15 Vegetarian Dinners Your Family Will Devour

Take a break from meat this week. With these recipes, your family won’t even realize it’s missing!

From crustless broccoli quiche to cauliflower fried rice, you don’t have to be vegetarian to love these vegetarian dinners.

Cheesy Baked Spaghetti Squash with Marinara Sauce

Spaghetti squash is tossed with marinara sauce, sprinkled with cheese and crispy panko, and baked until golden brown.
Spinach Quiche

Of all the spinach quiches I’ve tried over the years, this classic French version is my favorite. It’s insanely rich. There’s also a good bit of spinach, which balances out all that richness and makes it just a little bit healthier.
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

These grilled cheese sandwiches with sun-dried tomato pesto taste like hot, crispy pizza paninis.
Baked Penne with Spinach, Ricotta & Fontina

In this easy recipe, penne pasta is tossed in a creamy spinach and ricotta sauce, topped with cheese, and baked until golden brown.
Cauliflower Fried Rice

In this easy recipe, grated cauliflower is sautéed with aromatics, vegetables, soy sauce, and eggs. It really does taste just like Chinese-style fried rice.
Zucchini Fritters with Feta and Dill

The word fritter usually conjures up something heavy and deep-fried, but these zucchini pancakes are as delicate as can be. For a light dinner, serve them with tzatziki and a Greek salad.
Crustless Broccoli Quiche

There’s really only one way to put it: this quiche is insanely delicious. And I promise you won’t miss the crust! It reheats beautifully so feel free to make it ahead or warm it up for tomorrow’s breakfast or lunch.
Summer Pasta Primavera

Hang on to the last bits of the season with this summer-in-a-bowl pasta dish. It’s a delicious way to use up all your seasonal produce.
Chinese Vegetable Stir-Fry

There is much to love about this Chinese stir-fry, from the veggies to the gingery, garlicky brown sauce. As with any stir-fry, be sure to have all of your ingredients ready before you start cooking.
Cauliflower Steaks with Cauliflower Purée

In this impressive vegetarian entrée, the center of the cauliflower is transformed into steaks, while the remaining florets become a creamy purée.
Julia Turshen’s “A Nice Lasagna”

This lasagna comes from Julia Turshen’s lovely cookbook, Small Victories: Recipes, Advice + Hundreds of Ideas for Home Cooking Triumphs (Chronicle Books, 2016). Not only is it the simplest lasagna I’ve ever made, it’s also the lightest and most elegant.
Falafel

Falafel are deep-fried balls or patties made from ground chickpeas or fava beans. They’re traditionally stuffed in a pita or served as part of a mezze platter (an assortment of appetizers) with hummus, tahini sauce, and yogurt sauce.
Pesto Pizza with Fresh Tomatoes & Mozzarella

This pizza packs a serious pesto punch. The dough is spread with a generous layer of pesto before baking — and then the pizzas are topped off with more pesto and fresh basil when they come out of the oven.
Shakshuka

Hungry? This dish of eggs poached in a smoky, spicy tomato sauce is good for breakfast, dinner or anytime in between. Plus, it’s fun to say: shakshuka!
Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto and Mozzarella Pearls

Quick, simple, and family-approved — this pasta dish is almost as easy as opening a jar of tomato sauce and pouring it over noodles, yet so much more special. And here’s the best part: the pesto itself yields enough for two dinners (and freezes well) and the dish is just as good at room temperature as it is hot, so it can double as a pasta salad for a picnic or barbecue.