Green Books & Tofu!

This review is part of the Green Books campaign. Today 100 bloggers are reviewing 100 great books printed in an environmentally friendly way. Our goal is to encourage publishers to get greener and readers to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books. This campaign is organized by Eco-Libris, a company working to green up the book industry by promoting the adoption of green practices, balancing out books by planting trees, and supporting green books. A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website.

I have the honor of reviewing the classic book Tofu Cookery, by Louise Hagler.

All the books being reviewed today as a part of the Green Books Campaign are printed on recycled paper, or on paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. As you know, Lantern was the first publisher to sign on to the Green Press Initiative, and we're interested in working with other presses and printers to nudge them to be more responsible in their choices of materials. It is often more expensive to print on recycled or certified paper, but increasingly people understand that cheap goods cost us in the long run. Being low impact in terms of resources (and high impact in terms of content) has been a commitment of Lantern Books since it began ten years ago.

Our friends at the Book Publishing Company are, not surprisingly, already invested in using earth friendly materials. The new edition of Tofu Cookery notes in the front that 62 trees (among other resources) were saved because of the paper it was printed on. That's 62 trees for one reprint of one book from one small publishing company. If every edition of every book from every publisher, large or small, were printed on recycled paper, it would have an enormous impact.

Back to the book: This book is very familiar to me, and close to my heart. When I decided to stop eating animal products, I didn't know how to cook at all, my town didn't have vegan restaurants, and I didn't have much money. It was a trial by fire, literally, and Louise Hagler's Tofu Cookery gently took me by the hand and taught me how to make dishes that were affordable, familiar enough not to be scary, and let me know that I'd still be able to eat foods that are creamy and rich and flavorful. There were not a lot of vegan cookbooks back then.

I went from heating up TV dinners in a microwave to serving friends stuffed shells and pasta primavera, and my favorite brunch of all time, chilaquiles. There are multiple ways that Tofu Cookery is a book that is helping the planet: it promotes a vegan diet (which lessens one's impact hugely), and helps people understand that veganism is a way of life they can accomplish. And, for me, it was a big part of learning to cook. It helped get me out of the freezer aisle and paying attention to produce and spices. Skipping all the packaging of prepared foods has reduced the amount of trash I create by extraordinary amounts.

This 25th Anniversary Edition of Tofu Cookery is thicker than the book I remember, includes many new recipes, and updates the old recipes (like using less oil). The information in the front of the book about the different kinds of tofu, and about storing and handling tofu, are indispensable. One omission is that the book doesn't have a recipe for making tofu itself. (You needn't look very far, though, since Hagler's other classic, The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook, has step by step instructions.)

I owe Tofu Cookery a great deal, since vegan food preparation is now a huge part of my life. Though the style and content of my preps have changed enormously over time, I'm pleased to have the book in my collection once again.

Three Lantern books are part of the campaign, and reviews of them can be found via links on this page. (The Love-Powered Diet, Discernment, and An Offering of Leaves.)

If you'd like more information, go to the Eco Libris press release, or to learn more about green publishing practices, go to their green printing resources page.

I consider this book one of my core vegetarian titles. The recipes are clear, including fat and calorie content. The photographs are superb and wonderful especially for a new cook that just isn't sure what something is supposed to look like when finished. I really enjoy the wide variety of recipes from sauces to desserts, all using tofu as the main ingredient. The kicker is, the food tastes good, convincing many of my meat eating friends that maybe I'm not so crazy after all and this tofu stuff isn't such a bad thing. ( )

Expected dips soups & salads, but lots of main dishes, and even ice cream. For the extreme, how to make tofu @ home. Clear instructions, nice photos. ( )