veggie-forward cookbook - update at end

[EmilyGF]

Hi all,

I went through the pandemic bread-baking phase. In September, I began cooking through The Indian Instant Pot (yum!), focusing on using more beans. In October, I developed a cookie recipe for a recipe contest ("Chocolate Almond Cheesecake Squares"). 

Next project: incorporating more vegetable-based main dishes. I usually find vegetarian cookbooks either kooky, hard-to-follow with obscure ingredients, or just not very tasty. I enjoyed some Ottolenghi recipes, but they were pretty time-consuming, though I'm sure my family would love for me to make some more. I had "O She Glows," but the recipes had so many steps and so many ingredients.

Do you have a favorite veggie-forward cookbook you recommend? I'd like to set a goal; maybe set aside one night a week to cook through it during the winter. 

Suggestions? Thanks!
Emily

------------------

Edited 11/23/2020: See below. I found one I really like!

Edited November 23, 2020 by EmilyGF

[Lecka]

I like Crescent Dragonwagon a lot.  

She does have hard-to-find ingredients, but it's usually easy to see what a similar ingredient would be.  I am quick to substitute with her, if it's something like subbing in the easily-available version of an ingredient instead of the vegan ingredient.  

Edit:  I do also feel free to simplify some of her recipes.  They can have a lot of ingredients.  

 

Edited November 4, 2020 by Lecka

[Laura Corin]

I like this guy

https://thedoctorskitchen.com/recipes

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctors-Kitchen-Supercharge-delicious-everyday/dp/0008239339/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511537420&sr=8-1&keywords=the+doctors+kitchen

 

[Miss Tick]

I found a copy of The Enchanted Broccoli Forest on the library free cart. I've been liking it better than her original Moose wood Cookbook. I don't know that I would be interested in cooking everything in it though, if that is your intent. If I were going to do that I would find an American Test Kitchen Cookbook.

I like my recipes to have a limited ingredient list, not require a lot of hands-on, preferably minimal prep or able to be prepped ahead of time, feature enough vegetables that I'm not compelled to make a second dish, AND able to freeze for later! Not surprisingly I often have to compromise.

[Amethyst]

Pasta e Verdura 

Italian Vegetarian

Both of these books are by Jack Bishop and we have a few recipes from each book that have become family favorites. Not exotic ingredients. Some more time-consuming than others.

[happi duck]

My favorite cookbook happens to be vegan: The Peaceful Palate by Jennifer Raymond

[Zoo Keeper]

Just agreeing with SusanC--  I have the Enchanted Broccoli Forest-- and I love it.  We cook vegetarian frequently, and I find the recipes in Broc Forest to be good basic workhorses that can be dressed up as needed.  It is heavy on the eggs and cheese, so it may not be as vegan friendly (if you need that).

And I've been eyeing the America's Test Kitchen Vegetarian cookbook- I have had good results with almost every recipe I've ever done from those folks (I have some of their other cookbooks that see hard use).

[HS Mom in NC]

We love so many recipes from this cookbook.  They can either be main dishes or sides.
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Vegetarian-Cookbook-Foolproof-Recipes/dp/1936493969/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=americas+test+kitchen+vegetarian&qid=1604504972&sr=8-3

[Zoo Keeper]

And I'll give a rec to Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.  He has excellent recipes that aren't too complicated and don't call for crazy obscure ingredients. 

Edited November 4, 2020 by Zoo Keeper

[regentrude]

Moosewood

https://www.amazon.com/Moosewood-Cookbook-40th-Anniversary/dp/1607747391/ref=pd_lpo_14_t_0/144-5270032-1423440?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1607747391&pd_rd_r=80312b8a-ef60-455b-9bce-9f592aa582dc&pd_rd_w=4ODRi&pd_rd_wg=m4rmn&pf_rd_p=7b36d496-f366-4631-94d3-61b87b52511b&pf_rd_r=FDZH01AHPZJHFE75R1YB&psc=1&refRID=FDZH01AHPZJHFE75R1YB

[El...]

I was just looking at this cookbook at my friend's house today! I think I want a copy.  https://www.amazon.com/Ruffage-Practical-Vegetables-Abra-Berens/dp/1452169322

[wathe]

I like Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

The recipes are very adaptable and flexible. 

[Alicia64]

3 hours ago, EmilyGF said:

Next project: incorporating more vegetable-based main dishes. I usually find vegetarian cookbooks either kooky, hard-to-follow with obscure ingredients, or just not very tasty.

This cracked me up.

I've been vegetarian forever, and you said it, the original vegetarian cookbooks were kooky, hard-to-follow and -- may I add -- expensive. I usually didn't have some exotic something or other they called for and invariably the item would cost a fortune.

I don't have a cookbook suggestion, but do want tell you about the coolest bag of frozen veggies ever that I get at Costco. I make brown rice (or white if nobody will eat brown in your house) and cook/mix the made rice and veggies with low sodium soy sauce. (This is actually just for me. My picky-eaters would be horrified if I put this in front of them.) 🙄

I think it's super tasty. Like, restaurant tasty. And if the rice is already made, stir frying the veggies takes literally six minutes. Six minutes for a really tasty, healthy dish. (No, I don't have a wok -- I just stir fry on high heat -- stirring the whole time -- in a pan with a large footprint so to speak.)

The veggies are in Costco's frozen section where you find frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, frozen pizza etc. It's called Kirkland Stir Fry Vegetable Blend.

The salad blend that I really love too is called Sweet Kale and is found in their walk-in freezer. Let me know if you want info on how I keep the calorie count down, b/c I don't use much of the dressing at all.

HTH!

Wendy

[EmilyGF]

3 hours ago, Lecka said:

I like Crescent Dragonwagon a lot.  

She does have hard-to-find ingredients, but it's usually easy to see what a similar ingredient would be.  I am quick to substitute with her, if it's something like subbing in the easily-available version of an ingredient instead of the vegan ingredient.  

Edit:  I do also feel free to simplify some of her recipes.  They can have a lot of ingredients.  

 

Oh, I had her "Bean by Bean" book out when I was looking for more bean-based dishes. I ended up working through a bunch of Indian dals, but maybe I'll look into that again. 

[Carol in Cal.]

Here She Glows has awesome recipes, but the trouble is, I can’t picture how they are going to taste so I don’t know which ones to try.  I did not realize how much I depend on that capability until I read recipes that were so foreign to me that I didn’t have it anymore.

For recipes that are more varied and easier to picture, I like the Sundays At Moosewood cookbook best of their whole series.  Their recipes are well tested, and they tend to be good.  

I like the Deborah Madison cookbooks, too, but they tend to have more lengthy recipes and often call for fresh herbs like lovage that can be hard to find, so they are really quite a project to take on.

For veggie-forward eating using my regular cookbooks, I usually look in the soup sections.  It’s a rare soup that doesn’t focus a lot more on veggies and/or beans than meat, even if it contains meat, and so that can be a great starting point, with an extensive, chewy salad and some decent bread or rolls.  (By chewy I mean, inclusive of things like nuts or bell peppers that need to be chewed up a lot.  I find that if I don’t gnaw on something during a meal, I get hungry again faster—I think my stomach assumes that it didn’t get fed if I don’t chew.). If I want a more hefty meal than a soup usually provides, if I cook it just a little longer than normal so that it’s thicker, that is what I end up with.

Also, generally, think quiche, omelets (if you like them—I hate them personally), and pastas.  Learn about hot peppers, which tend to mild down quite a bit if seeded and sautéed but add a personality to all veggie dishes that they can lack.  

[Carol in Cal.]

Just now, EmilyGF said:

Oh, I had her "Bean by Bean" book out when I was looking for more bean-based dishes. I ended up working through a bunch of Indian dals, but maybe I'll look into that again. 

The chili out of that book is awesome.  So is the ‘beans next to chili’ recipe.

 

[EmilyGF]

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

Moosewood

https://www.amazon.com/Moosewood-Cookbook-40th-Anniversary/dp/1607747391/ref=pd_lpo_14_t_0/144-5270032-1423440?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1607747391&pd_rd_r=80312b8a-ef60-455b-9bce-9f592aa582dc&pd_rd_w=4ODRi&pd_rd_wg=m4rmn&pf_rd_p=7b36d496-f366-4631-94d3-61b87b52511b&pf_rd_r=FDZH01AHPZJHFE75R1YB&psc=1&refRID=FDZH01AHPZJHFE75R1YB

I've got a mental block against all the early Californian vegetarian cookbooks (Laurel's Kitchen, Enchanted Broccoli Forest, Moosewood). Maybe they've been updated and I should give them another look? These epitomized boring for me back in the 1990s.

Emily

[EmilyGF]

1 hour ago, Zoo Keeper said:

And I'll give a rec to Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.  He has excellent recipes that aren't too complicated and don't call for crazy obscure ingredients. 

Oh, I love Mark Bittman. I'll look into that.

[Carol in Cal.]

14 minutes ago, EmilyGF said:

I've got a mental block against all the early Californian vegetarian cookbooks (Laurel's Kitchen, Enchanted Broccoli Forest, Moosewood). Maybe they've been updated and I should give them another look? These epitomized boring for me back in the 1990s.

Emily

Moosewood is actually upstate New York, not California.  But that Sunday one is not boring like the earlier ones can be.
ITA about Laurel’s Kitchen, although their bread baking info is awesome.

[skimomma]

I have been working my way through Thug Kitchen.  **Warning - there are swear words in this book**  It is vegan, actually, but it took me an embarrassingly long time to notice that.  I'd say the complexity level is somewhere between the original Moosewood books and the Deborah Madison books.  I have not found any ingredients hard to find.  It was a surprise gift at the beginning of the pandemic and it has been fun to mix things up.

[Lecka]

58 minutes ago, EmilyGF said:

Oh, I had her "Bean by Bean" book out when I was looking for more bean-based dishes. I ended up working through a bunch of Indian dals, but maybe I'll look into that again. 

I have cooked things from The Passionate Vegetarian and her Soup and Break cookbook.  My mom has been to her B and B.  

[livetoread]

I have the American Test Kitchen Vegetarian cookbook, and while everything I’ve made so far has been quite tasty, I swear it dirties every pot, pan, and kitchen utensil in my kitchen and takes three hours. Even when the recipe looks like it won’t take that long, I literally start three hours before dinner and often am glad I did. Maybe it’s just the ones I pick, but everyone in the household knows ATK means good food with a big time commitment and a big mess.
 

My favorite go to cookbooks lately have been the more recent(ish) in the Moosewood series. Love Simple Suppers for easy and tasty. We are big soup and stew fans, and Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special is great. If you are looking for more ethnic variety, Sunday’s at Moosewood Restaurant has some more obscure ingredients at times (and not always vegetarian), but some of my favorite recipes are from there.

[happi duck]

8 minutes ago, livetoread said:

I have the American Test Kitchen Vegetarian cookbook, and while everything I’ve made so far has been quite tasty, I swear it dirties every pot, pan, and kitchen utensil in my kitchen and takes three hours. Even when the recipe looks like it won’t take that long, I literally start three hours before dinner and often am glad I did. Maybe it’s just the ones I pick, but everyone in the household knows ATK means good food with a big time commitment and a big mess.
 

My favorite go to cookbooks lately have been the more recent(ish) in the Moosewood series. Love Simple Suppers for easy and tasty. We are big soup and stew fans, and Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special is great. If you are looking for more ethnic variety, Sunday’s at Moosewood Restaurant has some more obscure ingredients at times (and not always vegetarian), but some of my favorite recipes are from there.

I used to get the magazine and I had the same experience of recipes taking forever and generating so many dirty dishes!

[medawyn]

I really like Susie Middleton's vegetable cookbooks.  She has four, and I cook out of all of them.  Simple Green Suppers is her true vegetarian mains cookbook; the others are more about vegetables as (hearty) sides.

[Tina]

9 hours ago, SusanC said:

I found a copy of The Enchanted Broccoli Forest on the library free cart. I've been liking it better than her original Moose wood Cookbook. I don't know that I would be interested in cooking everything in it though, if that is your intent. If I were going to do that I would find an American Test Kitchen Cookbook.

I like my recipes to have a limited ingredient list, not require a lot of hands-on, preferably minimal prep or able to be prepped ahead of time, feature enough vegetables that I'm not compelled to make a second dish, AND able to freeze for later! Not surprisingly I often have to compromise.

I've been hanging onto a hand me down copy of Moosewood thinking I'll find something I love, but maybe I just need to check out the Broccoli Forest. haha

 

[LBK]

Hetty McKinnon's Family may be the sort of thing you're looking for. https://www.amazon.com/Family-Vegetarian-Comfort-Nourish-Every/dp/3791385429

I got it earlier this year and have barely cooked from it, but am planning to start soon--I like your idea of working through a cookbook one night a week. I tagged lots of recipes as potential wins for everyone, some I'm pretty sure only I would like and not my family... There are also tips for super fast pantry meals with a pantry staples list (why do I love those in cookbooks so much?).

[EmilyGF]

OK, just put a lot of these on hold so I can check them out! Many thanks.

Emily

[EmilyGF]

Wow, I've got Bean-by-Bean by Crescent Dragonwagon. We've made four recipes so far and they have all been absolutely amazing. I highly recommend this cookbook! It looks old school because it doesn't have pictures, but the flavors are delicious.

Emily

[alisoncooks]

On 11/4/2020 at 1:17 PM, skimomma said:

I have been working my way through Thug Kitchen.  **Warning - there are swear words in this book**  It is vegan, actually, but it took me an embarrassingly long time to notice that.  I'd say the complexity level is somewhere between the original Moosewood books and the Deborah Madison books.  I have not found any ingredients hard to find.  It was a surprise gift at the beginning of the pandemic and it has been fun to mix things up.

Thug Kitchen broccoli and chickpea burritos are in regular rotation here!  That recipe is on their website.

[Lady Marmalade]

On 11/4/2020 at 9:52 AM, Zoo Keeper said:

And I'll give a rec to Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.  He has excellent recipes that aren't too complicated and don't call for crazy obscure ingredients. 

This is my go-to cookbook for everything.  Love his recipes and how simple they are to follow- AND they taste fantastic!  Chickpeas In Their Own Broth is exactly what it sounds like, and sounds ridiculous, but gosh, with a judicial hand on the seasoning, it's a lovely little bowl of comfort. 

Jack Bishop's Year In A Vegetarian Kitchen is another one I really like cooking from. 

[Carol in Cal.]

Best vegetarian advice I can think of:

Buy beans from Rancho Gordo, and use their recipes.  Their beans must be hand sorted or something.  They are as much better than the same varieties bought at the store as homegrown tomatoes compared with typical supermarket ones.  I don’t know why, but I can’t argue with the taste results.  

Also, try the more newly available rices.  Purple rice and black rice, for instance, are very good.  I like them each a lot better than brown rice, and they are whole grain as well.  If you want a slightly elevated tasting brown rice, try brown basmati.  

I started doing vegetarian cooking using the cheapest beans and the cheapest rice, and the results were lackluster and muddy tasting at best.  (Starving student style.  I was misusing the ‘Recipes for a Small Planet’ cookbook.  The combo of earnest, boring recipes and the worst possible ingredients was pretty deadly.).  Now my feeling is, if I’m going to give up meat, I need to replace it with some seriously good taste.

Also, figure out how to grow at least some fruits or veggies.  That makes it a lot cheaper to have good stuff, and also ensures true freshness which is good for both nutrition and taste.  Pick the easy ones or the ones that are most expensive and/or fragile from the store.

[JennyD]

Glad you found a book you like, OP!  I have that one and have made some very good dishes out of it.

I have many many cookbooks and my all-time favorite for vegetarian cooking is Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, which was also mentioned upthread.  Interesting, usable, consistently excellent recipes.

I find the ATK vegetarian cookbook good for ideas but the dishes themselves can be a little underwhelming.  I've never made an Ottolenghi dish that wasn't delicious but those recipes are not exactly designed for the weeknight dinner cook.The two Smitten Kitchen cookbooks are not strictly vegetarian but have lots of vegetarian recipes, as does her website.  Her recipes are super reliable IMO.  

I've never been a fan of Mark Bittman's recipes.  I've tried dozens over the years and ..... meh.