Customer Reviews

Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker: 200 Recipes for Healthy and Hearty One-Pot Meals That Are Ready When You Are

5 star:		(85)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Vegan Planet and The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook are two of my all time favorite cookbooks. I can always count on their easy to follow recipes to produce delicious results. Now, Robin Robertson does it again! I am enjoying my Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker cookbook very much. I just got it a week ago and I have already made Seitan Cacciatore, Spicy Black Bean Chili and Old Fashioned Vegetable Soup.
I went out and bought a lovely Rival Oval Programmable Stainless Steel 5.5 Quart Crock Pot. You can exactly set the cook time in half hour intervals up to 20 hours and you can set the temperature to high, low or warm. The crock-pot automatically switches to warm mode after cooking is complete so you don't have to worry about burning. The digital countdown shows you how much time is left. The lid fits perfectly on the crock-pot and doesn't let air seep out like some cheaper models. I highly recommend this sturdy and easy to use crock-pot.
Now back to the wonderful recipes! The Seitan Cacciatore was a very easy to make a hearty stew. We loved the subtle blend of flavors and the seitan was perfectly moist. I made the Spicy Black Bean Chili in less than ten minutes. The results were fabulous, dark rich spicy black bean chili with red peppers, sweet onion and diced green jalapenos, amazing for such a mind numbingly simple recipe. I am eating the Old Fashioned Vegetable Soup as I type. This soup is so wholesome and tender it simply melts in your mouth.
I am a busy vegan who absolutely loves to cook and this cookbook is a lifesaver. No longer will I have to rush home to cook, stopping at a busy grocery store on the way. Instead, I figure out what I want to make in the evening, go to the grocery store after dinner when it is not crowded at all and assemble the ingredients at my leisure. I pop the crock in the fridge until bedtime. I don't want to leave the cooker on when I am not at home, so I just turn it on before bed and when I wake up transfer the wonderful results to the fridge. They have all day to sit and get delicious (most stews are better if given time to rest) and then I reheat when I get home in the evening. It has worked out very easily and the recipes are mouthwatering. Now I can relax while cooking on busy weeknights and I look forward to going to the store rather then rushing. I think crock-pot cooking is miraculous.
This cookbook is a huge bargain with 200 recipes for everything from appetizers to desserts, soups, stews, vegetables and everything in between. All of the recipes have vegan alternatives for dairy products and most are naturally dairy free. You cannot get better results both in the minimal effort, easy ingredients and outstanding results then this. Every vegan and vegetarian should give Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson a try!

I'm not new to cooking by any means, but I am new to slow cooking. I was looking for a slow cooker cookbook that would contain vegetarian, Kosher and/or low-fat or low-salt recipes. The last thing I wanted was a dozen ways to make pork roast. This book fills the bill, in part, in that a lot of the recipes are healthy although no one seems to be watching their salt intake. I realize that this is not the purpose of this cookbook but it would be good if alternatives were available.

The cooking times are way off. The book seems to have been written with much older or less powerful models in mind. The cooking time for dried black beans, for example, is 12 hours on high. This is anything but true -- at least with my model (Rival programmable) it took 4 hours on high. At 12 hours on high, I would have ruined the dish and possibly had a fire hazard.

So the times have got to be updated post-haste. The recipes are interesting and somewhat creative. Personally, I don't want to do too much outside of the slow cooker. I want to throw things in the pot, set it and go to work, and a great number of the recipes have requirements of satellite or preliminary cooking, such as some sautéeing. I don't mind a little of this but not at the beginning of the cooking time. Who wants to fry onions right before work?

A slow cooker is meant for people who are going off to work or elsewhere and want a meal ready when they come home. While some extra work is sometimes needed, it's needed with too many of these recipes. If the cooking times could be adjusted so as to better reflect reality, and the recipes adjusted so as to also better reflect users' needs, my rating would be higher.

I've made three of the chili recipes from this book and, while all were tasty, two had too large a measure of hot pepper ingedients and the third came out too "raw" without much longer cooking. A four-ounce canned of diced hot chiles tastes mild out of the can, but turns combustible after 8 hours in a slow cooker ("Spicy Black Bean Chili"). In the "Chipotle-Kissed Red Bean and Sweet Potato Chili," the canned chipotles in adobo sauce were way too intense unless you used a fraction of what the reciped called for. I'm not talking just chili-lovin' hot here, I'm talking noxiously hot.

The "Sweet and Spicy Lentil Chili" recipe specified unsoaked lentils, but the lentils wouldn't soften adequately until the dish was cooked 16 hours or more (the recipe called for eight hours). Also, the Vegetarian Society not only recommends that dried beans and lentils be soaked, but that they be pre-boiled for 10 minutes before adding to the slow cooker, which was not mentioned in the recipes I used.

Based on my experience with this book, I wonder if the recipes, many of them close variations of each other, were all adequately tested. I still liked the dishes, however, after adjusting for the problems I mentioned.

Keep in mind that taste is subjective and what I think is too hot or too hard may not agree with your assessment. But I've never had this happen three out of three times with any other cookbook that I can remember.

Ok, I LOVE this book!

* Almost all of the recipes that use dairy products or cheese give alternate suggestions for a more vegan diet.

* The recipes are soooo easy to make. Most prep is no more than 20 minutes.

* The recipes actually taste awesome (I add more salt - shame on me) and I've never really been so healthy of an eater and am making changes in my diet.

* Not all the recipes are soups or stews. Some really neat recipes are included like stuffed acorn squash, appetizers, and even breads - all made in a crock pot. Crazy... I never knew you could do all that.

* There is even a small section on deserts that you can make in the crock pot and they are really good, too. I made the blue-berry cobbler and really liked it (blue berries are good for your brain and eyes)- the crust was more like cake though.

* There is some really cool basics for beginners like me. Like how to soak/cook fresh beans, 101 advice on crock pot cooking, or hints and tips for better flavors.

* New research (EAT TO LIVE, Dr. Mercola's Total Health, etc.) shows that a diet where you get most of your calories from fruits, vegatables, and beans is, by far, the most healthy. Ok, maybe this is common sense and doesn't take a book to figure out. lol At least this cook book makes that goal so much easier.

I only wish I bought the hard cover edition because the soft cover is starting to warp and stay open because I use it so darn much. lol

-- For those who get this book... I especially love the Sloppy Lentils except I added 2 garlic cloves. Even non-vegitarian friends ask me to make this. It is SO GOOD!

I got this book just about three months ago and have cooked probably 30-45 recipes from it already and I've found most of them to turn out quite pleasing. Most recipes are vegan or could easily be made vegan. Most of them take me about 30 minutes of prep time in the morning and I come home and it's generally done!. Today I will be cooking either stuffed zucchini or vegetarian hoppin' john. The vegetarian lasagna was very good, and my favorite recipe so far was the lentils bolognese over fettucine...Mmmmm! I highly recommend the Liquid Smoke flavoring if you can get it.

I find a lot of the recipes will require some modifications in order to be better the next time, but I find this with any recipe really. Most of the recipes can be cooked right in the 6-QT crockpot so you dont have to go and buy 2 or 4 crockpots. I've only used the 6-QT for everything (except the fondue :) ). Only a few (maybe 5) of the recipes I've found did not work out at all and ended up either burnt or tasting like prison food (not that I'd know what that tastes like..).

A couple tips: Cook rice separetly and then stir it in with the food before serving; rice cooked in the slow cooker turns out way too mushy & starchy, as she mentions in the book. Also sometimes she recommends sauteeing onions in the bottom of the crockpot first while its on the high setting... Don't do this. Saute the onions separately in a pan first, otherwise your whole dish could have a raw onion juice taste in it becase the crockpot doesn't do a very good job of that. Also your individual crockpot may be different than the ones she uses; she also mentions this in the book. I like this book because she offers a lot of advice, unlike other cookbooks I've had, on how to cook things and make sure they come out okay. It's thorough in that regard; she kind of holds your hand a little bit.

I've made about a half a dozen of the recipes from this book now and I have to say they are quite yummy. I'm very fond of her other book "The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook", so was happy to see a new book out. I've also been a vegetarian for nearly 20 years and it's about time someone came out with a good veg slow cooker book! It's seems like (until now) all I ever made with my slow cooker was beans. It's nice to finally use it for other things.

My only real complaint with the recipes so far is that I keep finding that they are done sooner than anticipated even when left on the low setting. I'm starting to suspect that there must be some variation among heat settings with crock pots though. I noticed another reviewer mentioned that their slow cooker took longer (for lentils, which cook quite fast in my experience.) I've also noticed I usually have to stir things a few times, even though the author says it's not a good idea. I made the french onion soup recently and if I hadn't of stirred it would have burned. So maybe my cooker's low setting runs kind of hot or something. I just mark in my book that I need to stir, so I know in the future not to make that recipe when I'm gone all day, but at home puttering about. Other than that, I've been quite pleased with the ease and tastiness of the recipes. It's true some of the recipes ask that you saut' onions, etc., but I don't find that's a big deal. It doesn't take very long and it dramatically improves the flavor of a dish. Also I like that she uses normal ingrediants that are easy to find. Some of the recipes call for different size slow cookers, which could be fun if I ever decide to invest in a larger or smaller one. I think it would be usefull around the holidays, since it opens up oven space. Overall, I'm happy with this book.

I've tried many of the recipes in this cookbook and have yet had one fail to please myself and my husband. The flavors are wonderful, and the recipes are quite varied! Most involve no more prep time than chopping the veggies and giving some a brief sautee to bring out the flavor. Some recipes include making a home-made curry paste first, but this only added about 15 minutes of extra prep time. Others are quick to get going - great for prepping before work. Most recipes use canned or precooked beans to ensure that the beans are fully cooked by the end of the cooking time.

I read a complaint in the first reviews about the peppers (in particular, the chipotle) being too hot after eight hours of cooking, but the recipe says to add the chipotle at the end of the cooking time, which makes it savory but not molten! The recipes were obviously pretty well-tested before publication!

I am really enjoying this cookbook and it's collection of tasty, easy to prepare meals! This has joined my list of favorite vegetarian cookbooks!

This book is without question the most versatile and innovative slow-cooker book to come along in recent memory and, best of all, it's filled with vegetarian recipes! Readers will be happy to know that there are no fewer than fifty wonderful soup, chowder, and stew recipes for everyday meals made with loads of veggies and beans, an entire chapter of bean recipes and one devoted to stuffed veggies, and on and on. There are even some interesting recipes for the more adventursome cooks among us. And some recipes that use seitan or tempeh although certainly anyone who doesn't use those ingredients, could substitute beans in those recipes. In other words, this groundbreaking book has something for everyone -- even those of us who might want to try a vegetarian haggis one night just for fun! I personally found the vegetarian haggis recipe to be a hoot. It is obviously a whimsical recipe, certainly not meant in all seriousness, although it actually IS a quite flavorful stuffing recipe made with oats, pecans, and beans. Like many vegetarians, I like to have fun with my food! I also enjoy savory appetizer cheesecakes as convenient and showy party appetizers. How nice to be able to make them in a slow cooker now instead of the oven. And the vegan dessert cheeesecakes made in my small springform pans are no less than astonishing.

My only regret is that I'm limited to rating this book to only 5 stars. It deserves many more for creativity alone. But the delicious recipes are what cinch this book as a real winner."

I love using my slow cooker, and I was thrilled to find such a comprehensive vegetarian cookbook. This book is LOADED with recipes (no photos) that are multi-cultural and vary in level of difficulty, ingredient list, prep time required, expense, etc. etc. I have made the French Onion soup, which is quick to prepare and has a very short ingredient list, and I've also made the Enchilada Casserole which requires more ingredients and prep time. There are quite a few recipes that go above and beyond throwing everything into crock pot and walking away-- many have "toppings" that need to be assembled ahead of time and added within the last 30 minutes or so of cooking. For those in a hurry, this is not ideal, however, for those of us who like more complex dishes that are difficult to assemble in a crock pot, this book really steps up to the table. If you are vegan, this book provides the information you need to supplement the ingredient lists. I highly recommend this book to everyone, it will definately appeal to all cuisine preferences, including non-vegetarian!

I was searching for a while for a slow cooker cookbook for vegans and finally found this one. The recipes are really good. There is a lot of seitan recipes, which is one of my favorite proteins.

If you are in a hurry many could be cooked in a covered pot but the long times in the slow cooker means you could put them on in the morning and they will be ready at night.

In some of the recipes I did find it a bit annoying that she wanted you to do so many things before adding the food ( grilling or browning or marinading etc) but I cant argue that the food tastes great.

A word of caution. Many of the recipes call for a trivet for your slow cooker to sort of steam the food. Mine did not come with this and I have no idea where to get it!