Anne Lukin - On the Road to Vegetarian Cooking: Easy Meals for Everyone

ON THE ROAD TO
VEGETARIAN COOKING

ON THE ROAD TO
VEGETARIAN COOKING

Easy Meals for Everyone

by

Anne Lukin

CANADIAN CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Lukin, Anne
On the road to vegetarian cooking

Includes index
ISBN 0-929005-28-7

1. Cookery (Vegetables). 2.Vegetarianism.
1. Title.

TX837.L85 1991 641.5636 C91-094895-X

Copyright 1991 by Anne Lukin

Illustrations by Laurie Lafrance
Printed and bound in Canada

Published by
SECOND STORY PRESS
760 Bathurst St
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 2R6

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my family, who shaped my earliest memories of foodfrom those early mashed-potato competitions with my brothers, to holiday meals with the extended family where feasts unravelled into long-winded, and long-cherished, stories.

And to my parents, Edward Keith and Allie Leeth Lukin, who kept food on the table and didnt wring our necks when we wouldnt eat it.

To my friends, who make it worthwhile.

To Second Story Press, whose continued support, hard work, professionalism, and experience made this book possible.

To Barbara Mains, the editor, whose steady and expert hand at the editorial helm rescued this book from the doldrums of deadlines and kept it off the rocky shores of run-on sentences.

To Laurie Lafrance, whose vibrant and wonderful illustrations come to life on the page, and make the book look good enough to eat.

To the test-cooks, and taste-testers: Mary Helen Kolisnyk, Dann McCann, Lorraine Newman, Jen Norfolk, Ann Rowan, David Smith, Ilse Turnsen, Mordecai Wasserman and the Markhams.

To Miriam Hoffer and Dahna Birkson, for lending their expertise in diet and nutrition, and to the other friends who read the manuscript and gave helpful feedback.

To Maureen McLaughlin, for proofing and correcting ad infinitum.

And to Dann McCann, Sheri Bishop, John Ghitan, and the Markhams for their day-to-day support and friendship, even through the blackest periods of my whining about how much I hate to stick to recipes and deadlines.

Thanks!

And to the reader; I hope you will find this book encouraging and helpful in planning, cooking and eating more vegetarian meals.

Most of all I hope you find a few recipes that you really love to eat, and that you get to share the food with people you love.

Anne Lukin
August 1991

Ive cooked professionally over the last 12 years as a vegetarian cook. Ive eaten and enjoyed a lot of delicious meatless meals. Ive also created hundreds of vegetarian recipes. When I cook for myself, its nearly always a vegetarian meal. But heres the confession, I still sometimes eat meat.

I wrote this cookbook for each and every one of us on the road to vegetarian cooking. You may already be a seasoned traveller in the land of tofu and grains, or you may be standing at the signpost, wondering if this is a route youd like to explore. I want to share with you some of my reasons for eating vegetarian meals, and some of the vegetarian recipes that Ive created over the years.

Im confessing right from the start that I still sometimes! eat meat, in the hope that those of you who are not yet vegetarians will see that you can begin to change your diet without having to do it radically overnight. You can eat meatless meals occasionally or often without having to give up entirely on your favourite meat entres. This cookbook has been designed to ease your transition from old favourites to new, vegetarian discoveries.

So why do I still eat meat? Because certain social occasions may be awkward for non-meat-eaters, and I dont always choose to rock the boat. Because I still crave bacon, a childhood favourite (I know, I know, bacon is not health food). And because here comes the truth I may not be the worlds most disciplined person when it comes to diet.

But I do recognize very clearly that vegetarian food is healthier its lighter, better for me, and doesnt clog my veins with cholesterol the way meat does. Im uncomfortable when I stop to think about what happens to cows, chickens, and pigs before theyre parcelled into those tightly wrapped packages at the meat counter. And sometimes Im moved to think of the large percentage of the worlds population that goes to bed hungry every night. Such images provide the stick that have driven this proverbial donkey on the road to a vegetarian diet.

And the carrot that leads me on? I love to eat. I come from a long line of eaters. The branch of my family with Eastern European Jewish roots expressed its love with matzo ball soup and latkes and brisket and mandelbrot. Other relatives, Southerners and farmers, lavished me with fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and chocolate meringue pie. What the two traditions held in common was the unstated conviction that if you loved someone, you fed them. To return love was to eat and appreciate. Food was sustenance and nurturing, solace and celebration.

My culinary heritage has been further enriched by all the places Ive lived; beginning with the the enchiladas and fiery salsa of my Tex-Mex childhood, all the way to the succulent dumplings, soups and stirfried glories of Torontos Chinatown.

So, I like to cook. I like to talk about food and to invent new dishes. And you know what? Vegetarian food lends itself to that passion every bit as well as meat. There are so many intriguing new possibilities in the world of vegetarian cooking. Its turned out to be a wonderful adventure for this cook to expand her knowledge and repertoire of meatless meals and an unending source of delight to this diner.

No one can say that there is only one right way to eat. But more and more people are beginning to look critically at the impact of the typical North American diet upon our health. Researchers increasingly link this diet to a high national incidence of heart disease, cancer, and stroke. The connection between our health and our place in the food chain is cause for deep concern, given the quantity and number of chemicals in the air and water, as well as in livestock feed. A growing body of material documents the reasons why many people are beginning to turn away from meat as a major component of their diet. (See the bibliography for several examples.)

Perhaps you are already a vegetarian, looking for fresh ideas and some advice about unfamiliar ingredients. Perhaps you currently eat meat, but for health, ethical, or economic reasons, youd like to start preparing meatless meals. Or you may not be interested in changing your own diet, but you have a friend or family member who is a vegetarian, and you want to know what on earth to feed them when they come for dinner. Read on!

There are a lot of misconceptions about vegetarian food, that it has to be brown and heavy and boring and virtuous. And Ive certainly been served some of the disasters that gave vegetarian food its erstwhile, if undeserved, reputation for weirdness. I cringe to recall, for instance, a convention banquet at which the vegetarian option was Oatloaf. (Perhaps well pause here in a moment of silent meditation for that all-too-memorable creation. Yes, it was every bit as dreary as it soundsSort of like baked oatmeal laced with ketchup. I did not ask for the recipe) And yet, Im sure the caterers were sincerely trying to produce a meatless dish to satisfy vegetarians. They just didnt succeed. Maybe they needed a cookbook like this one.