My Top Five Cookbooks

A well-known Bridget fact is that I love to read cookbooks. In fact, I've accumulated quite a collection of cookbooks over the years (I just counted; I have 35, plus a load of Vegetarian Times and Veggie Life magazines). I especially love cookbooks that have reading in them; history of food, explaining the cuisine of a region, information on nutrition, etc.

So here are my top five cookbooks:

5. The Yoga Cookbook Vegetarian Food for Body and Mind
Don't let that title put you off--you don't need to be able to do a 10 minute downward dog to enjoy this food. The vegan recipes are simple, very wholesome and very delicious. Grains, proteins and vegetables each have their own chapters, which is helpful in understanding the importance and benefits each of these brings to your diet. Also, there's lots of reading about food and eating in a spiritual context, which is good to think about.



4. Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant
Becky gave me this one for Christmas back in 2000. Back in the days of Bridget's Bistro (when we'd have dinner parties and I'd spend 4 hours preparing a feast...talk about having time on my hands), I used this book to make Thai, Armenian, Italian and West African meals. Each chapter covers a geographical area, and has 3-4 pages of interesting introduction to that region's food. Tasty and educational. Favourite dish: Stewed Batilgian, an Armenian eggplant stew.


3. Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book
Part of what I love about this one is the inscription written inside: This book is essential in every kitchen. Enjoy! Love, Floyd "The Vegan" Brock
Floyd was a fellow co-op resident back in East Lansing, known for his laid back attitude crossed with vegan aggression. I think he gave it to me for Christmas back in 1995 or so. How crazy old is that? It's such a great book, though. Very simple, everyday recipes that you really use. Like how to make a regular cake. Or oatmeal cookies. Or quiche. And if I ever need to know the 7 wholesale cuts of beef, (chuck, rib, short loin, sirloin, round, foreshank and brisket and short plate & flank) it's all laid out for me on page 210. Thanks, Floyd!


2. Leith's Vegetarian Bible
This was another thoughtful gift, this time from Eric and Kusi. It's a beautiful, heavy book (over 550 pages) of really nice recipes that are easy to prepare, but make you look like a really good cook. I love that the chapters are by food groups (see "The Onion Family" and "Stalks and Shoots") so that when you have a certain vegetable on hand, you can peruse that chapter for ideas on how to use it (this comes in really handy when you go crazy and buy a bunch of kohlrabi and then realize you don't know what to do with it). It also has a section with recipes using Quorn, a favourite invention of mine. One of my favourite recipes: Haricot Bean Cobbler.

1. Enchanted Broccoli Forest
An oldie, but goody. This is the original vegetarian cookbook, and no vegetarian's kitchen is complete without it. It was also a staple back in my college days at the co-op. In fact, the first night that Becky and I were on cooking duty (the 12 of us ate together 4 nights a week) we prepared the Lentil Walnut Burgers with disastrous consequences. But luckily my cooking skills have improved since then, and I love the food in this book, and the cute little drawings that go alongside the recipes. I've never actually made the Enchanted Broccoli Forest (this is an actual recipe from the book, involving a bed of rice and broccoli standing up to look like trees), but I suspect I will someday soon, because a dish like that just deserves to be made.