Deborah Madison

Seasonal Fruit Desserts
From Orchard, Farm, and Market
(hardcover: Broadway, 2010)

Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Madison (Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone) reinvigorates the possibilities of dessert by putting fruit center stage in this mouth-watering collection of recipes: apple crisp with cinnamon cream; berry and peach cobbler; nectarine and plum upside-down cake; and cherry tart with crushed amaretti. But it also ventures off the beaten path. The wild rice pudding with maple syrup and wine-soaked cherries is a marvelous twist on traditional dessert puddings, as is the sweet potato–coconut pudding. The various sauces and creams (sabayon, frangipane, raspberry coulis with muscat wine) are easy to make. Some of the most elegant recipes in the book are simple plates; they combine fruits with nuts and sauces (for example, figs with mascarpone and pine nuts); or pair fruits with cheeses (Teleme with dried fruit compote). Lovely sidebars and inserts offer a wonderful amount of information on fruit, fruit varieties, and cooking and baking with fruit to further enhance this book. Madison has a lovely writing style -- clear, entertaining, and knowledgeable -- and with her commentary it's as if she's in your kitchen discussing every recipe.
-- Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

What We Eat When We Eat Alone
Stories and 100 Recipes
by Deborah Madison and Patrick McFarlin
(hardcover: Gibbs Smith, 2009)

RENOWNED VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK AUTHOR Deborah Madison set out to learn what people chew on when there isn't anyone else around. The responses are surprising -- and we aren't just talking take-out or leftovers. This is food-gone-wild in its most elemental form.

In a conversational tone, What We Eat When We Eat Alone explores the joys and sorrows of eating solo and gives a glimpse into the lives of everyday people and their relationships with food.

The book is illustrated with the delightful art of Patrick McFarlin, and each chapter ends with recipes for those who dine alone.

Vegetarian Suppers
from Deborah Madison's Kitchen
(paperback 2007)
(hardcover: Broadway, 2005)

I love supper. It’s friendly and relaxed. It’s easy to invite people over for supper, for there’s a quality of comfort that isn’t always there with dinner, a meal that suggests more serious culinary expectations—truly a joy to meet, but not all the time. Supper, on the other hand, is for when friends happen to run into each other at the farmers’ market or drop in from out of town. Supper is for Sunday night or a Thursday. Supper can be impromptu, it can be potluck, and it can break the formality of a classic menu. With supper, there’s a willingness to make do with what’s available and to cook and eat simply. It can also be special and beautifully crafted if that’s what you want.
—from the Introduction

In her first collection of suppertime solutions, the author of the bestselling cookbook classic, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, solves the perennial question of what to cook for dinner, with more than 100 inspiring recipes to enjoy every night of the week.

What’s for supper? For vegetarians and health-conscious nonvegetarians, the quest for recipes that don’t call for meat often can seem daunting. Focusing on recipes for a relaxing evening, Deborah Madison has created an innovative array of main dishes for casual dining. Unfussy but creative, the recipes in Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen will bring joy to your table in the form of simple, wholesome, and delicious main dish meals.

These are recipes to savor throughout the week—quick weekday meals as well as more leisurely weekend or company fare—and throughout the year. The emphasis is on freshness and seasonality in recipes for savory pies and gratins, vegetable stews and braises, pasta and vegetable dishes, crepes and fritters, delicious new ways to use tofu and tempeh, egg dishes that make a supper, hearty cool-weather as well as light warm-weather meals, and a delightful assortment of sandwich suppers.

Recipes include such imaginative and irresistible dishes as Masa Crêpes with Chard, Chiles, and Cilantro; Spicy Tofu with Thai Basil and Coconut Rice Cakes; Lemony Risotto Croquettes with Slivered Snow Peas, Asparagus, and Leeks; and Gnocchi with Winter Squash and Seared Radicchio.

Vegan variations are given throughout, so whether you are a committed vegetarian or a “vegophile” like Deborah Madison herself, you’ll find recipes in this wonderful new collection you will want to cook again and again.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
(hardcover: Broadway 10th anniversary edition, 2007)

The tenth anniversary edition of this landmark cookbook, with more than 325,000 copies in print, includes a new introduction from Deborah Madison, America’s leading authority on vegetarian cooking.

What Julia Child is to French cooking, Deborah Madison is to vegetarian cooking—a demystifier and definitive guide to the subject. After her many years as a teacher and writer, she realized that there was no comprehensive primer for vegetarian cooking, no single book that taught vegetarians basic cooking techniques, how to combine ingredients, and how to present vegetarian dishes with style. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone teaches readers how to build flavor into vegetable dishes, how to develop vegetable stocks, and how to choose, care for, and cook the many vegetables available to cooks today. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is in every way Deborah Madison’s magnum opus, featuring 1,400 recipes suitable for committed vegetarians, vegans (in most cases), and everyone else who loves good food. For nonvegetarians, the recipes can be served alongside meat, fish, or fowl and incorporated into a truly contemporary style of eating that emphasizes vegetables and fruits for health and well-being.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is the most comprehensive vegetarian cookbook ever published. The recipes, which range from appetizers to desserts, are colorful and imaginative as well as familiar and comforting. Madison introduces readers to innovative main course salads; warm and cold soups; vegetable braises and cobblers; golden-crusted gratins; Italian favorites like pasta, polenta, pizza, and risotto; savory tarts and galettes; grilled sandwiches and quesadillas; and creative dishes using grains and heirloom beans. At the heart of the book is the A-to-Z vegetable chapter, which describes the unique personalities of readily available vegetables, the sauces and seasonings that best complement them, and the simplest ways to prepare them. “Becoming a Cook” teaches cooking basics, from holding a knife to planning a menu, and “Foundations of Flavor” discusses how to use sauces, herbs, spices, oils, and vinegars to add flavor and character to meatless dishes. In each chapter, the recipes range from those suitable for everyday dining to dishes for special occasions. And through it all, Madison presents a philosophy of cooking that is both practical and inspiring.

Despite its focus on meatless cooking, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is not just for vegetarians—it's for everyone interested in learning how to cook vegetables creatively, healthfully, and passionately. The recipes are remarkably straightforward, using easy-to-find ingredients in inspiring combinations. Some are simple, others more complex, but all are written with an eye toward the seasonality of produce. Madison's joyful and free-spirited approach to cooking will send you into the kitchen with confidence and enthusiasm. Whether you are a kitchen novice or an experienced cook, this wonderful cookbook has something for everyone.

Vegetable Soups
from Deborah Madison's Kitchen
(paperback: Broadway, 2006)

When I said I was working on a soup book, the response was often, “Oh, I love soup!” People enthuse about soup in a way that’s so heartwarming it makes me feel as if I’m in the right camp... The soups in this book are based on vegetables, and many of these recipes are new ones for me. But some are soup classics, by which I mean some of those that have stood the test of time in my kitchen, (Quinoa, Corn, and Spinach Chowder) and those that are classics in the culture (Boston-Style Black Bean Soup). I’ve tried to streamlined these dishes as much as possible without sacrificing goodness, so that you can easily enjoy them in your own kitchen. I hope you do enjoy making these soups and add them, one by one, to your repertoire.

—from the Introduction

In Local Flavors, bestselling cookbook author Deborah Madison takes readers along as she explores farmers’ markets across the country, sharing stories, recipes, and dozens of market-inspired menus. Her portraits of markets from Maine to Hawaii showcase the bounty of America’s family farms and reveal the sheer pleasure to be found in shopping for and cooking with local foods.

Deborah Madison follows the seasons in her cross-country journey, beginning with the first tender greens of spring and ending with those foods that keep. Recipes such as Chard and Cilantro Soup with Noodle Nests and Lamb’s-Quarters with Sonoma Teleme Cheese launch the market season, followed by such dishes as an Elixir of Fresh Peas or a Radish Sandwich. Recipes for Whole Little Cauliflowers with Crispy Breadcrumbs and White Beans with Black Kale and Savoy Cabbage illustrate the range of the robust crucifers, while herbs and alliums provide the inspiration for a lively Herb Salad, tisanes, and Sweet and Sour Onions with Dried Pluots and Rosemary.
Deborah Madison challenges the conventional view of what’s seasonal. A Young Root Vegetable Braise celebrates that early crop of delicate roots, while Braised Root Vegetables with Black Lentils and Red Wine Sauce offers an elegant centerpiece dish for the heartier roots of winter.

Superlative fresh eggs, along with handmade cheese, are featured players at the markets everywhere, and here they appear in such simple dishes as Fried Eggs with Sizzling Vinegar and Warm Ricotta Custard featuring fresh whole-milk ricotta. Because organically raised poultry and meats have an increasingly important presence in our farmers’ markets, they are included, too, paired with other market produce that highlights their flavors, as in Roast Chicken with Herbs Under the Skin.

Late summer corn and beans inspire Corn Fritters with Aged Cheddar and Arugula and Shelly Beans with Pasta and Sage. When markets are filled with squashes and melons, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, Deborah Madison shows us that they’re perfect ingredients for simple, vibrant dishes, such as Braised Farmers’ Long Eggplant Stuffed with Garlic or Tropical Melon Soup with Coconut Milk. For the happily overwhelmed cook, Platter Salads suggest how to go ahead and use all of the market’s bounty.

Fruits, another vital part of farmers’ markets, are generously featured. Huckleberries, unusual grapes, and figs; stone fruits like plums and peaches; heirloom apples, persimmons; winter citrus and subtropical fruits are all here. Fig Tart with Orange Flower Custard; Peach Shortcake on Ginger Biscuits; a Rustic Tart of Quinces, Apples, and Pears; and a Passion Fruit and Pineapple Compote are just a few of the luscious desserts. And, because the market features more than fresh foods of the moment, recipes based on dried fruits, oils, vinegars, preserves, and other long-keeping foods help the reader continue eating locally once the market season has ended.

By going behind the scenes to speak with the farmers and producers, Deborah Madison connects readers directly with the people who grow their food. Full-color photographs of gorgeous produce, mouthwatering dishes, and evocative scenes from the markets will entice every reader to cook from the farmers’ market as often as possible.

The Greens Cookbook
Extraordinary Vegetarian Cuisine from the Celebrated Restaurant
with Edward Espe Brown
(Broadway Books, 2001)

The Greens Cookbook is that rarity, a book that truly represents a revolution in cooking. Here are the recipes that helped to create the boldly original and highly successful Greens Restaurant on San Francisco Bay. Not only for vegetarians, this book caters to everyone who seeks delight in cooking and eating. Using an extraordinary range of fresh ingredients in imaginative and delicious ways, it shows how to present a feast for the eyes as well as for the palate.

The Greens Cookbook contains more than 260 recipes for all seasons, all occasions, all tastes. From bright, simple salads to beautifully spiralled roulades, here is a provocative, sophisticated and varied fare, dedicated to elegance and balance, taste and texture, color and freshness.

The Greens Cookbook presents everything you need to know to create and enjoy at home meals that draw rave reviews in the restaurant. Inside you will find: Inspiring menus for spring, summer, winter, fall. Everything from easy-to-prepare dishes for two to meals for a gala feast. The first guide to selecting wines with vegetable dishes. Glossaries of unfamiliar ingredients and useful kitchen equipment. A generous and encouraging text that helps develop your skill and self-expression as a cook. Insightful professional tips heading each recipe, and much more.

The Savory Way
High-Spirited, Down-to-Earth Recipes for Savory Vegetable Dishes
(paperback: Broadway Books, 1999)
(hardcover: Bantam, 1990)

A personal collection of more than 300 elegant recipes, The Savory Way presents Deborah Madison's innovative style of vegetarian cooking.  The recipes are flexible and forgiving and fit into her philosophy of cooking.  Some are quick fixes, designed to quell an urgent appetite; others are more leisurely affairs.  Some are low-fat; others, more decadent.  All allow for substitutions.  Using fresh fuits and vegetables, spices, flavored vinegars and oils, edible flowers, salsas and cheeses, she creates a vegetarian palate that is sophisticated and healthful. From soups to salads, sandwiches to crepes, breads to sweetmeats, The Savory Way reflects Deborah Madison's personal brand of contemporary vegetarianism.

This Can't be Tofu!
75 Recipes to Cook Something You Never Thought You Would -- and Love Every Bite
(paperback, 2000)

One taste and you'll say, "This can't be tofu!" But it is....

Nutritionists, doctors, and food authorities everywhere are telling us to eat more tofu. It's an excellent source of high-quality protein and calcium. It contains no cholesterol and is very low in calories and saturated fat. So why don't we eat more tofu? Because for too long tofu has been used as a substitute for other ingredients. Why turn tofu into a beef substitute in a burger, or pass it off as "cheese" in lasagna, when it is delicious on its own?

Now, in This Can't Be Tofu!, award-winning and bestselling author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone Deborah Madison shows how to make tofu taste great and be the star attraction in 75 stir-fries, sautés, and other dishes. Pan-Seared Tofu with Garlic, Ginger, and Chives, Vietnamese Spring Rolls, Curried Tofu Triangles with Peas, and Pineapple and Tofu Fried Rice are just some of the innovative recipes in this inspired collection.