They mostly sound like what I'd expect: spinach, onion and garlic, some grated Parm, plus bread crumbs and egg (or soy flour) to bind. The sticking point is the can of "vegeburger." I have tried all kinds of fresh, frozen, and homemade veggie burgers, but canned? I can't imagine they were any good. I also imagined they were not even a thing anymore, as so many (presumably better) options are available now than in 1977, but somebody was selling six-packs of canned Loma Linda Vegetarian Burger on Amazon when I was writing this article, so apparently there are still some holdouts!
The "meatballs" sound like they might not be too bad (especially if you sub in better veggie burger crumbles!), but the tomato sauce for this recipe is pretty sad.
It's just a can of tomato sauce diluted with water and re-thickened with a margarine-and flour roux. There aren't even any seasonings! The meatball recipe says it's acceptable to sub in spaghetti sauce if there's not time to make the tomato sauce, so I'd recommend pretending you don't have the time for this sauce regardless of whether it's true.
It seems kind of weird to serve the meatballs with potatoes and carrots instead of noodles, but that's the recommendation. Are the Baked Shredded Carrots a worthy addition?
Carrots baked with a little green pepper, margarine, salt, and marjoram? I'd vote no! Why keep the oven on any longer than you need to when you could just as easily sauté this mixture if you really thought you needed it? Swap out the baked or scalloped potatoes for noodles, and if you can cook the meatballs for only 7-10 minutes in the toaster oven, the kitchen will stay much cooler. (Or maybe try to sauté the meatballs instead of baking them so you never have to turn on the oven, but I suspect they would fall apart!)
If the spinach, potatoes, and carrots aren't enough veggies, there's also a salad.
Cukes, lettuce, and radishes with a yogurty French dressing doesn't sound too interesting, but at least it's cool!
And for dessert, Strawberry Mousse!
Or, more accurately, frozen bricks of strawberry-flavored sour cream. Isn't mousse supposed to be aerated and silky? Wouldn't it be easier and more pleasant just to ladle sweetened sour cream over fresh-cut strawberries and call it a day? The Vegetable Protein and Vegetarian Cookbook doesn't care, dammit. You need to work hard on cooking to prove that you care, regardless of whether all that labor makes the food appreciably better.
And I will end this post the same way the book ends the menu: with a random illustration of an artichoke surrounded by leafy greens, even though there are no artichokes in the menu. Enjoy!
The idea of canned veggie crumbles scared me too. Now that the majority of people have air conditioning we know better than to run the oven all summer. At least those of us in small homes do. It was the 70s. They should have given directions for using a solar oven at very least. I was confused by the baked carrot thing. Why heat up the oven for that? I guess I'm just lazy.
ReplyDeleteA solar oven really would have fit well in a hippie-ish cookbook, too. That's a missed opportunity.
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