Rule: Match mushrooms, lentils, miso and other earthy ingredients with an earthy red like Pinot Noir.
Many of Madhur Jaffrey's books have an Indian slant, but she's most famous for her 1999 tome Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian. While she often follows the Indian tradition of serving several small dishes together, the lentil-vegetable curry here is a Western-style main course. Eaten over rice with yogurt, it's a very satisfying meal.
Grace Parisi likes using a mix of shiitake, oyster, chanterelle and button mushrooms for this succulent ragù to top baked potatoes, but any combination will work.
This earthy lentil soup is Rajat Parr's take on dal, the Indian side dish. He gives it unexpected richness by whisking in butter just before serving.
Chef Jerry Traunfeld uses dried porcini mushrooms to flavor these crisp, creamy-centered croquettes, which he serves in walnut-size balls. To make the recipe easier, use shiitake mushrooms in place of porcini, and make the croquettes larger for a vegetarian main course.
The red lentils in these spicy, Indian-inspired vegetarian burgers don't need to be soaked and cook super-quickly. What's more, they are rich in B vitamins, fiber and folate, which help fight heart disease and birth defects.
As they cook, the lentils and linguine slurp up much of the vegetable-flavored broth, leaving a thick and hearty soup. Of course, if the soup is too thick for your taste, just stir in a little extra water.
Much more than the sum of its two parts, Sara Simpson's side dish of beefy grilled portobellos with herbed butter is satisfying enough to be a vegetarian main course.
