The Vegetarian Meat & Potatoes Cookbook: 275 Hearty and Healthy Meat-Free Recipes

by Robin Robertson

Book Overview

Eating vegetarian doesn't have to mean giving up the satisfaction of mouthwatering, stick-to-your-ribs comfort foods. The Vegetarian Meat & Potatoes Cookbook recasts classic all-American "meat and potatoes" food in a healthier role, from family-style foods to gourmet specialties to ethnic favorites. It will revolutionize the way you think about vegetarian food.Recipes include: Tapenade-Stuffed Red Potatoes Spicy African Sweet Potato Stew Meat-Free...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558322051
• ISBN13: 9781558322059
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Harvard Common Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Creative, hearty meals

I love this book! Most of the recipes are easy to prepare, and the dishes are different from the typical fare you'll find in the average vegetarian cookbook. (OK.. there is one recipe for hummus...) As other reviewers have pointed out, it often calls for fake meat products, so if you don't care for them, this may not be the book for you. However, if you do enjoy seitan, soy crumbles, faux sausages and the like, this book offers many creative ways to prepare them. My favorite recipes are the Vegetarian Pot Roast (made with seitan and a to-die-for marinade), Tofu and Mushroom Piccata, Red Beans Bourguignon, Maple-Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Plan-Ahead Potato Latkes, Spicy Tofu Po' Boys, and Seitan Cheese Steaks.

Even Meatlovers Like It

As a meat eater and lover, I enjoy using this cookbook to prepare meals without meat about once or twice a week. Its clever use of the word "meat" in its title grabbed my attention in the bookstore, and its 275 recipes promises a wide variety of experimentation in the kitchen. Roberston uses a lot of tofu and eggplant as substitutes to meat. Prior to reading this book, I ate eggplant about twice a year, always breaded, fried, and fattening. You had to cover my fried eggplant in Louisiana hot sauce to make it edible. As for tofu, I ate it occasionally, sliced, fried and boring, and usually found it rather tasteless and rubbery. Robertson has rescued me from both of these self-inflicted culinary disasters. The derivation of Robertson's recipes are Asian, Chinese, French, Latin, and what is now becoming known as "New American." She uses ginger, garlic, and sot sauce as the base for many recipes, and teaches you how to cleverly turn mushrooms, green beans, and eggplant into some pretty good meat type dishes. I eat meat because it makes my feel satiated-that is, I enjoy the flavor and texture of meat, and the fat tells my stomach I have eaten. Vegetables can be disappointing in all three of these important aspects of eating. But, I have to honestly say, with Robertson's help, my argument for eating meat is weakened. I'm working against generations of cultural conditioning relevant to my insistence on eating meat, and with Robertson's help, I hope to one day free myself from its shackles. Time and experimenting with Robertson's recipes will tell. One of the best aspects of this book is the simple ingredients contained in the recipes. I live in bit of a provincial type town, where exotic vegetables and spices are hard to come by. I'm not a chef either, but found the instructions fairly easy to follow. I recommend you add this book to your collection.

Great recipes!

With 275 recipes, you'll be sure to find some great ideas to add to your vegetarian (or vegan) cooking repertoire. Not all recipes are vegan, but many that aren't can be adapted. Many vegan cookbooks contain recipes that either use unusual ingredients; this book for the most part is not like that. It's one of the best vegetarian cookbooks I've come across.

Time after time, this cookbook comes through!

I am not a vegetarian, but my fiance is and I'm not complaining! I certainly eat a lot more vegetables now than ever before and if I can just get the tendency to overdose on carbs under control, all will be well. But another great thing is that I have the opportunity to explore a whole new world of cooking, one of my favorite hobbies.As such, I've bought several vegetarian cookbooks in recent months-- I found recipes that I like in all of them, but by far, my favorite is The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook. Time after time, I picks something out of this book and give it a shot and it turns out delicious. Usually I have whatever it calls for in the cupboard-- not a whole lot of fancy things required here. The meals are normal, filling and feel like nothing special. That may sound bad, but it's not. Sometimes it's nice to just have everyday dinner without thinking about how vegetarian it is. This book is a great one for the non-gourmet vegetarian. Highly recommended.

Ten stars for this cookbook!

Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes is possibly the best ever book written for people wanting to go vegetarian, but still hunkering for meat and potatoes, and also for vegetarians, who want to turn their meat-eating friends on to the vegetarian lifestyle. After serving Robertson's recipes at several dinner parties, everyone always exclaims that they didn't know that vegetarian/vegan food could be so delicious. In this era where viruses, bacteria and God knows what lurks around every corner, going vegetarian/vegan is no longer a possible choice. It's the only choice to help keep those little bugs at bay. And where better to begin than with this wonderful guide to a new lifestyle success. If you are vegetarian/vegan, buy this book for yourself, and buy it to give those you love, who haven't yet made the change.