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First Steps to becoming a vegetarian

There has never been such a good time to become a vegetarian. When I took the plunge seventeen years ago, there was so little choice of ready made vegetarian meals or any ingredients that the strain of working full-time and having to cook from scratch every day when I got in, nearly made me give up.

Nowadays most supermarkets are full of ingredients to make quick nourishing meals, and also have a fair choice of ready made meals.

I've tried to make sure that all of the recipes on this site are easy to make as I personally don't have much patience or time, and assume with busy 21st century lifestyles, most of you don't either. There are of course lots of slightly more intricate meals you can try out as well but I've mentioned that next to the recipe.

Many people go vegetarian gradually. They start by dropping firstly red meat, then white meat and finally fish. This seems to work quite well for a large majority of people and is probably the way I'd recommend if your current diet consists of meat with virtually every meal. By doing it this way you can experiment with a meat substitute meal as often as you like. Eat the ones you prefer more and more often and you'll soon have made the transition without even realising.

There are many meat-style products now which can satisfy your meat cravings - just look in any health food store and in many larger supermarkets for sausages, mince and chicken chunks - veggie style!

A very good product to use when you first take the plunge is to use Quorn. This is a fantastic ingredient that takes the place of meat in any dish so you can eat exactly the same as you did before just substituting Quorn for the meat part of the meal. I love it and have even fooled my son that the 'chicken' in his risotto was real - he's always suspicious for some reason!!

I am not what you might call a 'natural vegetarian,' I never salivated over the thought of lentils or chickpeas and still don't. Although I love vegetables of all kinds I still missed a nice 'meaty' part of the meal. I suppose it was the 'meat and two veg' part of my upbringing. However I survived and now don't miss meat AT ALL and am far more adventurous in my tastes. I still don't like chick peas and I'd run a mile rather than eat refried beans, but most of the recipes on this site I have tried at some point or another, and many I absolutely love.

So to summarise, part of the process is down to willpower - you have to want to be vegetarian more than you want the taste of a particular meat. My personal problem areas were tuna fish and bacon. How I longed for them both. I never found a decent tuna substitute but bought bacon flavour crisps and snacks whenever I fancied bacon so I wouldn't be tempted to stray. Now there are very good bacon rasher substitutes and I can now have the old British favourite of a bacon butty whenever I fancy! You will have to do the same. Avoid the foods you loved the most for a while, or try and find a reasonable veggie substitute. A walk round most large supermarkets and wholefood stores will reveal an enormous array of ingredients you can probably only imagine right now and there's sure to be something to tempt you.

Good luck

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