Customer Reviews

The Adaptable Feast: Satisfying Meals for the Vegetarians, Vegans, and Omnivores at Your Table

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As I am vegetarian and my husband an omnivore, the title of Manning's book hooked me like a noose. Who wouldn't want to quickly (and with excellent results, no less) adapt a meal for every eater at the table? I rushed to order a copy of The Adaptable Feast: Satisfying Meals for the Vegetarians, Vegans, and Omnivores at Your Table by Ivy Manning, knowing full well it couldn't be done. But, hey, I wished to be proven wrong.

Maybe a less confidant cook would need to be told how to make a vegetarian meal and then add roasted chicken as a finishing touch. I certainly do not. So let's just say I was disappointed with the recipes at first review. What won me over is how Manning balances protein and calories for both the meat and veg dishes in the recipe. Rather than re-imagining the entire dish and ending up in unfamiliar territory, she substitutes veg ingredients, adjusts the recipe, and continues to make the dish with flavors you'll recognize. Easy peasy, or at least it seems that way.

Pad thai to potpie, the major plus to this book is the world cuisine it offers up to both vegetarians and meat eaters. With a slew of fragrant spices, the Vegetable and Chicken Korma with Cashews smells and tastes authentic. A true weekend recipe with multiple steps, Moussaka with Lamb or French Lentils is a masterpiece of slow cooking that you'll savor, even if -- like me -- you're too tired to make it ever again.

Particularly exciting to me are recipes that don't include any variations at all, like the ingenius Indian Spaghetti Squash Cakes with Yogurt Raita, or a one-dish dinner of Quinoa-Stuffed Heirloom Tomatoes with Romesco Sauce, or the doubly nutty Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sage and Walnut Brown Butter. I'm being generous if I say that a quarter of the recipes can easily be made vegan, though Manning's single dessert is chocolate vegan cake with vanilla frosting in a lilting recipe that sounds like a gathering dream. Yes, there's a photo of that one, folks.

Some of the recipes are a bit long and definitely not for beginning cooks, but overall Manning offers a solid selection of recipes to appease a variety of palates.

Looking for fresh, modern, health-conscious recipes? Ivy Manning pulls together the concepts tidily in this beautifully rendered cookbook. The recipes are tasty and highly adaptable, and really show the author's understanding of the kind of kitchen challenges we all face (what DO you do with a big bunch of greens from the Farmer's Market that you bought on impulse?)

Ivy's style and humor shine through, and the whole sum is a lovely easy to read cookbook that provides simple, tasty recipes that will keep them coming back for more. Highly recommended to all 'vores (omni, carni and herbi!)

The Adaptable Feast is a unique and smart idea for a cookbook. You certainly don't need have a vegetarian in the house -- I'm not -- to appreciate the tasty selections in this book. The photography alone is enough to crank up your appetite!

So far my favorite recipe is the "Gooey Macaroni and Cheese with Ham and Tomatoes." I'm a mac-n-cheese snob and this is by far the best I've come across (sorry mom!) In fact, I've made it three times already.

Don't hesitate to add this book to your kitchen collection. You are likely to find recipes you'll want to make again and again.

I was excited when I found Adaptable Feast because it fit my situation exactly. I prepare meals for a cafeteria that serves both meat eaters and vegetarians, and I try and make the options that I give to both fairly equitable. Vegetarians get upset if they find that the meat eaters have a strikingly different, more sophisticated meal option, and vice versa, so the idea of adapting one recipe to feed both was exactly what I needed.

Manning's methods of achieving this balance, however, are so obvious that this book really contributed nothing of use other than a few good recipes. Most of the recipes are normal omnivorous recipes but she tells you to use fake meat products for the vegetarians. REALLY?????? Thanks for that bit of amazing advice. I could have never thought of it on my own. The other recipes are things that are normally vegetarian and that meat eaters eat with gusto anyhow, like samosas, that she randomly adds meat to. These are weirder, not only because they are also no-brainers, but because things like samosas don't really need meat. She's adding it just for the sake of making a quirky cookbook.

What I would have liked to see were recipes that didn't rely on fake meat products but instead substituted clever vegetable mains for the meat. There are a few of those in here, such as one that has a miso glazed halibut for the omnivores and eggplant for the vegetarians. Grilled, miso glazed eggplant is a pretty standard recipe, however, so even that could have easily been found in another cookbook.

If the recipes in this book look appealing to you, then by all means, get it. But don't buy this book because you expect to learn how to creatively adapt meals for vegetarians. If that's what you want, you can find any old cookbook and use fake meat products and be just as well off.

The book has terrific recipes and is chronicled with great photos. I purchased "The Adaptable Feast" as a gift for my wife and she was very pleased. The idea of recipes that can be executed for vegitarians and easily modified for carnivores is clever, and handy.

My boyfriend is a meatasaurus and I'm a vegetarian who sometimes wishes I could go vegan. For a good part of the last few years each of us has made our own meals and I never really thought about trying to create meals that accommodated the both of us...that is until I found this cookbook! I had my doubts as to whether such a cookbook even existed but thanks to Ivy Manning (and her husband), it does!! Thank you so much, Ivy! We've only tried one recipe-the meatballs and pasta-and we both loved it! He loved his meatballs and more impressive was the fact that I loved mine-and they were not made of meat! They were delish! I can't wait to try the next meal. We're trying a new one each week. If the meatballs were a taste what's to come, I can't wait for the rest! I also like how she provides an introductory explanation and includes glossary and resources sections-very helpful. Her tips are great too. The only criticism I have is that it would be nice if the amount of ingredients were halved so that the vegetarian and the omnivore had equal portions. I'm sure I'll be able to do that on my own for the most part but it may be tricky for some recipes and for the shopping. Overall this is a great book and I'm so very happy that my boyfriend and I finally got to cook a meal together that we can both enjoy!

I'm a vegetarian and not only is my family mixed, but my boyfriend is practically carnivorous. When I got my book I decided to cook something that weekend. I picked the stuffed chicken breast/stuffed portobello mushrooms. Despite the fact that I had to touch chicken, that night was definitely a success. I can't wait to go through the other recipes from the book. It's fantastically written and easy to follow.