Gaia's Kitchen: Vegetarian Recipes for Family & Community

by Julia Ponsonby

For ten years, Schumacher College at Dartington has been brewing up a unique potpourri of human connections, raising ecological awareness, and stimulating taste buds. For many students and teachers, their visit to the College has been a first and tantalizing experience of delicious vegetarian cooking. Repeatedly they have gone away demanding recipes—and suggesting a cookbook. The cuisine at the College calls upon the best of Mediterranean, Californian, Indian, and Mexican vegetarian cooking. It celebrates old favorites rich in cheese and eggs, and offers a variety of tempting new vegan dishes using ingredients such as pulses, tofu, and tempeh. At the same time, issues around food production, health, and special diets are clearly presented so that people can evolve a healthy diet, embellished with the rich variety of the recipes—together with an awareness of the ecological issues that affect our food today.

Gaia's Kitchen offers a full repertoire of menus: main courses, salads, soups, desserts, breads, cakes, and biscuits. As well as offering family-sized quantities, it offers community-sized quantities, making it invaluable for teaching centers, communities, and anyone who wants to prepare a vegetarian banquet for thirty or forty friends. Gaia's Kitchen also commemorates the first ten years of the College, so a documentary montage of photographs runs alongside the recipes, evoking a sense of this unique place: a place that has, in the last decade, become an established center for excellence in ecological and holistic education.

Genres: Cookbooks

216 pages, Paperback

First published November 23, 2000

Reviews

[Stephanie Kinsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every recipe I have tried has been delicious. These meals take a while to make, so I save them for weekends and times when I am not rushed; special occasions. My favorite is the broccoli red pepper quiche.