I’d like to take the opportunity and with those who are fasting a Blessed Lent.

I, myself, haven’t fasted in a few years and haven’t abstained from meats or dairies for longer. The thing is, I don’t usually cook with a lot of meats. Most of my recipes are either vegetarian, vegan, or can be altered to be either one.

For the son of a butcher, and a whole family of butchers, it is blasphemous for me to quit meats. I did quit red meats for2 years and I was given a hard time, even though I sometimes used to cook for myself or ask mom for a meat-less or chicken version of whatever she’s cooking. I decided to finally end it when I was tempted by mom’s spicy barbequed kababs. Now I am back to meats regularly. And allow me to say, a bit more than ever. I am a fan of beef burgers now, I ate barbecued meat, I have no problem with pork, and I enjoyed beef curries. Weird, isn’t it?

For now, I have not made up my mind whether I will be abstaining from a certain food group but for those of you who have, I present you with this list of 20 vegetarian and vegan recipes to cook during lent: