A Review: Hardcore Vegetarianism by Laura Lee Flanagan

I’m back in to the TLC  Book Tours. It’s been a while. I was pleased to get a copy of Hardcore Vegetarianism to review.

It’s good to be back! I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher for this stopover.  I was not paid for this review and all opinions, thoughts and rants are completely my own.

About the Book:

Hardcore Vegetarian: Welcome to the Vegedome!

Publisher: Process (May 6, 2025)

Paperback: 184 pages

Hardcore Vegetarian is a celebration of food and love for everyone!

Hardcore Vegetarian is a journey into vegetarianism led by someone who fell into it inadvertently and is happily still learning as she goes. As a passionate home cook, Flanagan became what she describes as a “lazy vegetarian” while figuring out how to cook for herself and her vegetarian husband, musician Harley Flanagan. It is a narrative guide for the vegetarian-curious, for home cooks who want to explore vegetarianism and introduce plant-based recipes into their households. It explores the meaning of food in our lives, how we interact with it, and how our relationship to it evolves as over time.

Included are short personal accounts, as Flanagan engages readers as she gently and humorously shares her own learning curve, along with road-tested, beloved, and delicious recipes. Hardcore Vegetarian brings readers along for the successes and sometimes failures as Flanagan overhauls her kitchen and recipes from meaty to beety. She shares tips and insights from the people who taught her how to cook for the people she loves.

Hardcore Vegetarian is organized into easily digestible sections that cover every meal and includes a guide to vegetarian pantry essentials. As she writes, “Food is a primordial expression of love,” and there is nothing more Hardcore than love.

About the Author

Laura Lee Flanagan is an entrepreneur, attorney and producer. She is CEO and Principal at Savoia NYC Incorporated, with holdings in law, securities compliance and media. She is a writer and an editor, has a PhD in English literature and dual citizenship with Italy. Laura is a New York native, born, raised and living in Manhattan. She is married to Harley Flanagan, acts as his attorney and manager and manages the Cro-Mags.

What I thought:

It has been a really long time since I had reviewed a cookbook for TLC. Even though I’m not a vegetarian, I was excited to dive into Flanagan’s book. Harley, her husband mentioned above, is the hardcore vegetarian in the relationship. Before meeting Laura, Harley only ate for subsistence. She set out to change all that and make his vegetarian meals delicious.

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. (13)

Laura wants to get beyond her husband having to eat mashed potatoes and vegetables at the family Thanksgiving feast. She wants vegetarians to have full and delicious meals with vegetables being the entrée. (Laura, herself is not a strict vegetarian, although she eats a mostly plant-based diet). 

Her treatise is not preachy.

Taking the first steps to cook plant-based foods means you are thinking and caring and slowing down (as learning requires). And whether you become a vegetarian or a vegan in the end is up to you—no judgement here. (17)

She encourages one to buy organic and local (if you can), try to stay away from processed foods, experiment with spices and grains, and to utilize fresh herbs for flavors. See. Nothing preachy and nothing we shouldn’t already know. She lists all the essential herbs, spices, oils, vinegars, sauces, and staples to make this happen (21).

I loved her idea to make vegetable stock She keeps a running larder of frozen veggie bits and cooks up a batch when she can. I thought this was genius.

She doesn’t endorse any meat substitute and encourages you to research (and read labels) to find what works for you. Her tofu prep tips were good (drying and seasoning well). Regarding beans, “the vegetarian’s friend,” she points at that her recipes can utilize dried or canned beans. While the book is not vegan, she does have notes on substitutes (with advice from a vegan friend) for cheese and butter. She does mention brand names here.

Flanagan divides the book into three “The Mains” sections—fast (30 min or less), standard (30-45 minutes) and “Slow, but worth it” (45-60 minutes).

I tried the first recipe in her book, “Riccioli (or Fusilli) with Homemade Pesto & Broccolini,” albeit with a few changes. The pasta shape is the key to this dish but I had to use pasta twists. I also had to use broccoli and some frozen pesto fresh from the garden…last summer. I still loved the dish and would make it again. The broccoli is roasted until almost charred and it adds a great nuttiness with the creamy pesto.

Flanagan’s recipes are very versatile and she takes into account many different diets. “If you eat fish, add anchovies” but suggests Tamari sauce is a good vegetarian substitute for her puttanesca sauce.

There’s four photos in the book accompanying the “Cacio e Pepe” recipe. Anthony Bourdain is featured interviewing Harley.

Harley Flanagan: I know how you feel about vegetarian food (hate, deride, regularly talk shit about), but if you were gonna cook for a vegetarian, what would you make?

Anthony Bourdain:  A curry, definitely a curry. NO, wait…Cacio e Pepe.

Her recipe for the dish is simple but she warns that cheese quality is the key. Both of these recipes are in the fast section along with many other mostly pasta dishes. 

She starts the standard section (30-45 minutes) with five different risotto recipes which could have stood alone for the entire section but she also presents a veggie burrito chock full of great flavors. She includes vegan meat crumbles in the list of ingredients but also tells how one could add tofu. There are a couple of other recipes dependent on tofu—Tofu Saganaki and Spicy Sesame Noodles with Tofu. And, as Bourdain mentioned, there are a couple of curries. I loved the idea of her Angel Hair Mushroom “Carbonara” using Hen of the Woods and lion’s mane mushrooms. A little hard to source maybe but definitely worth it. Cashew cream completes that dish. 

Recipes I have bookmarked in the slow section are traditional falafel, Vegetable Lasagna and Vegetarian Chili. 

After “The Mains,” there is a pretty extensive “Soups and Salads” section. Everything uses the freshest ingredients. Again, she is cognizant of many different diets. Her Greek Salad recipe mentions leaving the feta on the side. She also likes 1 T. of Sicilian anchovies in her salad because she does eat fish. She puts this in a small separate bowl as well. There are some recipes that most people have (or have in their cookbooks) like Dal, French Lentil Salad, Gazpacho and the above Greek Salad but some of these recipes are just inventive and sublime like the  Roasted Curried Corn Chowder. Throughout she continues with her tips on making each one friendly for all. 

Even though the impetus for this book and her vegetarian cooking as a whole was to create delicious meals that were not just veggie side dishes, she devotes a section on appetizers and small plates. I typically default to a cheese and charcuterie trays or other heavy on the cheese dishes when planning appetizers. I was looking forward to this section. While there are some great recipes here, I would call a lot of them sides: Roasted Vegetable Mélange, Simple Sautéed Spinach, Roasted Delicata Squash and Shallots, Vegetable Fried Rice, Roasted Rosemary Potatoes, Roasted Butternut Squash…. But, there are more traditional appetizers here too like Ricotta Bruschetta, Guacamole, Caponata, Wild Mushroom and Arugula Flatbread and Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms. 

It just hit me while reading the Sweets section that desserts are probably the easiest thing to make vegetarian. (Not rocket science, I know, but it just dawned on me.) Flanagan’s desserts are homey and familiar with crisps, cobblers, cookies and a coconut pie. She also includes recipes for banana bread and an apple-raisin bread. (This is a smallish section and Flanagan professes at the beginning that she is just not a huge sweet fan. At. All.) 

There is a final recipe is in the epilogue and again features a Harley story (in two parts). The first refers to a New York Times Interview which featured Harley. The second story is about his grandmother. The recipe that is paired with these stories: a grilled cheese. 

I’ve said it before, I love a cookbook that offers menus and there are seasonal menus, holiday menus and small plate pairings in the back of the book, complete with wine! The index is comprehensive.

Food photos are sparse in the book and that is my only complaint. Harley adds a bit of commentary throughout, things like how hard it was to get good vegetarian food in the 80s. “Before that the only place that I could go for purely vegetarian food was either the Hare Krishna temple or the Seventh-Day Adventists” (73).

All in all, this isn’t hardcore vegetarianism in that she is preaching this is the way to solely live. It is a great recipe book with lots of variations and substitutes where needed. It is also a love story between Laura, Harley and food. I recommend.

If you’re still reading, forgive me for I found no photos in my archives of the pesto-roasted broccoli dish based on Flanagan’s “Riccioli with Homemade Pesto and Broccolini.” Trust me though and try it. Roast a head of broccoli in the oven, toss it with your best pesto and a curly pasta. Really good. Try it as soon as you are able.

Thanks to TLC ‘for making this book available to me. Pick it up if you see it at your local bookstore even if you’re not a vegetarian (hardcore or otherwise).

I’m linking up with Foodies Read.