Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast and Easy Recipes for Any Day

Winner of the 1995 James Beard Award for Best Vegetarian Cookbook

Although many people think that cooking without meat means spending more time in the kitchen, the cooks at the world-renowned Moosewood Restaurant know this isn't so. Busy balancing home, work, and other commitments, they've been cooking for family and friends every day of the week for over twenty years. Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home is the result of that experience -- over 150 carefully honed and tested recipes calling for the best ingredients, accompanied by time-saving tips and planning suggestions, add up to a delicious whole-foods cuisine that is versatile and healthful and can be prepared with a minimum of effort.

This book contains dishes full of exciting flavors, sure to please every taste, from savory soups to substantial main-dish salads, from hearty stews to palate-teasing "small dishes." Sauces, salsas and dressings, and a collection of almost-instant desserts turn the simplest meal into an occasion.

Chapters on techniques and menu planning, lists of recipes for special needs, including nondairy and vegan fare and kid-pleasing food, as well as an in-depth guide to stocking the meatless pantry (including a list of recommended convenience foods), make Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home the essential companion to everyday cooking.

There's no particular low-fat emphasis here: Boiled Polenta with Mushrooms and Cheese" has 15.6 g of fat per 8 oz. Serving, Moosewood Fudge Brownie have 9.3 grams per two-inch brownie, but there are several recipes with under 3 grams of fat per serving.

It's a very comprehensive book, with recipes for soups, quick breads, salads, sauces, main dish salads, grains, beans, pastas, fish, desserts, stews, stir-fries, pizza, and more. The book includes a guide to ingredients, and chapters on techniques, herbs, menu planning, and a list of recipes for kids, parties, vegans, and buffets. Finally, there is a chapter called "Quantities," so that you'll know with utter serenity that it takes 2 ½ cups of florets to get one pound of cauliflower.

For an emphasis on low-fat vegetarian cooking, take a look at the Moosewood Low-Fat Cookbook. Otherwise, this is an excellent cookbook for beginner or expert, and ranks with "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" as one of the best vegetarian cookbooks available.


A Classic!   December 22, 1999
H. King (Decatur, GA, USA)
69 out of 69 found this review helpful

I have had this book since it was first published and my weathered, stained, dog-eared copy can attest to the practical and delicious recipes it contains. A great variety of foods--my favorites are the Red, Gold, Black, and Green Chili, Pasta Tutto Giardino ("the whole garden" pasta with a light cream sauce), Tomatican (a vegetarian adaptation of a Chilean stew with tomatoes, corn, lima beans), and Vegetable Stifado (a Meditarranean-style stew with eggplant, okra, and peppers), and Fish with Tomato-Orange Salsa. All get rave reviews when I cook them for company. Most are not only vegetarian but also lowfat. There are still dishes I haven't tried because I like the ones I have tried too much! My parents have this cookbook and love it, and they aren't even vegetarian. You can't go wrong with any Moosewood cookbook, but this is by far my favorite. Easy to follow, simple and delicious!


You'll Love It!   February 7, 2000
Karen Jorgensen (Newton, MA)
54 out of 54 found this review helpful

For anyone who has toyed with the idea of eating healthier, this book is for you! The recipes are quick, easy, interesting, and most of all, delicious! Many of my skeptical non-vegetarian friends have been very pleasantly surprised by the meal they've been served when they've come for dinner - "We didn't realize that you could eat this WELL without meat!" When they discover how simple the ingredient lists are, they usually go out and buy the cookbook for themselves... it's made many a new believer. (Of course, being from Ithaca myself originally, I also rave about the Moosewood Restaurant - and the amazingly talented folks that make up the collective - but this is a great way to bring the restaurant home into your own kitchen!) My husband and I use it several times each week; it is definitely our "Kitchen-Bible". I can't sing it's praises enough!


Fast and Furiously Delicious Recipes.   June 15, 2004
Themis-Athena (from somewhere between California and Germany)
54 out of 55 found this review helpful

I'm a Cornell grad, and one thing I remember with particular pleasure about my time in Ithaca, NY are those occasional forays down the Hill for lunch or (more likely) dinner at Moosewood, for years one of *the* local standout restaurants. Although not a vegetarian, I try not to eat meat every day of the week; and for a tasty, healthy alternative, there just isn't anything better than Moosewood's recipes. No question that I had to get their cookbook - several of them, actually - before I finally left town.

"Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home" begins with two short introductory sections about the use of time and nutritional analysis. The recipes are then grouped into individually introduced sections covering soups, dips, spreads and quick breads, salads and sides, dressings, salsas and sauces, main dish salads, gains, beans, pastas, stews, stir-fries and sautes, fish, sandwiches, filled tortillas, and pizzas, eggs and pancakes, and desserts. The book closes with a pantry list, a guide to ingredients, chapters on preparation and techniques, fresh herbs, menu planning and quantities (including liquid and dry measure and temperature conversion tables - particularly helpful for those of us who live in a "metric system" country); as well as a number of special lists, grouping the featured recipes according to their qualification as nondairy and vegan, kid-pleasers, recipes preparable in 30 minutes or less, and recipes suitable for entertaining, buffets and pot-lucks. What I like most about this book - besides the overall outstanding quality of the recipes and the fact that most of them are very quick and easy to prepare - are the countless little insider tips regarding the shopping for as well as preparation and storage of individual dishes and their combination with other dishes or ingredients, in addition to the background information on the names, provenance and cultural context of the many Non-Western recipes (not to mention that so many of those recipes are included in the first place).

It's hard for me to pick a personal favorite; there are so many ... for soups, I guess I'd pick the Mexican tomato lime soup, for dips the spicy peanut dip, for sides the mushrooms in lemon marinade, for dressings either the creamy pine nut vinaigrette or the lemon sesame dressing, for sauces the hazelnut and red peppers sauce, for main dish salads the sweet potato salad, for grains the herbed lemon pilaf with almonds ... and for salsas, pastas, stews, tortillas, pizzas, eggs, pancakes and desserts, every single one! (Sorry, really can't make up my mind there; it's more a question of mood and, of course, what ingredients I happen to have handy.) But whether you're just cooking for yourself or for family and friends, there should be something for everyone in this book; regardless whether you are vegetarian/vegan or not. Highly recommended!

Also recommended:
Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant: Ethnic and Regional Recipes from the Cooks at the Legendary Restaurant (Cookery)
Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian: More Than 650 Meatless Recipes from Around the World


This is the best, my copy is falling apart   July 22, 1997
39 out of 39 found this review helpful

I'm a personal Chef. I work part time cooking privately for a Jesuit Community as well as teach Vegetarian Cooking at the New School in NYC. This cookbook, is the wonderful! I literaly have to buy a new copy cause mine is falling apart. The recipes are easy, versatile, well written and varied. The suggestions for menus are helpful. And you dont have to be vegetarian to enjoy this book. The fish recipes are excellent and all the dishes can be used with other meals. I have an extensive library of Vegetarian cookbooks and this one is the one I use. Thanks Moosewood :) Merrick Dean