Whether you’re looking to go vegetarian for health reasons or because you have discovered a moral objection to eating meat, it can be pretty challenging to start with. Meat can be a pretty tough food to substitute but, thankfully, you’re far from the first person to make this journey. As such, here are a few tips to help make that transition a little easier.
Try phasing it out bit by bit
If you have very good reasons to go vegetarian, then the idea of eating meat might strike you as distasteful and something you no longer want to do at all. However, trying to go cold turkey on just about anything is an easy way to make it harder to fully quit. As such, you might want to phase out meat bit by bit, starting with only eating chicken and salmon, cutting out red meat, then phasing those out over time, too. That way, you can get used to replacing common foodstuffs bit by bit.
Look to cuisines that have a history of vegetarianism
In your own culture and household, eating meat might have been a daily occurrence, so you’re trying to get rid of a lifelong habit. As such, you might have trouble imagining tasty and wholesome vegetarian meals. However, many people in India and other countries go their whole lives (or near enough) without eating meat or at least avoid it as best as possible. Recipes from vegetarian-dominant cultures, like a homemade dal makhani recipe can help show you just how possible it is to eat delicious and fulfilling meals without meats. Look to other cultures for plenty of inspiration.
Keep trying new recipes
This is one of the most important steps of all. If you keep eating the same old recipes, you will soon start to grow sick of them. Falling out of love with vegetarian cuisine is the easiest way to fall back into your meat-eating habits. As such, look at some of the top vegetarian recipe blogs and try something new every week if possible, or every other week, otherwise.
Experiment with your meat replacements
There are a lot of great meat replacement ingredients that you will learn to rely on. Some of these, such as eggplant, mushrooms, and cauliflower, can be used in a wide range of recipes. There are cooking apps that allow you to find recipes using ingredients that you already have. As such, you can start to collect recipes using eggplant as the base, helping you get to know these meat replacements as well as you used to know meat. When you’re familiar with them, it becomes so much easier to use them in some of your old favorite meals instead of the meat you used to eat.
With the tips above, it might not necessarily be easy to complete your transition to a vegetarian lifestyle. It still takes determination and mindfulness of your eating habits. However, it can certainly help make it a lot more manageable.