Crescent Dragonwagon shares a wealth of recipes and memories with humor and intelligence in her extraordinary Passionate Vegetarian. She promises that "here you will be well fed, well loved, well tended to, satisfied," and 1,000-plus recipes later, that's exactly what's delivered.

For 18 years Dragonwagon owned and ran a country inn, where she fed glorious food to everyone including vegetarians, diabetics, the lactose intolerant, and people with food allergies. But the real draw here is that this is vegetarian cooking for everyday living. Ingredient lists are always reasonable and understandable; you won't have to search high and low for something esoteric that'll make or break a recipe. This is comfort food that's easy to prepare, and that deprives you of nothing. If you're not a full-time vegetarian, this is the biggest book of potential starters and side dishes you'll ever see.

Dragonwagon's "swoon-worthy, knock-your-socks-off, delicious food" includes hors d'oeuvres; salads; soups; stews; layered dishes; dishes that star grains, beans, or soy; recipes for every vegetable imaginable; burgers and patties; quick dishes; and desserts. From the simple Melissa's Spinach Casserole and Susie Pryor's beautifully impressive "Perfectly Delicious" Stuffed Acorn Squash to the vibrant Stir-Fry of Asparagus with Black Bean-Ginger Sauce and Mr. Panseer's North-Indian-Style Spinach, Dragonwagon offers flavors and cooking techniques from all over the world--everything from old favorites to new twists. With notes on "cooking, eating, loving and living fearlessly," there's a lot to learn here, and it's not just about vegetables. --Leora Y. Bloom


From Library Journal
For many years, Dragonwagon and her husband ran an inn in the Ozarks of Arkansas, and two previous cookbooks, The Dairy Hollow House Cookbook and Dairy Hollow House Soups and Breads: A Country Inn Cookbook, grew out of that experience. Despite having been a vegetarian for decades, Dragonwagon did not feature vegetarian fare at the inn or in her earlier books. This big, exuberant book marks her foray into the cooking closest to her heart, with more than 1000 recipes, from "Welcoming Hors d'Oeuvres" to "Just Desserts." Dragonwagon is indeed a passionate vegetarian, and adjectives like sensual and voluptuous appear in many of her recipe notes. Her food is boldly seasoned and draws from a variety of cuisines. In addition to the recipes, she includes hundreds of boxes and sidebars on ingredients and myriad other subjects; the vegetable chapter, for example, features an A-Z guide to her favorites. There is also a chapter called "Quick Fix," with recipes and suggestions for no-fuss meals. Many of the other recipes offer suggestions for easy variations. Deborah Madison's huge Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone came first, and it and Dragonwagon's book cover similar ground by virtue of having the same topic, but there is little overlap in terms of recipes. With vegetarian cooking more popular than ever, most libraries will want Passionate Vegetarian, too. Highly recommended. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The Christian Science Monitor
"Don't limit this cookbook just to vegetarians on your list; it deserves a place in every kitchen.


Newsday
"If there is one book that will encourage you to stay home and cook this winter, it is Passionate Vegetarian."


Cincinnati Enquirer
"A complete and all-purpose vegetarian cookbook for any time of year."


Seattle Times
"How often do you come across a cookbook, vegetarian or otherwise, where every page has something worth exploring."


Book Description
Introducing a new voice in vegetarian cooking. Packed with 1,000 recipes that are seductive, sexy, and utterly delicious, Passionate Vegetarian covers all the bases of meatless cooking, from east (Stir Fry of Asparagus with Black Bean-Ginger Sauce), west (Talk of the Town Barbecued Tofu), from the Mediterranean (Swiss Chard with Raisins, Onions & Olives) to the American South (Black-Eyed Pea Ragovt). You'll find lush lasagnas; plump pierogies; bountiful burgers, beans, and breads; pleasing pasta and pies. You'll spoon up soups and stews, and delight in desserts from simple to swoonworthy.

Written by longtime vegetarian Crescent Dragonwagon, author of Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread Cookbook, Passionate Vegetarian employs innovative methods (try "Ri-sort-ofs," in which risotto technique is used to create splendid, richly flavored grain dishes built around not just rice but also barley, buckwheat, spelt, and even toasted oats with an array of seasonings) and introduces lesser-known ingredients (get to know and love not just tofu and tempeh but a whole new generation of soyfoods, as well as "Quick Fixes" like instant bean flakes). Opinionated, passionate, and deeply personal, Ms. Dragonwagon's tantalizing headnotes will have readers rushing to the kitchen to start cooking. (Can her over-the-top Garlic Spaghetti really be that good? It is.)

Whether you're a committed vegetarian, a dedicated vegan (most recipes offer low-fat and vegan options), or a food-loving omnivore in search of something new and wonderful, this is not just vegetarian cooking--but cooking, period--at its most creative, inspiring, and exuberant.


About the Author
CRESCENT DRAGONWAGON owned the award-winning Dairy Hollow House, a country inn and restaurant in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, with her late husband, Ned Shank, for eighteen years. She is the author of more than forty books, many of them for children, and numerous magazine articles. She teaches writing coast to coast and is the co-founder of the Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
ROASTED BUTTERNUT AND APPLE SALAD ON A BED OF BITTER GREENS Serves 4 to 6 1 large butternut squash, about 1 pound, halved, seeded, and peeled
Cooking spray (optional)
2 teaspoons tamari or shoyu soy sauce
1 teaspoon olive oil
About 1 1/2 teaspoons honey
Honeyed Red-Wine Vinaigrette (recipe follows)
8 to 10 cups assorted salad greens, half mild (oakleaf, romaine, and/or Boston lettuces) and half bitter or pungent (arugula, watercress, curly endive), well washed and dried
1 to 2 cups very thinly sliced green cabbage
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped medium-fine
1 sweet, crisp apple, such as Galla, peel on, diced into 1/3 inch pieces
2 to 3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, or chopped, toasted pecans, toasted pumpkin seeds, or ¹ best yet ¹ tamari-roasted pumpkin seeds (optional)
1 ¹ Preheat the oven to 400 F. 2 ¹ Place 4 to 6 salad plates in the freezer to chill. 3 ¹ Cut the peeled squash into +-inch dice. Place the cut-up butternut squash on a large nonstick baking sheet or one that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Toss the squash with the soy sauce and oil and bake until the squash pieces are lightly browned, slightly shriveled-looking and semicrisp on the outside and barely tender all the way through, 20 to 30 minutes. The squash should definitely keep its shape. Remove the squash from the oven, keeping the oven on. Immediately drizzle a little honey over the squash, toss and return to the oven. Bake 5 to 10 minutes more, until the squash is all browned. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature.HONEYED RED-WINE VINAIGRETTE Makes about 1 2/3 cups 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon tamari or shoyu soy sauce
3 to 4 cloves garlic
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 to 6 solid grinds black pepper
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 to 3 tablespoons honey, or, for vegans, sugar or Rapidura
Combine the vinegar, tamari, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a food processor. Start the machine buzzing, and gradually, through the hole in the pusher-tube, drizzle in the oil. Remove pusher-tube, and, with the motor running, drizzle in the 2 tablespoons honey. Stop the machine. Taste, and if you feel the dressing should be sweeter, add the remaining tablespoon of honey. PASTA WITH PUMPKIN Serves 2 8 ounces fettuccine, dried or fresh
1 wedge (about 1 1/2 pounds) eating pumpkin or any sweet orange fleshed squash, sliced into long, 1/3-inch thick pieces
2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus additional for serving
Cooking spray
3 cloves garlic, pressed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan or soy Parmesan-type cheese
1 ¹ Start the fettuccine in vigorously boiling water. 2 ¹ As the pasta cooks, heat the oil in a nonstick skillet or one that has been sprayed with cooking spray. You'll want a skillet with a tight-fitting lid. Add the pumpkin or squash and sautT over medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Cover tightly and steam over medium-low heat, stirring every now and again. Add the garlic and stir-fry for 30 seconds or so longer. 3 ¹ When the pumpkin is tender around the edges but still has a bit of bite to it, transfer it to a bowl and toss with the cooked fettuccine. Season. Serve at once, hot, with Parmesan cheese, more olive oil to drizzle, and lots of pepper. CHOCOLATE DREAM PIE Makes one 9-inch pie, Serves 6 to 8 CRUST Cooking spray or oil (optional)
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup crush Nutri-Grain or other no-sugar-added corn or wheat flakes
2 tablespoons unbleached white all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon melted butter or mild vegetable oil, such as corn, canola or peanut
2 to 3 tablespoons water, preferably spring or filtered
FILLING 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 ounce semisweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup Rapidura
2 packages (21 ounces total) silken tofu, firm or extra firm
2 tablespoons cashew butter
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
FOR SERVING (Optional) Fresh raspberries (you may substitute other fresh fruit in season, such as strawberries or sliced oranges, with or without a sprig of mint) 1 ¹ Preheat the oven to 425 F. 2 ¹ If not using a nonstick pan, spray an 8- to 9-inch pie pan with cooking spray, or oil it. 3 ¹ Combine the graham cracker and cereal crumbs, flour, brown sugar, and salt. Add the melted butter and 2 tablespoons of the water. Add the remaining water only if needed to make a consistency that can be pressed into the pan. Using your fingers, press the mixture into the prepared pan to cover the bottom and sides evenly. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. 4 ¹ Melt the chocolate in the top half of a double boiler over hot water. 5 ¹ Place the Rapidura in a food processor along with the tofu and cashew butter. Buzz until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the melted chocolates, cocoa, and vanilla. Process until very smooth. 6 ¹ Pour the chocolate mixture into the cooled pie crust. Place in the refrigerator and chill for at least 4 hours. Serve, chilled, with the fresh raspberries or fruit if desired.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Crescent Dragonwagon's editor at Workman Publishing described this book as "in effect as a vegetarian Joy of Cooking." With its 1,000 recipes and its eclectic meal suggestions, this mammoth 800-page book does indeed justify such an ambitious claim. The diversity of these recipes will surprise even veteran vegetarians, and vegans can rejoice too: Most recipes offer low-fat and vegan options.

ANNOTATION

Winner of the 2003 James Beard Foundation Cookbook Award: Vegetarian/Healthy Focus

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Ten Years in the Making and more than a thousand pages long, Passionate Vegetarian brings to the table a full spectrum of cuisine that's at once healthy, exciting, imaginative, and deeply satisfying. It triumphantly solves the often perceived entree problem of vegetarian cooking -- lots of side dishes with no centerpiece. And it confidently addresses the issue of how to fit vegetarian meals into a time-pressed schedule.

FROM THE CRITICS

Newsday

If there is one book that will encourage you to stay home and cook this winter, it is Passionate Vegetarian.

Seattle Times

How often do you come across a cookbook, vegetarian or otherwise, where every page has something worth exploring.

Cincinnati Enquirer

A complete and all-purpose vegetarian cookbook for any time of year.

Christian Science Monitor

Don't limit this cookbook just to vegetarians on your list; it deserves a place in every kitchen.

Library Journal