Liana Krissoff - Vegetarian for a New Generation: Seasonal Vegetable Dishes for Vegetarians, Vegans, and the Rest of Us

Published in 2014 by Stewart, Tabori & Chang
An imprint of ABRAMS

Text copyright 2014 Liana Krissoff
Photographs copyright 2014 Rinne Allen

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013945654

ISBN: 978-1-61769-040-2

Editor: Elinor Hutton
Designer: Chin-Yee Lai
Production Manager: Erin Vandeveer

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everyday plates

Following are a few ways to put some of the simple recipes in this book to use in easy, satisfying meals, the kind of vegetable plates you could throw together on a weeknight. Ive paired dishes that might not be obvious partners, to give you an idea of their versatilitywhy not serve falafel with corn on the cob? Ive also taken care to ensure that not too many burners will be going at once, that you can take advantage of prepared ingredients from the freezer or refrigerator (pesto, cooked grains or beans, and so on), and that some dishes can be made in advance.

vegan

Generous shavings of hard cheese

vegan

vegan

vegan

vegan

three-course seasonal menus

These meals are a little fancier than the ones on the preceding page, and follow a slower, more formal procession from appetizer to main course to dessert. You might want to invite some friends over and call it a dinner party. Since many of the recipes make smallish portions, consider increasing the quantities if youre serving more than a few people, or toss together a simple green salad or offer a loaf of good bread and wedges of cheese alongside the main course.

SPRING vegan

SPRING

SPRING

SUMMER vegan

SUMMER

SUMMER

Frozen watermelon blended with a few unfrozen pieces and a squeeze of lime juice

FALL vegan

FALL

FALL

Apples sauted with butter, maple syrup, and cinnamon, with vanilla ice cream

FALL AND WINTER vegan

FALL AND WINTER

to eat standing up, with drinks, with friends

Heres a list of the recipes that would make especially good party foodporch-sitting noshes, outdoor fire-pit accompaniments, or Friday-after-work cocktail snacks. Serve just one or mix and match.

Spring Onion Tart with Potato Crust (cut into small squares)

Iced Radishes with Blue CheeseWalnut Butter, with Cheddar-Seed Crackers

Persian-Style Eggplant Dip

Herby Falafel (make them bite-size)

Chaat Party

Curly Kale Pakora

Coconut-Kale Chips

Parsnip Nuggets or roasted radishes, with Classic Aioli

Rustic Tortilla Espagnola (cut into small squares)

Chickpea Crpes (add a good pinch of cracked black pepper to the batter)

Tanyas Brown Lentil Salad, with tortilla chips

Date Snacks, with sliced hard cheese

Spicy Fried Giant White Corn

A SELECTION OF BEAUTIFUL SALSASSOME HOT,
SOME MILDWITH FRESH TORTILLA CHIPS:

Classic Fresh Chopped Tomato Salsa

Last-Minute Blended Salsa

Thick Roasted Tomato Salsa

Fresh Tomatillo and Avocado Salsa

Salsa de Semillas

Grilled Sweet Corn and Feta Salad

Basil and Seared Pineapple Salsa

Scotch Bonnet Chile and Mango Salsa

There are countless reasons people turn to a vegetable-based diet, but the ones I find most compelling are the more prosaic: They lend themselves well to a wide variety of culinary interpretations and cooking methodsthey can be spiced, sauced, buttered, sauted, grilled, steamed, you name it. Theyre less calorie dense than meat, dairy, and grains so overeating is less of a concern. Vegetables are easy to shop for, especially if youre open to using whatevers in season, and theyre easy to store. With a few exceptions, in comparison to other sources of nutrients, vegetables are pretty inexpensive. Finally, if eating locally is a goal, its currently much easier in most parts of the country to obtain good produce from nearby farms and gardens than it is to source a quantity of local meats and fish that would sustain a meat-centric lifestyle.

This mindset matches the continuing evolution of our countrys eating habits as more and more people embrace not only less-resource-intensive diets but the variety and ease of vegetable-based cooking. The very makeup of the typical American dinner plate is changing: The ideal square meal, visualized as a round plate divided into sections, is no longer half meat. And the typical vegetarian plate is no longer a bowl of rice and token-protein tofu. Every chef-driven restaurant worth its salt now offers beautifully composed vegetable-based meals in which the guiding factors are flavor, variety, and ingenuity. These are meals that are as appealing to meat eaters as to vegetarians or vegans, and the recipes in this book will help you put together such delicious and interesting plant-based meals easily and regularly, whether youre a vegetarian or not. And just as Americans are beginning to question the primacy of meat, our culinary reliance on wheatin the form of bread, pasta, crusts, and cakesis being challenged too; these recipes are all gluten free.

Cultures all over the world have practiced vegetarianism since the beginning of recorded history. This is most notable in India, where about a third of the population is vegetarian and there is a long tradition of plant-based eating. The food systems of regions where the predominant religions are Buddhism or Hinduismwhose adherents believe in a principle of nonviolence that extends to animalscan be rich sources of inspiration. In the United States, vegetarianism as an organized movementwith books and official organizations supporting itonly really began to take off in the mid-nineteenth century, concurrent with and heavily influenced by the Second and Third Great Awakenings. The cookbooks published at the time reflect vegetarianisms association with temperance and Christian asceticism, with the idea that we should be eating to live and not the other way around, that perverted tastes and seasonings that provoke appetites already deeply sensuous are at best obstacles in the path to health and wellbeing and at worst abominations.