MEATLESS MEALS & VEGETARIAN DISHES
BY MARTHA STEWART

Meatless - more than 200 of the very best vegetarian recipes
(Clarkson Potter) ISBN 978-0307954565 0307954560

You don't have to be on a vegetarian diet to enjoy these meatless dishes from the cooks at Martha Stewart Living. Each of the meat-free dinner and lunch recipes combines fresh vegetables, herbs, grains and pasta with foods high in protein for delicious, healthy meals.

Full-page appetizing photos illustrate the vegetarian recipes in the 384-page cookbook. Each simple recipe includes a nutrition analysis, specifying calories, grams of fat, protein, carbohydrates, fiber and amount of cholesterol.

Vegan food

Symbols identify recipes that are gluten-free vegetarian dishes (e.g., beans and greens tacos with goat cheese), vegan (e.g., roasted sweet potatoes with parsley and walnut pesto) and suitable for special diets (e.g., no soy, wheat, nuts or dairy).

The tasty recipes in Martha Stewart's cookbook include appetizers, main courses, sauces and dressings. Variations ensure that cooking without meat is not boring. Instead of pesto made with basil, she offers recipes for nut-free arugula pesto, almond-mint pesto and walnut-sage pesto.

If you want an alternative to mashed potatoes, try mashed carrots with honey and chile powder or roasted beet and tomato puree with orange. Instead of chickpea hummus, try the recipe for lentil and cashew hummus.

Meatless menus

Ideas for meatless meals are in suggested menus, each with a theme. The Autumnal Vegan Dinner Party menu features recipes for spiced butternut squash soup, pasta with roasted cauliflower and lemon zest and sauté-steamed Swiss chard.

To assist readers on a vegetable-based diet, the vegetarian cookbook features ideas for flavor-boosters, such as marinated roasted peppers and caramelized onions.

A grain-cooking chart shows the amount of liquid, cooking time and yield for grains. For example, you cook one cup of pearl barley in two cups of water for 35 minutes and let it stand 10 minutes to make three cups of cooked barley.

Sources of vegetable protein

Another chart shows readers what vegetarian foods are high in protein (e.g., one cup cooked lentils contains 18 grams of protein).

Each of the 200 recipes in Meatless is grouped by type of vegetarian meal, from casseroles to side dishes. An index lists the meatless recipes in each chapter. Step-by-step instructions are easy to follow.

Introductions add cooking tips. For example, in the recipe for bulgar and chickpea salad, you learn that a raw carrot and pistachio pesto makes a flavorful dressing.

Whether you are a vegetarian, flexitarian or vegan, you will enjoy meatless cooking with this book. If you are a meat-lover, you can add meat to these vegetarian dishes or serve them as side dishes.