Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #477567 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

American Style Vegan Dinner Party Recipes
This is a recipe book for cooks who have a lot of time to plan and execute elaborate multi-dish dinner parties to impress non vegan friends and relations.
There is a section of advice on ingredients and techniques at the beginning, then the book is divided into a series of sections each of which gives a menu followed by recipes for a complete nutritionally balanced dinner party meal. A number of these menus sound to me like food you would encounter in a Vegan American home at Thanksgiving.
It does have features I haven't encountered in other cook books. It gives a 'cook's notes' list of advance preparation to save time, along with a suggested order of cooking so everything is ready at the same time.
However, many of the recipes use American ingredients like 'hominy' and 'collard greens', which may not be readily available in English shops. Alternatives are not given.
The recipes do sound exciting, exotic and very voluptuous, so if you are bored with your usual dinner party fare and want a challenge - this recipe book is for you.
If you are a nervous new vegan, this is the sort of book you should perhaps consider buying a few years down the line.

Complicated, but worth it!
I really love this book. Yes, the recipes are a bit more complicated than most other cookbooks, and yes, you do come across some ingredients that are not readily available everywhere in the world, but I tend to adapt recipes as I go along anyways, and this book has been a very good source of inspiration for me.

I find that many vegan cookbooks go for the same old stews and 'homey' foods, which are nice, but may ultimately become a bit boring, and - let's face it - aren't very impressive when it does come to cooking for non-vegans. This book gives a nice selection of fairly posh nosh, and some of the dishes are cooked over and over again in this household.

There is a soup section at the start of the book (the borscht is luurvely!), and then there is a section of set meals, consisting of several dishes (For example African Groundnut Stew, Spicy Sauteed Spagetti Squash, Ginger-baked Tofu and Quinoa and Millet Pilaf), which go together well. Obviously the police won't come round if you only pick and choose the bits you want to make.

I would agree with the previous reviewer that 'The Voluptuous Vegan' is not a book for the 'beginner' vegan or for everyday recipes, but if you have to cook a fancy christmas meal for your meat eating family, this is the book to consult!