8 Veggie Recipes to Celebrate The Casual Veggie Cookbook!

I used to be a vegetarian. When I was 13, out of angst and hormones, I learned that ‘baby back ribs’ come from small pigs. Now, as I devour a plate of bacon for breakfast, I really wonder how I lasted so long calling myself a ‘vegetarian’. I distinctly remember trying to pick the ground meat out in a lasagna out of politeness, and stuck to sides at Thanksgiving. Realizing how absurd this all was, I re-introduced meat back into my diet in college, unable to resist late night Honey Butter Chicken Biscuits and cheeseburgers in general. However, it really wasn’t until Darcy Lenz, editor at Cooking Light Magazine, made a bloody-rare steak for me last year that I truly understood the importance of meat. Full of fat and flavor, salty and juicy… that steak truly changed the way I felt about meat, even after accepting it into my diet for a few years by then. I’m not sure if she realizes how much my current appreciation of rare steak is owed to her, but I know the love of beef within her truly understands.

Circling back to vegetables, eating those few bites of incredible steak helped me understand the true value of incredible vegetables. Yes, meat is great, but it’s also expensive and hard to come by the ‘good stuff’. A smaller portion of meat alongside a giant serving of cauliflower, though? That’s what I’m talking about! You don’t have to call yourself a vegetarian to love vegetables, and that’s the kind of food that gets me so excited. The great thing is, there are so many resources and recipes leaning towards a plant-focused diet. The Casual Veggie is a blogger-contributed cookbook with over 150 recipes focused on 29 different vegetables. This post is a celebration of The Casual Veggie cookbook debut with many of my blogger friends! Click below to explore the contributor’s pages and even more below to view some of my favorite vegetable-focused recipes in my archives.

Check out some of the incredible Casual Veggie Contributors: