Books and recipes for a novice vegetarian?

"I'm not a vegatarian becuase I love animals.
I'm a vegatarian because I hate plants."

Try the Moosewood cookbook...

Back in a minute with some titles..

ooooohhh, are you sure about this shepaints? I can give you some ideas and some titles as well.... hangon....

Ok, The Grit is a restaurant in Athens, GA (I adore that place) and it put out a cook book a couple years ago. "The Grit Cookbook: World-Wise, Down-Home Recipes" by Jessica Greene and Ted Hafer.

Also:

"Indian Vegitarian Cooking" by Michael Pandya
"Diet for a Small Planet" by Frances Moore Lappe

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
1400 recipes
by Deborah Madison, who is also the author of
The Greens Cookbook
Vegetable Cooking for Everyone was selected as the Julia Child Cookbook Awards Book of the Year

It's expensive, but very good. (Personally, I often buy used cookbooks, and I might especially do that if I was trying out a new way of cooking, buying several books.)

Red, White & Greens
The Italian Way with Vegetables
Faith Willinger

The Vegetarian Bistro
250 Authentic French Regional Recipes
Marlena Spieler
I have this one in paperback.

Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book
A treasure. I have this as an old paperback from Penguin, date 1979, but I think Grigson's books have probably come out in new editions.

Nika Hazelton's Way with Vegetables (includes tips on shopping and storing and nutritional values + 250 recipes). This one is a paperback too.

The Victory Garden Cookbook
800 recipes, lots of useful information. Mine is a big (9 x 12"?) paperback.
Marian Morash

Greene on Greens, by Bert Greene
I think there is meat in some of the recipes - but I use it as another source - 450 recipes. Paperback.

The Savory Way is good, so is The Greens Cookbook.

But best of all is Kill It and Grill It by Ted Nugent.

...Back from the supermarket with vegetables, fruit, "chicken"(tofu) nuggets......and a big packet of Miss Vickie's potato chips!

I have been a veggie for one day!

Thanks for the great literature selections!

Shepaints, can I ask why you've made this decision?

First question; do you intend to still include dairy products in your diet ie eggs, milk, cheeses, butter?

This will make a VERY BIG difference to your 'core' group of foods.

I've thought of doing this myself, so I'm just watching.

littlek, I've been reading a couple of books to do
with the emotional life of animals.....
"When Elephants Weep" is one of them.

Yes, I still intend to include dairy.

I cook lot from french and italian cookbooks generally, and there are usually many recipes in those that don't have meat in them. I gave away, when I moved, my few indian and chinese cookbooks... those are complex cuisines with a large amount of vegetarian recipes. The first book on my list above, by Deborah Madison, the one with 1400 recipes, has many recipes for vegans too. But she emphasizes that a lot of the recipes will please nonvegetarians, and can supplement nonvegetarian meals.

I'm not a vegetarian, but am just plain interested in cooking with vegetables.

If you are a keen cook and want to make great veggie food, The Greens Cookbook is the best place to start.

I didn't eat meat for over 6 years and I found this the only recipe book which regularly had meat eaters commenting on how wonderful the food was.

See? I wasn't being completely sarcastic...

I just figured that after three weeks of being veggie you'd love Ted's book.

KP and chjsa, the woman who wrote the Greens book has the new one out, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, not to shout that, maybe you did notice.

Chjsa, what do you think of Greens restaurant? Do you know if she is still involved with that?

Thanks KP......sorta strange that much commercial
vegetarian food is named for meat products...eg
tofu "chicken" nuggets. "hamburgers" etc.....

Vegetarian lasanga....delicious!

Osso, I have never eaten at Greens, so I cannot comment on it. I also don't know if Deborah Madison still works there or not, but I'm leaning towards not.

Wan't my advice? Give them the big flick once you get more used to cooking vegetarian. Most processed food is high in salt and saturated fats (even those that say their 'lite' or 'fat-reduced').

You're looking to expand your palate here, not your waist.

I've eaten there once, had one dish, not of course a good way to judge a place, but let me say, I loved the calm in the room, the big windows and the original situation of the building.

The books are good, to the extent I've forayed into them. I m'self cook from what I have around, fresh at the market, in season, preferrably local, and go through lots of books - especially if I buy something like kohlrabi or salsify, which I have no clue about - vegetarian or not, it all depends. My own more recent interest is into french/italian, but before that I was very interested in japanese/chinese/vietnamese/indian.

If I were new at all this, I'd go to restaurants of different cultures first and try different dishes out. Vietnamese/French cooking is still high on my radar, from my life in Los Angeles.