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🥕 Vegetarian

A Taste of Heaven and Earth: A Zen Approach to Cooking and Eating with 150 Satisfying Vegetarian Recipes

✍️ Vitell, Bettina
Reader Score
4.4
(1 review)
$21.99
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Vegetarian
📚 EDITORIAL REVIEW

“Ideal for home cooks seeking mindful, plant-based meals who enjoy blending Asian and European techniques with minimal dairy. If you crave heavy cream sauces or complex meat preparations, this sparse, spiritually focused collection will likely leave you unsatisfied.

— Editorial Team
🏛 William Morrow & Company 📅 1993 📔 Paperback ISBN: 9780060969349
📚 This Book in Collections

📝 Description: A Taste of Heaven and Earth: A Zen Approach to Cooking and Eating with 150 Satisfying Vegetarian Recipes

As chief cook in a Zen monastery, Vitell learned to bring spiritual and sensory awareness to the simple act of preparing a meal. Here she offers 150 of her best vegetarian recipes--satisfying, low-dairy foods that draw on both Eastern and Western cuisines. Line drawings.

💎 Expert review

“
🍳
Eatbook Family editorial team
Cookbook desk
Bettina Vitell provides a thoughtful collection of 150 vegetarian recipes shaped by her experience as a chief cook in a Zen monastery. The recipes rely on low-dairy ingredients and draw inspiration from diverse cultural traditions, complemented by charming line drawings. However, because the focus leans heavily toward mindfulness and philosophy alongside simple cooking, this volume will not suit cooks seeking ultra-fast weeknight meals, highly complex modern techniques, or heavily illustrated step-by-step photography.
✓ EDITOR'S REVIEW

⭐ Reader reviews

The starting rating comes from the team Eatbook Family —
⭐ eatbookfamily.com editorial review Editorial rating 4.5/5
★★★★★
Ideal for home cooks seeking mindful, plant-based meals who enjoy blending Asian and European techniques with minimal dairy. If you crave heavy cream sauces or complex meat preparations, this sparse, spiritually focused collection will likely leave you unsatisfied.

Reader rating

4.4
Based on 1 reviews
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Eatbook Family editorial team

Bettina Vitell provides a thoughtful collection of 150 vegetarian recipes shaped by her experience as a chief cook in a Zen monastery. The recipes rely on low-dairy ingredients and draw inspiration from diverse cultural traditions, complemented by charming line drawings. However, because the focus leans heavily toward mindfulness and philosophy alongside simple cooking, this volume will not suit cooks seeking ultra-fast weeknight meals, highly complex modern techniques, or heavily illustrated step-by-step photography.

❓ Frequently asked questions

Yes, the recipes use standard cup measurements for accessibility. However, some instructions rely on sensory cues like 'cook until fragrant' rather than strict timers, so experience with intuitive cooking helps.
Most ingredients are common pantry staples or standard produce. A few may require a trip to an Asian market for specific sauces or grains, but nothing overly obscure or prohibitively pricey.

📖 Who should read this

Ideal for home cooks seeking mindful, plant-based meals who enjoy blending Asian and European techniques with minimal dairy. If you crave heavy cream sauces or complex meat preparations, this sparse, spiritually focused collection will likely leave you unsatisfied.

📜 Historical context

The recipes emerge from a Zen monastery kitchen, where the preparation of food is treated as a meditative practice rather than mere sustenance. This tradition emphasizes mindfulness in every chop and stir, merging Eastern philosophies with Western culinary habits to create simple, low-dairy dishes that honor both spiritual awareness and sensory pleasure.

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