Customer Reviews

Everyday Greens: Home Cooking from Greens, the Celebrated Vegetarian Restaurant

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After skimming through many new vegetarian cookbooks, I have selected Somerville's 2003 publication as seeming the most reliable and tasteful. The book includes a lot of innovative ideas, and yet, it serves well also as an everyday cooking companion. The fact that most of the dishes have been on the menu at the Greens restaurant gives me the confidence to serve them up for my guests without the usual need to preview. Whatever I have tried so far (5-6 lunches for company) has received rave reviews!

The salad chapter appeals especially. These are new, varied, and brimming with fresh California flavors. It is also an asset to have a separate dressing recipe to accompany each one. The fruit desserts are especially suitable for summer.

Since I count on using this book for many years, I appreciate the crisp, white paper, sturdy binding and cheerful paintings. There are no photographs to cramp the imagination.

A negative is the possible difficulty in locating some of the featured ingredients, but substitutes can be had mostly, and part of the adventure of cooking is to discover or search for new supplies.

I bought this book last year, when it first came out, and since then it has become of one of my favorite cookbooks. (I'm not a vegetarian, BTW.) I've cooked about twenty-odd recipes from this book, and I've been pleased with all of them. The recipes are well-written, reliable, and delicious.

The term "everyday" may be misleading to some folks. These are not recipes you throw together to put a meal on the table at the end of the workday. They're more like simplified restaurant recipes that have been adapted to the home kitchen.

Some of my favorite recipes: potato salad with green beans, corn quesadillas (addictive), and grilled fingerling potato salad. I made the tomato pizza with feta and lemon for some friends, and they swooned over it. (Then they went out and bought the cookbook.)

This is also one of the most beautiful cookbooks on my shelf. It's a visual pleasure to use this book. Kudos to the illustrator.

This fine cookbook breaks a lot of rules that SHOULD be broken... Rule 1) Cookbooks from great restaurants rarely have recipes that work or are anything like as good as their fare. Not true here! Annie (her warmth makes you get on a first name basis pronto) has gone to great length to translate Greens' justifiably renowned food into working recipes for the home kitchen. Rule 2) Vegetarian food is bland, boring, brown, blah. Wrong! Annie proved, at Greens and here, that v-food is vibrant, voluptuous, varied...wholly inviting. Rule 3) Chefs not only can't write a working recipe, they can't write well, period. Annie writes with enthusiasm, precision, passion, sensuality, humor, knowledge, wit. This and PASSIONATE VEGETARIAN by Crescent Dragonwagon are my two very favorite vegetarian cookbooks, in fact cookbook period: working recipes, delectable food, sensual, personal writing. How delicious! More, please!

The cheerful vibrant illustrations are almost reason enough to buy this book. The recipes are inspiring and clearly an attempt has been made to address the needs of a home cook who does not have restaurant resources available. The lists of ingredients are a bit off-puttingly long in many cases so keep in mind that most of the recipes are quite easy and exact quantities not critical. Some of the ingredients may be hard to find but there are plenty of recipes with ordinary ingredients and she often suggests alternatives for more exotic items. Still, reading this makes me long for the farmer's markets in Northern California.

I borrowed this book from my local library. We have cooked 5 different dishes from the book, all of which were delicious. The recipes are well-written, very detailed cooking instructions are given, specifying the kind of vegetables used (e.g. Finn potatoe, Muir Organic Tomatoes...), the cooking times (in minutes) for each step, the ammount of vegetables used.

The recipes all ternd out to be very tasty and wonderful, even for a non-vegetarian like me. However, sometimes, I found the ammounts of different ingredients too much, a bit more simplicity in the recipes would have focused the taste and saved money, when some expensive ingredients just "dissappeared" in the pot.

As a note of caution, one should be aware that few of these recipes are quick recipes, most require an hour or more of preparation time (making stocks, sauces, chopping vegatables, mixing and grinding spices). However, I loved the approach of "making things from scratch" - things can always be replaced, and in certain cases suggestions are made.

Another wonderful vegetarian presentation reveals more dishes from Greens, the vegetarian restaurant, and provides enthusiasts with the first Greens book in a decade. Annie Somerville's Everyday Greens showcases main-dish salads, soups and casseroles which lie at the very heart of good vegetarian cooking. Everyday Greens presents feasts which sound exotic and may require a minimum of unusual ingredients, but which are a cut above any competing vegetarian guide.

This was my first purchase of books related to Greens, and I love their food! Remember, this is not always going to be quick, but if you love flavorful food, the techniques and tips here can enhance your cooking abilities even when you're working with other foods. Ingredients are discussed in great detail.
After I bought this book, I bought almost every book related to the Greens restaurant chefs and I love them all. This one is very nicely done and the layout is very pleasing to the eye.

After visiting the restaurant in San Francisco that inspired this cookbook, I knew I had to get a copy to recreate some of the magic I experienced while dining there. The recipes in this book are some of the best vegetarian recipes I've seen to date. While some vegetarian recipes can be a bit stark and leave you wanting more, these recipes are rich, tasty and really good for you. A simple stir-fry and one wonderful butternut squash casserole left my picky husband and son praising me for being such a good cook. These are inventive recipes, well-spiced and not at all difficult to reproduce. A must-buy for vegetarians who really like to eat well.

After eating in the restaurant in San Francisco, I ordered the book and love the recipes---even a non-vegetarian will love the wonderful pastas and salads, especially the yummy desserts.

another winner from the Greens group. So far every recipe we've tried has been excellent.