Sides

Salads and Fries

Appears in

Veggie Burgers Every Which Way: Fresh, Flavorful, and Healthy Plant-Based Burgers

Published 2021

About

One of the many pioneering aspects of vegetarian and vegan cooking is the rethinking of how a “proper” meal is supposed to be laid out. Growing up, I was taught that a meal was a big ol’ hunk of meat taking up most of the plate, adorned with small amounts of starches and vegetables nudged up against the rim.

Vegetarian and vegan eating has demonstrated, for me at least, that no one thing needs to necessarily be the star of the show, and that every aspect of the meal is equally important—whether it’s salad, soup, side, or veggie burger. The sense of balance need not skew in one direction or another, and nothing needs to play second fiddle to anything else. To this end, I like to think of all the salads in this chapter as “mains”—even if they are “light” mains—rather than as secondary accompaniments.