Customer Reviews

The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook

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I must admit that just 6 months ago there was no way I could fathom the thought of eating vegan meals on a daily basis, until I tasted a recipe out of this book. Not only was I astounded but I was also insulted. Insulted because one of my own famous recipes that I had made for years (with meat), was "up-staged" by the vegan recipe I had tasted in the New Farm Cookbook. And to add insult to injury, it took only a fraction of the time to make it! One of the main things I like about the book is that the recipes are absolutely delicious, simple, and most of the ingrediants can be found in just about anybodies cupboard. From gluten roast to non-dairy cheesecake you just can't beat it. Anyone who wants to change their diet and are skeptical would do themselves a tremendous service to get this book. I have since bought another one in case something happens to my first one. It has changed my life and I can honestly say that it is truly worth its weight in gold. This is why I call it my Vegan Bible.

There are two main categories of vegan food, I think -- well, surely there are more, but there's two common in western pop culture. There's the vegan food you like to eat with your non-vegetarian friends, to change their minds: veggie burgers that look like meat, salad dressings where you'd never suspect the cream was tofu, and classy, restaurant-ready fare that seems so 'normal' your friends say things like "I guess the days of lentil loaf and bean sprouts are over!" And then there's this stuff.

And this is the truly good stuff. The people on The Farm, I don't know how they did it... a great mail-order business, Ina May's pioneering work in midwifery (Ina May's Guide to Childbirth), and a cookbook that helped push forward the vegan movement way back in 1975. These people had a huge cultural effect for one little hippy commune. Anyway, on to the food:

If you read the New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook from cover to cover (which, unlike most cookbooks, you can) you'll learn how to:
- prepare beans
- make TVP meatballs
- make tortillas, bake bread, pizza dough
- sprout seeds
- make knishes
- make gluten
- prepare soymilk
- skim yuba from cooking soymilk
- make tempeh from scratch (fascinating; looks very difficult)

The food prep instructions and recipes in the New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook make up a vegan 101 I wouldn't have been willing to read and absorb until fairly recently. It'll be popular with you if you're (1) already health-minded, (2) value non-processed foods enough to do the work, (3) organized food-wise, and willing to do things like leave the beans to soak the night before. There are some quick recipes, but if you're more of a ten-minute cook I'd recommend instead you get How It All Vegan! or (even simpler) the Soy, Not Oi! cook-zine.

Recipes in the Farm book include Soysage, Tofu Onion Quiche, Gluten Roast, Tempeh Sauerbraten, Millet And Peas, Granola and many other hippie classics plus lots of other great soups, spreads, main dishes, desserts, breads, and a small section about pregnancy and having kids as a vegan.

I just made their macaroni and 'cheese' made with nutritional yeast (Nutritional Yeast, Shaker (Red Star), 5 oz._; a product I've never used much of before but which features in this book prominently. It was much, much better than the OK (but more convenient) boxed stuff Roads End Organics sells: Road's End Organics Dairy-Free Pasta Shells & Chreese, Cheddar Style, 6.5-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 12). I was glad the recipe worked out because I'd been kind of daunted by nutritional yeast for awhile.

After the utility of this book I think I most appreciate the earnestness. Lentil loaf is good. Do not be ashamed! The Farm cooks also understand you don't want to support the corporate food giants, get your B12 from a pill or fortified anything, or buy a soy product you can't describe the manufacture of. If How It All Vegan is high school, the Farm Cookbook is college. The photograps of commune cooks stirring the baked beans in their mumus are also great.

One more point -- if you were to wholeheartedly adopt these recipes and food lifestyle as the book lays out, you would save a lot of money. (You can tell the Farm folks cooked for economy when they warn you to watch out for added mercury if you buy your soybeans at an animal-feed supply store.) The way most vegans and vegetarians in the west eat today doesn't represent much in the way of savings, because our processed foods, even if they're made of cheap ingredients, cost quite a bit. (Think of Yves slices, or commercial fake parmesan.) These people made awesome food at home from the cheapest, most straightforward and whole foods available. That's cool. Thank you hippies.

I love this cookbook. i've been a vegan for almost five years and have had this since day one.
i recommend this book to all vegans just starting out. the recipes are very simple to prepare, and they are basic foods that everyone loves. this is the only cookbook where i've cooked almost everything in the book and liked it all. many vegans starting out may be intimidated and think they don't have many meal options. with these recipes, there are always leftovers that they can be munched on all week long. aside from the simplicity of the meals, the portions are large. i always make the TVP gravy and Sloppy Joes. there is minimal cooking involved and i always have leftovers.
for the experienced vegan, there are great recipes like alfredo sauce and meals with nutritional yeast (an acquired taste - i didn't eat it for a LONG time) that never get old. Janie's good biscuits are a classic!
another plus is that since the book was written in the 70's, there aren't any "special" ingredients needed. no extravagant gourmet meals here, you won't have to drive around town looking for kelp powder or mushrooms you've never heard of. highly recommended.

Fist of all, skimming through this book is really a trip...I love the sort of "70's hippie layout" and hope they never change this!
As far as content, I have to echo others...a great book, chock full of great, simple recipes! My version is a little older, but I think that little has been changed over the years. It's a bit of a time capsule. It's just a wealth of great, basic vegetarian info. How to make your own tofu, tempeh, etc. In fact, you can still buy tempeh starter from the Mail Order Catalog (based at the Farm), follow the recipe here and you can't go wrong.
Most of the recipes are for family friendly, down home kinds of meals, just adapted to the veggie palate. One really gets the impression that many of the Farm folks, having presumably grown up on a sort of 50's homestyle cooking, reworked a lot of this into real family-type, comfort foods. My personal favorite recipe is the Soft Sandwich buns!
Speaking of family, there is a great deal of info here about vegetarian nutrition for pregnant and nursing women, and children.
The Farm has been around for decades, and is still going...they must be doing something right!

the New Farm cook book is a must for a vegan's cook book library. perhaps the best recipes in the book are the breakfast & baked goods: Who says pancakes have to have eggs in them!

The book offers helpful tips for making tofu, wheat gluten, tempeh & soy milk. It also has photos and cute cartoons of the folks at the New Farm commune doing their thing. It offers advice on raising vegan children, and vegan nutrition while pregnant. Most of the recipes are easy and very "American" style, like cheese-less mac & cheese, grilled tofu sandwiches, etc. There is also a section on vegan jewish foods, like knishes, that is great. The only thing I dislike about this cookbook is that it tends to call for powdered spices rather then fresh... and you have to admit that nothing beats fresh garlic! Of course, you can always substitute. For the cookie recipes that called for honey I used a mixture of turbinado sugar and maple syrup. it worked fine!

Buy the book! You won't regret it! :-)

I am ordering my second copy because my first one fell apart after many years of constant use. My children love the desserts. The muffin recipes are excellent - for your body as well as your taste buds. This book has the best recipe for soyburgers. It tells you how to make gluten, and has several recipes for what to do with it. This book tells you how to make soymilk and has recipes for what to do with the left-over soybean mash. If you want to incorporate more soy into your diet, this is the book for you. If you want to put more fiber into your diet, this book can help you. My kids have liked every recipe from this book that I have tried. This is high praise indeed.

I have used this cookbook for over twenty years now and it is still my favorite. All of the recipies are inexpensive to make, fairly basic, always nutritious and tasty.

I have raised six kids on the recipies from The Farm and they universally request the Nutritional yeast melts, the barbeque gluten ribs and the TVP golden gravey.

If I have one complaint about the recipies it is that they generally have too much salt in them for the average desk-bound lifestyle. The book was written from the perspective of folks used to a physically rigorous lifestyle. Use less salt in making the dishes.

I have a BIG collection of cookbooks, most of them vegan, and this is simply the BEST vegan cookbook I own! =) Every item I have made from it - was easy to make and tasted fantastic! Their "mock meat" recipes taste great to vegans and meateaters alike! The recipes are simple, usually with only a few ingredients (which you can easily change a little if you feel like it), the "steps" to make the recipes are so easy to follow I can easily let my husband cook every once in a while and most important the food always tastes great! (I have made about 20 of the recipes.) They even give you instructions on how to make your own soy milk, tofu, tempeh...!

I purchased this book after a trip to the Farm in 2004.
What a lifesaver. I wish I would have had this book earlier.
Completely easy to read and visually pleasing. The artwork makes this book unique and fun to read. But enough about the pictures, the recipes are fantastic and it's easy to add and adapt to your own tastes. I love the section on soymilk and the TVP section has saved me a ton of money (I no longer buy premade soy crumbles). A must for every veggie kitchen.

This book contains my all-time favorite (and most asked for) recipies. The tofu cheesecake, tofu mannicotti, and chocolate cake recipies alone are reason enough to get this book. Most of the dishes are fairly easy to make; those that aren't are worth the effort. One note:a number of the recipies call for honey;if you opt not to use honey, you'll have to come up with your own substitutions.