AT FIRST WE were renegades: we drank only red wines no matter what we were eating. A superyoung, full-of-fruit merlot with that spicy Thai takeout? Sure! An over-the-top sangiovese with our pasta primavera? Bring it on! We thought chardonnay was for bony socialites who love to shop on Union Street and eat salads for lunch. We didn't know from sauvignon that came in blanc. Part of it was that, like many budding wine snobs, we thought reds were more "sophisticated" than whites. We were very wrong.

Slowly, we began to come around, courtesy of some amazing viogniers and several bottles of Turnbull's fruity-minerally sauvingnon blanc. Now the pendulum has swung the other way, and we're drinking more whites than reds, especially in the warmer months. My lust for spicy foods means that we're even drinking plenty of whites that are – horrors! – off-dry.

But part of our lingering desire to drink red is sheer vegetarian orneriness: everywhere we look, someone is suggesting that the perfect pairing for the most delicious zinfandels and silky merlots is, of course, meat. Why should steak-eaters scarf up all the nice, aged cabernets?

When we go to a wine event like Russian River Wine Road or April in Carneros, the food pairings offered are always something like barbecued pork sandwiches or grilled chicken on a skewer. We vegetarians are usually reduced to dipping pretzel sticks in those ubiquitous little mustard taster jars for sustenance.

Basically, if you don't eat cheese and disdain grilled portobello mushrooms, most of the suggested food pairings for red wine from conventional sources just don't apply. Heck, there aren't even a lot of white wine suggestions for dishes like marinated tofu and tempeh burgers. Vegetarian wine pairers generally have to do their own homework. But once you hit on that special pairing where the synergy between the food and wine creates an unbelievably pleasurable feedback loop, you'll realize it's worth the work.

You can learn lots just by investing in a bunch of bottles of different varietals and trying them with different foods (lots of fun but not very disciplined). Francisco Garibay, general manager of Stoa restaurant and wine bar in Palo Alto, is studying to be a sommelier. He says that the best way to start thinking about food and wine pairing is to think about what you expect to get out of the dish and choose a wine that might bring out or complement those flavors. He also suggests getting advice from your waiter or other people in the restaurant when you go out to dinner, because "they might steer you in a direction you never thought of."

You could also turn to books. Andrea Immer's Great Tastes Made Simple (Broadway, $27.50) is an enthusiastic exploration of the joys of matching wine with everyday food. "I have to point out that COLOR is nearly insignificant in the success of a wine and food duo – even though it is the basis for the major matching rule we all learned," she writes. "It's the wine's structure and body style that makes the major difference." Elements of a wine's structure include acidity, tannins, flavor concentration, alcohol level, fruit, and of course, grape variety.

Immer, a master sommelier, breaks down food into its basic tastes, then teaches readers how to match wines to them. Sweet, earthy, smoky, buttery, acidic, spicy, and dessert foods each get their own chapter, with page after page of suggested matchups – not just varietals but brands as well. For masala dosa, she suggests Rieslings, muscadets, Vouvrays, semillons, Portuguese dry reds, sangioveses, Rhônes, shirazs, and zinfandels; for spanakopita, she suggests Spanish sherries, Provençal rosés, Greek reds, Spanish Riojas, and Chiantis. On top of all this, she even throws wine-friendly recipes into the mix.

If the thought of all those pairings makes your head spin, here are a few rules of thumb that can help you the next time you're staring hopelessly at the shelves in BevMo.

• The body of the wine is critical. Heavy wines (young zins, American-style chardonnays) will overwhelm a light dish; rich food will swamp a delicate wine.

• Sweeter wines like gewürztraminers and Rieslings can tame the fires of superspicy cuisines.

• Tangy, acidic wines like sauvignon blanc can provide a nice counterbalance to rich, fatty dishes.

• Dishes that have some sweetness to them (sweet potatoes, a fruity sauce) go best with fruity wines like Beaujolais.

• A chemical in artichokes and, to a lesser extent, asparagus can make even the best wines taste bad.

• The most important rule, courtesy of Stoa's Garibay, is: "Eat and drink what you like. Do what makes you happy."

Go to Miriam Wolf's Meatless archives.

E-mail Miriam Wolf at miriam@coolcopy.com.