pumpkin stew

Tchaka is a deeply rural Haitian stew of dried hominy corn, red beans and pumpkin, cooked low and slow until the corn bursts and the beans melt into a thick, sweet-savoury porridge. It is linked with harvest gatherings and Vodou feast days, and the classic pot usually holds smoked pork or pig's feet; this version leaves the meat out and builds depth with epis, smoked paprika and coconut oil instead. Soak the hominy and beans overnight, because skipping the soak is the main reason tchaka stays chalky. Serve it on its own in bowls, with pikliz on the side. Chef's tip: mash a cupful of the pumpkin against the pot wall near the end; it thickens the stew far better than flour.

150 minHaitianCurriesVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Huevos haminadosOvernight slow-cooked eggs

Sephardic families of Turkish and Greek origin in Jerusalem's Nachlaot and in Bat Yam tuck eggs into the Shabbat hamin or simmer them alone overnight, and by morning the shells are mahogany and the whites a pale coffee colour. The long, gentle heat turns the yolks creamy and the whites soft and faintly savoury, with none of the sulphur smell of a fast boiled egg. Serve them with bourekas, cucumber salad and grated tomato on Shabbat morning or at a Passover seder. The mistake is letting the pot boil hard, which cracks the shells and makes the whites rubbery. Chef's tip: a tight lid and the lowest oven setting are all you need; top up the water at bedtime so the eggs never go dry.

610 minIsraeliBreakfast & BrunchGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

BajellaBoiled fava beans with cumin

On cold mornings in Kuwait City, street carts and old-style breakfast cafés ladle out bajella into paper cups: whole dried fava beans boiled until creamy, served in their hot, salty broth with cumin and a squeeze of lemon. It is cheap, filling and warming, and families cook a big pot at home in winter and during Ramadan. Eat it with a spoon, drinking the broth as you go, or with Arabic bread and pickles. Skipping the overnight soak is the mistake: unsoaked beans take hours and split unevenly. Chef's tip: add the salt only once the beans are tender; salting at the start keeps the skins tough.

90 minGulf ArabianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Steirische Kernöl-EierspeisScrambled eggs with pumpkin seed oil

Eierspeis is the Austrian word for scrambled eggs, and in Styria they get a final drizzle of the region's dark green pumpkin seed oil. It is a farmhouse breakfast or a late-night snack after a long evening in a Graz wine bar, eaten straight from the small pan it was cooked in with a slice of rye bread. The eggs are soft and creamy in big folds, and the oil adds a toasted, nutty depth that tastes almost like brown butter. A common mistake is stirring too fast on a high heat, which gives small dry crumbs instead of soft curds. Chef's tip: salt the eggs a few minutes before cooking; it helps them set more tenderly.

8 minAustrianBreakfast & BrunchGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Ourkimen (Yennayer pulse and grain stew)

Ourkimen is cooked across the Souss and the Atlas for Yennayer, the Amazigh New Year on 12–13 January, when a pot of mixed dried beans, chickpeas, wheat berries and corn is simmered for hours to wish for a plentiful harvest. Many families add lamb's feet or dried meat; this is the meat-free version, made the way many cooks prepare it when meat is not on the table, and it is still deeply savoury from tomato, cumin, paprika and a good dose of olive oil. The grains turn chewy and the pulses creamy, and the stew is eaten hot from bowls with bread. Start the soaking the night before; the stew then needs about 3 1/2 hours of gentle simmering. People who have G6PD deficiency (favism) should leave out the dried broad beans and use more white beans. Chef's tip: stir from the bottom every 20 minutes in the last hour; as the stew thickens it catches easily.

230 minMoroccanCurriesVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Gordas de frijol negroBlack bean masa cakes

In the Sotavento region of southern Veracruz, around Tlacotalpan and Los Tuxtlas, cooks knead well-fried black beans straight into the corn masa, so the little cakes come out speckled grey-black, then fry them until they puff up like balloons. Gordas de frijol are a supper snack from street stalls and fiesta tables, split and topped with salsa, chopped onion and, for a non-vegan version, a crumble of fresh cheese. Avocado leaf in the beans gives a faint aniseed note. Chef's tip: the beans must be very thick and cooled; warm, wet beans make a sticky dough that will not puff.

40 minMexicanSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Tlacoyos de habaStuffed blue corn cakes

Walk out of almost any Metro station in Mexico City in the morning and you will find a woman on a low stool patting out tlacoyos on a clay comal: thick, oval cakes of blue or white corn masa with a seam of bean or fava purée hidden inside, topped with cactus, salsa and crumbly cheese. They are bought hot, eaten standing up, and are one of the oldest street foods in the valley, older than the city itself. This version is filled with garlicky fava purée (habas) and topped with a quick nopal salad and salsa verde. Leave off the cheese and it is vegan. Chef's tip: keep the purée stiff, like mashed potato; a loose filling bursts through the masa when you flatten it.

70 minMexicanSnacks & StartersGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sikil pakPumpkin seed dip

In Yucatec Maya, sikil means squash seed and p'aak means tomato, and that is almost all there is to this pale, coarse dip from the Yucatán Peninsula. Cooks in Mérida and the villages around it toast the seeds on a comal until they pop, grind them with charred tomato, chives and a little habanero, and serve the dip with tostadas or crisp tortilla chips before a meal. It tastes nutty, smoky and fresh at the same time, and is naturally vegan. Chef's tip: roast the habanero whole and add it a little at a time; you can always grind in more, but you can't take the heat back out.

25 minMexicanChutneys & DipsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

PapadzulesEgg tortillas in pumpkin seed sauce

Papadzules may be the oldest dish still eaten in the Yucatán: Maya cooks were rolling tortillas in ground squash seeds long before the Spanish brought chickens and their eggs. Today they are a lunch and Lent dish in Mérida, Valladolid and Campeche. Corn tortillas are dipped in a pale green sauce of toasted pumpkin seeds and epazote, rolled around chopped hard-boiled egg, then topped with a cooked habanero-tomato sauce and a few drops of green pumpkin-seed oil squeezed from the paste. The flavours are nutty, herbal and gently hot. Chef's tip: keep the seed sauce warm, never boiling; heat makes it split and turn grainy, and the oil that separates is meant to be drizzled on top, not stirred back in.

55 minMexicanVegetarianGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sopa de grão com espinafresChickpea and spinach soup

This is everyday food in the villages of the Beira interior, where chickpeas are a winter store-cupboard standby and a big pot of soup starts most lunches and suppers. Part of the chickpeas are blended with potato and onion for a creamy base, the rest left whole, and fresh spinach is stirred in at the end. It is filling, cheap and ready in under an hour. A common mistake is boiling the spinach in the soup for too long; add it at the end and cook it only until it wilts. Chef's tip: add the spinach only at the last minute, as long cooking turns it grey and bitter.

50 minPortugueseSoupsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Fave e cicorieBroad bean purée with chicory

Few plates say Puglia as plainly as this one: a pale, velvety purée of dried broad beans beside a tangle of boiled wild chicory, the two joined by a stream of green olive oil. Families from the Murgia to the Salento cook it on winter weekdays and through Lent, and Bari trattorias still put it on the menu as the true taste of cucina povera. The beans are sweet and earthy, the greens bitter, and every forkful should carry a little of both. Chef's tip: buy dried broad beans that are already skinned and split; they cook to a cream on their own, with no sieving.

90 minItalianVegetarianVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

PurtumuteBean and white corn stew

High-jungle towns like Chachapoyas and Moyobamba, in the cloud-forest regions of Amazonas and San Martín, serve purtumute at festivals and family gatherings: a thick pot of beans and big white mote corn kernels simmered with onion, garlic, chilli and plenty of chopped culantro. Some versions add cheese or pork crackling; this one keeps it vegan, letting the creamy beans and chewy corn carry the dish. It is filling and earthy with a fresh green finish, and it is served in bowls with ají on the side and a plantain or a little rice. The dried beans need an overnight soak, which isn't included in the times. The usual mistake is adding salt and the sofrito too early, which can stop the beans from softening; season once they are tender. Canned or jarred white hominy works for the mote. Chef's tip: mash a ladle of the beans against the side of the pot near the end; it thickens the stew without any flour.

120 minPeruvianCurriesVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pesque de quinuaCreamy quinoa with cheese

Up on the Altiplano around Lake Titicaca, where quinoa grows at almost 4,000 metres, pesque is everyday food: quinoa cooked until it collapses, then beaten with milk, a knob of butter and crumbled fresh cheese until it looks like a loose, savoury risotto. Puno families eat it for a warming lunch or supper, often with a glass of milk poured over or a fried egg on top, and in the cold dry air it is exactly what the body wants. It is soft, nutty and mildly salty. The step people skip is rinsing the quinoa, and the natural saponins then leave a soapy, bitter edge; rub it under running water until the foam stops. Serve with a tomato salad or a spoon of uchucuta for some heat. Andean fresh cheese is usually set with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian fresh cheese if needed. Chef's tip: cook the quinoa in a little more water than usual and leave it a few minutes longer than for a salad, so it turns creamy and the grains burst.

35 minPeruvianVegetarianGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Guiso de quinoaQuinoa and squash stew

High in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, where quinoa has been grown on terraces for centuries, a pot of guiso de quinoa is the sort of thing served at a comedor beside the road or in a family kitchen on a cold evening at 3,000 metres. The grain cooks in a cumin-scented broth with potato, squash and red pepper until it bursts and thickens everything into a spoonable stew, and cubes of fresh cheese go in at the end to soften. Serve it in deep bowls with a spoon of llajua or chilli sauce and bread. Skipping the rinse is the mistake that spoils it: quinoa is coated in saponins that taste soapy and bitter, so wash it until the water runs clear. Queso fresco is often made with animal rennet; use a vegetarian fresh cheese, or leave it out for a vegan stew. Chef's tip: toast the rinsed quinoa in the oil for two minutes before the liquid goes in; it brings out a nutty flavour.

50 minArgentinianCurriesGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Salada de feijão-fradinhoBlack-eyed pea salad

Black-eyed peas are the bean of Bahia, ground for acarajé and abará and simmered whole for the caruru feasts of late September. Cooked until just tender and dressed while warm, they also make this bright salad that appears on Salvador's por-quilo lunch buffets and next to grilled food at weekend gatherings. Tomato, red onion, two kinds of pepper, coriander and plenty of lime give it crunch and sharpness, and the peas stay creamy inside. It goes with rice and grilled vegetables, or stands alone as a light lunch. Soak the dried peas for at least 4 hours or overnight before you start. The trap to avoid is boiling the peas hard until the skins split; they turn to mush when tossed. Chef's tip: dress the peas while they are still warm with the lime, oil and salt only, then add the raw vegetables once they are cool so everything stays crisp.

40 minBrazilianSaladsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Mercimek köftesiRed lentil and bulgur patties

No women's afternoon gathering in Ankara or Kayseri is complete without a platter of mercimek köftesi: little finger-pressed ovals of red lentils and fine bulgur, rich with onion, pepper paste, cumin and a big handful of spring onion and parsley. They're eaten cold, tucked into lettuce leaves with a squeeze of lemon, and they keep well for picnics and lunch boxes. Common mistake: draining the lentils; the bulgur needs all that hot liquid to swell, so cook the lentils until the water is just absorbed. Chef's tip: knead the mixture with wet hands for a few minutes after the bulgur softens; the more you knead, the smoother and less crumbly the köfte.

50 minTurkishVegetarianVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Linsen mit SpätzleSweet-sour lentils with egg noodles

Linsen mit Spätzle is Swabia's Saturday supper, eaten in kitchens from Stuttgart to Ulm when the week's cooking was done and something cheap and filling was needed. Small brown or green Alb lentils are stewed with root vegetables, then sharpened with vinegar and a little sugar, and ladled over freshly scraped Spätzle. Most families add a pair of thin smoked Saitenwürstle; this version skips them, and the smoked paprika keeps a hint of that flavour. A common mistake is adding the vinegar at the start, which stops the lentils softening, so it goes in at the end. Chef's tip: beat the Spätzle batter until bubbles pop on the surface; that air is what makes them springy.

65 minGermanCurries
by KrazyBadal 0 views

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