How do I make a recipe vegetarian?

Replacing what the meat was doing rather than the meat itself — the four jobs it does and what covers each.

Difficulty: beginner
Time: 20 min
Read: 4 min
Safety: caution

Short answer

Work out what the meat contributed: savoury depth, texture, fat, or bulk. Replace each separately. Mushrooms, soy, miso and tomato purée give the savoury depth; beans, lentils and pulses give bulk; oil or butter gives the fat. Swapping in a meat substitute alone usually gives a flat result.

Most vegetarian adaptations fail by substituting an object for an object. Meat does several different things in a dish, and a good adaptation replaces the functions rather than the ingredient.

Safety

Check labels rather than assuming. Gelatine, rennet in cheese, fish sauce, anchovy in Worcestershire sauce and animal fats in stock all appear in products people assume are vegetarian. If you are cooking for someone else, ask what they actually avoid rather than deciding for them.

Step by step

Work out what the meat was doing.Savoury depth, chewy texture, fat and richness, or simply bulk. Most dishes rely on two or three of those, and knowing which lets you replace them deliberately.
Replace the savoury depth first.This is the one people miss. Mushrooms, particularly dried and rehydrated, soy sauce, miso, yeast extract, tomato purée cooked out, and slow-browned onions all supply it. Without this the dish tastes thin however substantial it is.
Check the stock.Chicken and beef stock are the most common accidental non-vegetarian ingredient. A good vegetable stock plus something savoury — miso or yeast extract — is closer than vegetable stock alone.
Use pulses for bulk and protein.Lentils in a bolognese or shepherd's pie, chickpeas in a curry, beans in a stew. They absorb the surrounding flavour and give the dish something to be about.
Add fat back deliberately.Meat brings fat, and removing it makes a dish taste lean and flat. More oil or butter than feels necessary, or coconut milk, cream or cheese where the dish suits it.
Brown things properly.The browning meat provides has to come from somewhere. Get mushrooms genuinely dark, brown the tomato purée, caramelise the onions. This is where most of the flavour goes missing.
Use substitutes for texture, not for flavour.Tofu, tempeh and commercial meat substitutes give structure. Press and marinate tofu; it takes on what you give it and contributes almost nothing on its own.
Adjust the cooking time down.Vegetables and pulses do not need the long braise that tough meat does. A recipe simmered for three hours will reduce to nothing — add vegetables late and shorten the whole thing.
Check every ingredient for hidden animal products.Worcestershire sauce contains anchovy, many hard cheeses use animal rennet, some wines are fined with animal products, and gelatine appears in unexpected desserts.
Season more.Vegetarian dishes generally need more salt and more acid than their meat versions. A squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar at the end lifts a dish that tastes flat.
Go further for vegan.Butter to oil or a plant spread, milk to a plant milk, cream to coconut or oat cream, honey to maple or agave, and check the pastry and the stock. Most vegetarian dishes convert with three or four substitutions.
Consider choosing a different dish.Some recipes are about the meat and adapting them is always a compromise. A dish that was designed vegetarian often beats a converted one.

Tips

Dried mushrooms and their soaking liquid are the most useful single thing in vegetarian cooking. They supply the savoury depth almost everything else is trying to imitate.
Cook the tomato purée until it darkens and smells sweet rather than sharp. Two minutes, and it changes a dish noticeably.
Taste and adjust more often than you would with a meat dish. Vegetarian cooking has less built-in richness to hide behind.

Common mistakes

Swapping the meat for a substitute and changing nothing else — It replaces the texture and none of the savoury depth or fat, so the dish tastes thin. Replace the functions, not the object.
Keeping the original cooking time — Long braises exist to break down tough meat. Vegetables and pulses collapse over the same period.

If it doesn't work

Dish tastes thin and flat

Cause: Savoury depth not replaced — Fix: Add browned mushrooms, a spoon of miso or yeast extract, soy sauce, or cook out tomato purée until it darkens.

Watery result

Cause: Vegetables released moisture and there is no fat to carry it — Fix: Brown the vegetables properly first, reduce the liquid, and add fat back.

Substitute has no flavour

Cause: Tofu or a plain substitute added unmarinated — Fix: Press tofu, marinate it, and brown it hard before adding. It carries flavour rather than providing it.

Everything collapsed to mush

Cause: Cooked for the original meat timing — Fix: Add vegetables and pulses much later, and shorten the overall cooking time considerably.

Questions people ask

How do I make a meat recipe vegetarian?

Work out what the meat was doing — savoury depth, texture, fat or bulk — and replace each separately. Browned mushrooms, miso and soy give the depth; lentils and beans give the bulk; extra oil or butter replaces the fat.

Why does my vegetarian version taste flat?

Almost always missing savoury depth. Brown the vegetables far more than feels necessary, cook out tomato purée until it darkens, and add something like miso, soy or yeast extract.