World Vegetarian - the fan blog

My absolute favorite cookbook is Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian.

The book is divided into sections by main ingredient and then subdivided alphabetically. Each subsection starts with basic info about the food. She tells what to look for when buying vegetables, how to store them, the differences between different types of lentils, brief histories of the foods' use through the years, etc.

The recipes are clearly written and often have substitutes for less common ingredients, as well as a list of on-line retailers. There is also section on soups, salads & drinks, and a section on sauces and spice mixtures. Each recipe has a country of origin, and they are also listed by that in the index. There are over 650 recipes, nearly 200 in the vegetable section and many are, or can easily be made vegan.

I have cooked many dishes from WV, and trust that I can cook any recipe from this book
One of the best things about WV is there are only two "fake meat" recipes. Most of the recipes are for dishes that have always been vegetarian. When omnis are served meals like this, they don't even notice there's no meat.

As I cook recipes from WV, I will post my notes and changes, as well as dazzling photographs. Respecting copyright, I will not be posting recipes, but if you have the book, you can play along at home.

I will not go through the book recipe by recipe, because that would drive me nuts. I do, however, hope to cook most of the recipes (at least the ones that can easily be cooked vegan).

Even though I've cooked many of these dishes before, none of those count anymore, and if I say that I cooked something from WV, it means from this point forward.

When I post page numbers, it'll refer to the pages in my copy, which is the first paperback edition.

The prep times and cooking times are my times. I am notoriously slow in the kitchen. I wash onions, peel them and wash them again. I rinse my spinach many times. I am a bad chopper. I sometimes wash and dry the knife in between chopping onions & other veggies. I often don't have the heat on high enough to maintain a simmer (damn electric stove). I am not a bad cook, just a slow one. Others may find prep times 10-50% lower and cook times 5-15% lower.


(using game show announcer voice)
Now, it's time to play
Cook
That
Book