Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone By Deborah Madison Broadway Books

As with most vegetarian books, she mines ethnic cultures for something new and different, but she also gives vegetables full treatment. This is, ironically, what makes the book so useful to meat eaters. When you're elbow deep in roasting a chicken, you don't want to get involved in complicated side dishes. We served Carrots with Mint and Cider Vinegar alongside a chicken and found them to be easy, but with plenty of presence. The mint and vinegar keeps the carrots own sweetness from getting to treacly.

Madison didn't start off as a cook, but studied urban planning. When she joined the San Francisco Zen Center, and when they decided to open a restaurant, she helped found Greens and thus started her cooking career. Two cookbooks later (The Greens Cookbook and The Savory Way), she is a meat-eating vegetarian cook.

The 1,400 recipes in this book make it useful for creating healthy, tasty meals week in and week out, all year round. Her recipes for appetizers, sandwiches, salads, soups, stir-frys, casseroles, pasta, grains, turnovers and tarts, eggs cheese, soy, breakfast, breads, and desserts are endlessly appealing. The recipes are important, but so is the awareness of the cook, and she begins the book with chapters on the foundations of flavor and basic cooking methods. It¹s an approach useful for any kind of cooking, vegetarian or not.

Every vegetarian book includes the obligatory tofu recipe, but Madison's Tofu Spread is a remarkably good and healthy mix that you might substitute for egg salad. It has all the protein, and not nearly as much fat. The tofu is squeezed dry and mixed with finely chopped carrots and celery, spiced with turmeric and an bit of cayenne, smoothed out with mayonnaise and spiked with capers. The next time, we'd leave out the garlic, which though it added a nice bite, left us longing for a mint all afternoon. The spread is an excellent lunch box staple (just keep slipping it to the kids, they¹ll get used to it) or for a Saturday lunch. In fact it¹s easier than egg salad, since you don¹t have to peel all those eggs.

We served the Tofu Spread on Cheddar Bread, which is a tender but firm yeast bread with buttermilk and flecks of yellow cheese. Madison offers a basic sandwich loaf and then a list of variations that include, dill, cheese, buttermilk and more. The Cheddar Bread is mildly flavored, with an even crumb and texture. It comes together quickly and is good on its own, for toast, and slices well for sandwiches. Madison offers other baking choices, but doesn't bulk up the book with muffins and rolls to fill up unsatisfied diners. Her recipes are so good she doesn't have to.

Madison also offers tips on planning a well-rounded vegetarian meal, pointing out the importance, visually and psychologically, of having a central dish on the menu. Saffron Noodle Cake fills that role nicely, turning a usual pasta dish into something a bit different. While the saffron soaked in oil and tossed with the cooked pasta didn't really come across when we made it, the pasta is fully flavored with fresh parsley, savory, and basil. Tossed with cheese and two eggs, the pasta could be eaten as is, but then is slipped into a well-buttered frying pan and cooked into a crusty brown cake on both sides. It's served in wedges and with a salad makes a light dinner or lunch.

Buttermilk Soup with Chickpeas and Herb Oil is as easy, cool, and filling soup. Buttermilk is combined with pounded garlic, diced cucumber, and canned chickpeas and then chilled. The soup is served with oil seasoned with fresh herbs and a shake of salt and pepper. The meaty chickpeas are a good texture contrast with crunchy cucumbers and the tart buttermilk makes the whole dish lively.

Zucchini and Fresh Herb Fritters are a more complicated vegetable dish, one that could almost serve as a meal's centerpiece. While they are a bit heavy, they hold together well, since the zucchini is drained for 30 minutes, and the fritters are brightly flavored with scallions, parsley, mint, and basil.

Madison has exceptionally refined taste in cakes and she offers five simple ones that stand on the strength of their simple ingredients. Yeasted Sugar Cake is really a simplified brioche, a lightly sweet yeast dough, enriched with milk, eggs, and butter. Hers is different because as it bakes it is crusted on top with butter and sugar. The batter was a bit looser than expected, but a bit of improvising and delicate sliding into the pan eased out a spongy chewy golden cake.

Polenta Pound Cake sounds more like punishment than a moist delicious dessert, but the addition of a bit of cornmeal lends not so much crunch as texture to the cake. A fragrant batter is flavored with almond extract, vanilla, and lemon zest, and a sprinkle of pignolia nuts adds soft crunch and more perfume. Three eggs make a rich golden cake with a slightly coarse crumb and fragrant flavor. The cake is very serviceable and could be served with spiced sauteed apples in the fall, split and filled with sweetened ricotta in the winter, sprinkled with a few candied violets in the spring, and fresh berries in the summer.

At its best, says Madison, eating is an inclusive experience that draws people together. And with her recipes, you'll certainly draw many people to your table.

© 2001 Claudia Kousoulas and Sandy Tallant