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Contents of this page:
NOTE:The recipes of this website are mostly lacto-vegetarian. Vegans can easily adapt many of them by using tofu, soya milk, rice milk, sesame milk, coconut milk, and their derivates. Today it is possible to find vegan whipped cream and custard cream, and different textures of tofu, that can be easily used to make yummy desserts without eggs or even milk. If you have questions, you are welcome to write to us at:
Why vegetarian?
Vegetarian foods are attractive in all their forms. While walking through a kitchen garden or fruit orchard, we immediately feel our appetite stimulated. This is scarcely the case when we happen to see some dead animal lying on the road. Why? Because our body and mind is made to consume vegetarian foods. Our teeth are made to bite soft and juicy fruits and to grind seeds and nuts, not to tear the skin, flesh and bones of animals. Our digestive system is also designed for bulky vegetable foods, that can stay in the bowels for several hours so that all the juices are extracted.
When any non-vegetarian meal is capable of stimulating your appetite, rest assured that you can obtain exactly the same smell and taste with purely vegetarian ingredients. For example, the "roasted meat" smell is easily obtained with the traditional herbs like sage, rosmary, thyme, laurel, juniper, mixed with a little soya sauce and used to roast anything - from potatoes to sesame veggie loaf, from TVP chunks to vegetable patties. The "fried fish" smell can easily be obtained by deep frying rice patties (boiled rice mixed with soya bean grits, sesame paste, coconut meal and chickpea flour) in soyabean oil. Eggless omelettes can be made with a batter of chickpea flour and whole wheat flour, fermented with yeast, and blended with a little tofu or other cheese. It cooks in the pan exactly like omelettes and has the same texture and even taste. You can make them more yellow with a pinch of turmeric or saffron, and season with asafetida (or garlic powder) and nutmeg. The same batter can be used for fritters of all kinds. In the same way, chickpea flour is a perfect binding agent in all patties and veg burgers.
However, you do not need to search for "meaty", "fishy" or "eggy" tastes and textures to enjoy yourself in a vegetarian kitchen. Learn a few basic techniques, and then let your fantasy and taste run free to experiment and combine... this is how the most famous and delicious recipes came to be created in the first place. Do not worry if sometimes the result is not so good. It takes a little practice to know beforehand what will be the effect of the interaction of the ingredients and techniques. To help you in this task, we have included a column of "useful tips" in each page, so that you can have some extra information on how to go about creating your wonderful vegetarian dishes! By switching to a vegetarian diet you will find that your health greatly improves. Your digestion is quicker and easier, and all the organs of your body feel lighter and stronger. And if all this is not sufficient to convince you, check out the data about the environmental effects of the consumption of non-vegetarian foods....
The many reasons why vegetarian is better for both our health and our environment.
How Much Vegetarian?
There are many different groups of vegetarians, that distinguish themselves on the basis of the components of their diets. The most important categorization is based on ethical concerns. The "basic vegetarians" are those who will not eat "anything that has a face", that is to say any animal body. That includes mammals, birds, fish, reptilians and the entire zoological garden. Lacto-vegetarians will not eat eggs, because eggs are the embryos of animals. Vegans will also abstain from everything connected with animals, including milk and honey. This choice is generally based on ethical considerations: generally cows and bees are mistreated and over-exploited with the purpose of getting a higher profit from the sale of milk and honey. Calves are routinely killed, cows are often kept in strict confinement and unhygienic conditions, and denied any family or social life, while they are very affectionate animals. Bee hives are often completely deprived of the stored honey, and bees themselves are fed with cheap (and unhealthy) sugar syrup in exchange of their precious products.
The second system of categorization of vegetarians is based on health concerns. Various schools of natural medicine advocate the benefits of raw food diets, or particular combinations of foods and preparation techniques. The famous Macrobiotics school, founded by the Japanese George Oshawa, is based on whole grains and legumes, sauteed vegetables and typically Japanese condiments like seaweeds, soya sauce (tamari or shoyu), miso (a fermented soya bean paste) and so on. It includes tofu (soya bean cheese), seitan (gluten flour loaf) and Japanese vegetables like daikon (a kind of large white radish), shiitake mushrooms, salted umeboshi prunes, and other typical foods. On the other hand, it completely bans the nightshade vegetables such as tomato, potato, eggplant and bell pepper, all milk products, and sugar, that are considered too "yin" for temperate-cold climates. It also bans uncooked vegetables (all raw salads) and fruits: all foods must be heated at least a little before being consumed. However, macrobiotic dishes do not include deep fried foods; everything is stir fried with a little sesame oil, or simply steamed or boiled. As it is easy to understand, these two schools - the raw food eaters and the macrobiotics - are constantly at odd with each other, advertising their own system as the only healthy choice.
Our opinion is that both these diets can work wonders especially for those who have loaded their bodies with toxines by consuming non vegetarian foods - simply abstaining from eating meat and fish can give enormous benefits. Another positive factor is that both diets strictly avoid commercial "junk food", that is loaded with preservatives, artificial flavorings and colors, almost all of those have been demonstrated as very hazardous to health. Another famous school of natural medicine is the Yoga and Ayurveda tradition. This system is based on the scientific combination of the various ingredients of a lacto-vegetarian diet, and on their mutual influence, also considering the individual constitution of the person, the time of the day and the year, the place, and the circumstances in which the food is consumed. In fact, the same food can sometimes have different effects on different people and on the same person in different circumstances or health conditions. Combinations and specific preparation techniques create "antidotes" to the effect of each food and cure all imbalance conditions.
For those who practice meditation, Ayurvedic medicine recommends to abstain from garlic and onions. Although these plants are certainly vegetarian, and even very beneficial for many health problems, they have a thickening effect on the subtle body and tend to dull the mind. Thus garlic is generally substituted by a powdered resin from a plant called ferula asafetida, that is very popular in all Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Instead of onions, leeks and chives are used. Mushrooms are also usually avoided, because they are very rich in nitrogen and can overload the kidneys especially if the diet is already sufficiently rich in proteins.
A typical yogic diet consists in fresh fruits, soaked raw nuts, fresh milk (just boiled), fresh yogurt, whole wheat chapatis, and some vegetables cooked lightly with a minimum of spices to balance the diet in general. The best choice for legumes is mung dal, or green soya bean, or chickpeas, cooked into a soup or together with rice. Among spices, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, cumin, fenugreek, and only rarely chili peppers and black mustard seeds. Sweets are consumed sparingly, and preferably made with milk and brown sugar or molasses. You can choose the combinations you like best and that are best suited to your constitution and life style. If you are not sure of which method to follow, you may try each one of them for a period, in similar circumstances, and see the effect on your health. This period should be sufficiently long to allow your body to get used to the new system: at least one month. After one month of a particular regime, you should be able to see if it is suitable for you or not.
Please remember that a particular style of diet is not an exclusive religion, and that it is not a "sin" to change or transgress your rules sometimes. The most important thing is to keep the ultimate goal in your mind: a balanced physical and mental health.
Basics on nutrition
Some people hesitate to give up non vegetarian foods because they believe they "need the nutrients" of meat, fish and eggs. Actually, this is a myth. It was created by an 18th century idea, that for "making flesh" one had to "eat flesh". Thankfully, we now know that this is not true. If it were, we should be eating the brains of famous scientists to become more intelligent, or the beautiful limbs of young girls to become more physically attractive. Modern scientific research has clarified that all the amminoacids required to build our tissues are easily found in the vegetal kingdom, and that we should not be afraid of nutritional imbalances if we follow a normal vegetarian diet. If you want to learn more about all the "technical stuff" -- carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals etc -- you may go to the page Basic about Nutrition in this website.
Recipes: access to direct page
And now... get your cooking apron and let's start! In these specific pages you will find a great number of easy, clear recipes with practical tips on how to personalize them according to your needs and tastes. Hundreds of attractive photos to give you an immediate idea of how the dish will look like. The Website will be regularly updated with new recipes, so keep visiting it...
The current pages are:
Rice and Grain Recipes A staple food for many peoples in Asia, rice is easy to digest and to prepare. It is recommended in case of food allergies, and the cooking time is very short - generally 10 minutes. Rice does not require much preparation work, and enters your pot much in the same form that grows on the plant, only husked. You can choose from brown rice, semi-polished rice, and the long grain basmati rice full of flavor and scent. In the same page, you will find other grains that can be prepared like rice - corn, millet, barley etc.
A whole page dedicated to the various recipes that can be made with pasta. Includes home made pasta, such as ravioli, tortellini and lasagna, and wheat and potato gnocchi dumplings, that are boiled in water much like the other kinds of pasta. Useful tips on how to boil your pasta "al dente", on how to get perfectly compact slices of baked pasta, and the basic recipes for white sauce, tomato sauce, and cream sauce (with cheese).
Breads and Snacks Bread has been a staple of Western countries since the times of ancient Egyptian civilization. The page includes pizzas, vegetable pies, and tartlets. All these are excellent for outings, quick meals, snacks, and packed meals to take to work or school. Get your oven working and enjoy the great taste of real natural fast food! Also, useful tips about the different types of ovens, including microwave.
The best way to prepare nutritionally complete and convenient meals in one pot. Together with bread, soup has been the staple food of the popular traditions for thousands of years. The combinations are almost endless, but some are really special. Get some ideas and invent your own special soup... especially to use all those small and odd bits of vegetables that sit in your fridge. Check out this page for the most famous and original soup recipes, including a very good formula for all-purpose vegetable stock you can freeze for tasty last-minute meals.
Here are some recipes that you can choose to prepare once a week or more often, depending on your particular nutritional needs. Protein-packed foods like tofu (soyabean cottage cheese), TVP, chickpea flour, tempeh and seitan often have the same (actually, better!!!) texture and taste of the recipes that you would expect to make with non-vegetarian ingredients. And with a bonus: better nutrition and better health.
Vegetables can be fun! Here are some mouth-watering examples of creative cooking. The list is endless, and in fact we are planning to expand this page into several sub-pages for the different kinds of seasonal vegetables. Keep visiting the Website for the updates...
A special section for those who can get milk from ethically treated cows. Sweet and salty recipes with panir (fresh drained cottage cheese), a wide range of recipes with Western-style cheeses, the famous Indian milk sweets, and more! Many of these recipes can also be made with all-vegetal ingredients, such as tofu, thick soya milk, etc.
Our vegetarian recipes do not contain eggs, the main responsible for high cholesterol and heart conditions. You can make excellent puddings custards and creams by using, for example, low fat yogurt, tofu, cocoa powder, nuts and fruits - all good stuff that keeps you healthy and fit.
A world of cakes without eggs.. and more: frostings, fillings and decoration. From the Marriage cake to the Granola pie, you'll have recipes for everybody!
Cookies, biscuits and sweet pastries from all over the world, to bring you sweetness every day.
Do it yourself, with a great benefit for your health and for creativity. Learning how to make jams and preserves will also offer you a wise alternative whenever you want to gift someone for their birthday or another celebration. Prepare a basket with your best products, and be sure to make an impression!
The perfect snack for a summer day or a children party: all recipes without eggs. Low-fat versions, too. Making good ice creams is not difficult: you only need a good freezer and a little care, but you will be more than rewarded!.
All the recipes are alcohol-free, and thus suitable for everyone. Discover how good health, beauty and taste can be found in a glass!
Special diets
Low-calories and low-fat menus and recipes, gluten-free diets.Menus and recipes to alleviate the most common diseases and health problems.Also, diets for children, elderly people, pregnant and lactating women, athletes, travelers.
Click here for more... (Still under construction)
Publications
Great ideas from different cultures and geographical areas, quick and easy meals for singles, planning for the whole week, seasonal treats, special feasts: everything you need to get well organized...
Do you have questions that have not been answered yet?Do you want personalized advice?Do you want some special recipe?Do you have suggestions or requests?Send us an email! Write to:
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This website has been last updated on 10 June 2005
