Customer Reviews

Fresh from a Vegetarian Kitchen: 450 Delicious Recipes and 75 minues for everyday festive and ethnic vegetarian meals--all low in fat and free of cholesterol, eggs and dairy

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Let's get this straight - DO NOT buy this cookbook if you are a new vegan/vegetarian, and are looking for tasty meals that will make you forget your longing for meat. This cookbook falls into the stereotype of vegan cooking (bland, super-healthy tasting food that desperately needs spicing up). Buy "Urban Vegan" or "Moosewood Cooks for Health" instead.
That said, this is an excellent cookbook for people following the Mcdougall or Eat-to-live weight loss programs - over 100 of the recipes are Eat-to-live compatible. Nearly every recipe is low in fat, and Mccarty focuses a lot on sea vegetables like dulse and konbu, which add depth to the dishes. This book is great for weight loss, as the endless variations allow you to go months without repeating a recipe.
One final note: Mccarthy is extraordinarily bad at naming dishes. She persists in calling tofu "bean curd", seitan "wheat meat" and pudding "pudding-gel", so that even the most appetizing recipes sound gross. "Boiled Vegetable Salad"? Really?
Buy this book for what it is - a health food book. Don't expect to entertain, or be particularly entertained yourself by this book.

I ordered this book for my son who is one year old and has severe allergies to dairy, eggs and nuts. I thought this would be a wonderful cookbook to make him recipes with...Boy was I wrong! Most of the recipes are listed several times within the book, making the description of 450 recipes a joke! Not to mention the ingredients she lists are so far out of reach for any normal Joe living in the city or remote country area...they just aren't available in my state(trust me, I have exhausted my resources trying!) And when I was actually able to find the ingredients to MAKE the recipe...it turned out less than bland, it was gruel! I figured if I didn't even want to eat it based on the appearance alone, my son wasn't going to have anything to do with it...so I tasted it and realized the taste was just as bad if not worse. Definitely not the book for someone who is just starting on a vegetarian or restricted-diet journey. My husband recommended throwing it in the trash, but I am not about to throw away something I paid almost $20 for!!!