Today a single family can include staunch vegetarians as well as passionate meat lovers. When company shows up, the situation gets even more complicated. How can you satisfy them all without making two (or three) completely different meals?

In The Flexitarian Table, the award-winning author Peter Berley presents menus that are flexible, exciting, relaxing to prepare -- and that make everyone feel welcome. With The Flexitarian Table, you'll no longer treat vegetarians as afterthoughts by offering them a couple of scanty side dishes, and you'll be able to indulge meat eaters at the same time with abundant, satisfying dishes.

You'll learn how to prepare vegetarian and meat versions simultaneously without going to any extra trouble. Roast a succulent, crisp chicken with lemon and thyme -- and make a tofu version in just minutes. Put some meaty portobello mushroom caps on the grill and, for the carnivore contingent, throw on a steak, then pair them both with a zesty bread crumb salsa. Simmer white beans with carrot and celery and sauté some shrimp, drizzling each with the same rich brown butter sauce with fresh herbs.

You'll find many sumptuous vegetarian dishes as well, including cannelloni with ricotta, Parmesan, and mint or a hearty lasagna with roasted fall vegetables in a sage-scented cheese sauce. Or serve up a selection of easy little dishes and let your guests choose.

You'll get plenty of ideas for get-dinner-quick meals such as winter tomato soup with goat cheese crostini and Spanish-style fried eggs, and for luxurious weekend fare try cumin-spiced lamb croquettes and falafel, served with two traditional Middle Eastern sauces and whole wheat pita bread.

The Flexitarian Table also shows you how to cook with the seasons so you get the most flavor from your ingredients while you enjoy varied, sustainable meals year-round.

Introduction What?s a Flexitarian?
Since I?m the former chef of the all-vegan Angelica Kitchen in New York City and teach vegetarian cooking classes, it sometimes surprises people to learn that I eat not only fish but also poultry and meat. Mind you, I?m not a passionate carnivore: my diet is primarily plant-based, but it does include some fish and meat, preferably sustainably caught or raised. Aside from a few months during my teens, I?ve never been a strict vegetarian. My way of eating is becoming so common that a new word has even been coined for it: ?flexitarian,? a union of the words ?flexible? and ?vegetarian.? While my wife, Meggan, and I are flexitarians, my older daughter, Kayla, is a strict vegetarian. Almost from the moment of her birth, though, my younger daughter, Emma, was constitutionally different from her sister. Kayla always insisted on vegetables, but Emma wanted chicken, fish, or meat too. In a lot of households, the majority of the family eats meat while one vegetarian member subsists on side dishes or else requires entirely separate, ?special? meals that are hard on the cook. Putting together a meal that our whole family could enjoy together was important to me, so I felt determined to cook delicious, wholesome meals that could accommodate Kayla and Emma?s different food preferences.
I began building meals that were flexible enough to suit all of us, improvising as I went along. I?d serve a quick seared tuna as an optional add- on to a salad, along with hard-cooked eggs and beans, or I?d crumble some bacon so that anyone who wanted some could sprinkle it over their greens. Gradually I devised other meals that were slightly more elaborate, without requiring much more work in the kitchen. I discovered that I could often use meat and vegetable proteins interchangeably to create two dishes similar in flavor, texture, shape, and color. Many of the recipes in this book, such as Crispy Pressed Chicken/Tofu with Garlic and Mint and Portobello Mushrooms/Steak with Bread Crumb Salsa, come out of the years when the girls were growing up.
Through decades of cooking as a personal chef and caterer, I?ve honed my approach while creating everything from lavish dinners celebrating meat, wine, cheese, and pastry to everyday meals for families with eating habits even more divergent and varied than my own family?s. This book is a culmination of my thirty-year experience.
The menus that follow are not strictly one thing (vegetarian) or the other (meat-based). Some of them reflect get-dinner-on-the-table nights, like White Beans/Shrimp with Brown Butter, served over Soft Polenta. Others are slow vegetarian food made to be supremely satisfying to everyone.
Many of the recipes are ?convertible,? so you can prepare a vegetarian and a meat version simultaneously without going to extra trouble? you just separate the ingredients into two bowls or pots before you incorporate the protein. Typically they make two to three servings each, so you end up with a meal for four to six. Not everybody feeds two vegetarians and two meat eaters at each meal, of course, but when some diners are flexible eaters and only one or two are vegetarians, most people are happiest if they can try both options, reserving a little more of the meatless dish for the vegetarian contingent. This way of cooking is very conducive to sharing. And if everyone has the same leanings and wants to eat, say, all chicken, all beef, or all tofu, you can easily convert the recipes to a single option by doubling the meat or the vegetarian version.
I?ve arranged the menus by season to reflect the pleasures of eating produce when it?s at its best and prepared by methods suited to the time of year. Eating with the seasons and relying on what grows, swims, and grazes within a 500-mile radius (the standard definition of ?local?) requires determination, passion, and?let?s be realistic?compromise. Even those of us who have the resources and desire to support local farmers are likely to rely on a great deal of conventionally grown food that has been trucked long distances. But adding seasonal foods to your shopping basket is a way to lessen your dependence on fossil fuel and to support small farmers. It?s also a great way to get the most flavor from your cooking without resorting to complex sauces and fancy techniques.
All the recipes in this book stand on their own, and I hope you?ll use them outside of the menus as well, preparing them individually and mixing and matching as you see fit. If you?re planning in advance, you might choose to shop for a whole menu, but on a night when you have come home with some especially bright, tight-headed broccoli or when there?s not much in the house except a caan of beans and a handful of tomatoes, check the index to find a recipe to use what you?ve got.
This book is all about inclusion: incccccluding people who eat in different ways, including different ingredients, and including great taste and good nutrition in every menu. It?s about relationships and respecting the different needs of everyone who comes to the table and making them all feel welcomed and richly provided for, however they choose to eat. Whether you?re tentative in the kitchen and need to rely on the explanations of techniques that I include in my recipes, or you cook a lot and are interested in new ideas and new combinations, whether you?re cooking for vegetarians or for meat eaters, or for both, I hope this book will encourage you to be open to food and expect a cuisine that offers health and pleasure in equal measures.


Summer MENU 6 SERVES 4 Seafood/Tofu Ceviche with Quick-Pickled Red Onion Zucchini-Rice Soup with Basil and Parmesan These recipes make it easy on the cook and are cooling to eat. The zucchini soup can be served warm or at room temperature, in the Mediterranean style, and the zesty ceviche, which you can make with fish or tofu or both, is served chilled, so think of this light yet sustaining combination for scorching nights.

THE PLAN 1. Marinate the onions.
2. Cook the soup.
3. Meanwhile, marinate the seafood and tofu.
4. Make the ceviche.

Seafood/Tofu Ceviche with Quick-Pickled Red Onion SERVES 4: 2 SERVINGS FISH, 2 SERVINGS TOFU Ceviche, which essentially uses a brief pickling technique, is a South American coastal approach to raw fish. The fish is tossed with an acid, usually citrus juice, which quickly renders it opaque, as though it had been cooked. Whereas mixing raw fish with acid firms its flesh, when you mix raw tofu with acid, its texture begins to break down and soften. Giving both fish and tofu the ceviche treatment means the two proteins end up with a similar pleasing texture.
If you soak the hiziki as soon as you start cooking this dish, it will be ready to toss in by the time the ceviche is prepared. Sea beans, also called samphire, are a fresh, crunchy, twiglike green sea vegetable with a briny taste. If you come across them, they can be substituted for the dried hiziki.
Always confirm with your fishmonger that the fish you?re using can be eaten raw (any labeled ?sushi-grade? is good to go, but there may be other options).
When you?re working with raw fish, cold is key. Keep the fish in the refrigerator for all but the minute you spend rinsing, drying, and chopping it.
Note: Double the amount of fish or tofu, if you like, to serve just one version to your guests.

PICKLED ONIONS 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar 3 tablespoons water 1 tablespoon sugar 2 teaspoons sea salt or kosher salt 3/4 cup very thinly sliced red onion

SEAFOOD 8 ounces skinless fluke fillets (or other mild white-fleshed fish, such as flounder, red snapper, or black sea bass), any thin dark central portion removed, cut into 5-inch cubes, or sea scallops, halved, or quartered if large

TOFU 8 ounces firm tofu, rinsed well, gently pressed dry, and cut into 5-inch cubes 6 tablespoons fresh lime juice (from 2?3 limes) 3 tablespoons soy sauce, preferably naturally brewed 2 plum tomatoes, cored, halved lengthwise, seeded (see page 102), and diced 2 medium Kirby cucumbers, peeled if desired, seeded (see page 22), and cut into 5-inch cubes 1 medium yellow bell pepper, cored, quartered, ribs removed, peeled if desired (see page 131), and thinly sliced crosswise 1/4 cup hiziki (see page 87), soaked in 1 cup warm water for 15 minutes 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro 1 jalapeno, seeds and veins removed if desired, minced, or to taste 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil Freshly ground black pepper 1 head Bibb lettuce, separated into leaves Sea salt or kosher salt 1 large avocado, pitted, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and sliced crosswise into 5-inch slices Toasted sliced sourdough bread, for serving

FOR THE PICKLED ONIONS: Combine the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in a bowl and whisk to dissolve the sugar and salt. Place the onion in a narrow jar and pour the pickling liquid over it. Cover, shake well, and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

TO MARINATE THE SEAFOOD/TOFU: Place the seafood and tofu in separate bowls and pour 3 tablespoons of the lime juice over each. Add 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce to the tofu and toss well. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon soy sauce to the seafood and toss well. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Drain the onions, reserving the pickling liquid.
Divide the onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell pepper between the bowls of ceviche. Add 2 tablespoons of the reserved onion marinade to each bowl.
Drain the hiziki, rinse it well, and then drain thoroughly. Toss half the hiziki into each bowl of ceviche. Divide the cilantro, jalapeno, and olive oil between the two bowls, season with pepper, and toss well.
Make a bed of lettuce leaves on each of four plates and season the lettuce lightly with salt. Top the lettuce with the ceviche. Garnish with the avocado, and serve with sourdough toast.

Zucchini-Rice Soup with Basil and Parmesan

SERVES 4 TO 6

This easy, delectable Italian sou...