For any of the many reasons people choose to eat
vegetarian food - religion, politics, finances, or health -
one thing in common is that everyone prefers food that
tastes delicious and provides good nutrition.  There are
some basic techniques to vegetarian cooking which will
accomplish that.

Of course, there is a range of vegetarianism - from the
person who eats meat occasionally to the vegan.  Some
people consider themselves basically vegetarian,
occasionally eating fish and chicken, but no red meat.
Other vegetarians will only eat animal products such as
dairy and eggs.  A vegan is a bit more extreme, absolutely
rejecting any animal products at all.  For example vegans
don't eat mayonnaise because it's made from eggs, or eat
cheese, or use fish oils.

Wherever you are on the continuum of vegetarianism, you
want your food to taste good, be satisfying, and provide
good nutrition.  Here are some methods for cooking
vegetarian to meet those basic requirements.

First, if you're cooking something that is essentially a
meat dish, and trying to substitute textured vegetable
protein, stop doing that.  It doesn't ever taste right, and
you feel robbed: you're not getting the meat and you're not
getting the pleasure of well-made vegetarian food.  For
example, when you cook chili con carne and use a soy
product meat substitute, what's the point?  Soy (the basis
of textured vegetable protein and tofu) is a high fat and
highly processed 'food'.  It isn't any healthier than
organically grown meat, - so if you want chili con carne,
buy organic and have it.  Or, cook a delicious red-bean
soup that doesn't pretend to be chili con carne.

The key to good vegetarian soup is to use oil.  Sure,
lowered fat intake is fine in general, and no animal fat is
good, but your body needs the right kinds of fat for
metabolism.  The best way to add to the flavor of a
vegetarian soup is to saut~ some of the vegetables in oil,
especially the onions.  Use oil you can pour: vegetable
oil, olive oil, or grape seed oil.

Another important ingredient to tasty vegetarian food is
sea salt.  Salt brings out the flavor in any food, but it
has to be *sea salt*, which also contains trace minerals.
Regular table salt is not good because it contains none of
the minerals, but does have several chemical additives your
body doesn't like.  Use the salt during cooking - not
after.  Remember that cooking is chemistry, and in
chemistry the order in which the elements are combined can
make a big difference in the final quality.

The third tip for vegetarian cooking is obvious, yet needs
emphasis.  Use lots of vegetables!  You can't over-do
vegetables in your diet - the greater the range and color,
the better.  Use leafy veg (lettuce, spinach, and chard),
root veg (yams, carrots, potatoes, turnips), and the stems
and seed carriers of veg (for example celery, eggplant,
peppers, zucchini).  Buy organic veg if you can because
they really do taste better, and of course they provide
better nutrition because they are gown in healthy, 'clean'
dirt.

Take any vegetable and bean soup recipe, and follow these
three simple principles: saut~ the veg in the right oil,
cook the beans in sea-salted water, use a variety of
organic vegetables, and you'll have a rich delicious soup.
These simple tips make a big difference.  Take my word for
it, or do a little test.  Use the same list of ingredients,
but don't saut~ in oil, add the salt at the table, and use
conventionally grown veg.  The result will be inferior -
still nutritious, but bland rather than satisfying, and
that's a shame because the few simple techniques described
here can make your vegetarian cooking consistently
terrific.

Nora Poulos writes on topics related to cooking.  Her
articles are published in <a href="http://zcooking.com">The
News at Z-Cooking</a> the single on-line resource for a
world of news about cooking. Be sure to refer to all Nora's
articles at http://www.zcooking.com/