Product Description

Vegetarian food has become integrated into mainstream cooking and plays an increasingly important role in many people's lives. Delia's books have always included large numbers of vegetarian recipes but now, in response to her millions of followers, Delia has selected her best vegetarian recipes to put into one collection. She has also added new recipes to reflect changes in modern day cooking. This book is not only for those who dont eat meat or fish but also for those who find themselves wanting to cater for vegetarians. Delia shares quick recipes for cooking when time is of the essence as well as inspirational recipes for entertaining including soups, starters, egg recipes, recipes with and without cheese, breads, pizzas, baking and puddings. With over 250 dishes, Delia's Vegetarian Collection (now available in paperback) illustrates how versatile vegetarian food can be and offers the reader the ultimate collection of recipes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4366 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 264 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Delia Smith has tossed the odd crumb to non-meat eaters in previous books: in Delia's Vegetarian Collection, finger on the pulse as always, she pulls the best of those together, tops them up with a selection of new ones, and presumably has herself and the BBC another bestseller. Lest this sound ungenerous, it's as well to say that this is a fine collection, wide-ranging and full of variety; and also visually very appealing. Vegetarians are likely to feel that the wait was worthwhile; many other cooks will be grateful for an inspiring repertoire, which happens not to contain meat. As always with Delia Smith, there is nothing here to frighten the tentative cook. Perhaps the most demanding recipe is the rather modish Red Onion Tarte Tatin. But even here, Delia's calm directions provide the most reassuring of guides (practically every sentence in every recipe starts with the words "First" or "Next" or "Then").

Delia has cast her net widely, both geographically and, as it were, chronologically. While Vegetarian Sausage Rolls , "Not Pork" Pie and a variety of hefty vegetable gratins, such as Roasted Vegetable and Brown Rice, evoke a time of wholefood earnestness, before vegetarian food lightened up, most of the recipes belong to a more modern era, characterised by the flavours of the Mediterranean and the Pacific Rim, where vegetables play a more central role in the cuisines. Pasta and noodle recipes, for example, include the wonderful Trofie with Pesto, Green Beans and Potatoes, together with many other classic Italian dishes; while the East contributes Singapore Stir-Fried Noodles and Soba Noodles with Soy and Citrus Dressing. One of the pleasures of this book is the presence of many classic recipes, included simply because of their deliciousness. This is plainly the case in the Puddings chapter. Suet aside, puddings can't cause vegetarians too many problems. But here are Crepes Suzettes, Bananas Baked in Rum, Crème Brûlé and Strawberry and Balsamic Vinegar Ice Cream to remind us that some of the best things to eat have always been meatless. --Robin Davidson

Review
At last - what every vegetarian has been waiting for: a vegetarian cookbook from Queen of Cooks, Delia Smith. Filled with mouth-watering dishes, even meat-lovers will give a second glance at this beautifully presented and illustrated recipe book. A compilation of recipes from previous Delia books, this also includes 50 new, not-been-published before recipes. As Delia says this is a "collection that spans my entire cookery career" and each recipe has been retested and updated to take account of new techniques and ingredients. With an international twist, vegetable tagines and moussakas mingle with British stalwarts such as sausage rolls and mulligatawny. Not only savoury dishes are included but her infamous puddings such as plum and almond buttermilk cobbler and apple pie are here to ensure either a full three course meal for a vegetarian dinner party or a single dish for yourself. Whichever you choose you are guaranteed success and admiration from all you serve when you choose a "Delia" and this is a long-awaited and valuable addition to every cooks collection. - Lucy Watson

About the Author
Delia Smith is Britain's bestselling cookery writer, whose books have sold over 21 million copies worldwide. Delia's first job as a cookery writer was for the Daily Mirror in 1969 - numerous phenomenal best sellers and television series followed including Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course in 1978 and Delia's Christmas, Summer & Winter Collections in the 1990s. Towards the end of the decade Delia commenced work on a new major project - Delia's How to Cook, publishing three separate volumes and the accompanying tv series. The Vegetarian Collection and The Delia Collection followed. After a five year break concentrating on Norwich City Football Club (where she is a director) and Canary Catering, Delia returned triumphant in 2008 with a new BBC TV series and the fastest selling cookery book of all time 'Delia's How to Cheat at Cooking' - which has sold over 800,000 copies to date. Delia is married to the writer and editor, Michael Wynn Jones. They live in Suffolk.

Customer Reviews

Good but...
There's no doubting that this book has a good range of recipes, which will serve me for a long time, but I've several gripes about it.

Firstly a lot of the recipes are quite involved. This is not a book for knocking things up in a few minutes or using the few meagre items left in your fridge. Having said that, the swiss baked eggs are a marvellous piece of naughtiness-laden comfort food. Delia's instructions are fairly explicit though, so if you are a beginner cooking to impress then you shouldn't have _too_ many problems, although she's not quite as down-to-earth and full of handy tips as Nigella Lawson or Nigel Slater in this respect.

Secondly, although the book looks divine, with photos filling every other page and some double pages, most of it is totally unnecessary filler fluff - more than half the pictures are of raw ingredients. I already know what a basketfull of apples looks like, thanks Delia, and while I've never seen whitecurrants before, a knowledge of their black and red cousins, combined with a good imagination, should be enough to stand me in good stead. I would much rather have seen more of the recipes photographed. What a waste of space - looks great on the coffee table but next time please can I have either a more useful or a cheaper book.

Finally, not really a big issue but of minor annoyance (to me at least), her insistence on using imperial measures and farenheit temperatures (albeit with metric equivalents in brackets) seems about 20 years out of date, and smacks somewhat of the little-England mentality which I guess Delia represents to some degree. To a generation raised with things that can be divided by 10, it's confusing as hell.

If, like me, you cherish vegetarian recipes wherever you can find them, this is definitely an important book for the collection. But if you are looking for a first book then, as a vast sourcebook of easy-to-cook recipes, I cannot recommend Madhur Jaffrey's "World Vegetarian" too highly. If it's more something to impress friends that you're looking for, while this book ranks highly I would first try to get hold of a copy of Marlena Spieler's sadly out-of-print "Vegetarian Bistro" with its wonderful French-inspired high-butter-high-cream-high-mmmmmmm dishes.

A lovely book, but...
First things first; I really like this book. I banned Delia from my bookshelves a while ago when she included anchovies in a 'vegetarian' recipe on her TV show, then a week later my aunt, bless her, made me that very dish. I was given this book as a gift and I'm pleased to say that our fishy friends have been spared this time!

I appreciate this book because I am the sort of person who cooks a lot of vegetarian meals, who likes spending time in the kitchen, who enjoys the difference that using varied and often quite expensive ingredients can make, I like to cook for friends, and even don't mind spending half the evening making an elaborate dish just for me. And in true Delia style these recipes work, they are straightforward, and they really are very tasty.

However this is probably not the book for you if you only want an occasional vegetarian meal, or if you want a range of simple everyday recipes - most of the simplest dishes are only accompaniments and almost all the main courses are worthy of a dinner party - and it's certainly a bad buy if you are on a budget. I tried the spinach and ricotta lasagne with pine nuts, and very tasty it was too, but it took ages to make, and I reckon it cost me £14 not including store cupboard ingredients such as flour and herbs! Why specify tinned or frozen spinach when the fresh baby-leaf version is so much more profitable for Sainsbury's et al?!! No wonder Delia's beloved Norwich City can't afford a decent goalscorer...

So, to sum up, it's a wonderful book for the hobbyist cook or veggie who likes to entertain, but not an everyday cookbook. If you want something simpler, just as effective and definitely cheaper then I recommend something by Rose Elliott instead.

The foreword by Victoria Wood is very funny, but don't buy it just for that!

Delia-icious
I asked for Delia's Vegetarian Collection for my birthday, and I already knew that I would like it because I've used my mother's copy.

It has a wealth of recipes and is well illustrated with colour photographs - secretly one of my favourite things in a cookbook, because when you're flipping through it can surprise you with things that look delicious.

There is a wide range of recipes, from salads and soups to puddings and elaborate main courses. The publisher hasn't skimped on recipes, and there are no blank spaces - often there are multiple recipes on one page, which is nice. That said, it isn't too crowded and is fairly easy on the eyes.

Delia provides the only rösti recipe that I've ever made which has actually stuck together. Usually, no matter what amount of egg I put in, the whole thing falls apart in a mess of grated potato. Delia's rösti are baked, have some chopped greens and cheese in with the grated potato, are absolutely delicious - and they don't fall apart! I think that this speaks well for the quality of the whole cookbook...

The only problem that I have with the recipes in this book is that they are almost all slightly too fatty. Although as a vegetarian it is good to see recipes include a source of protein, I'm slightly disturbed about the huge amounts of dairy products - especially cheese and butter - which Delia uses in lavish quantities.

I do like this book very much, but I find that I need to adjust the quantity of butter or cheese used in the recipes. Usually I use about 3/4 of what Delia recommends, and so far it has worked fine. My feeling is that this is a slight flaw in an otherwise excellent and accessible vegetarian book, which offers many absolutely delicious recipes that I use regularly.