Sooo I'm two weeks into being a vegetarian and honestly I do enjoy it... I just need more recipes lol. I've gone through a lot of trial and error (expensive as it is, thank goodness Whole Foods lets you return basically anything) but I'm not really closed off to anything.
Any particular dishes that are really popular? If it helps I'm really into Asian cuisine and I have no allergies to anything.
If you have any favorite recipes from your meat eating days, they can just be veganized pretty easily. Just take out dairy & meat & any other possible animal products (eggs, gelatin) and try out different plant alternatives and see what fits your tastes.
Nowadays there are milks, creams, yoghurt, custard & such made from oat, soy, coconut, rice, almond, cashews & such, so you've got lots of alternatives to try out, assuming you don't live in the middle of nowhere. Just know that there are differences between & within brands, so even if one soy milk doesn't taste good, that doesn't mean a slightly differently manufactured soy milk (i.e. sweetened vs. unsweetened) or some other brand's soy milk wouldn't be to your tastes. Sometimes it just comes down to becoming used to new flavors & things. I didn't like plant based milks at the beginning but nowadays I can drink pretty much anything but almond milk (the one available near me tastes like dirt water... :S). I also wasn't a massive fan of beans before starting vegetarianism but nowadays I have no issues with them, even if there's a lot of them in some sauce.
As far as replacing meat, there's really very little that doesn't already have plant based alternatives that are really close if not nigh identical with actual meats. Not exact replicates but like, close enough that especially with some time you can get used to them and not miss their actual meat counterparts. Some of them you can pretty easily make yourself, some are the kind that can kind of be tricky without industry level machinery & access to special ingredients, so you'll have to buy them.
Anyhoo, as far as the best meat replacements, seitan is the most versatile & probably closest to meat that you can easily make at home, so look up some seitan recipes. It can basically turn into chicken, christmas ham, sausages, kebab & all kinds of meat alternatives depending on the way it is prepared. It might take a few tries to really understand what achieves the best results and before that there is the possibility of making some not-so-good-tasting/textured seitan, but know that at best seitan is reaaaaally good. There should be no bad aftertaste, it shouldn't be flavourless and it should be pretty close to a meat-like thing as far as mouthfeel/texture goes. Know that raw seitan is disgusting (kind of like eating a mix of an eraser & chewing gum), so if you make something that is like "how do people eat this shit" from a texture POV, it's probably still raw & should be cooked longer.
Tofu is another versatile one. It comes in firm and soft forms. The soft one can act as a kind of egg substitute with a lot of things or be used to add some protein & other good stuff into smoothies, even works in making milkshake/ice cream (frozen bananas + soft tofu + some flavor either from frozen berries & fruits or something like raw cacao powder = easy delicious home made milkshake/ice cream). The firm one can also act as a kind of chicken-like thing when prepared in the right way or you can crumble it into little pieces and put it in some salty pie among other fillings and it's almost like boiled/cooked eggwhite. You can even make some fairly convincing halloumi cheese-like thing out of tofu slices. Or you can put it through a processor, add some breadcrumbs & spices and make tofu-balls (with the right kind of ingredients, you can even make it taste like some fish-like thing). Just remember to always dry the firm tofu. Just put it in a towel or between a few pieces of paper and maybe a bit of weight on top of it, wait for 5-10 minutes, maybe switch papers once or twice if you are using it, and then do whatever you are going to do with it. A good marinade/hefty spicing is key to tofu tasting good. Tofu quality varies so don't be discouraged if your first tofu attempts leave a bad taste in your mouth. Maybe try a different brand or you might want to try pre-marinaded tofu at first, unflavoured tofu can have an aftertaste that sticks unless you prepare it right & marinade it for a while.
There are vast array of soy-products. Soy granules, soy-pieces, soy sausages, soy steaks. Not really possible to do at home, I don't think, but stuff like soy granules aren't too expensive and work well in replacing minced meat in anything you'd use. Can have a bit of a strong-isg taste to it but with strong enough spicing & "day-after"ing it, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
If you want something less meat-y but delicious & filled with protein & other healthy shit, falafel is a god tier veggie-patty. Made of chickpeas. Really easy to do. Put chickpeas & onion & garlic into a processor (don't turn it into a paste, leave it a bit grainy), add some herbs like coriander, some salt, chili, curry & garam masala and a combination of bread crumbs & whole grain wheat flour (enough that you can take pieces of the mass and form them into patties so that it doesn't seem like they'd crumble too easily), might have to add a little bit of some liquid (water is fine but plant creams works too) to make the crumbs & flour do their thing. Beans work well in patties too.
Some crazier vegan things are stuff like using carrots to make a thing that is surprisingly close to cold smoked salmon (not sure if that is a thing where you live, I think it might be a Northern European dish) and aquafaba, the cooking/storing liquid of peas & beans, which acts very much like an egg would when whipped. Aquafaba has completely changed the vegan pastry game, at least when it comes to certain sweet treats. Can even make meringue with it, which was previously thought to be impossible without egg white (and as such, not possible to make in a vegan way). But alas, it is, with aquafaba.
