Simple Vegetarian Pleasures

It would appear that the idea underlying Simple Vegetarian Pleasures is vegetarian food that doesn't require a great deal of labor to deliver big flavors--"simple" as in "not too much trouble." Lemlin also alludes to the simplicity movement, where simple means cutting back to what's really important, gaining both time and quality of life. If one has actually embraced the simplicity movement and has the time and ambience, it remains unclear why there's so little time available to give to the preparation and eating of food, one of the more important elements of daily life.

Ignoring all the simplicity stuff, however, leaves the cook with a cookbook filled with recipes pulling on the flavors of all corners of the world. Fill your pantry according to the master plan, shop wisely, plan ahead, and have at it. This is vegetarian cooking of a sophisticated kitchen and palate (using "sophisticated" in the title would presumably scare off anyone not inclined to struggle with food). Many of the recipes could fall out of cookbooks of various ethnic origins where a mainly vegetarian diet is the rule rather than the exception.

What this book really helps us do is move beyond the notion of vegetarianism as just so much brown rice, ragg socks, hairy legs, and save the whales. That is, Simple Vegetarian Pleasures moves right to the heart of cuisine, of food with soul, and makes the absence of meat an insignificant thing. It's that simple.

Ultimately, that it is simple, and that it is vegetarian, means a lot less than that it is exceedingly pleasurable. Enjoy these lush recipes. --Schuyler Ingle