About a month ago, my kid announced she was now a vegetarian.
She has made this proclamation before, although I suspect some of those announcements were part of a scheme to get me to buy some vegetable I’d recently declared to be out of season (e.g. asparagus), because said announcement was often followed by something like, “I just really love asparagus…”
In the past, she’s lasted a week or so, before, in her own words, “going back to being a meatatarian,” but this time it seems to have stuck, which is fine with us, her parents. Before we were parents, we were both vegetarians for years (and yes, we did serve a vegetarian meal at our wedding almost 10 years ago). We only broke away from full-time vegetarianism because I really, desperately wanted meat while pregnant with said kid (the irony is not lost on me). While pregnant, I ate enough roast beef sandwiches to make me think I might possibly give birth to a wolf pup.
Fast-forward to the present day and for the past couple years, we’ve only been eating meat once a week or so anyway, but this kid is really standing firm on her full-time vegetarian beliefs. (“I just feel bad for cows,” she says.)
Here’s where I need your help: I really need some new vegetarian recipes.
I kept a couple vegetarian cookbooks around even once I stopped being a full-time vegetarian, but in most cases, I’ve had these cookbooks for 10+ years already—if I was going to cook something out of them, I’ve probably already made it, tweaked it, and gotten sick of it by now.
My only caveat: an absolute minimum of soy products and/or vegetarian “fake” food. Things like soy “chick’n” nuggets, nutritional yeast “cheese,” seitan loaf… no thanks. Not because I believe there’s anything bad or inferior about them; I just don’t like them. Beans, eggs, milk, cheese, et cetera are all fine. Vegan cookbooks (like the excellent Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, which I really should buy already) are good too, as are recipe collections online.
So… help a vegetarian kid (and her mother) out? Leave your cookbook suggestions in the comments below.
11 August 2010 at 12:25 pm
I’d say that more than half of my cookbooks are vegetarian (I used to be one for 10 years or so) and still cook a mainly veg diet at home. My favorite cookbooks are The Rebar Cookbook, any of the Moosewood ones, Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and Vegetarian Comfort Food by Jennifer Warren.
11 August 2010 at 12:51 pm
I have the ‘How To Cook Everything’ iPhone app and have been using the search feature to unearth vegetarian recipes. I think I may break down and buy the book, though. I’ll check out the other books you mentioned—thanks!
11 August 2010 at 12:36 pm
Girl, get Supermarket Vegan. It’s what it says: a vegan cookbook that concentrates on ingredients easily found in regular supermarkets. The added bonus is it’s heavy on natural proteins like beans and emphasizes natural food. She doesn’t try to make things fake cheesy or fake meaty. I’m not even a vegan and I love this cookbook.
A few of my favorties from it to give you an idea are:
• Wild mushroom (we’re talking baby bellas, not something exotic, and you could use white too) and pinto bean burritos with roasted tomatillo salsa (jarred: you could use any salsa). You don’t even miss the cheese. I know your daughter’s not going vegan, just mentioning.
• Curried coconut lentils on basmati rice. A friggin’ PANTRY meal. coconut milk, lentils, rice, canned tomatoes, some spices. Somehow it manages to taste spectacular.
• Chickpea patties. My current favorite homemade veggie burger. Everything goes in the food processor to mix, so low dishes, and it sticks together really well, and tastes a bit like falafel.
• Tofu and cherry tomato salad. It’s made with Thai red curry paste (most supermarkets carry it; at least mine does out in the boonies) and is awesome. I dont’ know how tofu fits into your soy issues, but it’s another good recipe in there.
Most of the recipes are fairly quick too, given their from-scratch nature. Around 30 to 60 minutes, I’d say. It’s where I go when I want a 1-pot vegan meal that I can be pretty sure I already have the ingredients on hand for.
11 August 2010 at 12:48 pm
Supermarket Vegan is written by the same woman who wrote The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen! You do not need to sell me on that, then — I already totally love Donna Klein’s recipes. Have you tried her PDQ (Pretty Darn Quick) Vegetarian Cookbook?
22 August 2010 at 10:15 am
Laf, I hadn’t even clicked the link to notice! That’s so cool. I’m not familiar with either cookbook but since I like her recipes too, I’ll have to get them.
11 August 2010 at 1:15 pm
I really lentils are versatile & enoki mushrooms add meaty consistency to soups. Here are some resourceful stumbles.
11 August 2010 at 5:35 pm
I would highly recommend http://www.theppk.com/
We really love the ‘Vegan with a Vengance’ cookbook.
http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Vengeance-Delicious-Animal-Free-Recipes/dp/1569243581
11 August 2010 at 7:48 pm
I with you on the whole “forget the meat-analogs” thing. Why go vegetarian and then build meals around meat that isn’t there with lame fake meat substitutes?
Better to eat meals that never expected meat in the first place. Thai, Indian, Middle Eastern. Here are the foods I’ve been into lately, and they all have protein:
Falafel.
Hummus.
Ful medammes.
Koshari.
Mujadarrah.
Miso.
11 August 2010 at 7:48 pm
Am. I AM with you. ;-)
11 August 2010 at 7:52 pm
…rice and dhal. Chickpea curry and rice. Rajma curry and rice.
This is my favorite cookbook of all time: Extending The Table. I’ve been cooking out of it for years.
13 August 2010 at 2:11 am
LOL! My five year old calls herself a “bothatarian!”
I am trying not to give my kids an eating disorder while gently educating them about how their food choices affect the big system–factory farming, GM foods, etc. So, anyway. My husband will eat anything with a face. I am a “happy meat” only mom, so I don’t cook meat very often, as the happy variety is costly. My kids fall in between–craving McDonalds (because of the toy) and periodically getting it when Daddy takes them out, but usually content with mushroom burgers or veggie patties, pasta, pizza, etc.
I recently made my daughter a tasty bean sandwich. Here’s the recipe:
mashed red beans
mashed kidney beans
a squirt of mustard
salt
pepper
a sprinkle of creole seasonings
a splash of worschester sauce
Toast two pieces of whole wheat bread, spread the bean mash in between, cut it into diagonals, and serve with organic blue corn chips or smart puffs.
Yum!
I have a relatively new site, in case anyone is interested:
http://www.earthmommy.net
It’s the “urban mom’s guide to Eco-friendly living.”
I hope you will enjoy it!
Thanks for the great blogging!
13 August 2010 at 10:17 am
Hey Tammy — I see you live in Inwood! We’re almost neighbors.
13 August 2010 at 8:45 am
My favorite go-to veggie cookbook/website is anything by the Vegetarian Times. Sometimes I have to adapt recipes but very rarely am I disappointed.
18 August 2010 at 10:59 am
I know how difficult it can be to find great vegetarian recipes. I have been a vegetarian for 12 years now and when I first went veggie there was nothing available on the market. In the last 5 years or so I have noticed a much better selection. A couple of my favorite vegetarian cookbooks are A Year in the Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop and Vegetarian Classics by Jeanne Lemlin. I agree with other people comments on Mark Bittman’s (known as M. Bitty in our house) How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.
I have to say how great I think it is that your child has parents who respect her choices! I know I probably would have been a vegetarian even early in my life if I had such supportive parents.