BOOKS: Simply Vegetarian

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Simply Vegetarian:
Easy-to-prepare recipes for the vegetarian gourmet,
edited by Nancy Mair and Susan Rinzler.
Dawn Publications (14618 Tyler Foote Road, Nevada City, CA 95959), 1989.
249 pages; $9.95 paperback.

Originally issued in 1985 as the Ananda Cookbook, Simply Vegetarian has reputedly
sold more than 80,000 copies. I acquired the first edition just before the current edition
appeared in 1989, but didn’t have the brains to use it while courting Kim, when I tried to
impress her by making lentil soup. That may be why she fed the soup to the porch raccoons.
Simply Vegetarian is not a strictly vegan book, but vegans will find plenty in it that they can
eat, will want to try, and will be able to make in less time than the four hours I
spent––twice––trying to impress Kim further by making a vegan peasant pie from a recipe in
another popular vegetarian cookbook, without getting past the midway stage she inelegantly
described as mashed carrots and potatoes.