How to Prepare a Healthy Vegetarian Meal

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Last Updated: February 20, 2024

Creating a healthy vegetarian meal is an art of choosing and balancing ingredients, taking care of proteins, utilizing raw ingredients, and preparing real food for health. Vegetarians make a conscious decision about their diet and are mostly conscious of their health and do their best to avoid all the items that may harm the body, mind or soul.^{[1]
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Research source
Olivera Rosić, 2015, “Mindful Eating with Delicious Raw Vegan Recipes”. Why Vegetarian (1). [Artof4elements Press, AoL Mindfulness Series Book #3]: pg9. ISBN-13: 978-9995754020}

Steps

Real food is produced from real seeds, not GMO, genetically modified. Real food has no poisons, it is organic, with no preservatives, no coloring, nor additives. Real food is seasonal and it is local. Real food does not travel thousands of miles to reach you. Real food is not processed, frozen, or pre-packaged.
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Research source} Replace your white processed ingredients with brown whole-meal unprocessed foods. Use fruits instead of sugars, water instead of juices, sea salt instead of table salt, home-made ingredients instead of pre-cooked, pre-packed, tinned or frozen ingredients.
Japanese macrobiotics emphasizes the principle of balance between yin and yang. Foods that have yin and yang in balance should be used regularly. Whole grains and whole-grain products such as: brown rice, barley, millet, oats, quinoa, spelt, rye, a variety of cooked and raw vegetables, beans, mild natural seasonings, nuts and seeds are recommended. Foods that are too yin or too yang should be avoided. Yin food Items that should be avoided are: sugar, alcohol, coffee, white flour products, very hot spices, drugs, any additives and preservatives, milk products. Foods that are too yang should also be avoided, they are too heavy, and create stagnation. These are: meat, eggs, refined salt.
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Take care of your protein. Add nuts and seeds to your vegetarian meals. Most plant foods are not complete proteins, they only have some of the amino acids. Consuming various sources of amino acids throughout your meals provide you with all the protein you need. Soy and quinoa are complete vegetable proteins. Some good sources of protein are: pumpkin seeds, beans, peas and lentils, nuts and other various seeds. A great source of proteins are whole grains.
- Like nuts, pumpkin seeds are a great source of protein and unsaturated fats, including omega-6 fatty acids. They also contain a good range of nutrients, including iron, calcium, B2, folate and beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A
- Sesame seeds beneficial effects are great. It is one of the cholesterol lowering foods. They are naturally rich source of fiber, minerals and healthy fats. Sesame seeds contain minerals important in anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant processes within our cells.
- Flaxseeds or linseed. Great seeds to add to your miracle seeds mixture. They help the body detox. Ground flaxseeds (linseed) are a wonderful source of fiber and a great source of omega 3 oils. Some researches suggest that flax fiber suppresses appetite helping weight loss. Some other researches link linseeds as a healthy medication to fight heart disease, diabetes to breast cancer.
We all have different ability to absorb nutrition. To help our digestion, we should regularly absorb good bacteria (probiotics) – natural yogurt, and we should soak, and sprout our food (especially our seeds and our grains). Leave your seeds soaking over-night and use them in cooking the day after.
When you eat raw, all foods are alive. Heating food over 42 C destroys much of the nutrients within your food. A diet that regularly includes uncooked, unprocessed plant foods enhances your body's ability to prevent diseases, especially chronic ones. Have in mind that raw and living foods contain essential food enzymes. Include a fresh salad in all of your vegetarian meals.
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Use spices and herbs. Create your-own herbs and spices health miracle mix. Use: cinnamon, turmeric, nutmeg for sweet tasting vegetarian meals, and rosemary, basil, oregano, paprika, ginger for savory vegetarian meals.
- Basil has anti-bacterial properties, and it’s full of antioxidants. It is great for digestion and detox.
- Cinnamon is one of the highest antioxidant and together with honey it acts as an antibiotic. It is researched that this miracle spice helps the growth of bacteria as well as fungi.
- Ginger is used in China as one of the best disease fighting miracle foods. Ginger: aids digestion, reduces nausea and may fight flu and colds. It is recommended to boost the immune system and it cleanses the metabolism. You can either chew on ginger root, or make a delicious ginger, lemon and honey tea.
- Parsley is said to protect your kidneys and bladder. Parsley is particularly rich in flavonoid antioxidants and vitamin C, which reduce oxidative stress in your body. The high dietary intake of flavonoids may reduce colon cancer risk by up to a 30% It is also used to relieve bloating during menstruation.
- Seaweed is used at all times in Asia. It's the best dietary source of iodine, which helps support your thyroid gland. It also contains vitamin K, B vitamins, zinc and iron, along with antioxidants. Seaweed binds to heavy metals within our body and helps body cleanse from them. It is an antioxidant, full of proteins, a wonderful add-on to your meals.
- Turmeric is used in Ayurvedic medicine to treat liver and digestive disorders. It is an antioxidant that is wonderful to use at all times. Turmeric has many scientifically-proven health benefits, such as the potential to prevent heart disease, Alzheimer's and cancer. Use fresh turmeric. It's a potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant and may also help improve symptoms of depression and arthritis.
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Tips

Grow your own veggies^{[3]
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Research source}. Eating raw food just freshly picked from your garden connects you to the earth and is the healthiest option around.

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Because of their high water content eat fruits on their-own.

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Chose seasonal veggies that are locally grown.

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Warnings

Be careful not to over-cook your veggies, have in mind that they can be eaten raw, so no need for long cooking time.

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Do not eat fruit in the evenings, they are difficult to digest.

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Be careful with soya products because most of soya is GMO modified.

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