Beyond Labels: the Joy of Cooking with Plants
We live in a blessed age for vegan and vegetarian cookbooks. Far from being at a loss for cooking resources, cookbook shelves are booming with books on making plants and plant-forward fare part of our regular diet. Though this is indeed wonderful news, some works can get lost in this immense wealth.
The Moosewood Collective’s The Moosewood Restaurant Table could easily be passed over for something a bit more tailored to a niche diet: Mexican plant-based cuisine, for instance or a guide on making your own plant-based cheeses. This book is decidedly not that. In fact, from the outside, it could be mistaken for your run-of-the-mill restaurant cookbook. A highlight of patron favorites over the years. But though it certainly fits as a collection of recipe winners, it offers so much more.
Being as it is their fourteenth published work, The Moosewood Restaurant Table is a testament to the collective’s decades-long experience in preparing wholesome food. This work teaches readers not only how to create a delectable vegetarian meal from start to finish, it changes how the reader looks at produce.
The founding of a radical idea: wholesome eating
The idea that food should come from a farm, be accessible to all, and delicious to boot, should never have become a novel concept. The fact that it is shows how far we’ve strayed from wholesome eating. The Moosewood Restaurant, since its founding in 1973, has striven to bring back this approach to food. Their ideals have been consistent since their founding: “fresh, nutritious food is a human right” and should be affordable and accessible to all.
The Moosewood Collective, a group of nineteen members who participate in running a small natural foods restaurant in Ithaca, New York, have written a great many works, all of which emphasize natural foods, creative vegetarian fare, and farm to plate eating.
What follows is a whole host of recipes that prove how enormously flavorful and fun cooking can be (even if it only includes plants). From soups to sandwiches, appetizers to main courses, pastas, pies, vegetable burgers, or pizzas, the collective offers a wide range of plant-forward dishes from a plethora of world cuisines.
The Moosewood Approach to Recipes
The inside of the Moosewood restaurant in Ithaca, NY
The Moosewood’s menus are a vibrant taste of something a bit more creative, but wholly approachable. None of their ingredients are exceptionally rare or overly expensive. Instead, their food is rooted in the idea that one single plant can create a whole host of fun, seasonal, nutritious, soul-enriching dishes that everyone will enjoy.
One of the more striking features of their work is not only the simplicity of the dishes themselves, but how easily and effectively adding simple vegetables heightens the dish. One wouldn’t normally think to add kale and walnuts to risotto, but the result is nutty goodness mixed in with nutritious splendor. Philly Portobello Steak Sandwich, Singapore Tofu Sliders with Tropical Slaw, and a whole host of various plant-forward ‘burger’ ideas like Cashew-Crusted Chickpea burgers, Black Bean and Quinoa burgers with Chipotle ketchup, or Italian Cannellini Burgers are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the creativity Moosewood brings to the table. This variation and creativity proves there are delectable ways to add plants into every part of the dinner table, and that far from being a dreaded, flavorless addition, it will actually heighten the overall meal.
What’s more, the Moosewood Collective teaches plant-forward eaters how to create an entirely satisfactory meal experience from plants. Each recipe comes with other recipe serving suggestions that complement the dish and create a more wholesome meal.
The perfect starter cookbook for a plant-based eater
Though I use the term ‘vegetarian’ to describe their works (they call for regular dairy and eggs in a few of their dishes), the Moosewood Collective has tried to stay out of the labeling war that so clouds much of the modern vegan/vegetarian/plant-based movement. To do so misses the point of their mission entirely. They’re here to tell you how to cook delicious foods that involve plants. Does it need to be any more complicated than that?
For the beginner plant-based eater however, this book is a particularly useful resource. In the first few months of starting this diet, the call of former meat-heavy dishes can be fierce. Finding flavor from ingredients that previously seemed bland and uninteresting can be a challenge. And this is precisely where Moosewood shines.
From ‘burgers’ to pizzas, soups, salads, and beyond, Moosewood’s perhaps most important skill is in creating recipes that cater to meat lovers, dishes so flavorful and satisfying that no one misses the meat.
And that for me, highlights what is most important about plant-based eating. It’s not just about replacing meat and dairy. It’s about highlighting the wondrous things plants can do and become. As Moosewood proves, the options are limitless.