Vegetarian Cuisine:

Vegetarian Cuisine: Yes, There Is Such a Thing

by Anne Berline

Rabbit food. That's what my dad calls vegetarian cuisine. Salads and vegetables -- can't be anything more to it, can there? Oh, but there is. Vegetarian cuisine is at least as varied as so-called regular cooking - and in some cases, far more imaginative.

Going on thirty years ago, Diet for a Small Planet, and the follow-up cookbook, Recipes for a Small Planet hit bookstore shelves with a resounding thud that still echoes. While many of the theories of protein that Frances Moore Lappe presented have been proven to be naïve by further research, the basic theories of eating and the meatless and truly vegetarian recipes endure. The Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest followed, and then an avalanche of cookbooks devoted to the vegetarian gourmet.

Vegetarian cooking is more than just "meatless cooking." There's an art to mixing flavors and textures in just the right combinations to create masterpieces that are as appealing to carnivores as to those who've kicked meat.

For Hindi chefs who practice Ayurvedic cooking, food is more than nutrition - it is meditation, a gateway to the higher consciousness. There are three major components and six tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, pungent and astringent) to be considered in the preparation of every dish, and a meal prepared according to the Ayurveda is a feast for the eyes, the nose, the mouth, and the mind.

Despite contrary belief, the very best vegetarian meals are not "meatless" versions of a dish that usually has meat in it. Meatless lasagna suggests that something is missing from the recipe. Anyone who has dined on spinach lasagna knows there's nothing missing - the blend of creamy cheese and spinach and spices is perfect in and of itself. Polenta with spicy black bean sauce has no need of meat to make it more complete -- made right it melts on the tongue and sticks to the ribs.

Try this recipe for fried rice by Josh Day...

1/2 or 1 cup of uncooked white rice
2 1/2 cups grated cabbage, grated into ribbons
Two eggs
1 medium zucchini, sliced into strips
1/2 onion of your choice, sliced
Soy sauce
Bay leaf
Butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the rice, adding a little olive oil and a bay leaf for flavor. Let sit until ready.

Fire up your wok to the medium setting on your stove and add butter to coat it. When the butter's popping, add onion and zucchini. Let cook for five minutes or so, then stir, then let sit again so it can steam and get nice and soft.

When the onion is clearly cooked, drop two eggs in a separate pan like you're making an omelete or scrambled eggs. When they're done, cut up the egg in small pieces and add to the vegetables, stirring well.

Make a bed of veggies and egg and then add the rice over it. Immediately season with soy sauce -- we do five or six passes with the bottle. You want the the rice to be dark, looking like proper fried rice.

Stir the rice vigorously; this should take no more than two minutes. If you keep it in there too long, the rice will burn into the wok -- this is why the rice goes on top of the veggies.

Season to taste and remove all and place in a bowl. It's delicious already, but the secret ingredient is still to come!

Add more butter to the wok and drop in the sliced cabbage. Let it sit for a bit, then stir well, watching for it to be cooked and soft. Add two or three passes with the bottle of soy sauce, stirring well.

When it looks done, add to the rice and veggies, being sure not to dump all of it in -- just the cabbage, not the excess soy sauce and sludge.

Even within the umbrella of vegetarian cuisine there are variations. Outside Western culture, most meals have little or no meat at all -- so it is not surprising to find vegetarian main dishes in Indian and Chinese cuisine, nor in Russian cooking and African regional cuisines. Many main dish meals are made of legumes and nuts. Or peanut and cashew soups, humus with spices and lemon, fermented black bean sauces ladled over bread and pasta and rice and couscous - Middle Eastern and African cooking offers all of those and more.

If one approaches vegetarian cuisine as a substitute for cooking with meat, one is sure to be disappointed with "rabbit food."

Vegetarian cuisine is a way of eating and cooking, of spices and combinations that can be as light and fluffy as a meringue or as dense and chewy as the best seven grain bread. If you've never tried a real vegetarian meal the very best place to start is at your nearest Indian or Middle Eastern restaurant. You'll be amazed at the flavors and textures -- and you won't even notice that there's no meat.