PrintHelp, I am dating a vegetarian!
New territory for me, but I am looking forward to the challenge. He eats almost all his meals out, and I am trying to convince him that he needs to eat in more. I am stymied, however, as to what to cook beyond vegetarian pasta dishes. Suggestions for good, basic cookbooks?
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21 Comments:
Try the Moosewoods cookbooks. Lots of interesting vegetarian recipes that are delicious and generally very easy to make. Will open you up to many recipes beyond pastas.
ceforrester at 9:47AM on 08/17/07
I find basic lifestyle choices are key to how a relationship works. One of my best friends dated a vegetarian and she had to become one or it was never going to work long term. The man in question nitpicked at her constantly. Here is hoping your man is broad minded and it doesn't get down to the nit and pork chop. Best of luck.
JerzeeTomato at 9:57AM on 08/17/07
There is lots of websites that you can look at to get some ideas... such as... http://vegweb.com/
Vegetarian Chili is fantastic....
Lilartist at 10:14AM on 08/17/07
Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is fabulous, even if you're not a vegetarian.
Cathy at 11:26AM on 08/17/07
Is he vegan? Some vegetarians call themselves "fexitarian" & will eat meat occasionally. Others will eat only fish or poultry. Others will eat only dairy & eggs. Where is he on the spectrum?
JEP at 12:02PM on 08/17/07
James Patterson's Vegetables is a great resource for vegetable cookery. Its not as loaded with recipes for full dishes as other books, but it will teach you how to identify, choose, clean/prep and prepare something like 300 different vegetables. If you've already got some cooking skills, it'd be a great way to fill out the knowledge.
ccbweb at 1:13PM on 08/17/07
Try aveggieventure.com , too. Look at Asian cookbooks, especially Thai and Indian ones, which are full of good ideas.
lemons at 1:34PM on 08/17/07
I'm with ceforrester. Moosewood has excellent recipes. Also, you might try some Indian recipes, since the food is so tasty, and there are many vegetarian dishes. When I was vegetarian (15 years), I often took recipes that I liked and re-did them in a way that included different vegetables rather than meat, chicken or fish.
To endorse a single cookbook, Vegan With a Vengeance is definitely my favorite. You might want to check out the Post Punk Kitchen website as well. Isa is hilarious. She put out a vegan cupcake book last year that's marvelous.
Finally, there are literally hundreds of vegan blogs out there that specialize in everything from ice cream to appetizers. Too many to list here, but try googling "vegan" and searching within blogs. Most have recipes that are simple and very tasty.
Good luck!
hereandthe at 2:40PM on 08/17/07
Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian is another great vegetarian cookbook.
Alaina Browne at 4:16PM on 08/17/07
I'm newly veg, and my friend is a meatatarian. Fortunately I like to cook. Recently we've enjoyed a provencale caramelized onion tart with goat cheese and a ratatouille galette. I know we'll be doing Mexican and Indian meals as well, not to mention pizza when the weather gets a little cooler. And there are always fabulous desserts to enjoy together... Kudos to you for taking on the challenge! I agree, find out what his parameters are (also what he likes and doesn't). If he eats eggs and dairy, you have lots of latitude.
emily20008 at 4:41PM on 08/17/07
Kafka's Vegetable Love cookbook is a great addition to anyone's collection, vegetarian or not. I love it for basic cooking techniques to interesting side dishes. Ethnic dishes are definitely a good option too.
July at 5:25PM on 08/17/07
I've been vegan for years, and genereally I suggest easy things for people to cook for me so that they dont feel paniced. Pasta with a red sauce, chillis, bean based casseroles, soups and veggie burgers are very popular and easy to make.
choc_puddin at 5:39PM on 08/18/07
i'd give the recipe index at http://blog.fatfreevegan.com a try. although the recipes seem a little "healthy," she's very honest about when dishes taste great and when they'd benefit from some added fats. it also has beautiful photography :-)
altosaxchica at 10:38PM on 08/19/07
I'm no longer a vegetarian, but I can't go a week without flipping through my stained, crinkled copy of Didi Emmons' Vegetarian Planet. I much prefer it to Deborah Madison's book, which feels just a bit too stiff for me. Among the 300 recipes, Emmons tucks little sidebars of personal cooking anecdotes, information about unusual ingredients, and suggestions for wine pairings and menu planning. The best part is her obvious enthusiasm for good food and good writing -- what more could you ask?
butterface at 1:07AM on 08/20/07
thanks for all of the suggestions. luckily, he doesn't care if other people eat meat, so i don't have to deal with that--i am free to eat all the rare steak i want without recrimination. last night i made ricotta gnocchi with a very simple tomato cream sauce, and roasted some green beans as a side. i used to have a moosewood, but it got lost somewhere along the way, but i think i will start with that and the jaffrey book, which i have heard wonderful things about.
carriebwc at 1:45PM on 08/20/07
I used to make an awesome lentil 'no-meat' loaf with mashed potatoes and veggie peppercorn gravy on cold days (you can tell london hasn't been warm since this is the first thing I thought of). I was veggie for five years!
I also love eating burritos with TVP (soya protein), cheese, guac and fresh pico de gallo. You could also make a nice tofu/snap pea/broccoli pepper stir fry with noodles and oyster sauce.
The key to cooking tofu well is to wrap it in paper towel, put a cookie sheet weighed down with tins of tomatoes ontop for 15 minutes to squeeze out the water. after that you could even marinate it yourself. i prefer to fry it in sesame oil until its crispy.
B
http://handtomouthkitchen.wordpress.com
handtomouth at 6:20PM on 08/20/07
My personal favorite vegetarian cookbook of all time is Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon. Her recipes can be time-consuming, but the book is wonderfully expansive and full of a lifetime of experience cooking vegetarian (and tips for people who have never seen amaranth or mustard greens before).
As for online stuff, some of my favorites:
http://consciouskitchen.blogspot.com/
http://letsgetsconed.blogspot.com/
http://www.urbanhonking.com/hotknives/
http://www.veganyumyum.com/
http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.com/
nerdling at 7:09PM on 08/20/07
When I was vegetarian (ohh, back in the day...) my mom and I both agreed about The Occasional Vegetarian by Karen Lee. The whole point of it is meat-free cooking for people who generally dont eat that way, so you'll probably find meal ideas that you can both agree on. (No small feat, because when I wasnt eating mat, my parents were both on Atkins, which pretty much rules out every possible meal combo.) But we both found things we could get into in this book. Definitely check it out!
Annmarie at 12:01AM on 08/21/07
i having been realising lately that the veg. option is often the best one. these days who knows where the meat came from or how it was raised. maybe if you look at meat as a special food that you want to truly be able to enjoy you can eat your veggies with an easy mind and eat your meat with a clear concious. there is definatly something to be learned from peoples attitude about animals. in fact if you show your partner that there is ethical meat, someday you may be able to enjoy it together.
coolname at 12:27AM on 08/23/07
Read these two very good blogs. They have tons of very good ideas on cooking both for vegetarians and just really good food:
http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/
http://orangette.blogspot.com/
Both of these bloggers have just recently gotten married so there is writing about all of that-really sweet-but go back and look at some of there recipes. They are incredible.
lpennin104 at 1:35AM on 08/23/07
i love lorna sass's vegetarian cookbooks, and if the tassajara recipe book is still in print, everything i have ever made from it has been delicious.
cybercita at 9:07PM on 04/02/08