Vegetarian Heartland: Recipes for Life's Adventures

Perusing through Amazon I saw this cookbook and enthusiastically waited for it's arrival. Not a vegan or vegetarian, I've vowed to get more whole plant based food into my diet.. thus the purchase! Shelly Westerhausen has a unique approach to vegetarian cooking in this book. Before I dive into telling you all about it, I have to excitedly say this book is BEAUTIFUL! It's full of recipe pictures as well as beautiful scenery shots of her heartland of the Midwest (Bloomington, IND. to be exact). Simply breathtaking!.Her intro is typical of how she began to eat vegetarian at a very young age (12) and how hard it was to find vegetarian foods in her small town. However, as she grew she found it becoming more accepted and available. Her unique layout of this book comes from her blog Vegetarian 'Ventures and because she feels she lives by a sense of adventure in all things, the recipes in this book are organized into adventures specific to each season. This book also is strongly focused from dishes you'll find in the modern Midwest. They are based on the produce and meat- centric traditions of this region.There were so many recipes that look good I didn't know where to begin. I dove in trying five recipes to start with.Lager Onion & Lentil Soup(pg 202): Shelly's version of a French onion classic, this soup came together quickly and was fantastic. Follow her instruction closely when she says to caramelize the onions - this taking about 30-40 min. This really brings a deep rich flavor to the soup. Also the use of tamari adds great depth too. the Swiss cheese toast is a wonderful bonus on top. Will make againPeanut Butter Trail Mix Cookies(pg192): I was wondering how these cookies would come together with no flour added. Well the magic is in the small amount of baking soda added. Also, because there is no flour, these cookies are lighter and slightly crumblely. They came together easily. I added pumpkin seeds, cranberries, dark chocolate minim chips. They have an intense peanut butter flavor which is expected since that's the main ingredient. I liked them a lot, my husband on the other hand was not a huge fan.Vegan Chocolate-chip Pumpkin Bread (pg 191) This whole wheat sweet bread came together fast. The cinnamon, nutmeg, all-spice and clove really stand out as well as the chocolate making the pumpkin subtle. I really like a pumpkin flavor so I've noted to half the chocolate in this recipe for next time. The consistency of the bread is perfect. Hearty but moist and soft. Shelly's right about the bite of salt adds a terrific savory balance to this vegan pumpkin bread.Brown-sugar & Rosemary Popcorn (pg95): OMG!!!!! this was fabulous! Who knew rosemary and brown sugar and butter LOVED popcorn so much. I never would have dreamed to put this together and then on popcorn of all things. I agree wholeheartedly with Shelly's statement about popcorn on the stove top is far better than any popcorn in a microwave bag and using a local sourced corn all the better too. (if available in your area)Sage Ices Tea (pg 86): I have an abundance of sage growing right now in my garden and I was excited to see Shelly 's inspired recipe of adding it to iced tea. I made a batch first thing today and it's wonderful. I used stevia instead of honey.

I'll do you a favor: stop reading this review and go buy the book. It's $15! It feels like a $50 cookbook. It's beautiful, not just because of the layout and design and paper stock, but Shelly's storytelling and photography are well worth the cost of admission.This is a book for everyone. The recipes are so good that you could easily have picked this book up and not missed the meat. You don't need to be a vegetarian to enjoy these recipes. And while there are some Midwest-specific recipes (Indiana persimmons!), anyone should be able to make these in any place of country when the season is right.I love the way Shelly breaks up the recipes: by season, then by adventure. You can replicate that adventure by going on a hike, or out on the lake; or you can just make these at home as the kids ramble home from school (as I probably will).There's a tender humility and gentleness to the tone and feel of the book. It comes across in the photography and the writing and the recipes themselves. A cookbook like this could have been overbearing and pretentious, but like the Midwest itself Shelly's recipes are what they are: straight up delicious.

Calling all vegetarian midwestern adventure cooks! Just me? I hope not! I found this book at a moment that I was looking for a great book to help me feed my family on hikes and picnics. This has lots of that, and also has general vegetarian food with a midwestern sensibility (casseroles and potlucks, oh my). I found myself bookmarking more than half the recipes. Excellent! I paid full price for my copy myself and am pleased with my purchase.

I love the vegetarian take on heartland classics! I've already made two recipes and can't wait to cook more. I also appreciate the notes to help make vegan modifications.

As a Midwestern vegetarian, I can obviously really appreciate this cookbook and it's message but I'm honestly not sure how anyone who read it could feel differently. Not only does it have recipes that are appropriate for each of the four seasons, it also has recipes categorized by every possible event I could encounter throughout the year (brunch, picnic, road trip, etc.). Everything I've made thus far (curry shakshuka, peanut noodles, and more) has been very tasty and fun to make. I'd highly recommend the book!

This book has some really great recipes. I especially like the vegetable cobbler and the zucchini-oatmeal-pistachio-chocolate chunk cookies. (I've gotten rave reviews on those cookies, too!) It's also a beautiful book with a nice cover and pretty pictures. It's organized by events more than anything else--foods you can take camping, snacks for road trips, dishes to bring to family holiday potlucks, dishes to serve at brunch, etc. It's an interesting concept, although I'm not sure it works all that well as a way of organizing recipes for quick indexing. There is a section at the end for recipes to keep your kitchen stocked with basics, like puff pastry dough, vegetable broth, etc. This would be a good book for someone who wants to cook hearty, fun food as a new or experienced vegetarian.

This book is a new kitchen staple in my house! 5/5 of the recipes I've tried so far have turned out exceptionally. The flavors are excellent, the photos are dreamy, and the best part? The recipes are all written for the average cook/kitchen-there are very few "specialty" ingredients that you won't have around...and none of the recipes are centered around them. Shelly's written the whole thing with suggestions for swapping out ingredients for what you've already got in the pantry. The book has a friendly charm to it, and Shelly's writing almost gives the impression that she lives right down the street from you!