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Julia Ponsonby From the ChelseaGreen.com Updating the first edition—winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook award for best vegetarian cookbook of 2001—the cuisine featured in Gaia’s Kitchen 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. Besides soups, main courses, and salads, there’s a mouthwatering selection of desserts, breads, cakes, and biscuits. Gaia’s Kitchen also explores the issues of nutrition, special diets, and the ecological dimension of food production. The recipes are the tried and tested creations of Julia Ponsonby and her colleagues at Schumacher College in Devon, England, which for almost twenty years has been brewing up a unique potpourri of human connections, raising ecological awareness, and stimulating taste buds. Peak Oil Resources Review: Gaia's Kitchen is a wonderful book that will be a welcome addition to anyone's personal or community kitchen. Julia begins by bringing you into a culture that reminds me of the melting pot that makes up America's culture, but in a culinary fashion that is cohesive and harmonious. As you are brought into the fold of Schumacher College, you discover what has often been lost to American meal times; community. Community is what ties us together, especially on a local scale. The portrait of community living that is painted at Schumacher College is one that I think folks could do better to emulate. It is one of slowing done, of contributing to the celebration of life through shared meals and experiences that results of collective work and talents. From a culinary standpoint, each brings the best that each has to offer from their own culture. The variety and unity that is wrought by it is inspiring... and from what I have experienced so far, it is delicious to boot! Even the meat lover will find good use of this book. It may well serve to give direction to those who would like to trim back their consumption of meat or who would love to go vegetarian but can't be convinced that food without meat tastes any good. Or it may simply give some much-needed variety. You will find, like I did, that Gaia's Kitchen is full of recipes that give a flavor and aroma that, if nothing else, gives meat-laden dishes a run for their money. Just a taste the Mushroom Sherry soup will convince you of that! Give this book and the accompanying recipes a tumble and you will not be disappointed. Speaking as a non-vegetarian, that is really saying something. Bon appetit!
Julia Ponsonby has been actively involved with Schumacher College in England since attending its first course on Gaia theory in 1991. For seven years, she worked as catering manager for the college, during which time she wrote and compiled Gaia’s Kitchen.
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Gaia's
Kitchen: Vegetarian Recipes for Family & Community