Dedication Page

This cook book is dedicated, in loving memory, to Linda McCartney. Dearest Linda, without you there would not be a section in bookstores, and as such everyone would think that we vegetarians eat nothing but salad. There also wouldn't be any place to publish my recipes, and so thank you for that as well. Without your hard work and love of animals, there would be very few (extremely small) vegetarian and animal rights organizations and nearly all of the companies that no longer test on animals because of the boycotts from the animal lovers would still be testing on animals. I am not suggesting that you did this all on your own. Of course you had help. A lot of help. But you were one of the first to fight the good fight. Everyone remembers the firsts fighters because when you started, it wasn't cool to love animals and not want to eat them. I wish that I could put into words the depth of my gratitude and love for you and your great works, but I can not. I hope you can see this from where you are, and that it makes you happy. Love, Rachel the Vegetarian.

Note to my readers: if you are still eating meat, Linda and I and all the animals of the world would greatly appreciate if you decided to become a vegetarian. There are hundreds of places to go for help. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will send you a free vegetarian starter kit. If they are too radical for your tastes, feel free to google "how to be a vegetarian" Or "new vegetarians" or email (or friend me on Facebook) or check out your local library/ bookstore. Once upon a time, there were only a fistful of meat-free frozen foods, and meat substitutes, but now there are too many to count. Check out a health food store, or shop online. Regular grocery stores will have some products but make sure you read the ingredient list carefully. Rennet is sometimes still found in cheese dishes, and it is basically made from cow stomach! There has never been a better time to be a vegetarian. So go veggie!

14 years vegetarian and loving it!


PS: I do not own that photo.

Leftover Indian Food Omelets

Leftover Indian Food Omelets

Ingredients:
1. 2 or 3 eggs
2. ½ to one cup of leftover vegetarian Indian food dish. I used Palak Paneer from India House in Buffalo Grove IL. This recipe also works with the frozen Palak Paneer dinner from Ethnic Gourmet, and will work with any other dish, preferably something without too many chunks of vegetables. If it is “chunky” you can just dice the vegetables and/ or cheese so they will fit in the omelet.
3. 1 pad of butter, smart balance spread, or margarine

Recipe:
1. Heat the butter in a small or medium skillet, and spray with non-stick cooking spray (butter flavor, or flavorless is best, do not use olive oil flavored spray!)
2. Break the eggs into a bowl, add the leftovers, and whisk until fully mixed.
3. Pour the egg mixture into the pan, heat evenly, flip, and fold.
4. Slide the omelet out of the skillet and onto a plate. Serve with French fries, potato chips, fruit, carrot sticks, applesauce, bread/ toast, or rice.


I love omelets, as I’m sure I’ve already mentioned. I also love leftovers. One way to add a slightly different taste to previously eaten food, or to add extra protein to a meal of leftovers is to add them to an omelet. I will be introducing more leftover omelet recipes, because it works with all sorts of different kinds of foods. Veggie burgers, cheese plates (or saganaki), beans, stir fry, Chinese food, Mexican food (minus taco or burrito shells), vegetarian moussaka, tofurkey, just about anything except for leftover pasta could work.

Farmer’s Cheese and Asparagus Omelets

Farmer’s Cheese and Asparagus Omelets

Ingredients:

¼ cup chopped asparagus

2 tablespoons of farmer’s cheese (crumbled)

2 to 3 eggs

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

Dusting of paprika

Directions:

1. Gently boil the asparagus, making sure not to over cook it. I personally prefer canned asparagus, because it makes this a much easier process.
2. Heat and grease the pan, using the butter (or margarine)
3. Scramble the eggs with a fork (adding a splash of milk if desired) and then mix in the asparagus, paprika and about ¾ of the cheese, and then pour it into the pan.
4. Allow the bottom to cook evenly, gently pulling at the sides of the omelet with a fork or spatula in order to get as much of the egg mixture cooked before you flip the omelet[1]
5. Sprinkle the remaining cheese into the center of the omelet. Then fold it in half and flip one last time to make sure the eggs are fully cooked, and the cheese melted. If you want, you can sprinkle a little more paprika over the top for more flavor.

My older brother introduced me to farmer’s cheese. It’s basically dry cottage cheese, but the stuff works great. It’s good for omelets, and blintzes, and other things. Unfortunately, it’s a tad bit bland (hence the paprika) so you don’t want to eat it plain or use it for a toasted cheese sandwich. Be careful when buying the stuff, it sometimes can contain rennet, which is a definite no-no for us vegetarians. Anyway, enough for the lesson. The way I came up with this recipe was pretty simple. I was sitting around a few days ago, thinking about how I was adding omelets as a section to the cook book and trying to come up with a couple of different types. The first thing that popped into my head was a cottage cheese omelet. I didn’t think that it would work right, though. The cottage cheese would be too watery. Before June, I would have been stuck drying out the cottage cheese myself, but now I know better. When making this omelet you might also want to add a little salt and black pepper if you don’t like paprika. Garlic would also work alright, just make sure you don’t use too much.

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[1] I prefer to flip omelets using a spatula, rather than throwing it up in the air and hoping it lands correctly.

New Kid in Town

I’ve decided to move my cook book off of myspace and onto blogger for many reasons. Because I feel like nobody is reading this, although I’m sure I have a few fans out there. It’s just too easy to get side tracked by all the other stuff on the site, by all the bands who want me to buy their CDs, by all the people who think that I’ll go to their show in ....Prague...., by people I’ve never even met offering to sell me…things. Because there are a lot of vegetarians on myspace but none of them seem interested in vegetarian cooking.

Maybe you liked these recipes. If you did, feel free to follow me after the change, continue to read as I post more delicious dishes, and please (for the love of G-d!) leave comments. Try the recipes even if you aren’t a vegetarian. Most of this stuff is yummy, fun and easy to make, and very cheap ingredients.

Because Cold Turkey is slipping on the charts…oh wait that’s a completely different letter. Sorry if you didn’t get that joke, hopefully somebody, somewhere, did.

I’m also moving because I’ve just been to see the movie Julie & Julia and I’ve realized a few things about myself. True, I set out to write this cook book because I love cooking but it was mostly because I wanted to get a book published and I knew I had a niche. There are vegetarian cook books. There are cook books for people who live on their own, aka single people. However, somehow, amazingly nobody has thought to put the two together. There are tons of vegetarians out there who aren’t part of big families, or who are the only person in the family who doesn’t eat meat. I know I was the only one in my family, which is why I started teaching myself vegetarian cooking when I was 11-year-old.

.. ..

I did use recipes on occasion but most of the time I didn’t like them, for several reasons.

1. Cook books are too exact, makes you feel like you have to follow as written, even when the author says you can deviate. There are two kinds of cooks in the world. The first kind: instinctive. You (I) just know what tastes good together. You (I) go to the store buy whatever looks good, go home, mix, add heat (or don’t), spices, and serve (or eat by myself). Sometimes it doesn’t taste very good but usually it does. I know what I like and I know how to make things taste the way I like. The other kind of cook is the scientific. They work with exact recipes (or don’t) adding things because they belong there, they are supposed to be that way. I’m not saying that scientific cooks can’t improvise, but they follow the rules and instinctive cooks don’t.

2. Even years later recipes didn’t work for me because I almost always cook for myself and no one else (sometimes I’ll make dinner for the family, my class (in Junior High I made a curry dish for a report on India and brought it to class. I got the recipe from a Linda McCartney book) or my friends) and most cook books with vegetarian dishes make at least 4 servings. Even if I really like what I’m cooking, I don’t want to have leftover three or four times in less than two weeks.

3. Recipes take time, especially the first few times you make them because you don’t know what goes where or when, and so you have to constantly check the book, stir, correct any problems you’ve made from misunderstandings or things that went wrong that you couldn’t possibly have known would happen (think this weeks House with the meatballs, one problem that vegetarians don’t have to deal with).

I guess that’s about it, really. Well, no not really. I think I also find some cook books (even Linda’s) a bit daunting, but for the most part I only stayed away from them because I didn’t need recipes to make delicious meals.

Rachel The Vegetarian.

Mascarpone and Tomato Sauce

1-2 tablespoons butter or margarine
¼ cup diced Portobello mushroom
½ small tomato diced
½ cup tomato sauce
1 tablespoon Crave Brothers Mascarpone (Made with Fresh Sweet Cream)
Sprinkling of fresh Parmesan cheese

1. Melt the
   butter in a medium-sized sauce pan, and add the mushrooms.
2. Add
   the tomatoes, and heat for 2 or 3 minutes
3. Pour
   in the tomato sauce and simmer.
4. Melt
   in the mascarpone cheese, and stir until sauce is a dark orange in
   color. Serve over your favorite
   pasta*

*Rachel recommends Caramelized Pear and Gorgonzola Ravioli
(available at some Whole Foods stores).

Quick and Easy "Chicken" Mole

Ingredients:

½ cup mini chocolate chips

about 1 teaspoon peanut butter (if desired)

1 tablespoon of chili powder

½ teaspoon of cinnamon

¼ package of West Soy seitan

A dash of diced onion or onion powder to taste

About 1 tablespoon sesame seeds (if desired)

Directions

1. In a small pan combine the chopped seitan with chocolate chips and onions (if desired)
2. Add heat until chocolate melts, then mix
3. Add the spices and stir
4. Cook for approximately 15 minutes on low flame, stirring regularly
5. Top with Sour cream and tomatoes if desired
6. Serve with beans and rice, salad, tortilla chips, or a small tamale (as pictured)

I don't know when the first time I had mole sauce was, probably some time in my childhood. I loved the stuff. My parents used to make mole sauce at home--from a jar--and now as an adult I've been experimenting with both the stuff in a jar (just add water) and my own special mixture. I've been making this a lot lately, because I was experimenting with making tamales. I think I'm almost ready to post that recipe too.

I don't like either picture, but they are all I've got.

Truffle Butter Omelet

I discovered the greatest substance in the world a few months back, Epicurean Black Truffle Butter. I love truffles and mushrooms to begin with, and when I first found the stuff, I decided to use it to make an omelet. It came out tasting fantastic, so I made another one the very next day, and decided to share it on my original blog. So, here's the recipe.

Epicurean Omelet

Ingredients

¼ cup Portobello mushroom, diced

3 teaspoons of Epicurean black truffle butter or any truffle butter you can find.(BTB)**

2 eggs

¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese

½ cup milk

*truffle butter can be quite expensive, and is sometimes hard to find.  If you have no choice, mix the leftover juice from cooking the mushrooms with the eggs

Instructions

1. melt 1 teaspoon of BTB in a small to medium sized frying pan
2. Add the mushrooms and let cook for about a minute, before pouring in half the milk.
3. Cook the mushrooms in the milk and butter, stirring occasionally
4. in a bowl whisk the eggs with the rest of the milk
5. Drain the mushroom pan and then add the diced Portobellos to egg mixture
6. melt the rest of the BTB in the empty pan*, or if you prefer in a second pan
7. Pour the eggs and mushrooms into the frying pan
8. cook the eggs until light and fluffy, then add the cheese
9. fold the cooked omelet and serve with potatoes, toast, or a bagel

*if you have milk and TBT left over, pour it into a small container and refrigerate or freeze for later use.