unfortunately the no-meat dishes of our grandparents are not especially tasty in their "peasant"-version (northern europe) and making tasty vegetarian meals is an art not really known anymore (was it ever?) in my family, nor in any of the everyday restaurants/employee-cafeterias I visit.

Well I would suggest you get yourselves a book on Southern European/Mediterranean cooking (or just look around online).

It's very easy and quick to make tasty dishes with no meat, even just salads. Plenty of possible variations on the theme: pasta salads, rice salads, potato salads, for example. Of course there are also plenty of hot dishes to cook with potatoes, tomatoes, etc.

Curries are also an endless source of tasty dishes that do not need to include any meat.

yes, for myself, I've taken that step for some time. It's just the case that most corporate cafeterias have not really jumped on the bandwagon already (offering 80% meat-dishes, e.g. all but one – take it or leave it then...) and frankly I think I would've gotten a lot more used to vegetables as a child if it would not have been some variation on steamed cale-likes together with salted potatoes most of the time as a purely "vegetarian" meal (my mother and grandmother cook pretty well - I tend to like it most if there's a pinch of animal in it though...).