From: levin@world.std.com (Levin F Magruder)
Subject: Re: New vegitarian seeks info
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 19:46:58 GMT

NICK@dirac.physics.jmu.edu (Nick Mcdowell) writes:
>Hello,
>   I've recently decided to become a vegetarian (lacto-ovo for now) and I 
>was wondering if there was a FAQ out there or an archive site that could
>help me get started.  I'd like to get a basic meal-plan that gives me all the
>nutrition I need yet is simple to prepare. (That's not asking too much is it?)
>Thanks in advance.
> 
>Nick McDowell

If you get enough calories, you don't have to worry about nutrition.  If
you subsist on cheese, eggs, tofu and potato chips, though, you're
likely to gain weight.  I did.  (Ice cream was the culprit.)  Familiarization
with your local produce department is the key to enjoyable vegetarian
eating.

What is easy will depend on what kitchen equipment you have, whether you
have a kitchen in the first place, and how good a cook you already are.

Here's two spaghetti treatments to start with.
"Regular" spaghetti sauce.

This "recipe" is long, but only because of parenthetical remarks. 
If you do it twice, and pay attention, you can do it over and
over, making it to suit your mood and what you have available, with
little thought and probably with less than 10 minutes of actual
work, including clean up.

Mince 1 or 2 cloves of garlic
Chop or roughly slice 1/2 or 1 onion
Saute over low medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until
  onions turn translucent
Add 1 can unflavored diced tomatoes and 1 can "italian flavor" 
  sliced tomatos (I like the contadina brand, but apparently a lot
  of people don't).  If you have a bay leaf, stick it in.
Notice the way it smell now.  Not very nice.  Like canned tomatoes.
Let simmer slowly for 20-30 minutes while you read the paper.  This
  lets the tomatos decide how they taste.
Notice that it smells somewhat better, now, but not really good.
Now, peel a carrot and discard the peel.  Using the peeler, turn the
  carrot into strips of carrot paper, chop, and throw in.  This helps
  a lot in my opinion.
If you have mushrooms or green peppers chop into fork size bits and
  add.
If you have dried basil (I don't know about fresh, probably better)
  add as much as 2 Tsp.  You can add oregano, but go easy - 1/2 tsp.,
  and if you're cooking for me, omit it.
If you have parsely, wash a few branches (as many as six) in two changes
  of water.  Don't just rinse.  Do it in a bowl and you'll see the water
  turn dirty. Throw in whole branches, or chop.  (There are two major
  types of parsely.  You want flat leaf, but the curly leaf kind doesn't
  hurt anything, it just often doesn't do any good.)
A pinch of cayenne or 1/4 tsp pepper flakes will liven it up and not make
  it spicy.
Let it simmer 10-40 minutes, slowly.  It should smell better and better
as it goes. If it seems too watery, you can bump the heat up to a soft
boil.  If it's too thick (it never is, though), I guess you can add water.

 When you like the consistency turn off the heat and let
it sit a few minutes or hours before eating.  Enough for two nights
of gluttony for 1 average male.    (All

Options:  saute fennel seed (up to 2 tsp) with the onions.
  saute celery with the onions, or add it with the peppers/mushrooms.
  add chopped summer squash (green or yellow) 15 minutes before you
    think it will be done.
  add the mushrooms, or more mushrooms, sliced, just a minute before
    it's done.
  add rosemary or marjoram with the basil, or instead of the basil.
    I don't remember what rosemary does; marjoram adds a fresh,
    minty taste -- which is more appropriate in gum, to my taste,
    but some people like it.
I reiterate - carrot helps a lot, even at this time of year, when
they're all dry and stinky.  The texture is not especially nice, but
it makes a big difference in the flavor.  But only one medium carrot -
carrot is sweet, and too much makes it taste like jarred tomatoe sauce.


Tomato/basil sauce for cold spaghetti.
If you can get good plum tomatos, this is fantastic.  Unfortunately,
you can never get good plum tomatoes.  Before you buy, smell butt-end
of them (the non stem end).  If it doesn't smell at least fainly like
tomato, don't bother with this dish.

You need fresh basil.  Jarred or dried will not work.  It is available
on and off year round, usually somewhere near the parsely in grocery 
stores.

Crush one clove of garlic with the butt of a knife.
Throw the crushed garlic in what will be your serving bowl with 
  something less than a 1/4 C of good olive oil  ("Good" means
  extra virgin, which means expensive.  Here, the olive oil is
  one of the main flavors, so you can't substitute.)
With a paring knife, remove the fruit from 8 black and 8 green
  olives and throw it in the bowl.  The scraps should mostly be
  about pea size, but don't be fussy.  Green olives are usually
  a nuisance - hard, don't come away from the stone easily.  The
  stones from black ones often slip right out, then you can cut up
  the fruit.
Tear up the leaves of 1/2-1 bunch of basil and throw them in 
  the bowl.  (Wash under several changes of water first, pat dry with 
  dishtowels or paper towels)
Skin 4-6 tomatoes - cut off the stem in, throw into boiling water
  let boil for 20 seconds, and immediately put into cold water.  The
  skin will usually come off pretty easily.  Don't worry about little
  scraps
Cut skinned tomatoes in half length wise and smash out the pulp and
  a bit of moisture by squeezing in your fist, fingers digging into
  the cut side.  Probably a good job for kids, if they're not too
  enthusiastic.
Dice the skinned, halved, smashed tomatoes into 1/2" dice.  Throw
  in the bowl.
Stir it all around and let sit at least 5 minutes, preferably about
  20.  Taste for salt.  If the tomatoes are really good, you won't
  need any.
Cook some spaghetti, cool it under running water, and stir in with
  the sauce.  Let it sit as long as you can wait, then find and discard
  the smashed garlic and serve.