Easy

This is a most useful dressing for me—perhaps even more so than the basic vinaigrette in the previous recipe. I love how it tastes on crisp salads, giving them an Asian accent. You can also use this on cooked Asian noodles to make an easy side dish.

A dollop of sweet-tart chutney is a nice way to dress up both spicy curried and mild grain and bean dishes.

Serve this versatile sauce to dress up sautéed tofu, tempeh, or mashed potatoes. See suggestions for its use in Smashed Yukon Gold Potatoes with Shiitake-Miso Gravy (page 208) and Tempeh and Green Beans with Shiitake-Miso Gravy (page 76).

As a marinade and an all-purpose dressing for salads and slaws, I find this recipe indispensable. Increase the proportion of vinegar if you prefer a more pungent taste.

Featured with Big Quesadillas with Black Beans, Broccoli, and Portobello Mushrooms (page 146), you can also pour this offbeat sauce over potatoes, sweet potatoes, and grains.

This gravy was inspired by my family’s visit to Taste of Life, a wonderful vegan eatery in Tel Aviv. The café is run by the community of Black Hebrews, who also produce most of the tofu and seitan distributed in Israel at their village in the southern part of the country. They serve their own wonderful products at Taste of Life (which is connected to the small chain of Soul Vegetarian Cafés in the United States). When we ate there, their tender seitan was topped with a tasty gravy. The server shared the recipe with me, which I’ve interpreted below. There’s not much to it, honestly, but it’s quick and tasty. Serve it over grains, mashed potatoes, seitan, and tempeh. See a good use for it in Tofu and Seitan Mixed Grill (page 44).

A version of this sauce appeared in my first book, Vegetariana, and I’ve used it ever since. It’s one of the most luscious, versatile sauces in my repertoire—it tastes great on sweet potatoes (see Smashed Sweet Potatoes with Cashew Butter Sauce, page 209), mashed potatoes, grains, vegetables, and noodles.

Spread on crostini or bruschetta, this makes a nice appetizer to precede a pasta dinner. It can also be spread on potatoes, tossed with pasta, or used as a condiment in wraps. I especially like it as a sauce for Very Green Veggie Pesto Pizza (page 142).

This luscious mixture is as welcome on raw salads as it is over cooked noodle, grain, or vegetable dishes.

In creating this recipe, I tried to reproduce the flavors in a peanut sauce that was served over skewers of tofu in an Indonesian restaurant my sons and I visited in Amsterdam. I’m sure this is a simplified rendition, but no matter—it’s really good! Use it to top sautéed tofu or tempeh; it’s also good with noodles. See Golden Tofu Triangles with Rich Peanut Sauce (page 46).

This luscious sauce makes vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, Brussels sprouts) more appealing to the finicky, but even veggie lovers will enjoy this cheesy treat.

This classic recipe is a good way to highlight this nourishing green vegetable. The rich flavor of pine nuts and sweetness of raisins are surprising yet compatible in tandem with the spinach.