“Now this,” said Taster Number Two, scraping more of the pumpkin sauce out of the lasagna and shoving it into her mouth, “I would totally eat as a soup.” 

Number Two—as well as Numbers One, Three and Four—was eating food cooked from “Hardcore Vegetarian: Welcome to the Vegedome!” by Laura Lee Flanagan. Two was working on the pumpkin lasagna, which she had prepared herself, impressing me mightily, since she takes it easy in the kitchen.

Flanagan (a lawyer with a background in financial services) is the wife of vegetarian musician Harley Flanagan (of Cro-Mags fame). And she’s obviously a skilled home chef. Not a vegetarian prior to Harley, she still eats fish but has crafted a cookbook full of recipes to tempt a lifelong meat eater, as well as the plant-focused.

The book is also useful for non-vegetarians who have to feed a vegetarian who has wandered into their life. “One of the first things Harley taught me, and it stays in my head to this day, is that non-vegetarians always try to feed vegetarians side dishes—and one cannot live on side dishes alone,” Flanagan writes.

The recipes generally incorporate ingredients that can be found even in a rural grocery store—Japanese eggplants and romanesco might call for a drive—and the food spans cultures from India to Italy to Denmark.

Flanagan chronicles her journey into vegetarian cooking, weaving in stories about her life, and not omitting the odd cooking disaster. (Anyone who has dropped eggplant into insufficiently hot oil will sympathize.) 

Don’t miss the photographs, which highlight both the food and Flanagan’s punk-edged life.

And the taste? The four testers are not vegetarian, and they gave two thumbs up to almost everything they tried. The many Indian dishes (especially the aloo gobi), the French lentil salad and particularly the apple raisin bread were hits. 

And of course the pumpkin lasagna. 

“Hardcore Vegetarian: Welcome to the Vegedome!” is published by Process. Ask your local bookseller, visit www.feralhouse.com, or check online. Feral House also carries Harley Flanagan’s “Hard-Core.”