I had every expectation of not liking Mark Bittman’s new book, “How To Cook Everything Vegetarian.”
I was completely unaware of his column “The Minimalist” that has been running for 10 years in the New York Times, or his previous hugely popular book “How To Cook Everything,” as well as the public television show spawned by that book. My first exposure came through hearing him promote this latest book on National Public Radio’s January 10th edition of Fresh Air, as I’m a subscriber to its daily podcast.
I read the show notes before listening to the show, and was surprised there was going to be a whole segment on a vegetarian cookbook, which is why I guess I was taken aback by an interview introduced by saying the cookbook had an “obvious limitation — no meat.”
Upon relistening to the show, I found Bittman to just be following the lead of the host, as all interview subjects do, who spent seemingly a third of the show talking about how rib-eyes are the best part of the steak, and a method for drying a rib-eye out in the refrigerator for two days before cooking it. Bittman did get into the idea that he did this book because he thinks more people need to include more vegetarian dishes into their diet because of health and the global warming footprint, and the notion that a meat-based culture is damaging and unsustainable. That little nugget propelled me to find out more.
So, I go to Amazon and see this book has a starred review from Publishers Weekly that includes the seemingly back-handed compliment that the book provides “a wealth of recipes that don’t scream vegetarian.” It also says readers will “appreciate Bittman’s avoidance of faux meat products in favor of flavorful high-protein dishes like Braised Tofu in Caramel Sauce and Bechamel Burgers with Nuts.”
Now, I don’t know any good cookbooks that say to go out and buy vegetarian burger crumble from the supermarket and build a dish around it. Certainly none of the books in my collection say such a thing. However, if faux meat refers to seitan, tofu, and tempeh (the only three things I consider as meat substitutes), then they clearly didn’t read far enough into the book, as Bittman includes all of them.
Scrolling down some more on Amazon, there is a blog entry from Bittman where he says he is not a vegetarian, and follows it up with the odd declaration: “I’m not an advocate of a vegetarian diet; I’m an advocate of Americans eating fewer animal products - less meat, fish, poultry, and dairy.” Wouldn’t the latter make you the former by default, whether or not you were a vegetarian?
He goes on to answer the one big question that keep coming up with this book, the old ‘Can I get enough protein as a vegetarian?’ thing. While he’s adamant about not being a vegetarian, which has no qualifications, he jumps right in as a nutritionist without any such caveats. So, in Bittman’s words, can you get enough protein being vegetarian?
“The short answer is, ‘Of course.’ The slightly longer one is, ‘If you eat dairy and eggs, you never even have to give it a thought,’” he writes. “It gets more complicated if you eliminate those as well, but my understanding is this: Even if you were to entirely eliminate animal products from your diet, as long as you replaced them with vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes - and not junk food - you’d be just fine. There is plenty of protein in broccoli, brown rice, and kidney beans.”
So, all of the information is true, but it seems to suggest if you want to be super-duper careful about this stuff, just eat dairy and eggs and never worry. So, once again, I keep liking the fact that he is sort of providing this bridge over which many people may find healthier diets that are more gentle to the planet, and the fact that they might feel more comfortable being led over by an avowed meat-eater than one of many “it tastes just like/better than meat” lying vegetarian cookbook authors, but there is always this sort of ‘But don’t forget, I still eat steak’ vibe rubbing me the wrong way.
I just figured this tone would pervade the book and I don’t really need all this cajoling and convincing to eat vegetarian. But the one thing that intrigued me was that Amazon listed the book as being 1008 pages. That seemed… wrong. Do I have any cookbooks that are more than 500 pages?!
So, one day, my friend and I are in Borders killing time and he’s grabbing some stuff to read over iced tea in the café, and I figure I’ll check this Bittman guy out, as well as “In Defense of Eating,” Michael Pollan’s follow-up to “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” which I hope to review on this site in the near future.
First of all, it turns out that the 1008 page thing was a complete lie. There are a mere 996. But beyond that, it just seemed to be amazingly comprehensive. In the introduction, he talks of his appreciation for the noncarnivorous world, health and the effects of the Standard American Diet, treating animals fairly. He also takes people to task for the “but I don’t have time to cook from scratch” excuse, which I know I hear a lot of when people eat my food. He admits that why people become vegetarian is a complicated tangle of personal and political issues.
“But the health and nutrition factor isn’t complicated,” he writes, “and it can be summed up like this: A diet that’s high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes is a healthier diet than one that isn’t.” (emphasis his)
It seems he comes off much better when it’s not dashed off like a blog entry or subject to the whims of an interviewer. After reading most of the introduction, I flipped through to the recipe index and there was a nice green V on recipes that were vegan, and a vast majority of them seemed to be vegan. What I learned after giving the book a closer inspection is how many of the recipes without the magic V had instructions on how to make a particular recipe vegan (save for the section on Eggs, Dairy, and Cheese, heh).
I kept flipping through the book and found one of the most exhaustive cookbooks I’ve ever read. If you are starting with no utensils and no abilities, it is all covered in here. There are the pantry essentials, cookware, kitchen utensils, knife skills, and this sense of walking people through the recipes continues throughout. There are more than 250 diagrams everywhere showing you how to make your own tofu, cheese, ravioli, pizza dough, which make everything so much more clear-cut than trying to describe it with only text.
The sections included in the book are: Salads; Soups; Eggs, Dairy, and Cheese; Produce - Vegetables and Fruits; Pasta, Noodles, and Dumplings; Grains; Legumes; Tofu, Vegetable Burgers, and other High-Protein Foods; Breads, Pizzas, Sandwiches, and Wraps; Sauces, Condiments, Herbs, and Spices; and Desserts.
And the recipes are all pretty phenomenal. First of all, at no point does it stray from being completist. Many of the dishes have a basic recipe, followed by many ways to alter the recipe in different ways, some with up to 25 variations. The produce section is organized alphabetically by ingredient, and each section starts with a detailed history and description of that ingredient, such as how to buy it fresh, store it, prepare it, and substitute for it when out of season.
One of the most interesting parts of the book is how Bittman views leftovers as the starting point for future meals, rather than just heating it up again. The most hilarious example of this that I found is that, on one page, he has a pull-out section on “Using Leftovers to Make Vegetable Purees,” and on the very next page another pull-out section reads “Turning Leftover Purees into Griddlecakes.” His philosophy seems to include a lot of variety, that cooking extra grains and beans is always a good idea, and then figuring out what to do with them later. It is certainly something I want to make a bigger part of my cooking method, since I’m more of a ‘make a big one-pot dish and live with it’ guy right now.
I hasten to include a sense of the recipes, because I can’t think of much that isn’t touched on. It seems to hit every major cuisine in interesting ways. Just flipping through before writing this, I hit on “Roasted Vegetables, Thai Style,” which has you oven-roasting various veggies with curry or chili paste, coconut milk, peanut butter and soy sauce. I often roast vegetables, and I’ve made Thai curry dishes before, but for whatever reason, I never put those two concepts together.
The one area I didn’t see much evidence of here (although with this many pages, I could be wrong; and one could argue Thai Style Roasted Vegetables is contrary proof) is a celebrated staple of nearly every other vegan cookbooks, which is fusion cuisine where you take the spices of one cuisine and the preparation of another and combine them. But I don’t see that as a detriment, because I don’t recall ever seeing a more exhaustive, globe-spanning, from-the-ground-up cookbook as Bittman’s. I consider this book to be an important work that should be de riguer in every kitchen, from omnivore to vegan.
It was a long journey from being somewhat disenchanted by the notion of this book to where I am now, but it was definitely a worthwhile one.
This book represents a lot of the philosophy behind Vegocentric, which is making informed personal choices to improve your health, your life, and your footprint on the planet. If one of the pied pipers leading people in this direction has the occasional rib-eye, so be it.
The book I read said days two and three are supposed to be the hardest for most people on the cleanse, so I’m perplexed why I find it so easy and, honestly, boring. I get up, drink salt water, stay home for the next 90 minutes (heh), and whenever I’m hungry all day I drink some lemonade. Easy…
