Product Description

All too often, the vegetarian option is an afterthought on a restaurant menu or the vegetables are relegated to a side dish at home. Here, for the first time, Simon Hopkinson focuses entirely on cooking mouth-watering recipes without meat or fish. Using fresh good-quality produce and combining appropriate ingredients in season are key to Simon Hopkinson's cooking. Invitingly, throughout the book, ingredients that go together are paired together: aubergine & pimento; tomatoes & olives; pappardelle & porcini, peaches & plums, for example. Vegetables feature strongly, of course, but there are also plenty of original ideas and gorgeous recipes for herbs, pasta, rice, pulses, eggs and dairy, fruit - and cocktails! Simplicity, practicality and sensitivity are the essence of Simon's cooking, and his recipes are a joy to make. But there is so much more to appreciate in this highly original book as the author's evocative writing brings his food to life on every page. Superbly photographed by Jason Lowe, The Vegetarian Option is not written exclusively for vegetarians, but as a fresh source of inspiration for all genuine food lovers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1244 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-16
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Review
"His last cookery book knocked Harry Potter off the top spot...now Simon Hopkinson has turned his attention from roast chicken to vegetables..... Absorbed, comforted, excited... Hopkinson delivers in his clear, unshowy, kindly prose." - The Times Magazine, 3rd October 2009 -- The Times Magazine, 3rd October 2009

"Packed with recipes for innovative vegetarian fare." - House & Garden October 2009
-- House & Garden October 2009

"A brilliant notion. It's vegetarian cooking but not in vegetarian spirit... these recipes work admirably without meat."
--Metro (London), 26th November 2009

About the Author
Simon Hopkinson's first book Roast Chicken and Other Stories was recently voted the Most Useful Cookery Book of All Time in a survey of food writers, chefs and restaurateurs in Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine. In 1978 he became the youngest chef to win an Egon Ronay star before moving to Hilaire on Old Brompton Road in London in 1983. His friendship with one particular customer, Terence Conran, finally led to the opening of Bibendum in 1987 where he worked as a chef until 1995 when he retired to concentrate on writing. His other bestselling books include Roast Chicken - Second Helpings, Gammon and Spinach, The Conran Cookbook and The Prawn Cocktail Years. Author Location: London

Customer Reviews

Expensive and insulting
Although I eat meat now, I was a vegetarian for over ten years. Since those ten years were the years when I discovered that cooking was more than dumping a couple of fried eggs onto a piece of toast, you could say that I learned to cook as a vegetarian. Had I been presented with this book while I was learning to cook I would have either starved to death or reached for a bacon sandwich.

The book itself is beautifully presented - full marks to the art director, whoever they may be - but the recipes themselves are an odd bunch, most of them looking like side dishes rather than full meals. It's almost as though the author started writing a carnivorous cookbook and simply extracted the meat. Similar vegetables are used as chapter headings so we have carrots with parsnips, old potatoes with new potatoes, courgettes with marrow. Very few of the recipes would provide more than a modicum of protein.

There are two reasons why I wouldn't use this book for more than propping up a wonky table leg. The first is that in the introduction he manages to sneer at the finickiness of a vegetarian who sends back a dish which arrived with an anchovy despite her request that the dish be made without the anchovy. When the dish is returned to the table she says "you just removed the anchovy and brought the same dish back to the table didn't you"? Getting an affirmative reply she orders truffles instead. The big joke, apparently, is that pigs are used to sniff out truffles. When I was a vegetarian, I, like many other vegetarians, wouldn't eat from a plate that had had meat on it...

Secondly, his chapter on "Nuts and Nibbles" is simply a rant against the nut cutlet. So some people like to see vegetarian food that looks like meat. So what? Nuts and pulses (which are the major ingredients of my nut loaf - so-called because I bake it in a loaf tin) are a major delicious source of protein for vegetarians and shouldn't be given such short shrift in a book about vegetarian cooking.

Avoid.

I wish restaurants would take note!
While waiting to receive this, I had a look at the reviews here for the author's previous book. Uh-oh. While generally positive, there was a lot of talk of obscure, expensive ingredients, and an inflexible approach. I hoped that The Vegetarian Option would not be like that.

Luckily, so far I have found it very usable! The recipes I have tried have, without exception, come out just as they ought to, and you can buy almost everything you really need at Tesco. It's not like the Nigella books where I find that recipes are often structured around one hard-to-find ingredient. My favourite success was the pilaf rice, made by a method so surprisingly simple and fairly fast that I wondered whther it would really work. It made me proud - fluffy and dry and fragrant! As a chef, he seems to be keen on simple but innovative methods - hence the inclusion of gnocchi alla Romana, a milk and semolina gnocchi bake recipe, different to the kind we usually see in recipe books (though a legit gnocchi recipe all the same).

I am also pleased to see that Simon Hopkinson includes recipes to make up your own store-cupboard base ingredients or condiments, such as green paste, garlic butter, ginger syrup, sesame paste, a garlic creme fraiche puree, a masala paste and a curry "essence"... Very handy - you can make up large quantities and keep them for another time. Many of them are used in more than one recipe in the book. Don't be put off by the idea of making everything from scratch, though - I left out the green paste for the pilaf rice and added cardamom instead; it was still delicious, just different.

In terms of influences, the recipes range from traditional English, French, Greek, Italian, Indian, Chinese, and many more, as well as comfort food like macaroni and cheese. Lots of variety rather than the endless combinations of mushrooms, goats' cheese and sundried tomatoes which have taken over the vegetarian option in restaurants everywhere. The book is laid out by groups of ingredients, with an overview and tips at the start of each section.

Simon Hopkinson is not a vegetarian himself and it's not a book of pale substitutes, either - I would recommend this book to people no matter whether they eat meat or not; if anything, it will be really useful if you have vegetarian guests and want to make something that everyone can gladly enjoy together.

Lots of great ideas
I ordered this book because it has been a long standing joke in our family that I only cook egg and chips for the vegetarians. This is an excellent book which has already increased my boring repertoire. Every recipe I have made has been delicious and there is a huge selection to still try. The humour in the writing is also very good and the illustrations are very appetising and helpful. This is not a book just for vegetarians but the meat eaters in my family are thoroughly enjoying these simple yet delicious meals.