Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1877784 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Customer Reviews

Good book for those of us who need more veggies in our lives
"I'm not a vegetarian, but I often eat like one." is the introductory statement to this book. A good, all-round variety of tasty dishes using ingredients easily found. You won't have to stock up on esoteric spices and vegetables. The preparation instructions are clear and easy to understand. There are even side bars on the pages with hints, substitutions, and sample menus. The "Before You Begin" section tells you how to stock your pantry...what to have on hand in the way of equipment, condiments, spices, etc.. The book is not overly heavy on desserts. One of my pet peeves with most cookbooks is too many desserts not enough "real food." What I would have liked is a better index. For example, look up pasta and you get a list of four dishes and then the phrase "see also specific types." If you don't know the name of the specific pasta recipe you're looking for, you'd miss it. It forces you to really look through the book. Also, I'm not sure why all cookbooks these days DON'T include nutritional information for all the recipes. Calories per serving, carbohydrates, protein, chloresterol, salt, etc. should be included.

Also great for the PERMANENT vegetarian :)
When I first bought this book, I was slightly worried that a lot of the recipes would contain fish or chicken ingredients, but it does nothing of the sort. Each recipe is ideal for vegetarians, and a few of them (particularly the salads) are also great for vegans. The only non-vegetarian part of this book are the occasional suggestions for non-veggie alternatives e.g. the Cream of Carrot Soup made with vegetable stock has an information bar next to it saying that "this soup is also delicious when made with chicken stock." But all the recipes are based on non-animal ingredients so if you're a 100% vegetarian you just go with the main recipe, forget the information bars. The book has some lovely personal touches, such as the author's stories of how some of the recipes came about, as well as hints and tips on how to make your cooking even more tasty. The recipes here are wholesome and healthy but delicious at the same time, and a wide variety of ingredients are used throughout the book. A few of my favourites are: couscous salad with mint; fresh sweet pea soup; broccoli di rape with garlic; orange, avocado, and radish salad. I give this 4 stars rather than 5 because of the lack of information on nutritinal content of the food - being a vegetarian, I'd like to know how much protein I am getting out of a meal. Other than that, a really good book if you're bored of pasta with stir-in tomato sauce and would like to add some variety to your vegetarian cooking.

Great dishes even for non-vegetarians
We're trying to eat less meat and more vegetables so we loved the title of the book and bought it. It is my favorite cookbook, vegetarian or not. I flipped through last night to make a nice light summery dinner and found 10 recipes I could easily make with supplies on hand. Quick, too. I had some pretty committed meat eaters try the lentil and potato stew and they LOVED it. Great flavors, interesting meal ideas. Good cooking philosophy.