Looking for a Good Vegetarian Entree

I love homemade soup - especially when it's colder out. Good soup, a baguette, and a salad, is a great dinner.

Here is one of my favorite fall soup recipes (honestly, I'd just make this for everyone and be done with it. If you feel compelled to include meat I suppose you could cook a little chorizo and add it to a portion of this soup at the end):

Aztec Squash Soup

1 1/2 lb butternut or other winter squash
1 T olive oil
1 3/4 c chopped onion (~1 big one)
1 c chopped celery
6 c vegetable broth
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
1 15-oz can black beans, rinsed
1 c frozen corn
1 c chopped red pepper
1/4 c chopped cillantro
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp minced serano chile
salt, pepper
2-3 Tbs lime juice

1 avocado, chopped (garnish)
plain whole-milk yogurt our sour cream (garnish)
chopped tomato (garnish)

Oven at 400 deg. Cut and seed squash. Season with salt and pepper and roast, cut-side down, until soft.
Saute onion in the oil until it's lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add celery and garlic, and 1 cup broth. Cover and simmer about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add squash (scooped out of the shell) and remaining broth. Puree in blender until smooth. Let simmer up to 20 minutes to blend flavors (or not, if you're in a hurry). Add beans, corn, red pepper, cillantro, and chile. Simmer another 10 minutes. Add lime juice, salt, and pepper to taste. Serve with chunks of avocado and a bloop of yogurt on top. Good with tortilla chips or a baguette.

In Better Homes & Gardens they have a fabulous recipe for spinach lasagna! It is meatless & really tasty with roasted red pepper in it. I have often made that and a pan of meaty lasagna for guests so everyone is happy. Best part is you can make it ahead & bake on time so less stress. :) Serve with a tasty salad & yummy bread. viola!

bon appetit!
D.
ps it occurred to me someone might not have this cookbook! lol. So here's the recipe:

Spinach Lasagna from BH&G cookbook
oven 375 degrees

9 dried lasagna noodles
1 cup chopped onions (1 large)
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms (I usually skip this)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 T margarine or butter
1 7 oz jar roasted red sweet peppers, drained & chopped (or roast 2 peppers yourself)
1 10 oz pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed & well drained
1 15 oz container ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
2 beaten eggs
1t dried basil, crushed
1/2 t dried oregano, crushed
1 301/2 ounce jar meatless spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

cook lasagna noodles for 10-12 mins or until tender but still firm, drain & rinse in cool water, drain well.

Meanwhile in a large skillet cook onion, mushrooms & garlic in hot margarine or butter until tender but not brown. Stir in sweet peppers & set aside.

Pat spinach dry with paper towels, in med bowl stir together spinach, ricotta, mozzarella, 1/2 c parmesan eggs, basil, oregano & 1/34 t pepper. Stir sweet pepper mixture into spinach mixture

Spread 1/2 c of spaghettis sauce evenly in a 3 quart rectangular baking dish. Arrange 3 lasagna noodles over sauce. Layer with half the sweet pepper/spinach mix and 1 cup of the the spaghetti sauce. repeat layers, ending with noodles. Spoon remianing sauce over the top & springkle with the 1/4 c parmesan cheese.

Bake covered in 375 degree oven for 2 minutes. Uncover & bake about 10 minutes more or unti9l heated through, let stand 10 mintues before serving. Makes 8 main-dish servings.

I know you don't want past but a sure fire winner is lasagna. We always make 2 of them, one with meat and one with lots of veggies. In the veggie one, I use portobello mushrooms as an alternative to meat. You can add fresh or frozen spinach in there too. Here is a good recipe or you can find tons of veggie lasagna recipes on Google or Bing. http://www.yumsugar.com/1934008
Throw in a great salad and some breadsticks and your meat and veggie lovers will all be happy.
Good luck!

Mexican is easy to have for both vegetarians and not. We do veggie tacos here at least once a week, and everyone LOVES them. Just cook brown rice according to directions, except add a tablespoon of ketchup and a packet of taco seasoning to the water while its cooking to absorb the flavor in to the rice. THen use it just as you would with meat, to stuff the tacos. Add lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream... anything you would like. We add black beans to make it a complete protein.

You can also brown some ground beef or turkey for the meat eating crowd and people can stuff their own tacos with whatever they like.

I don't know how casual your gathering is, but we often do mexican when we have a mixed crowd. You can put out fajita or taco fillings, all of the sides, and people can make their burritos or tacos. Include refried beans (and bean tamales if you can find them). Spanish rice with beans as a side dish is good, too.

Another option is to make a dish that meat can be served with but not in. Stir-fry, fried rice are examples this works well for (for stir-fry, do a bowl of veggies, bowl of tofu, bowl of meat/chicken, which you would cook last. People can pick what they want on top of their rice from a buffet.)

Another idea is quiche - for example, one quiche is made with broccoli and cheese, and one also has ham.

If you like Indian food, you can make chana masala (basically, curried chick peas - very easy to make) and butter chicken and serve rice - same idea as with the stir fry, where you serve some of both on a buffet.

Polish food - serve sauerkraut, pierogi / sausage.

Italian - cheese ravioli / meatballs.

We are vegetarians. We had some couples over for dinner who are not, so we did a vegetable stir-fry. We cooked chicken and tofu separately, and had people add their own. We also had vegetarian spring rolls and "crab" rangoons for everyone. I have a very simple recipe for the stir fry if you are interested. Good luck and have a nice dinner!

My daughter is vegetarian and I am always trying to come up with meals everyone will enjoy. Anything guest can finish making themselves like tacos, chopped or ceaser salads with chicken on the side and homemade bread, stir fry with veg. and meat in seperate pans, chili with mac. noodles on the side and corn bread, etc..