Vegetarian

Making a pretty good veggie burger is easy. Making a great one is a lot harder.

The downfall of many a recipe is the mush factor. Most of the elements that often go into a homemade veggie burger (vegetables, beans and tofu) are high in moisture, which can lead to a soggy patty that’s unpleasant to eat and nearly impossible to flip on the grill without it falling apart. Getting a veggie burger with great flavor and the right texture is challenging. 

This Tunisian grilled vegetable salad can turn out soggy if the vegetables are grilled whole. To eliminate moisture, we cut them in half before grilling—allowing moisture to evaporate without creating too many pieces to tend to on the grill. A Tunisian spice blend called tabil provides exotic flavor, while lemon and a trio of herbs contribute freshness.

Italy’s ciambotta is a ratatouille-like stew chock-full of veggies that makes for a hearty one-bowl meal with nary a trace of meat. We wanted to avoid the ill fate of most recipes, which end in mushy vegetables drowning in a weak broth. In order to optimize the texture of the zucchini and peppers, we employed the dry heat of a skillet. To address the broth, we embraced eggplant’s natural tendency to fall apart and cooked it until it completely assimilated into a thickened tomato-enriched sauce.

Yep. I'm making that claim and I'm sticking with it. This IS the BEST cauliflower pizza crust you will ever make. I've worked out the kinks from my previous cauliflower crust and from all other cauliflower crust posts I've read, and I'm confident that this pizza, this very one here, with a crust made out of a vegetable, is so damn delicious that you won't even think twice about the whole crust being made out of a vegetable thing. And yes, you can slice it and pick it up like a real piece of pizza.  

Popular in Greece, where it’s called bouyourdi, these slices of feta baked with tomatoes are popular as a little nibble before a meal. Serve with crusty bread. The recipe comes from Greece resident Aglaia Kremezi, who has written many volumes on the cuisine of her country. Wild oregano is collected on mountains in Greece and dried (it’s available at specialty markets). 

My favorite way to use tempeh is crumbling it into other foods, which distributes delicious bits throughout the dish and makes the most of tempeh's unique flavor. Think of how you might use grated cheese, only it doesn't melt. And the crispness is a treat.

Any hearty, piquant soup with bits of ground or chopped beef could fairly be called a goulash. This all‐vegetable spin achieves a similar texture and flavor with fried crumbled firm tofu, along with ginger, garlic, chiles, and fermented black beans. If you don't have time to freeze or press the tofu, use it straight from the package; the texture will be a little less meaty, but cooking will help the extra moisture evaporate. For a more traditional take on the classic Eastern European goulash, see the variation.

If you've somehow missed that kale chips are a "thing," with recipes flooding cooking sites and packages of commercially made chips now turning up even in ordinary supermarkets, trust us: Tossing torn leaves of kale with oil and salt and baking them until crispy is a worthwhile endeavor. The slightly browned leaves take on a nutty, sweet taste and a pleasing, brittle texture.

This soup is incredibly easy to make. Simply sauté the onion, carrots, garlic, and ginger with the spices, toss it all in a blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend until creamy bliss results. The warm ginger and spices bring a little heat and intrigue to the soup, and the coconut milk adds to the creamy flavor and texture, making this soup taste decadent and full of depth.

You smash half the chickpeas in this recipe to make a spread, sort of a warm rustic hummus enhanced with garlic cumin and hot pepper, along with a liberal drizzle of olive oil. You can use either freshly cooked dried beans or canned chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans), though freshly cooked is always preferable. Tuck some into a pita for a vegetarian sandwich or serve as a dip to eat with bread and olives; a dollop of minty yogurt and a drizzle of tahini sauce make nice additions.