blakrose@watarts.UUCP (11/23/83)
gary and everyone else -- the recent discussion on the topic of vegetarian cookery confirmed my wildest fears -- there are no ( or many silent) vegetarians on the net. I first had serious doubts about the kind of netters who send in recipes when I saw the one for (gag!) chocolate truffles!! Now, to answer gary's question: I have been an aspiring vegetarian for years now. There are two basic types of vegetarians: a) vegans -- no animal products such as eggs and dairy goods. b) lacto-ovo vegetarians -- no animal flesh, but the rest is OK. In my years of research on the matter, the best book I have seen so far is the American Heritage Whole Foods Cuisine cookbook by Nikki and David Goldbeck. Voluminous, almost daunting in its completeness, and not the best choice for the neophyte -- but if and when you are serious, check it out. It's rather expensive -- and like most things, "slightly higher in Canada". Other good choices: The Farm Cookbook -- yes, the one disparagingly referred to as being by those hippies in Tennessee. Also, as noted "soy this and soy that". In fact, the recipe I posted for soy cheesecake is from this source. Two major drawbacks I found to it -- many of the recipes are so time- consuming that you wonder if they think everyone lives on a communal farm; and, far, far too much emphasis on oils and frying. Otherwise some good recipes for NYF (nutritional yeast flakes), TVP (texturised vegetable protein -- surprisingly satisfying as a meat substitute), tempeh, tofu, etc. And a pizza dough recipe that is absolutely fool-proof; I know, cause I'm a fool and I proved it...The pizza *sauce* recipe bites the bag, though. Another excellent, nay indispensible manual is Recipes for a Samll Planet -- although the name of the author escape me at the moment. In order to avoid 'malnutrition' through being a veggie, one needs tables of complementary non-meat protein sources; i.e., how much peanut butter goes with how much whole wheat bread to give X grams of protein. All of this is in here. And the recipes are by and large, quite satisfying to the tastebud and the body. One last flame about malnutrition -- why is it most carnivores are quite willing to point out the 'inedequacy' of the vegetarian diet, and miss completely the obscene OVER-adequacy of their own regimen?? Did you know that as opposed to the rest of the world, North America's largest nutritional disease is obesity!?!?