Traditional Vegetarian Tapas Recipes of Spain
About this ebook
The author, Malcolm Coxall, a lifelong vegetarian and lover of Spanish gastronomy, has collected a delicious selection of traditional meatless tapas. As he says: "Just because you don't eat meat or fish, it doesn't mean you have to miss out on Spain's most famous food culture - the tapa. Indeed, the opposite is true; Spain has at least as many vegetarian tapas as there are with meat and fish ingredients. More than 3000 years of multi-cultural evolution in food preparation in Spain has given us one of the world's most inventive and diverse culinary traditions. The Muslim Moors, the Jews, the Christians and the "New World" all brought new radical ideas to agriculture and traditional cooking in Spain. In a country where meat is still often considered something of a luxury, meatless dishes are common. Tapas are no exception to this. So here we present just a tiny sample of the vast array of meatless tapas available in the country. Here we present a collection of 280 traditional vegetarian tapas recipes of Spain. Enjoy!"
For this collection of recipes we have divided the book into the following chapters:
Preface
1. Introduction
1.1 History of the Tapa
1.2 The "Tapas Culture"
1.3 Traditional Ingredients and Techniques
2. The Recipes
2.1 The Recipes - An Introduction
2.2 Tapas, Canapés and Montaditos with Bread and Toast
2.3 Pâtés
2.4 Pickles, Marinades, Jams, and Conserves
2.5 Soups, Creams, Sorbets, Purees, Porras, and Sauces
2.6 Potato Tapas
2.7 Croquette Tapas
2.8 Rice and Pasta Tapas
2.9 Tapas made with Beans, Nuts, Lentils and Chickpeas
2.10 Salad Tapas
2.11 Vegetable Tapas
2.12 Mushroom Tapas
2.13 Tortillas
2.14 Stews and Fricassees
2.15 Empanadas and Pies
2.16 Cheese Tapas
2.17 Sweet Tapas
List of recipes - Spanish names
List of recipes - English names
Ratings and reviews
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About the author
Malcolm Coxall, the author, is the proprietor of the family's 110 acre organic farm in Southern Andalucía in Spain. The farm produces olives, almonds and culinary herbs. It incorporates a small factory for the packing of organic herbs, dried fruits and nuts.
Apart from running the farm, Malcolm also provides IT consultancy and business services especially to other organic food producers in the region. He has published several books and many articles on traditional Spanish food, sustainable agriculture, organic food production, forest biodiversity, environmental protection, politics and economics. He is active in the European food and environmental movement, and has taken several successful legal actions in defence of European environmental standards in the European Court of Justice.
Malcolm is passionate about local food production, culinary diversity, agricultural sustainability and traditional gastronomy. He believes that our traditional recipes have much to teach a generation that lives on a largely homogenised processed diet and has basically forgotten how real food is grown and prepared. He believes that truly good food is local, ethical, organic and slow and that how and what we eat defines who we are as a society. Malcolm is a lifelong vegetarian but also loves good food and sees no dichotomy between the two.
As he say's "Societies that knowingly eat chemically adulterated junk foods, produced in heartless factory farms, reveal an intrinsic social, political and health malaise and a profound lack of empathy for the planet. How can such food be good food? It cannot. Such societies reveal their lack of sustainability, an inherent ignorance of the world we share and a disconnection from their natural and social context. Contrast this "care-less" mentality with those societies which treasure their land, their natural environment, their people, their traditional cuisine and the quality of their food."
"Spanish traditional food is one of the last bastions of good food in Europe. The Spanish are fiercely proud of their local agricultural produce and with some justification. Few other culinary traditions in Europe are as vast in range, as imaginative, healthy and delicious as that of Spain. The Spanish love good food and good company, they enjoy life and they love their land and its produce. Tapas are a source of great pride throughout the country and, despite many preconceptions are a great alternative for the vegetarian."
"Asking for a vegetarian dish in a Spanish restaurant will rarely raise an eyebrow and you can be sure that the chef will do anything to oblige you. This imaginative and caring attitude is a breath of fresh air in a world of fast, cheap and cheerful fodder for the masses."
"Explain to me again why we need fast food and how 'industrial agriculture' fits in with the larger concepts of human and environmental well-being and sustainability. To be sustainable, we need to start to understand food again - beginning with the basics - both on the farm and in the kitchen. To begin, we could do worse than to try to rediscover our own local gastronomic heritage. Not only is this socially worthwhile and important, it is also great fun to discover how to make and enjoy real food again."
