Louise Hagler

For close to 40 years now, I have been enjoying and creating vegan cuisine to satisfy the western palate. Originally based on the complete protein base soyfoods, this quest expanded to include beans, seed, nuts, and grains from cultural cuisines around the world. A healthy vegan diet should include a wide variety of these protein foods as well as wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

I am one of the pioneers for introducing vegan cuisine to the US. I ate my first tofu in Seattle as a teenager in Japanese restaurants, intrigued by it from the start. Little did I know at the time what a big part of my life the soft white curd would come to be.

Recipe development began with experimentation on my own, trying to recreate the dishes I really liked by replacing meat, cheese, and eggs with vegetarian protein forms. I shared recipes with friends in early communal living experiences in small groups. After moving to The Farm Community in Tennessee in 1971, I learned and experimented along with other community members developing a tasty, economically friendly, healthful soy-based vegetarian diet for anyone, anywhere. It was our shared knowledge that really made it possible to put it all together. We were idealistic about all aspects of life, and believed that the world’s food supply could be increased at least 20 fold if everyone was vegetarian. We thought that if everyone on earth became vegetarian, no one would go hungry.

At first, living in converted school buses and vans, we made our own tofu at home on wood stoves. We experimented cooking with all kinds of beans, grains, seeds, nuts, and fruits and vegetables. As the community grew and developed, we established our own Soy Dairy to make tofu, soymilk and tempeh for the whole community.

Louise Hagler’s books have sold over 742,000 copies.
Louise Hagler’s web site