Customer Reviews

The Flexitarian Table: Inspired, Flexible Meals for Vegetarians, Meat Lovers, and Everyone inBetween

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My neighbor Lola and I have a great thing going. She cooks for both families on Tuesdays and I cook on Wednesdays so that we each get the luxury of a good meal delivered to our door one night a week. We both rely on fresh, organic whole foods, but Lola's family is vegetarian and my family eats meat. I was first drawn to this book because Peter Berley provides easy menus that incorporate both meat and vegetarian options. Once I began cooking his amazing recipes, however, I discovered that my own family enjoyed the vegetarian dishes as much as they did the meat. Instructions are straightforward and intelligent and so far I have received nothing but rave reviews for every dish I have cooked from this book, including the Risotto-Style Fregola with Chard and Feta Cheese, the Mache and Pea Shoot Salad with Baby Beets, the Spicy Lentils with Pumpkin and Greens over Couscous, the Spicy Roasted Winter Squash, and the Toasted Millet Pilaf. Berley cooks the way we like to eat: big flavors, and lots of greens, grains, and vegetables, with cheese and dairy used in moderation to add punch to a dish. Although my kitchen shelves are packed with terrific cookbooks, these days I find myself turning to the Flexitarian Table again and again.

I absolutely love this book. Peter Berley cooks exactly the way I want to eat -- mostly but not totally vegetarian, using occasional meat but more like a side dish or condiment, and concentrating on what is fresh, local, and in season. It just seems like the healthiest as well as the most delicious food.

The recipes are clear and easy to follow, the photos are gorgeous, and I love the personal and informal way he writes -- it really feels like chatting with a friend while you prepare dinner together. The useful little asides with hints from his experience as a chef come just when you can use them. Great!

I can imagine this book being the perfect gift for anybody with different food preferences in their home -- makes it easy to prepare one meal for the strict vegetarians and everyone else to all enjoy together.

As a vegetarian, who sometimes cheats and eats fish, and who cooks for a house of omnivores, this book seemed like an answer for my 'please-let-me-think-of-something-for-dinner' prayers.

I loved the idea of pre-planned meals that fit the way my family eats. I loved the mouth-watering photos, and the yummy-sounding recipes. I loved the seasonal menus.

But in the two months I've had this book, I've used it twice and I'm not dying to cook out of it again. Both times, some of the recipes were hits and some were misses. Mostly, though, the recipes are just a little too involved, take a little too much time, and use too many ingredients to rely on for weekday meals. And with only a handful of menus for each season, there really aren't that many things to try in a three month period if you want to cook seasonally.

I'd love to see a second version with a similar concept, but greatly simplified menus and more menus per season. I don't want Rachel Ray - I want to cook from scratch - but I do need something I can throw together in a little closer to 30 minutes.

From quick dinners to company showpieces, award-winner Berley cooks for a mixed crowd - vegetarians and meat eaters together. Many of his dishes offer meat and vegetarian versions. Seafood/Tofu Ceviche with Quick-Pickled Red Onion simply requires the ingredients be divided into two bowls - the seafood or tofu tossed in once everything else is mixed.

This plan works for many dishes - Giant Lamb/Seitan Turnovers (phyllo and spicy potato-spinach filling); Charmoula Lamb/Tempeh Kebabs - while others, like Pan-Seared Rosemary Duck Breasts/Tofu or Portobello Mushrooms/Steak with Bread Crumb Salsa simply require separation in cooking.

There are also lots of mouth-watering vegetarian dishes designed for everyone to enjoy - Falafel; Lasagna with Fall Vegetables, Gruyere and Sage Béchamel; roasted Winter Vegetable Salad with Red Onion Vinaigrette; Spicy Roasted Pepper Soup with Goat Cheese and Chives.

The book is arranged by season and the recipes are grouped in menus. A comforting winter menu, for instance, includes Winter Tomato Soup with Goat Cheese Crostini; Spanish Style Eggs with Kimchi/Chorizo over Farro, and Fennel with Lemon and Fennel Salt. Luscious color photos accompany each menu.

Berley's ("The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen") eclectic tastes feature something for just about anyone and his flavorful approach to traditionally vegetarian foods like tempeh or millet or unfamiliar foods like hiziki or burdock may tempt even steadfast meat eaters. Side boxes explain some ingredients - different salts, or smoked foods - and Berley's instructions are clear and well organized.

I bought this a couple months ago when I decided to eat 95% vegetarian after reading The China Study. I love the way it is organized into seasons and meals -- I finally figured out what a vegetarian main course looked like. Other vegetarian cookbooks tend to organize by vegetable, and so read like a series of hundreds of side dishes. Peter Berley's recipes are fabulous -- try the lasagna (takes a while, but totally worth it), the cauliflower with millet (a huge hit at Thanksgiving this year), or cherry tomatoes on corn polenta (convinced my husband that maybe we could eat without meat). The only recipe that fell flat was the lentils, pumpkin, and couscous. I'm going to buy his other books soon.

The mans a genious.
My whole life I have been a meat eating vegeterian. Sounds like an oxy moron, right? Let me explain. I eat meat, grass fed, organic meat, and that doesnt mean just chicken. However, I get very exited about a refreshing grilled tofu salad, or roasted tempeh. Granola, Brussel Sprouts, rice and beans, bring it on! I'm the middle man when it comes between veg heads and carnivores, and Peter Berley wrote a book about it. He understands the beauty of food to the fullest, you can have your meat, and seaweed too. Now I can cook a meal and invite my radical raw foodist friends, as well as my mid western pals who love meatloaf. I'm just happy a chef was able to grasp the concept the there is no "better" way to eat.
P.S. his recipes pan out very well, try the lamb/tempeh kebabs in his summer section!

I flat out love this cook book. Through out the fall and winter I ripped through the recipes. The "my favorite tomato soup" beyond delicious...they all are.

I'd been vegan for years, so when I began buying some eggs, fish and cheese at the local farmer's markets I really had no real idea how the heck to cook them. This book truly came to the rescue. I can now whip out a decent frittata and make a perfect hard cooked egg.

And because I shop local the layout of recipes by season is perfect. I shop, come home and flip to that section and am on my way to preparing something super tasty.

If I were forced to own just one cook book this would the the one.

The Flexitarian Table is a beautiful cookbook with photos, clear directions, preparation tips and recipes grouped as menus according to seasons. With options for cooking vegetarian, with meat, or both, in one recipe, it has been easy to please the palates at my table. Approach the recipes with a sense of adventure and enjoy healthy, tasty meals.

Although this cookbook is beautiful and the concept is a good one, the only way I can see myself ever eating this food is if Peter Berely himself cooked it for me. The recipes are just a little too gourmet for my abilities. I'll stick to books by Mark Bittman, who offers simple recipes for every day cooks.

The Flexitarian Table comes across like a superb menu, organized as 40 meals of 3 to 5 items each. It describes delicious looking food, elegantly organized, with beautiful photos of good presentation. This is in contrast to the plain style of The Flexitarian Diet, and the cleanly modern style of The Vegan Table. All three of these books are packed with recipes that will keep Americans healthy, and don't contain many duds.

Many of the recipes in The Flexitarian Table follow a generally Mediterranean style of spicing and ingredient selection. The lack of desserts means my kids won't rank it high on their scale, and some readers may find it hard to locate recipes in the book as a result of the 'menu style' presentation. But overall, I was very impressed.