Product Description

From warm asparagus salad to Homity Pie, from braised celery in cream sauce to chocolate pecan tart, this book draws its inspirations from all corners of the globe.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49816 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
Nadine Abensur was born in Morocco. She is one of the UK's top vegetarian chefs, with French-Jewish parents and draws on this heritage of culinary richness for creating recipes. She began her career by working in restaurants around the world, then set up her own vegetarian catering company. Nadine is the author of CRANKS LIGHT, THE NEW CRANKS RECIPE BOOK and CRANKS FAST FOOD. She now lives in Australia.

Customer Reviews

Tasty and Easy
I have to disagree with the reviewer below. It is not that I think these recipes stand as some eternal monument to wonderous vegetatian food; but rather that they do a real job in a real world really well. I am an aspiring vegetatian. For ethical and health reasons I try to limit or abstain from meat (but I love the stuff and do lapse). Cranks' book filled a huge void on my cookery book shelf and in the process enabled one aspiring veggie to take a step closer to full time vegetarianism.

So am I applauding this book for enabling me to live a more ethical life? No way. I'm saying that by offering numerous really tasty, really simple vegetarian recipes that follow on relatively easily from most people's omnivore diets, it has given me exactly what I needed. Everything is nicely presented, its a good size to use and the pictures feel good. All superficial you say? On the contrary, the "pleasure of use" (a term used in the cosmetic industry!) is one of the big determinants of how often you take a book down off a shelf. And how often you take a book down off a shelf is a big determinant (in my book) of how highly I rate a cookery manual.

I don't use the book for grand meals or entertaining. I would look elsewhere for that. I use it for family meals that are straightforward, appealing and as tasty (or nearly) as trad. meat meals like spag-bol or chicken curry. If you are well in to your vegetarian food and have been cooking it for years then this is not the book for you either. I doubt it will add anything new. But I'm guessing there are others like me out there. We think 'lots of veg and pulses - very good for you' and 'lots of spices, garlic and soy sauce - adds lots of flavour' - but a few solid, tried and tested ideas for how to cook these all up into something that feels really satisfying? Answer: The New Cranks Recipe Book.

Their roast root vegetables, chickpea salad, cruciferous salad are weekly events in this house. Non of it is fussy or so finely balanced that you can't play around with the ingredients and substitute where you want to. It is true that there are some ingredients that are hard to find (eg tamari)and this is a weakness of the book, but we use soy sauce instead, or sometimes just leave the item out altoghether and things still turn and tasty and brightly coloured!

Its not long on brown rice or brown flour, but there's nothing stopping you adding these if you want to. We eat the chickpea salad with quinoa (a high protein gluten free grain from South America) - mega brownie points! - but I have been known to have it with oven chips too!

An Absolute vegetarian taste sensation
This Recipe book is really delicious, it is full of easy to make recipes that are packed full with goodness and wonderful colours, which to me, really makes a prime feast. I think what I like most about this book , was the ingredients, they weren't all exotic things that you can only find in the most far east of countries but nice day to day things you can find in your local supermarket. I would of liked to seen more pictures, to really send my taste buds wild, but I mustn't be too picky now.

Really for all you vegetarians it will broaden your cooking ideas and you will be able to make the most wonderful , tastest, Caribbean pepperpot soup ever!!!!!

brilliant recipes!
Whether, as the reviewer at the bottom of the page claims, there is a lack of wholefood in this collection or not, the recipes are accessible, impressive looking and fabulously tasty... and thats what a cookbook is all about. If you want to add your brown rice, go for it, but if you dont, then dont! I love this cookbook and even my non-veggie friends ooh and aah at the appealing pictures.