The Cranks Bible: A Timeless Collection of Vegetarian Recipes [Paperback]

Nadine Abensur (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

This is a collection of the finest Cranks recipes, displaying the exciting breadth of vegetarian cuisine, clearly in tune with today's modern style of lighter, healthier eating. It contains delicious and quick vegetarian recipes for all occasions centered around the key food groups. This modern stylish volume featuring colorful, specially commissioned photography clearly illustrates the richness and diversity of vegetarian meals.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nadine Abensur was born in Morocco. She is one of the UK's top vegetarian chefs, with French-Jewish parents and draws on this heritage of culinary richness for creating recipes. She began her career by working in restaurants around the world, then set up her own vegetarian catering company. Nadine is the author of CRANKS LIGHT, THE NEW CRANKS RECIPE BOOK and CRANKS FAST FOOD.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Cassell (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841882046
• ISBN-13: 978-1841882048
• Product Dimensions: 1.2 x 7.5 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #592,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Vegetarian Cookbook I've found, February 6, 2005

By 

Epicurean Enthusiast (Cambridge, MA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cranks Bible: A Timeless Collection of Vegetarian Recipes (Paperback)

This book (and all of Nadine Abensur's cookbooks) is a delight to read and cook from. It's not available in the States as far as I've seen, so grab it from Amazon and never look back. Nadine (as she is known in my family) is *the* person who made me realize that vegetarian cooking can be luxurious, flavorful, varied, fast and festive food. I have read and cooked from this book from cover to cover (along with her Cranks' Fast Food book) since I first discovered it in 2000. I have never loved a set of cookbooks so much. I use the Cranks' (so named for a famous vegetarian restaurant in London which she used to be the head of) Bible and her others practically every week.

Nadine always has an interesting story about how the recipe came about or how she uses it in her daily life; and at the end of the descriptions is often a number of suggestions for ways you could vary the dish or other things that you could serve with the dish to make a meal. This is VERY helpful. Here's an example from the end of the recipe for Jerusalem artichoke souffle:

"Serve with a generous green salad, some garlic croutons, and, if you are not too cheesed out, some cubes of any vegetarian blue cheese; if you are, a few sliced toasted hazelnuts scattered over the leaves will marry well with the subtle nuttiness of of Jerusalem artichokes and provide a contrast to all that comforting creaminess." She's a wonderful and caring author, really in love with vegetarian cooking.

Here are some of my favorite dishes that she makes:
"Carrots braised with cumin, saffron and garlic";

"Six Potato Salads- a) with celery and capers, b) with olive oil, c) with chives, lemon and garlic, d) with green beans and feta, e) with Moorish overtones, f) with watercress pesto"

"Celeraic soup with bouillabaise seasonings and rouille"

"Chickpea farinata" (a kind of thin, flat, savory crepe/cake made from chickpea flour that you can serve with drinks, or bring along on a picnic, or pack for work...)

"Grilled zucchini with greek yogurt and lemon".

She also has incredible desserts like "Chocolate tart with crystallized ginger"; Creme brulee; "Fig and rose water double-cream ice-cream."

***Give this book or any of Nadine Abensur's books a try: your friends and family will thank you!!***

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Its Cranks.. but disappointing, April 28, 2009

By 

A. Blau "AJB" (NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Cranks Bible: A Timeless Collection of Vegetarian Recipes (Paperback)

I have had two of the other Cranks cook books that I bought in England a few years ago. They are absolute treasures. This one.... doubt that I will use it much. Nothing really creative or inventive and the way it is organized is cumbersome.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice recipes shame about the writing and editing, April 11, 2008

By 

M. Batey "Mark B" (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cranks Bible: A Timeless Collection of Vegetarian Recipes (Paperback)

Having done most of the receipes in this book I was impressed with Nadine's ability to blend flavours to produce the most wonderful dishes. However the book is serverly let down by some poor editing, terrible instructions that either confuse or prattle on to the point of gibberish. On this point I would have given it two stars. But because I would recommend it to a friend because it shows vegertarian meals are not just about beans and peas, it got three. Hopefully the next edition will be better written and edited.