Tasty Ornish recipes?

Sure! So, qualifiers, I'm a vegetarian, not a vegan, and I have no issues with oil or cheese, but there are plenty of things I make that have little oil, or can be made without. So this is adapting stuff I make, not honing to a specific dietary thing, so careful, adjust to suit whatever his specific needs/recommendations are!

I make a yummy lentil/carrot soup with kale.

I soak lentils beforehand for a couple of hours in a bowl of cool water.

Sautee about half an onion, (or not!) chopped, a couple of ribs of celery, sliced thinly or diced, and about a lb of carrots, I do sliced into about 1/4" rounds, or half-rounds, depending on the size (you can dice or whatever). If you can't use ANY oil, you can probably just do a hot dry pan and toss some water in to steam/sautee them, but depending on the guidelines they make misters you can buy to load with your own oil, that you can load up with a good olive oil and just mist the pan to get enough to help veggies sautee but not probably enough to go over 10% ?

As the stuff sweats, I chop up a bundle of lacinato kale (I just way prefer it, use whatever), rinse it and toss it in. Add some pepper, cumin, sage, cook until the veggies are a bit tender. Add about 6-7 cups of low-sodium vegetable stock (Trader Joe's is awesome) if that's ok, or 4 cups and 3 of water. Add a cup and a half of uncooked lentils. Simmer for about 45 minutes.

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I make a really good curry that normally has fat up the wazoo but I think you can pretty easily alter it. I normally make the sauce a day ahead, then just steam whatever veggies (usually stuff like cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, green beans, peas, baby kale, etc.) and then heat them in the sauce and serve over brown rice.

Sautee a half an onion, chopped, until golden, (or don't if he can't have cooked either, heh and just start with the garlic and ginger!) and add a tbs of chopped fresh garlic and one of grated fresh ginger (if you don't have them, I've added powdered, but fresh is better), and sautee the garlic and ginger with the onion for just a minute. Then add your spices (here you need a little oil to let the spices sautee and to sort of form a roux with the flour, a spoon or two should be ok?) -- 2.5 tbs curry powder, 1 tbs tumeric, 1 tsp cinnamon, some black pepper and about 2 tbs all-purpose flour. Sautee these with the veggies for a minute and add about 3tbs of tomato paste (the recipe is really forgiving). Combine and keep sauteeing everything over medium heat but be careful not to burn the spices. I like a bit sweet/spicy, so I toss in a handful of raisins here.

Add a container of non-fat, plain greek yogurt (the small fage kind is what I use, it's either 6 or 8 oz, the single serve plain). Stir to combine. Now add, slowly at first (stir to combine the thick paste you've got with the stock before adding more so it combines well), about 3 cups of low-sodium vegetable stock. Keep adding stock and stirring. When combined, add another container of greek yogurt (here I add coconut milk, which is fatty as all get out, so....), stir to combine.

Then pour into a tupperware or whatever and stash in the fridge overnight. It tastes harsh when it's first made. The flavours mellow and blend overnight! It also thickens in the fridge, but when you put it over the steamed veg in a saucepan and stir to heat the veg in the sauce it'll thin back out. You can also freeze -- it makes a bunch, so it's pourable into a ziplock and freezable.

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Do you like beans and rice? Get some low-sodium (no-salt-added) black or pinto beans, sautee some garlic, dump beans into a pan, add some cumin, jalapeno, pepper, bay leaf, simmer until the flavours blend. Make some brown rice, While that's cooking, wilt some spinach and kale (take a sautee pan, and heat it very hot, add nothing to it. Take a handful of spinach or kale leaves, rinse under cold water, shake, toss in the pan still damp -- the droplets will make steam in the hot pan and help cook the greens very fast), and/or sautee some zucchini with some chopped garlic, serve beans and rice with a side of veg... delicious.

I'd also recommend in general the Mollie Katzen cookbooks -- The Enchanted Broccoli Forest and all the rest. They're NOT adapted to this diet, but they're generally veg and creative and flavourful, so you can use them for ideas.

There are also grain-based meals, like quinoa, barley, buckwheat, etc., that are really good. I love buckwheat (kasha), people like quinoa... most grains are easy to cook, and extra good if you dry toast them in the pan before adding liquid.

Make a pot of some grain, with some low-sodium vegetable stock for extra flavour if you want, and in another pan sautee some diced bell peppers of all colours, celery, and garlic. Add some julienned carrots, snow peas, sliced mushrooms, some broccoli florets, whatever you've got around. When the veggies are cooked, toss with the grain. You can make a dressing out of some mustard, lemon juice, bit of honey, black pepper, and toss. Serve warm or cold.

You can make lentil salads too, and just make a big pot of warm lentils, sprinkle them with some of the same type of dressing, serve in a hollowed-out bell pepper.

You can stuff bell peppers with a mix of brown rice, chopped sauteed veggies, including tomato paste and some veg stock, stick in the oven until the peppers are a bit soft ...

Yeah, 350 or 375... my oven is a bit persnickity, heh. Whatever you'd bake a lasagna or casserole at.

It's definitely hard to make a big shift -- especially if you're not as attuned to what you're shifting to. I'm not a vegan, and it'd be a big change if I switched, but I've been vegetarian since I was a kid. Having cooked mostly vegetables and grains most of my life would probably make it simpler than for someone who was used to mostly meat-based eating, especially 'meat and sides,' as, in my experience people who eat that way who go veg* just feel lost looking for the BIG, MAIN thing to replace like, chicken, a steak, etc.

I promise, it is really not complicated, and it can be really delicious, flavourful, varied, and easy. There is more chopping, heh, but aside from that... I've had a number of people go veg* or try out veg*ism and ask me for recipes and help and every one has said it's easier and surprisingly better than they'd thought (even the one with the dedicated meat-and-potato husband). Once you get into it and start trying stuff, you'll find things you like and begin to branch out.

There are also a lot of shortcutty things to do -- like cutting up cauliflower and broccoli and such when you bring them home, and putting them in ziplocks, prepping stuff you might want for snacks, again, when you get home, doing stuff like sauteeing in bigger batches (it's easier to buy a couple boxes or a couple lbs of mushrooms, slice them as soon as you get home and toss them in a hot pan -- mushrooms don't really need oil to sautee, they'll give off liquid and as that cooks off, they'll cook down, and you can add a little crushed garlic toward the end, when there's still a little liquid in the pan - then keep putting away the rest of your groceries while they cook, stop and stir them every couple of minutes, they'll be done in <10). If you start doing that, prepping stuff when you bring it in, I think you'll find it easier.

If you start doing stuff like that, you can have a container of cooked mushrooms, squash, etc., in the fridge, along with a container of cooked grains, and you can throw together a quick grain salad, or put up some water to boil, make some whole wheat pasta, drain it and then take the hot pan, flash wilt some spinach and kale, add some of the already-sauteed garlicky veggies, cook in a squeeze of lemon juice, a spoon or two of oil, or maybe some chili paste instead of the oil and lemon if you like heat, or whatever flavours you enjoy -- there are tons to explore -- toss in the pasta...some fresh basil, fresh cracked pepper, dinner in 10 minutes.

You can also alter stuff, like pesto. Take a LOT of fresh basil, some water, some lemon juice, a handful of walnuts, a bit of oil, a load of garlic, salt, pepper, throw in a food processor and blend until smooth, like hummus. Cook in a saucepan for like 5 minutes over medium heat, while stirring, just until the raw flavour is cooked out of the basil and garlic. You can freeze that in ziplocks. It's not 'regular' pesto, but it'll have a lot of flavour and nutrients.

Also explore different fruits and veg -- if you've never had garnet yams, go find some. They're a variety, usually organic, sold many places like Whole Foods. They've got dark orange flesh and a dark red/purpley outer skin, very nutritious. Just bake in the oven (either wrapped in foil or not if you like crispy skin but if you do them plain, put them on foil, because they ooze sugary syrup) and they're like candy. You won't believe how good they are just plain, no butter.

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