There is a vegetarian biryani in from Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World. If you use oil rather than ghee, it is dairy free. The vegetarians/vegans like it as a main and it can serve as a side for the rest. It has a layer of rice, then a layer of vegetables including garbanzo beans and topped by another layer of rice mixed with nuts. Vegetable Biryani RICE LAYER: 3 tablespoons ghee ( Indian Clarified Butter ) or vegetable oil 2 cups white or brown basmati or other long-grain rice 4 cups water (5 cups for brown rice) 2 teaspoons ground turmeric About 1 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoons table salt or 1 tablespoon kosher salt VEGETABLE LAYER: 1 ⁄ 4 cup ghee or vegetable oil 1 large onion, chopped 1 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoons black or yellow mustard seeds 1 teaspoon poppy seeds 1 teaspoon ground coriander 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon ground turmeric 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 ⁄ 4 to 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoon cayenne 3 small or 2 medium-small eggplants, peeled and diced, or 3 cups cauliflower florets 1 large zucchini, diced 1 large red or green bell pepper, seeded, deribbed (white removed), and diced 1 cup lima beans or green peas 2 cups tomatoes purée, or 1 cup water mixed with 3 seeded and diced plum tomatoes 1 teaspoon sugar About 1 teaspoon table salt or 2 teaspoons kosher salt 3 ⁄ 4 cup cooked or canned chickpeas (optional) NUT MIXTURE: 1 ⁄ 4 cup ghee or vegetable oil 2 ⁄ 3 cup raw slivered almonds 2 ⁄ 3 cup raw cashews 2 ⁄ 3 cup golden raisins 1 ⁄ 4 cup chopped fresh cilantro for garnish 1. Preheat the oven to 350 ° F. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. 2. To make the rice layer: In a large, heavy saucepan, melt the ghee over medium heat. Add the rice and sauté until opaque, about 3 minutes. Add the water, turmeric, and salt. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the liquid is absorbed, about 18 minutes for white rice; about 40 minutes for brown rice. 3. To make the vegetable layer: In a large, heavy saucepan, melt the ghee over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the mustard and poppy seeds and sauté until they begin to pop, about 30 seconds. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the coriander , cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, and cayenne. 4. Increase the heat to medium-high, add the eggplants, zucchini, and bell pepper, and sauté for 2 minutes. Stir in the lima beans , tomato purée, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the vegetables are crisp-tender, about 10 minutes. If using, add the chickpeas. 5. To make the nut mixture: In a small, heavy saucepan, melt the ghee over medium heat. Add the nuts and sauté until golden, about 3 minutes. Stir in the raisins. Remove from the heat. 6. Spread half of the rice in the prepared dish and top with the vegetable mixture. Combine the remaining rice with the nut mixture and spread over the vegetables. 7. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with the cilantro. Serve warm. VARIATION Omit the mustard seeds and poppy seeds and add 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger with the other spices. Marks, Gil (2008-03-11). Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World (Kindle Locations 14024-14031). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition. For vegetarian chili, I don't use a recipe. If not using canned beans, I soak dried beans overnight (or do a quick soak by bringing the water to a boil with the beans, turning off heat and letting them sit for a few hours). I usually use a mix of pintos and kidney beans or black and pinto beans. I saute onions. Add some other diced vegetables - bell peppers, summer squash and carrots are good. Add to the beans and pour in a can of diced tomatoes with the juice (or you can use tomato sauce or tomato paste and water). Add chili powder to taste (for 3 16 oz cans of beans, I start with about a tablespoon). Making it for our family where the grandkids don't like it too spicy hot, I usually add some ground cumin and oregano to flavor it without getting more chili heat than they will accept. Also add a bit of salt. Sometimes I'll add soy crumbles (i.e. some soy ground beef substitute). but most of the time I don't

You're a nice mom Lowspark! Here are some of my recipes. I've stayed away from the asian ones, since there are a lot on that EAting Well Web site. Be forwarned that I usually find those "low fat" recipes manage to be low fat because they have about half as much yummy sauce as you would want, so you might need to double the sauce ingredients. Tofu isn't that low calorie, although they do sell lowfat tofu, if you can find it. The reason I mention different techniques and ingredient amounts is I try and use as many lowfat techniques as I can, and some people do not like this kind of cooking, so you can adjust to suit your taste, just as I usually adjust regular recipes to make them lower in fat. Like in the tofu parmesearn recipe below, I'd use less parmesean cheese. Hopefully living in a metro area you can get the commercially marinated tofu. It is so convenient. The brand I get is "White Wave" and also "Tofu Kan." There's one other brand I get at Giant but I don't know the name of it. I'm not sure how they process it to get it so flavorful, but it's definately an art. You really can't just marinate tofu without baking it, it won't be that flavorful. I googled "baked marinated tofu" and came up with lots of groovy recipes. Here's how I'd do it if I was going to make the tofu salad above. Buy a tub of regular tofu, the kind that comes packed in water, not the silken tofu. Drain it and rinse it and then slice it into 1/2 inch slabs (or slightly larger). Make a "tofu press" by putting some paper towels on a tray, then laying the tofu out on the tray, then topping with more paper towels, then put another tray on top. Can use large plates for this. Then, put some heavy cans or books on top of the press to make it "press" down on the tofu. Use about 3 layers of paper towels. Enviro me uses clean dishtowels, you're just pressing water out of the tofu so it's not going to stain the towels and they can be washed. You don't have to press the tofu, but it presses water out and cuts down on the baking time. Press for about 15 min. Next, get some good italian dressing (I like Ken's brand or Newman's Own). Put a little bit in a shallow baking pan, then layer in the tofu, then cover with more dressing. You can use lowfat dressing. Bake in an oven. The temp can vary from 350-400 degrees, depending on how closely you want to watch it. I would say maybe 375. You want to bake it until the tofu dries out and is coated with the marinade. It will take 40-60 min. Turn halfway through. This baked marinated tofu will keep a few days in the fridge and can be used in salads and other dishes, or in sandwiches. Frankly, as you can see it's bit of a pain to make this compared to buying it already done in the store! You can use other marinades, such as teriyaki sauce. You can make your own marinade from scratch too. Here's a couple of my more traditional recipes. I've stayed away from the hard core stuff like curried tofu stew, lol! Tofu Stuffed Bell Peppers 4 peppers 4-6 mushrooms 1 clove garlic or 1/2 tsp. minced garlic/garlic powder 1 small onion 4 oz. tofu (can use silken extra firm or water-packed firm) 2 cups tomato sauce pinch oregano, basil, salt, pepper 1 TBLSP red wine (optional, could use maybe balsamic vinegar or leave out) 2 tsp olive oil 1 tsp. sesame seeds (to make sesame seeds digestible, I toast for about 10 min. and grind in the food processor, then keep in fridge for when I need them. Can leave out) 1 tsp wheat germ (or 2 tsp. if you don't have the sesame seeds) 1 cup cooked rice Steam peppers for 4-6 min. Put 1/2 of sauce in the bottom of a small baking pan. Saute onion and mushrooms in oil, add spices, tofu, rice and wheat germ and sesame seed. Stuff gently into peppers, top with remaining sauce. (Can sprinkle some italian shredded cheese or parmesean cheese over the top) Bake at 350 for 30 min. Low Calorie Quiche (use the crust below, which is a health food kind of thing, or whatever kind of quiche crust you like. As you know, I'm piecrust challenged so I usually use store bought, lol! I got this recipe from "Vegetarian Times" magazine, and have never made the crust, just the filling. It sounds good, and I have been known to make an oil-based pie crust.) Crust: 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup white flour 1/4 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. baking poweder 1/4-1/3 cup canola oil 2 TBLSP lemon juice 1 1/2 tsp. honey 2-3 TBLSP cold water 1-2 tsp. sesame seeds (see above for how to prep. them) Preheat oven to 375. Grind oats to coarse flour in a blender or food processor. Mix dry ingredients together. Drizzle in oil until the mixture looks like coarse sand. Add lemon, honey, and 2 TBLSP water til the dough forms a ball, add more water if necessary. Roll between two sheets of wax peper. Sprinkle sesame seeds to coat bottom of pie pan. Prick crust on sides and bottom. Bake 10 min., then remove from oven and reduce heat to 350 degrees. Filling: 1 tsp. water or olive oil (I'd probably use at least 2 tsp. or 1 TBLSP EVOO) 1 cup diced onion 1 tsp. minced garlic (or less, I don't use that much) 3 cups broccoli florets (I often use frozen broccoli) 1-2 TBLSP water 2 large egg whites 10 oz. package soft, silken tofu 1 TBLSP prepared dijon mustard 1 tsp. dried basil 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. white pepper 1-2 TBLSP grated parmesean cheese Heat oil in a skillet over med. heat. Add onion and sautee 3-5 min. until translucent. (you may need to add more oil or water, this is a low cal recipe, I probably use more oil than this). Add garlic and broccoli and water. Steam until broccoli is bright green, ~2 min. Drain veggies if necessary. Place in the pre-baked pie crust. Whip egg whites until frothy. Add tofu, spices and parmesean. Blend until smooth. Pour into pie crust. Garnish with strips of red pepper if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 min. Tofu Sloppy Joes - serves 5 6 TBLSP oil 1 large onion, diced 2 med. green peppers, seeded and diced 2 cans spanish style tomato sauce 1 1/2 TBLSP chili sauce/powder 2 TBLSP tamari or low salt soy sauce 1 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. black pepper 1/2 tsp. dried oregano 1 TBLSP prepared brown mustard 1 TBLSP brown sugar 1 1/2 lbs firm tofu, frozen, thawed and squeezed dry and crumbled Saute onion and peppers in oil, Add tofu and soy sauce. Add tomato sauce and spices. Simmer over low heat until nice and thick. Serve on whole wheat hamburger buns with sweet potato fries and coleslaw. Tofu Parmigiana 1 1/2 lbs. tofu 2 eggs (or 1 egg, 2 egg whites) 1 TBLSP tamari or low salt soy sauce 3/4 cup toasted wheat germ 3/4 cup grated parmesean cheese (or less, maybe 1/2 cup) oil for cooking 1/2 cup onions, sliced 1 carrot, shredded 2 cloves garlic, minced or to taste (I use one clove) 1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced 2 cups tomatoes, seeded and diced, or 2 cups thick tomato puree (I use canned crushed tomatoes) 1 TBLSP fresh basil or 1 tsp. dried 1 tsp. oregano 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes salt to taste 8 thin slices mozz cheese Press tofu until dry, or use a marinated kind. Slice tofu into 8 thin slices. Beat together egg and tamari/soy sauce. Mix together what germ and 1/4 cup of the parmesean cheese and put in a pie plate or on a large dinner plate. Dip tofu in egg, then dry mixture. Refrigerate while you prepare the sauce. (Geez, I don't know why you have to do that, you could prepare the sauce in advance!). Saute onion, carrot, garlicand mushrooms in oil. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer until thick and all flavors combined. Fry sliced tofu until golden. Heat broiler. Sprinkle baking pan with sauce and 1/4 cup parmesean. Place browned tofu on sauce in a single layer. Tof tofu with mozzarella cheese slices. Pour on remaining sauce over and around the tofu. Top with remaining parmesean. Broil until bubbly. Serve over brown rice. A fancy dish for special occasions.

This is the recipe I used when I had vegetarian guests at the cottage.....which is probably why cheese enchiladas came to mind! LOL I subbed veg broth for the chicken broth, frozen spinach instead of fresh and flour tortillas instead of corn so I just rolled them I didn't dip in oil. Enchiladas - Cheese And Spinach Servings 4 Poblano chile peppers, about 1 pound 4 Lb fresh spinach, stems removed and well rinsed 4 Tbl unsalted butter, plus 4 tablespoons 1 Cup chopped yellow onions 1 Tbl chopped garlic 2 Tsp chili powder 3/4 Tsp salt 1/4 Tsp ground black pepper Pinch cayenne 1/4 Cup all-purpose flour, plus 1/4 cup 2 Cup half-and-half 1 Cup cubed queso fresco or queso blanco 2Cups cubed Pepper Jack 1 Cup grated cotija or Parmesan 2 Tbl vegetable oil 12 corn tortillas 1 Cup chicken stock 1 Cup heavy cream Roast the peppers by placing them on an open gas flame, turning them frequently with tongs until all sides are charred black, about 7 to 10 minutes. (Alternately, the peppers can be roasted under a broiler, or on top of a gas or charcoal grill.) Place the blackened peppers in a plastic or paper bag, and let rest until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Peel the peppers, split in half lengthwise, and discard the seeds and the stems. Roughly chop and set aside. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. In 3 batches, add the spinach and blanch for 15 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and shock in an ice bath. Remove and squeeze out the excess. Chop and set aside. In a large saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until very soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic, chili powder, salt, pepper, and cayenne, and cook, stirring, for 45 seconds. Add 1/4 cup of the flour and cook, stirring with a heavy wooden spoon, to make a light roux, 2 minutes. Gradually add the half-and-half, and cook, stirring, until thick, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the spinach and stir to incorporate. Remove from the heat and fold in half of the chopped chiles. Adjust the seasoning, to taste. Fold in the cubed queso fresco and both Pepper Jacks, and set aside. In a bowl, combine the grated Pepper Jack and cotija. Set aside. In a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium temperature. One at a time, add the tortillas to the hot oil and cook, turning, until soft and pliable, 15 seconds per side, adding more oil as needed. Remove from the pan and place on a work surface. Place about 1/2 cup of the spinach mixture into the center of each tortilla and roll up into a cylinder. Place, seam side down, in a single layer across the bottom of a 9 by 13- inch casserole dish. In a saucepan, melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of flour and cook, stirring constantly with a heavy wooden spoon, to to make a light roux. Slowly add the chicken stock and cook, stirring, until thickened, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the cream and cook, stirring, until thick, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining poblano peppers and cook for 1 minute. Pour over the filled enchiladas and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cover evenly with the grated cheeses. Return to the oven and bake until the cheeses are melted and bubbly and the enchiladas are completely warmed through, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

I finally made it the way the original recipe was written at eatingwell.com. I finally found the canned chipotle peppers. Not sure why but I had looked several times in the grocery store (on separate visits) in the section for the jar of red peppers. Not sure why I didn't look closer to the cans of tomato sauce but in any event, thanks to breezyb, I finally looked for them in the right spot, found them and tried this. It was very good the way the recipe is written, I agree. But I also think the real reason it is so good is the chipotle/mayonaise mixture. MMMMM is that good. I'm going to use that again. I may never go back to using plain Hellman's mayonaise again. --Alice