Product Description

Offering handy tips and advice to help get the most out of vegetables, this volume features double-page spreads on particular ingredients and recipes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14506 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Customer Reviews

The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook
`The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook' is a pretty good first port of call for those new to vegetarianism and vegetarian cooking. The first 33 pages cover what food groups you need to incorporate into your diet so that it is nutritionally balanced. This is an area overlooked by other cookbooks and essential information for those thinking about making the switch to a vegetarian lifestyle. It has a revised food pyramid, information about suitability for children's dietary needs, so called `hero' foods and preparing vegetarian menus. The rest of the book features the recipes with beautiful photography that really do entice you to try the recipes on offer. The book is divided into soups and starters, snacks and party food, pies, flans and pizzas, pancakes, fritters and omelettes, pasta and noodles, grains and pulses, casseroles and bakes, salads, side dishes, stir-fries, bread, sauces, desserts, cakes and pastries and finally drinks. As you can see, pretty comprehensive. The recipes are easy to follow and show how long for preparation, cooking and how many people it serves (you'd think this would be standard info but it is surprising how many cookbooks neglect to put down preparation times). I've tried quite a few recipes from this book and most have turned out well, with some minor tweaking for personal tastes recommended. I can't wait to work my through this book and if you're looking for a first vegetarian cookbook then this is a good place to start your search. I also recommend `Rose Elliot's Vegetarian Meals in Minutes'.

Really essential!
The book have photos and text. The recipes are delcious and rated for their ease and preperation time so as to enable you pick the right ones for the specific occasion. In addition to recipes, the book covers the principles of vegetarian cooking and nutrition in general in a simple and concise manner. This book is a must have for the health-conscious cook and a culiniary and visual feast to fit your coffee table.

Annoying
I have tried 3 of the recipies. All needed adjusting by cooking time or amount of liquid content. Example: The Carrot & Orange Soup (page 46) was delicious but not enough liquid. Far too many recipies require Parmesan cheese which is very hard to get hold of in a vegetarian version. Still worth persevering with but not for the novice cook.