Customer Reviews

The Classic Vegetarian Cookbook (Classic Cookbooks)

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

 

 

The recepies in this book are well balanced between familiar vegetarian favorites such as omlettes, quiches and salads, and more creative and unusual dishes. There are plents of lovely colorful pictures to look at, and the instructions are clearly written. It covers everything from soup to salads to desserts.

I love the illustrations; the recipes are not complicated and most are not time consuming, making this one of the more practical cookbooks available.

I must preface this review by saying that I always had only a passing relationship with my kitchen. I don't have a domestic bone in my body, don't care to cook, don't want to be bothered . . . until I found a copy of this attractive book. That, and unhealthy blood pressure made me realize it was time to change my ways. On an outing to Goodwill, I found this book, scanned through the pages, and for the price, thought it was worth a try to help get me on the right track to good health.

My first impression of the book was correct: The recipes are delicious, healthy, and importantly for me, easy to prepare in not a great deal of time. I prepared several recipes which turned out quite well, to my and my husband's pleasant surprise. On a bolder move, I prepared the spinach, tomato and mozzarella lasagna (p.89) which was a bit more involved and took longer, but well worth it. For example, I like to add fresh oregano from the garden to tomato sauce recipes.

I have always liked my red meat, but going semi-vegetarian, with the help of this book, was an easy change to make. The recipes make abundant portions which leave one full and satisfied. The ingredients in the recipes I tried are pretty basic, but there is always room to "customize" a recipe according to individual taste. The ingredients and preparations are laid out nicely, and well illustrated with color photographs. Recipes are mostly vegetable-based, however, there are chapters for other treats such as sauces, eggs and cheese, and desserts. I look forward to trying many of the others in the near future.

The quality of this edition (1994 hardcover) is nice, too, with solid covers and nice heavy pages. With the overwhelming abundance of cookbooks available, this one is a refreshing addition,

The book is filled with beautiful artistic photos typical of Dorling Kindersley. The idea and choice of recipes into traditional categories is good; however, the four recipes that I tried were bland and the directions were seriously incomplete. Made me realize how skilled Julia Child was at creating complete cookbooks. I wondered how many people had ever actually made the recipes in this book. For instance, the directions for making"money bags, "press the edges together to make a pouch. " The bags are pretty in the photo but how one gets them to look like that is a mystery. Another instance, making leek parcels. How much to put in each parcel? Directions say "put some filling in the center." Again the picture was beautiful with part of a leek tying the package together but again with no direction on length of leek strip needed, or even a reminder to save the green part after chopping some unknown portion of the leek. This is a defficient cookbook; it's more a coffeetable book. It sorely needed an editor/autor who knew how to write a proper, complete cookbook.