nfluenced by factors ranging from health and economics to ethics and religion, millions of people around the world are turning to a vegetarian diet. In America alone, one in ten persons considers him or herself a vegetarian. The same is true in the United Kingdom. Actually, five thousand people a week in Britain are becoming vegetarians. For more than thirty years, The Higher Taste has been one of the most widely distributed introductions to vegetarianism. The editors are pleased to provide you here with an improved edition with all-new recipes, including elegant vegan choices and a number of reduced-fat or low-fat recipes.
The Higher Taste looks at some of the reasons why people stop eating meat. Also offered here are more than fifty gourmet vegetarian and vegan recipes guaranteed to carry you beyond the pleasures of ordinary food into a new realm of epicurean delight. If you ever thought being vegetarian meant eating steamed vegetables and cold salads, you're in for a surprise. In The Higher Taste you'll learn to prepare complete, nourishing, taste-tempting, and healthful meals based on world cuisine. Visit the cooking of Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East in these pages, with tested recipes chosen for their ease of preparation and cosmopolitan flair.
About the Title
For those looking to improve the quality of their lives, how a meal is prepared is just as important as the ingredients that
go into it. When performed in proper consciousness, cooking can be as satisfying and conducive to good health as any other form of meditation. In India's ancient wisdom text, the Bhagavad-artä, Lord Krsna explains, “If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water, [ will accept it” Followers of the Bhugavad-gitä know that preparing and then offering pure, natural vegetarian food to the Supreme creates: feeling of sublime pleasure in the heart. Cooking becomes yoga, That's what we mean by a “higher taste.” The Logic of Vegetarianism The opening chapters of The Higher Taste explain the philoso. phy behind spiritual and ethical vegetarianism. Chapter one reveals how modern medical research links meat-eating with killer diseases such as cancer and heart dis. ease. Chapter two exposes the myth of a worldwide food scarcity and explains the economic advantages of a vegetarian diet. In chapter three the ethical foundations of vegetarianism are set forth, focusing on the writings of distinguished philosophers, authors, and religious leaders. The principle of nonviolence as taught in Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism is also examined. An analysis of how the laws of karma and reincarnation are related to vegetarianism forms the basis of chapter four. Chapter five explains the rationale behind and the procedures for offering vegetarian food to the Supreme Lord as part of the bhakti-yoga system. Chapter six offers excerpts from the writings of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhakti vedanta Swami Prabhupäda, Índia’s greatest authority on Vedic devotional culture, and provides a concise, readable sum: mary of the philosophy underlying the spiritual vegetarian diet outlined in The Higher Taste. Apart from being a prolific author, Srila Prabhupäda, as hes more commonly known, also founded the International Societf for Krishna Consciousness in 1966. See page 161 of this bok for an overview of the Krsna consciousness movement's varied food-related activities — vegetarian restaurants, self-sufficien! farm communities, public festivals with free feasts, and more.