Laurel's Kitchen: A Handbook for Vegetarian Cookery & Nutrition

NOT AS IT APPEARS... I highly recommend the 5star 1st edition NOT the edition as it appears here! The 1st ed is much more succinct, simple and concise... I can learn about nutrients: proteins, carbs, fats and vitamins and minerals in straightforward language. The newer ed as seen here is not recommended bc the info is laden w extraneous info and hard to find direct info re nutrition.

This book literally changed my life. I've never been healthier since I learned to cook for myself from this book. Although I now use the recipes found in the book from time to time, it set the standard for how I eat.

as a long time fan of laurel's kitchen, i bought laurel's kitchen caring just to add to my library, never dreaming how helpful i would find it. since i bought it, i have nursed my daughter through a frightening bout of mononcleosis and my son through pneumonia - at 16 and 14, this is really the first time either of them has been sick, for which i give credit to their healthy vegetarian diet. this book also was a support for my next-door neighbor in this past year as she nursed her husband of fifty-eight years at home as he was dying of cancer and to my girlfriend, who is trying valiently to keep her mother nourished as she dies at home of cancer. the broths, soups, custards and teas have been thoroughly appreciated by all, as have the caregiver's brownies, which i have shared with numerous friends donning the temporary mantle of home-nurse. the lasagna al forno is like an old friend, but enchiladas petaluma, a new offering, has been tremendously popular with those with whom i have shared the recipe, even a couple of seemingly implacable carnivores. the commentary that goes with the recipes serves, at least for me, as an excellent substitute for a care-giver's support group. if you enjoy cooking, and even use it as therapy, this is a wonderful book to keep at your fingertips, ready for the day you are called to assume the role of caregiver on either a short or long-term basis, which, with the way insurance companies work these days, may be sooner than you think! laurel, carol et al. have done it again!

A dear friend lent me this book. I was very pleased when I read it. Good ideas and pleasant relaxing style made it a book I want for my permanent library. I would recommend this book to caregivers who need some ideas...it seems we all have someone who, at some time, needs our help.

I first encountered Laurel, Carol et al. in 1985, after reading and being impressed by Diet For A Small Planet but feeling constrained by the narrowness of protein complementarity as it was then understood. I had been told by my doctor to lose the fifty pounds I had gained with my first pregnancy or she wouldn't be around to help me with a second one. A vegetarian friend suggested I try changing the way our family ate. Since I did then and still do love to cook, I was ready and willing to make whatever changes might be necessary. Laurel's Kitchen was a light in the darkness for me. The recipes were fun to make and best of all, they tasted great. My formerly meat and potatoes or nothing Irishman husband took to our new way of eating with real enjoyment. I took great heart from the philosophical musings that began the book and were interspersed with the recipes. When the second edition came out, in 1986, I was fifty pounds lighter and beginning a pregnancy as a well-nourished lacto-ovo vegetarian. My 11 pound son's birth left me two pounds lighter than I had been at his conception. I have gone through 3 copies of the 1986 edition, and have memorized (with our own personal modifications) all our favorite recipes, which have become family classics. I have never regained the weight I lost fourteen years ago and am in my twenty-fifth year of teaching high school history. My husband and our two teen-agers are healthy, slim and energetic. My daughter, at 16, takes a lot of static from well-meaning "friends" about her vegetarian diet, but she remains committed but never censorious of others' eating habits. We are happy with our choice and eternally grateful for the wit, wisdom and just plain good eating to be found in Laurel's Kitchen. As Carol states,"Laurel didn't believe just in cooking vegetarian...it had to taste good."

I first learned of Laurel's Kitchen in the mid-1970s when my parents gave my sister Laurel a copy for Christmas. Being an artist, I really admired the woodcut illustrations. However, I didn't start to use the book religiously until 1978, when I and all my grad-school friends decided to pursue a vegetarian life style. My copy, which I bought at the food coop where I volunteered is now in pieces, but I still use it regularly. I can count on the book to contain information about vegetables I'm not familiar with, and how best to prepare them, plus providing clear instructions for making such things as yogurt and sushi nori. Though no longer a strict vegetarian, having a husband and two children who like meat far too much to give it up just yet,I eat meatless meals at least several times a week. The recipe for Sultana's Spanakopita (a real winner!) has inspired a family favorite: broccoli pie, in which we've substituted broccoli for spinach.