Veggie Blog

Book Description
The Gourmet Slow Cooker and The Gourmet Slow Cooker: Volume II showed home cooks everywhere that a slow cooker is perfectly capable of turning out meals that are sophisticated enough to serve to guests. It’s simply a matter of using imaginative recipes that bring together fresh, flavor-packed ingredients—and then setting the timer.

In The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker, author Lynn Alley offers up more than fifty dishes, each one vegetarian, some of them vegan, and all of them delicious. The recipes are drawn from the world’s great cuisines and include breakfasts, soups, main courses, sides, and desserts. Dishes, such as Spiced Basmati Rice Breakfast Cereal, Smoky Potage Saint-Germain, Polenta Lasagna with Tomato-Mushroom Sauce, Soy-Braised Potatoes, and Mexican Chocolate Pudding Cake, are each paired with a beverage that is meant to complement the meal.

Whether you are a vegetarian hard-pressed to find enticing recipes for your slow cooker, an omnivore looking to expand your repertoire, or a follower of a vegetable-focused diet, The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker will help you put many delightful meat-free dinners on the table with convenience and ease.

Book: Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Lynn Alley
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Book Description
The celebration of Japan’s vegan and vegetarian traditions begins with kansha—appreciation—an expression of gratitude for nature’s gifts and the efforts and ingenuity of those who transform nature’s bounty into marvelous food. The spirit of kansha, deeply rooted in Buddhist philosophy and practice, encourages all cooks to prepare nutritionally sound and aesthetically satisfying meals that avoid waste, conserve energy, and preserve our natural resources.

In these pages, with kansha as credo, Japan culinary authority Elizabeth Andoh offers more than 100 carefully crafted vegan recipes. She has culled classics from shōjin ryōri, or Buddhist temple cuisine (Creamy Sesame Pudding, Glazed Eel Look-Alike); gathered essentials of macrobiotic cooking (Toasted Hand-Pressed Brown Rice with Hijiki, Robust Miso); selected dishes rooted in history (Skillet-Scrambled Tofu with Leafy Greens, Pungent Pickles); and included inventive modern fare (Eggplant Sushi, Tōfu-Tōfu Burgers).

Andoh invites you to practice kansha in your own cooking, and she delights in demonstrating how “nothing goes to waste in the kansha kitchen.” In one especially satisfying example, she transforms each part of a single daikon—from the tapered tip to the tuft of greens, including the peels that most cooks would simply compost—into an array of wholesome, flavorful dishes.

Decades of living immersed in Japanese culture and years of culinary training have given Andoh a unique platform from which to teach. She shares her deep knowledge of the cuisine in the two-part A Guide to the Kansha Kitchen. In the first section, she explains basic cutting techniques, cooking methods, and equipment that will help you enhance flavor, eliminate waste, and speed meal preparation. In the second, Andoh demystifies ingredients that are staples in Japanese pantries, but may be new to you; they will boost your kitchen repertoire—vegan or omnivore—to new heights.

Stunning images by award-winning photographer Leigh Beisch complete Kansha, a pioneering volume sure to inspire as it instructs.

Book: Kansha Celebrating Japan’s Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions by Elizabeth Andoh
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Book Description
As a busy husband, father of two young children, and full-time writer, Jack Bishop demands a lot from the meals that make it into his family’s repertoire. In A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen, he guides you through the seasons with 248 of his favorite everyday recipes, which deliciously embody his philosophy of “shop locally, cook globally, and keep things easy.” Cooking with seasonal produce, he says, is the best way to bring a welcome variety to the table. In spring, dinner might be Stir-Fried Rice Noodles with Asparagus and Eggs. Summer brings Savory Corn Griddle Cakes and Fresh Tomato Pizza with Avocado. For fall, Root Vegetable Tarts with Rosemary and Orecchiette with Spicy Broccoli are on the menu. And in winter, when most farmers’ markets are a distant memory, Pan-Glazed Tofu with Thai Red Curry Sauce and Caribbean Black Beans with Sautéed Plantains await. With ten years of experience working with Cook’s Illustrated, he’s also able to provide expert guidance on how to choose a good vegetable broth, select the right potatoes for mashing, and more tips tailored just for vegetarian cooks.

Book: A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop
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Raw food can be creative, colourful, and surprisingly elaborate. Raw: The Uncook Book: New Vegetarian Food for Life helped popularise that idea through dishes ranging from vegetable rolls and uncooked pizzas to desserts. The book’s complete author credit is Juliano Brotman and Erika Lenkert, rather than Erika Lenkert alone as shown in the older Veggie-Blog title.

What kind of cookbook is this?

Published in 1999, it approaches uncooked food as gourmet cuisine rather than just another way to make salad. Bibliographic records identify the subtitle, both authors, and the original publisher. The book description mentions raw-style sandwiches, vegetable sushi, burritos, shakes, cookies, puddings, and pies.

Why are the recipes interesting?

Raw-food cooking changes your toolkit. Instead of relying on an oven or frying pan for flavour and texture, you experiment with nuts, seeds, vegetables, herbs, citrus, and careful knife work. Zucchini can become noodle-like ribbons; cashews can make creamy sauces; fresh fruit can supply colour and sweetness. These techniques are useful even if most of your meals are cooked.

Are the book’s health promises established?

The original promotional description makes sweeping claims about the benefits of raw food for the body and mind. Those should not be read as proven medical outcomes. Eating plenty of vegetables and fruits is generally beneficial, but an exclusively raw diet is not automatically more nutritious or appropriate for everyone.

There are also food-safety considerations. The US Food and Drug Administration recommends washing produce properly and warns that raw sprouts can carry harmful bacteria, particularly risky for pregnant people, young children, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems. A fully vegan diet also needs reliable vitamin B12 sources.

Should you buy this older edition?

If you enjoy collecting influential, unusual cookbooks, Raw offers an interesting look at the late-1990s raw-food movement. Because it is an older title, confirm the edition and condition before buying.

A separately published, more practical option is Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People by Jennifer Cornbleet, which has a revised edition with smaller recipes and preparation tips. It is not a new edition of Raw.

Book: Raw: The Uncook Book by Juliano Brotman and Erika Lenkert
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Book Description
With three bustling restaurants located throughout the Los Angeles area, Real Food Daily boasts a loyal clientele of ravenous vegetarian diners and health-conscious celebrities, trendsetting young hipsters and members of Southern California’s culinary community at large. After 10 successful years as a cherished destination for lovers of delicious and naturally wholesome cuisine, this eclectic hot spot continues to thrive under the stewardship of its pioneering founder, Ann Gentry, who raises the standards and expectations of nutritious, meat-free cooking through her unique brand of California cuisine. In THE REAL FOOD DAILY COOKBOOK, you’ll find recipes for 150 of the restaurants’ most popular dishes, such as Lentil-Walnut P?¢t?©; Country-Style Miso Soup; Tuscan Bean Salad with Herb Vinaigrette; Southern-Style Skillet Cornbread; Tofu Quiche with Leeks and Asparagus; Acorn Squash Stuffed with Sweet Rice, Currants, and Vegetables; and Coconut Cream Pie with Chocolate Sauce. After years of getting floods of recipe requests from her loyal customers, Ann is delivering in full force, not only to her patient fans, but to everyone who yearns for delicious, healthful, real food in their daily lives.

Book: The Real Food Daily Cookbook by Ann Gentry
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