Just Enough: Vegan Recipes and Stories from Japan’s Buddhist Temples Kindle Edition

Fun fact, you can eat this book. But read it first, or buy one to read and one to eat. If you read it, it’s a really good book. I think it’s great. If you eat it, boil first for 10 minutes, shred, cool, mix with 1 Tsbp soy sauce (low sodium if you have a bad heart like me) and tuck in!!

Have been enjoying the stories and recipes! Lil tricky finding some of the ingredients, but they’re around...

This book has some japanese zen monastery recipes for Buddhist nuns. The American author spent time studying to be a nun in a Japanese monastery so these recipes are authentic. Many of the ingredients I never heard of and aren't available in a lot of groceries. They aren't even available in a lot of Asian grocery stores- at least not in Chicago where I live. This really limits how much I can use the recipes. I would not have bought this book if I had known how hard it would be to actualky make these recipes or find the ingredients.

This is an amazing read. You learn how to cook the Japanese way and learn about their way of life all at the same time.

This is, above all, a cookbook. Specifically, a cookbook of traditional Japanese vegan recipes. The recipes come from Zen monasteries. When the author of this cookbook joined the Aichi Nisodo convent, she was seeking solutions to her emotional problems, not cooking instruction. But cooking was the solution which the Universe sent to her. With great skill and insight, Greenwood recounts how learning to cook (and to eat) taught her the simple Zen skills that helped her to reclaim her life.Most of you have heard the slogan “Buddha is in the details”. In this case, the ultimate practice of Zen is in the subtleties. Learning to use less flavoring and learning to “listen” for the innate flavors in gently cooked food were skills Greenwood gradually developed along with a practical understanding of “just enough”, the moment when you don’t feel the need for anything more.Greenwood is a white American woman. She deals with the issue of “cultural appropriation”. She acknowledges that she has “the privilege of platform”. If a Japanese nun had written this book, it very likely would not have made it into print in the United States. It is fortunate that Greenwood had the means to get this book published, and also took her responsibility to accurately present the skills and philosophy she learned in Japan so seriously. Perhaps most important, she recounts in detail how she put these skills into practice when she returned to the United States.Buy it for the recipes. Read it for the life lessons.(InannaWorks.com received a free copy of this book.)

I'm a midlife, armchair traveler in the Midwest who has sat zazen for almost 15 years but has not gotten to Japan yet, is mostly plant based but still addicted to sushi, and loves a good story. I enjoyed Gesshin Greenwood's first book, but jumped to buy this one because I love international cookbooks and Japanese shojin ryori vegan temple cuisine (or at least I love the concept and what I've been able to try of it). I have thoroughly enjoyed it, to the point of reading it straight through like it was fiction or non-fiction, because the mix of stories about Greenwood's journey through food and family, and then Zen and ordination, with recipes and temple cuisine matters, was so enjoyable. The food also looks great and I can't wait to get into the cold noodles now that July heat is upon us.I would recommend this to people interested in Zen, practice in Japan and/or good food that doesn't happen to feature animal protein.

Whether it be as a cook book, or as a take of a spiritual journey I feel this book is lacking.

Thought this book would impart more poignant thoughts about Buddhist principles as they relate to veganism/compassion... Instead the author uses the book as a platform to discuss how she was dissatisfied with the size of her diamond ring when her husband proposed, and her jealousy of friends' successes while she herself lives in a high-cost home in the most expensive city in North America (San Francisco). Perhaps living with the monks should've taught her how to be grateful.Side note: Most of the recipes require hard-to-find Japanese ingredients.

Great book and so inciteful.

Good authentic vegan recipes and life wisdom in every dish. Description enough to justify not having photos. This book gives us a good insight on Buddhism and their rich tradition in communal meal