Long story short, but I’m going vegetarian for the foreseeable future and I don’t really get much iron at all anymore because of it.

My understanding is that plants with iron don’t absorb as well as iron from meat. I eat spinach and I vaguely try to look for plant food with iron in it. Eggs are fine for me too.

Basically does anyone know vegetarian recipes that are rich in iron? I’m doing okay for now, but I would really like to integrate iron into my diet more beyond tossing spinach etc onto existing recipes. I used to eat meat a lot, so I’m not familiar with a lot of vegetarian recipes (maybe that could be a separate topic).

Someone once told me that cooking in a cast iron pot is literally a great way to get more in your diet. Not sure if you want to invest in one as they can be expensive but maybe worth a thought.

There's a study on it: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8266402/

SummerO wrote: Sun May 31, 2026 4:13 am Someone once told me that cooking in a cast iron pot is literally a great way to get more in your diet. Not sure if you want to invest in one as they can be expensive but maybe worth a thought.

There's a study on it: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8266402/

This is super interesting actually! I’ll definitely look into that in the future, trying to spend less right now but sounds cool. Thanks.

I do know cooked beans are rich in iron, in brazil its very common to eat cooked beans with rice basically daily because of that.

I did a quick research and seems like black beans have the most iron of all beans, and to better absorb it you should let it soak in water for up to 8 hours before cooking, and when consuming it you should pair it with a vitamin c source for better absorption. We have a meal called feijoada, consists of cooked black beans with lots of pork (i know, not vegetarian at all but there must be a vegetarian version out there xD), we usually have it with white rice, stir fryed kale and an orange on the side to help with the iron absorption.

I hope this can give you some ideas!

soybeans and lentils are a great source for iron!! i like to make a lentil-bolognese. i dont really have a recipe for it since i just eyeball it - basically you make a normal bolognese but you use lentils instead of meat, i like to add some vegan ground beef aswell because i do still like a meaty texture but yeah in terms of iron that would be pretty good for you :]