Very Best Vegetarian Cookbook Ever
Laurel's Kitchen Veggie Recipes Book Serves Up Yummy Healthy Food
Review of Laurel's Kitchen, a vegetarian cookbook full of wholesome veggie recipes: casseroles, breads, salads, sandwich spreads, desserts and holiday party meal plans.
Laurel's Kitchen: A Handbook for Cookery & Nutrition - a vegetarian cookbook, was recommended to Mary (not her real name) at a bookstore over 20 years ago. It is still her favorite tattered and taped veggie recipe source after all these years. What makes Laurel's Kitchen and The New Laurel's Kitchen (published later, notes following) so special? Great food, inspiring stories, excellent instructions and meal plan ideas.
An Introduction to Laurel's Kitchen Vegetarian Cookbook
As a young wife with a vegetarian husband, Mary was at a loss for what to cook. She too wanted to experiment with meatless cooking, but did not know many recipes. Once she had Laurel's Kitchen in hand, all that changed.
This lovely and simple (but thick) vegetarian cookbook (either version) offers those new to vegetarian eating not only instructions for how to make food, but inspiration on how to live life. The central message is that by lovingly and artfully preparing wholesome family meals and eating them in a friendly and leisurely way, having wholesome daily meals together can unite the home.
Reasons for a Vegetarian or Vegan Diet:
- It yields wonderful meals
- When well rounded, it is a diet high in nutrition
- Good health
- It is a diet low in cost
- Vegetarianism respects the sanctity of lie
- It furthers the need to feed everyone on the planet
What Is Learned in Laurel's Kitchen?
- How to cook absolutely delicious vegetarian meals
- Good health information
- A lifestyle of peace and kindness
- Cooperative purchasing of food
- Lowfat cooking (more so in The New Laurel's Kitchen) and weight control
- Advice for those with various nutritional needs (such as pregnant mothers, the elderly, kids)
- How good food can bring a family together
- How to relax despite today's hectic lifestyle
- How to enjoy meals with good friends
- May ways to cook beans and grains
Laurel's Kitchen and The New Laurel's Kitchen will delight anyone interested in a more balanced life, a healthier way of eating, and having a closer relationship with oneself, friends, and family. Recipes are described and explained; background stories are shared; philosophies are given. It is a cookbook, but a large part of it can be read and enjoyed with a warm cup of herbal tea. The illustrations are unique and charming, as well.
Good Vegetarian Recipes
Just a few favorite recipes tested and recommended from this lovely cookbook are:
- Chile con Elote (chili with corn)
- Lentil Nut Loaf
- Green Rice Casserole
- Spinach Crepes
- Vegetables, Macaroni, & Cheese (super yum)
- Lasagne al Forno (absolutely delicious)
- Tomato Sauce (best pasta sauce ever)
Whether new to vegetarianism or a long time vegetarian, this book will be a delight to all. Mary says she has made nearly every recipe in the book and has adored every single dish. That is quite a complement!
Other articles of interest may include: Easy Vegetarian Panini Recipes, A+ Yummy Breakfast Panini Recipes, and 3 Ingredient Side Dishes & Salads.
By the way, Mary owns the old tattered version and a newer new version of Laurel's Kitchen. Which does she prefer? The tattered one, of course. Memories... Happy cooking.
Resources:
- Interview, cooking and eating in person with Mary, March 2008
- Laurel's Kitchen: A Handbook for Cookery & Nutrition, by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders, and Brownwen Godfrey, 1981, Nilgiri Press, Petaluma, California
- The New Laurel's Kitchen, by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders, and Brian Ruppenthal, 1986, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California
