Flex those glutamates with a vegan cookbook

When a high-end restaurant advertises a vegetarian menu with a “vegan option” which turns out to be simply not putting cheese on top of otherwise blandly prepared vegetables, well, that's using the term “option” too liberally—not to mention giving vegan cuisine a bad name. The missing link here is an umami component, and a lot of vegetarian dishes rely on dairy products for that. That's why it's great that America’s Test Kitchen emphasizes the importance of umami in its just-released The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook (Cook's Illustrated, $29.95) and plant-based ingredients that have it. Of the 709 recipes, 250 are vegan, and ATK, which is usually a meat-happy entity, cites glutamate-rich tomatoes, soy sauce and mushrooms as sources. But don't forget about vinegar: Splashing vinegar in with some vegetables, whether roasted, sautéed or raw, creates a fulfilling and satisfying taste. Too bad more restaurants don't use their glutes when they hold the cheese.