Weekend Cooking is a weekly feature hosted by Beth Fish Reads linking up food-related posts. Click here to check out Weekend Cooking posts from Beth Fish Reads and other blogs.
A new favorite vegetarian cookbook of mine is Simply Satisfying by Jeanne Lemlin. The author’s name may be familiar from her first published cookbook Vegetarian Pleasures: A Menu Cookbook (Knopf, 1986) or Quick Vegetarian Pleasures (HarperCollins, 1993), which won a James Beard Award, or from one of her other vegetarian cookbooks.
Simply Satisfying is a reinvention of Vegetarian Pleasures, which has been out of print for a while. As I read in an interview with Jeanne Lemlin on the Oldways blog, the author was often asked by fans how they could get their hands on her first cookbook. The original format grouped recipes together in menus, which I really liked the idea of, even though I rarely (if ever!) made a complete menu all at once. Cooks are more confident now about putting their own menus together, however, so the new cookbook groups recipes into standard categories such as “Breakfast Favorites,” “Main-Course Salads,” and also less standard groupings like “Curries and Accompaniments,” and “Tofu and Tempeh.” There are still many menu suggestions at the end of the book, such as “Elegant Menus, “Summer Menus,” and “Thanksgiving Feast,” and menu inclusions are noted on each recipe. Some recipes are updated to make them quicker or lower in fat and there are also new recipes. Color photos add to the overall new look and feel to the book. I received this book as a gift in December and can hardly wait for summer tomatoes to try the dish photographed for the front cover (Tomatoes Stuffed with White Beans and Pesto).
In the meantime, I made two simple recipes from the Breakfast Favorites section: Granola and Fresh Fruit with Yogurt Lime Sauce. (Both are also in the original Vegetarian Pleasures.) An article published in The Philadelphia Inquirer gives the recipe for Fresh Fruit with Yogurt Lime Sauce. Easy and delicious!
a
The granola is also delicious and (I think) lower in fat and sugar than boxed granola from the store. As an example of an update, the new recipe calls for adding dried cranberries and raisins to the granola; the original recipe only calls for raisins. (I don’t think dried cranberries had even been invented back then, and certainly weren’t available at every local supermarket.)
I love the format of the new cookbook. As an example of keeping the best from the original, the author includes her original rules for relaxed cooking in her new introduction. Titled “A Secret to Relaxed Cooking” these tips are still valid, such as “Take out and prepare any pans or dishes that you will be cooking with.” (A good one! I usually find myself with messy hands realizing I never took out the baking dish from the bottom drawer or retrieved the large skillet from the cabinet where it’s wedged under all the other skillets.) Also good: “Pour yourself a glass of wine.”
When opened, Simply Satisfying lies flat for the middle recipes but has to be weighted down for recipes nearer the beginning or end (which is still better than the original Vegetarian Pleasures which didn’t lie flat at all, until the binding broke). There is a nice variety of recipes and Jeanne Lemlin (an English teacher) has an engaging writing style, introducing each recipe with a well-crafted sentence or two. She provides a lot of information about vegetarian cooking and ingredients for those who want it – in an extensive glossary, menu listings, and a “Tips and Tools” section – but the cookbook’s format makes it easy to just get straight to the cooking if that’s what a reader wants to do.
I recommend Simply Satisfying to anyone looking for a family-style vegetarian cookbook with a wide variety of recipes made with readily available ingredients.
Get a Google preview of Simply Satisfying by Jeanne Lemlin here.
Simply Satisfying
Lemlin, Jeanne
The Experiment, 2012
978-1-61519-062-1, soft.
Vegetarian Pleasures
Lemlin, Jeanne
Knopf, 1994
0-394-54117-0, soft.
Quick Vegetarian Pleasures
Lemlin, Jeanne
HarperCollins, 1992
0-06-055324-3, soft.
Disclosure: I own my own copies of Simply Satisfying, Vegetarian Pleasures, and Quick Vegetarian Pleasures. My daughter works for the company that recently published Simply Satisfying. a
a
A flat binding…yes I never really though about it but that is an issue with a cookbook, isn’t it?
Have been thinking of making my own granola. Thanks for dropping by and visiting.
My son would love that yogurt sauce.
It was yummy!
I LOVE that you have commented on the binding! Such an important consideration with a cookbook, and it shows that you have geniunely tested out the recipes and put it to good use. I often wonder how many recipes people try before reviewing a recipe book, if any. Recently I saw a chef apologise on Twitter for a major typo that had appeared in her most recent cookbook that I had already read a load of positive reviews of. It makes you wonder.
The yougurt lime sauce sounds wonderful and could easily be made with soy yougurt. Thanks.
I love granola, yogurt and fruit, and have been getting healthy cookbooks from the library. I may check this one out.
Here’s My WC
Arghh. I wasn’t going to get this one because I have her earlier two books. But you make a case for the photos, new format, tips, updated ingredients, and lower fat.
I’ve made my own granola for years. I like having control over what goes in it.
Hi Laurie,
I’m afraid that I could never become a vegetarian, I just love meat and fish too much for that. Quite often when we go out to eat though, I will find myself ordering from the vegetarian selection, as some of the dishes do sound yummy and always taste so much better when prepared professionally.
I volunteer in a charity shop and one of my pet hates is when someone donates a book which has a broken spine, as it renders them virtually unsaleable. I think that publishers should reconsider the construction of some textbooks, particularly cookery and gardening books and perhaps consider a spiral spine, or ring binder type approach, which enables the pages to be fully opened without damage.
An interesting post today, thanks,
Yvone
Yes, but librarians hate spiral-bound books! lol
The use of “readily available ingredients” is a big selling point. As much as I like some of my other vegetarian cookbooks, the exotic ingredients are sometimes hard to find.
Yes, that’s true!
Whenever I make granola, I always plan to make more as soon as it’s gone, but then I don’t! I don’t know why. The recipe is as easy as can be, except for stirring it and not having it spill inside the oven.
You should!
Yes, it was very pretty too, and kept its color nicely.
This sounds wonderful! The boyfriend is a meat eater, but I’ve been trying to do more vegetarian meals. But I’m not a cook, so I need easy recipes. The cover recipe looks wonderful!
You can get a nice preview inside the book at http://www.workman.com/products/9781615190621/ to get a feel for the contents and recipes!