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Vegetarianism is finally coming into its own with more and more people turning vegetarian everyday due to health as well as moral reasons. Even if you are not a complete vegetarian, you should try adding vegetables to your diet since at least five to seven fruit and vegetable portions per day are required for a healthy and balanced diet. People who have never been staunch vegetarians before generally find it tough to make vegetarian dishes. If you are also one of those people whose entire repertoire of vegetarian cooking begins with salads and ends with baked potatoes with nothing in between, then you can get started with these tips and tricks that will help you get the hang of vegetarian cooking.

• First of all you need to equip your kitchen with vegetable friendly equipment. This is because the right equipment and utensils ensure that you can make great vegetarian dishes within no time at all. A good food processor is a necessary addition to a vegetarian kitchen since you can chop vegetables real fast using one, cutting your preparation time by at least half.

• Otherwise you can also make do with a good chef’s knife for chopping and dicing vegetables. A nice, sharp serrated knife will help you with soft vegetables like tomatoes and are perfect for cutting thin slices. Buy a wok if you do not already have one, because you can easily make hundreds of vegetarian dishes in a wok. A wok also saves loads of cooking time for a lot of dishes when compared to regular frying pans and saucepans.

• Once you have the right equipment, stock your kitchen with the right food items. Fresh fruits and vegetables are the best, but having packs of frozen corn, peas and carrots will very often come in handy. Always keep ginger, garlic, green chillies, onions, tomatoes and potatoes handy and you are all set to prepare a number of great tasting veggie dishes as and when you want.

• As far as keeping processed stuff is concerned, stock your kitchen with soy sauce, tomato ketchup and puree, tamari, vinegar and pepper powder. With these ingredients in hand, you can always face and feed a mob full of hungry vegetarians.

• Now that you are all set with your ingredients and equipment, some simple tips to make great tasting veggies:

Learn to stir fry. You can always create a stir fried dish within minutes. Apart from being fast and easy to make, stir fries are extremely tasty. Heat you wok and put in some oil. Keep chopped vegetables ready, adding the harder ones first and then the soft ones. Great combinations can be made with hard veggies like carrots, peas, cauliflowers and potatoes with softer ones like bell peppers, tomatoes and onions. Add salt and pepper for flavor and your stir fried vegetables are ready to eat.

Start using substitutes: Substitute tofu, seitan and tempeh in your meat and chicken dishes and you can create a whole range of tasty vegetarian dishes that taste very much like the original non vegetarian ones.