Savoury vegetarian recipes?

January 26, 2011 3:46 PM

Best vegetarian cookbook for a semi-gourmet omnivore?

Inspired by this question, I'm looking for recommendations for a great vegetarian cookbook but with slightly different criteria. I'd like recipes that incorporate strong, exotic flavours, focus on beans and grains rather than tofu, can be easily frozen once prepared, and appeal to dedicated meat eaters. I'm a fairly accomplished cook and have a wide range of spices and ingredients available to me--what I'm looking for are recipes for meatless main courses that will still satisfy my love of rich and complex flavours. I'm already well versed in Indian cooking, but would love suggestions from other regional cuisines (such as Mexican, South American, African, etc.). Thank you!

posted by Go Banana to Food & Drink (28 answers total)

This is your bible.
posted by Es ist Zeit, dass es Zeit wird! at 3:55 PM on January 26, 2011 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I think that Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian is precisely what you're looking for. There's a significant chapter that focuses on dried beans, peas, lentils and nuts, as well as a lengthy grain chapter. The flavors are outstanding. The recipes are simple for someone at your level of expertise. I use it regularly, and love it (and I'm a happy omnivore). I recommend starting with an Afghan recipe for Eggplant with Minty Tomato Sauce and Yogurt (page 192) -- it's a regular, and a favorite in my house.
posted by amelioration at 4:01 PM on January 26, 2011 [5 favorites]

You could try The Flexitarian Kitchen, it's okay, and almost exactly what you're asking for, but I personally find some of the recipes too pedantic and fussy at times.

I have been cooking vege at home for the last year or so - with all the cookbooks that implies, and I have to say that, hands-down, This is the best vegetarian cookbook I have ever used. And arguably the best cookbook full stop (for those not clicking on the link, it is Jack Bishop's Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook).

Authentic, simple, straightforward, delicious, healthy. I've made about one hundred things from this cookbook and every single one has been good - some have been incredibly good. I have never had a strike rate that high from a cookbook with so many recipes. Highly recommended.
posted by smoke at 4:01 PM on January 26, 2011

Best answer: Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone is my bible, as a semi-gourmet omnivore who likes spicy/ethnic. She lives in Santa Fe so her flavors are heavily Southwestern US/Mexican. Her Tortilla Soup is one of the greatest things ever done by humans. Another book of hers, Vegetable Soups, has a potato and green chile stew (which I purée into a stew) which is even better.
posted by xueexueg at 4:02 PM on January 26, 2011 [10 favorites]

Everything I've made from The Flexitarian Table by Peter Berley has been really, really excellent. Very full flavored, lots of ethnic influences. I can't say enough good about it.
posted by rebeccabeagle at 4:04 PM on January 26, 2011

Mark Bittman: How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I cook more from his other book (How to Cook Everything), but his recipes are not overly complex and I have yet to try one that wasn't good, unless it was based on ingredients I'll always hate. (I'm talking about you, okra.)
posted by Hylas at 4:09 PM on January 26, 2011 [2 favorites]

I think the standard response is either Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian or Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. We have (and cook from) both... I'd characterize Bittman as more of the everyday cookbook and Madison as more of the special occasion cookbook.

In terms of outside of those two tomes we have a few of the Moosewood books, but more often than anything else we rely on sites like 101 CookBooks, Post Punk Kitchen, and V e g a n D a d to keep things fresh. There are a ton of great vegetarian and vegan sites online that are publishing wonderful recipes for free.
posted by togdon at 4:12 PM on January 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Mmmm, okra. Or bindi as I prefer to call it. If you tried mine I swear you'd like it Hylas!

Thanks for the great ideas, all. I particularly like the look of World Vegetarian, as well as the Deborah Madison Book. Learning to cook southwest style has long been on my list of things to do.
posted by Go Banana at 4:24 PM on January 26, 2011

Seconding Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian. It's the one vegetarian cookbook that almost every vegetarian I know has. I actually don't own a copy, because until now I had never lived in a house without one.

I swear by anything by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, though as a dairy eater I will often substitute in the real-life version of soy milk, egg replacer, etc.
posted by Sara C. at 4:30 PM on January 26, 2011

I'm much fonder of Madison than Bittman -- his timings can be pretty oddly out, and I've had a few complete busts with vegetarian recipes in the Big Yellow Book.

As I've mentioned here before, the ingredient lists for Madison's book can sometimes be a wee bit complicated, and you should definitely pay extra for the hardback edition, as the perfect-bound one (at least, my old copy) doesn't cope well with extensive use.

Others: the Greens cookbooks can be useful, and Claudia Roden's cookbooks aren't strictly vegetarian, but there's a huge amount of vegetarian stuff in there -- North African, Levantine, Persian, Sephardic Jewish -- that hits the spot for spice and freshness with beans and grains.

For a vegetarian take on southern American regional, The Grit Cookbook ain't bad, either.
posted by holgate at 4:44 PM on January 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

I love the Moosewood range of cookbooks. Pretty much been a staple of all my natural foods loving friends.
posted by nikitabot at 4:45 PM on January 26, 2011

Not strictly vegetarian, but Perfect Main Dish Vegetables by Anne Willan is badass.
posted by Leta at 4:53 PM on January 26, 2011

Another vote for the Moosewood series. The original, New Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen is fantastic, although some of the recipes do seem a bit dated/hippy-centric. Moosewood Restaurant New Classics is far and away my favorite cookbook ever. Everything in it is delicious and hearty. I've had mine for a few years and already broke the binding from using it so often.
posted by vytae at 5:19 PM on January 26, 2011

We use both Madison and Bittman extensively in our house, and they each have their strengths. Bittman tries to be thorough, putting in every possible variation of a recipe. Madison has fewer dishes, but each seems much more considered and balanced. I'd say get both.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 5:20 PM on January 26, 2011

A trifle more obscure, but the best vegetarian meals I have ever had were cooked from Denis Cotter's cookbooks. He owns Cafe Paradiso in Cork, which is quite literally the best vegetarian restaurant in the entire country. His emphasis is simplicity and precision --- seasonal ingredients, insightfully combined to intensify natural flavors. There's never anything extra in his ingredient lists, even if the combinations sometimes surprise you.
posted by Diablevert at 5:30 PM on January 26, 2011

Most of Martha Rose Shulman's Mediterranean Light fits your criteria. It's not a vegetarian cookbook, but there are many delicious, sophisticated vegetarian recipes.
posted by keener_sounds at 5:31 PM on January 26, 2011

Everyone always raves about Mark Bittman but I find him very hit or miss.

The standards in my kitchen are the above-mentioned World Vegetarian (Mahdur Jaffrey) and Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Better even than those, however, are Veganomicon and Appetite for Reduction, both vegan cookbooks from Isa Chandra Moskovitz. Her recipes are simple, use normal ingredients, and every single one I have made - and I've cooked from them nearly every day for four months - has been spectacular.
posted by something something at 6:23 PM on January 26, 2011 [3 favorites]

It's a blog, not a book, but you might find some good ideas over here: The Militant Carnivore cooks for his Vegetarian Wife.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 6:24 PM on January 26, 2011

Best answer: Another vote for the Moosewood books, especially their Sundays At Moosewood book. That one has an emphasis on a range of different "regional" and "ethnic" cooking -- the Moosewood restaurant tends to feature a different nation or region's cuisine on Sunday nights.

So while you do get tofu here and there, it's confined to the Asian cuisines sections for the most part. The feel is more, "...So, have you ever wondered about Moroccan food, but you're also a vegetarian? You're in luck!"

I've used my copy so much it's literally fallen apart into five different pieces ("hmmm, I think this section has the Japanese chapter in it..."), and there are recipes I turn to again and again -- a tostada recipe in the Mexican section (and especially their formula for guacamole is my go-to version), a cheese-lovers vegetarian version of the classic Cornish pasty (although I need to tinker with it because it involves turnips in the filling, and I"m apparently now intolerant of them -- alas!), some great Japanese vegetable dishes, a Caribbean stew....and some recipes I really want to try (I am determined to try the West African peanut stew one of these days). Some things are vegetarian adaptations of classic dishes -- the fact that they have a vegetarian version of Brunswick stew is probably making several southern MeFites have a heart attack right now -- but a lot of them are "this was something vegetarian that already was part of this region's cuisine all along", like bean dishes from Egypt and North Africa or seafood from New England.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:46 PM on January 26, 2011

A Beautiful Bowl of Soup has a lot of varied and interesting soup recipes, without any tofu (I think). Lots of hearty, grain-based stuff, and some things can even stand up to having some chicken or turkey breast thrown in.
posted by whitneyarner at 7:17 PM on January 26, 2011

Best answer: Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi is getting loads of excellent reviews from a lot of home cooks. It's only available for pre-order in Canada right now (to be released March 9), but in the meantime you can browse a few hundred of his recipes at the Guardian.
posted by hat at 7:34 PM on January 26, 2011

I adore Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East: Vegetarian Cooking. It is about 20 years older than World Vegetarian, but the recipes have aged really, really well. I see the book at used bookstores quite often and wonder how people manage to part with it, for it is excellently detailed and full of wonders. I have yet to cook something from there that I don't love.

I second the recommendation for the Greens cookbooks: the first one is by Deborah Madison, both are good.

You'll probably find Moosewood Cookbooks unsatisfying on the gourmet front - the recipes are usually more hearty than nuanced. Sundays at the Moosewood, however, is an exception - definitely worth taking a look at.
posted by marlys at 8:50 PM on January 26, 2011

I agree with pretty much all of the above, but will add the folllowing:

Veganomicon. This book looks totally unassuming, and if you are like me, you will underestimate recipes because of that. But it is AMAZING, and everything out of it is good.

Because of your emphasis on beans and such, I'll recommend Lorna Sass's Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure. It's a pressure cooker specific book, but there is much deliciousness within, and cooking dried beans in the pressure cooker will save you so much time you won't know how you lived without it.
posted by pixiecrinkle at 9:17 PM on January 26, 2011

Seconding Plenty, by Yotam Ottolenghi. A lot of the recipes are drawn from his vegetarian cooking column in The Guardian -- to get a sense of his style, try his pomegranate and walnut salsa (I made it with roasted aubergine and feta instead of halloumi and chicory and served it as the main for Christmas lunch). The best of his recipes (and the majority) are Mediterranean inspired, with strong, fresh flavours and lots of herbs. Great stuff.
posted by tavegyl at 1:22 AM on January 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

Thirding Plenty, by Yotam Ottolenghi. Everything I've tried from it has been brilliant. The potato/onion/tomato/goats cheese tatin is probably my favourite.
posted by primer_dimer at 7:20 AM on January 27, 2011

Seconding Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East: Vegetarian Cooking. Wide range of recipes from Far, South and Middle Eastern countries.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:32 PM on January 27, 2011

Thirding Veganomicon. Have made many recipes from that one, and have yet to be disappointed.
posted by zen_spider at 4:08 PM on January 27, 2011

Response by poster: So my delightful husband stalked my Metafilter account and bought me Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian yesterday for my birthday (after looking for it in four bookstores). Thanks, all! It looks just like what I was hoping for.
posted by Go Banana at 5:19 AM on February 2, 2011