The Zen Monastery Cookbook: Stories and Recipes from a Zen Kitchen

by Cheri Huber

This cookbook includes low-fat vegetarian recipes for main dishes, soups, breads, and desserts as well as compositions from American Zen monks—those who were head cooks and those who assisted. These inspiring stories are funny and touching, and all reflect the difficulty, challenge, joy, and freedom inherent in living as a Zen monk.

Genres: Cooking

270 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Cheri Huber, author of 20 books, has been a student and teacher of Zen for over 35 years. In 1983, Cheri founded the Mountain View Zen Center, and in 1987 she founded the Zen Monastery Peace Center near Murphys, California. She and the monks at the Monastery conduct workshops and retreats at these centers, other places around the U.S., and internationally.

In 1997, Cheri founded Living Compassion, a nonprofit organization dedicated to peace and service. Living Compassion’s primary work is the Africa Vulnerable Children Project, based in Zambia, where for over a decade they have been working with the people of Kantolomba, beginning the process of turning a slum of 11,000 people into a self-sustaining community.

Cheri also has a weekly Internet based radio show.

Reviews

[Katherine Hauswirth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to follow, tasty recipes. So far every one has been a hit (and I am not much of a cook, either!)

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always looking for new vegetarian recipes, and this looked like a good book to check out. They definitely know how to cook tofu at this place, as apparently they eat as much as 60lbs a week! I did find quite a few recipes I want to try, such as the Sweet Potato Biscuits, Curried Mushrooms and Chickpeas, a Miso Sauce for Tofu, Spiced Tomato Chutney, and Tofu-Mushroom/Tofu-Avocado/Tofu-Ginger-Sesame Spreads. There are also a lot of stories from the monks in the monastery, as well as people who have gone to retreats. 4 stars.

[Hafidha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. Vegetarian recipes that are simple to prepare and don't call for exotic ingredients. This is the cookbook of down-to-earth, economical, healthy, basic recipes I've been looking for. This book appears to be out of print, so I had to pay several times the original price to an online book re-seller. It's worth it, though.