Customer Reviews

The Accidental Vegetarian: Delicious and Eclectic Food Without Meat

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a long-time vegetarian with a big shelf full of books I am hard to excite with another new vegetarian cookbook. Receiving this book as a gift I expected another beautifully presented volume created for maximum impact on the coffee table but out of place in a practical - I've got a day job, omnivorous family to feed and no time for mucking about - kitchen. As this book is from a non-vegetarian, non-chef, I was not expecting much.

What I discovered was a great set of quirky vegetarian recipes that are well explained and do not require exotic ingredients or days of preparation.

Christmas dinner is the ultimate test for me. My wife's family are not vegetarians and serving something that's not Meat, Meat and Two Veg is breaking all the rules for them.

I relied totally on this book and served Basil Roulade with goat's cheese and sun-blushed tomatoes (time-consuming, but delicious), Pan Haggerty (small serving size but very popular) and Fine Beans with Garlic and Tomato sauce (no vampires in our house since). It went down a treat. The in-laws gave it the thumbs up, so I give this book the double thumbs up.

The only drawback is that if you think in Decimals then dig out your conversion charts because unfortunately all the recipes use Imperial measures (what the heck is a "Stick Of Butter"???). This is the only drawback of this cookbook.

I am a personal chef who has vegetarian clients. I love being adventurous with vegetables. My preference has always been vegan cookbooks because they are more creative than the vegetarian books. I have found for myself that I have developed a problem with eating too much soy, so therefore due to vegan food using a lot of soy I decided to try more vegetarian meals. Rimmer's book is wonderful and the recipes are not too arduous as I have found with my vegan specialties. I love his banana dhal, it is simple and delicious, I make it as a main course served with basmati rice. The other dish is the pumpkin enchilladas, however, my mole sauce wasn't a success because I left out the chillis. I highly recommend this book for someone starting to explore vegetarian food.

I picked up this book as a random impulse buy on sale after a brief flip through, not expecting to use it very much as I typically find recipes online. I have absolutely fallen in love with it, the recipes are lovely, simple and described in the most endearingly quirky style, the images that go with them are lovely and similarly warm and simple. The only thing detracting from the magic of this little gem is the intimidatingly huge portion sizes, a great book for a family of four or five, but for my little household, there is usually math involved ;)

I'm not a vegetarian, nor are any of my family. However, I have found some vegetarian cookbooks to be a nice way to introduce vegetables and the weekly meat free meal. the Accidental Vegetarian is an excellent book on how to make vegetables the star of the meal. I uploaded a picture of the Pan Haggerty I made, comparing it with the picture in the book. It's always a bit of a thrill when the end product actually looks good enough to eat:) I cook for three male meat eaters and they have enjoyed the recipes I made from this book.

The ingredients aren't scary, this book doesn't have a bunch of seitan, tofu dogs, or anything that might make a non vegetarian go screaming into the night. Simon Rimmer, the author, is also not afraid of butter or cheese, this is in no way a lo-cal type cookbook. What it does do is make vegetables friendly, attractive, and something we want to eat, not be threatened with. No need for "eat your vegetables or no dessert." here, however, if you do feel like being rewarded the Accidental Vegetarian cookbook also includes some yummy desserts like Hot chocy and churros, or strawberry soup.