Customer Reviews

Full of Beans: 75 Exciting, Tasty Recipes

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

 

 

This is my favorite cookbook, even though I also own Mollie Katzen's excellent Moosewood and EBF cookbooks. I'm a vegetarian, so I do lament that only 41 of Dojny's 75 recipes are vegetarian. But every recipe I've used is a gem. Its advantages over Moosewood include: 1) Katzen is woefully short on bean recipes. As a vegetarian, I can eat far more nutritiously and cheaply with beans at the center of my diet. 2) Dojny's recipe's are reliably tasty. Katzen does have some mediocre ones. 3) Mmm, mmm, I can't believe how good it all tastes!

This may seem like an unlikely book to get excited about, but this is my very favorite cookbook (and I own a lot as my Amazon account can confirm). In the winter, I make soups and stews. I got this book for Christmas and I have made almost every recipe. The book includes outstanding versions of the classics (New England Baked Beans) and international dishes that I made as experiments and are now favorites (Indian Spice Rice with Peas). There is also a time consuming, but user friendly Cassoulet, which I have made twice for parties, but I've never had any left over.

The recipes are tasty, but a word of warning - many of them are seasoned with "hot" spices, which I had to omit in order to make it palatable for our young children. This book doesn't have any color pictures, which was disappointing. It is also limited in the "types" of beans that it uses - mostly common beans (cannelinni, navy, black, pintos, black-eye-peas, etc.) - not too many exotic-type beans. I love collecting unusual beans, and had hoped to find recipes to use them in, but didn't. These are good recipes for "common" beans, but if you are looking for recipes for the more "exotic" types, this book is limited. I was disappointed with the small size of the book - I thought the price was too high for a small paperback with no color pictures. The recipes have a lot of ethnic variety (Mexican, Morroccan, Indian, Asian, American, etc.) - I wasn't disappointed with the flavors - just expected more for the price. For flavor of recipes, I give it 5 stars. For price, no pictures, and lacking in "exotic bean" recipes, I give it 3 stars.

I had picked up my original copy of Full of Beans at a thrift store-and it quickly became my absolute favorite go-to cook book (and I have BOXES of cook books, my husband says I'm a collector, not a cook!). I was absolutely frantic the other day because I couldn't find my book when I was wanting to do a pot o beans. I tore the house up looking for it, gave up and ordered a new copy. We invited friends over to share in the pot, and I was lamenting the loss of my book when my friend said, oh, that book is on top of my fridge! I had forgotten that I had loaned it to them. Well, I told them that I had to have my book back and I would give them the new one, just because the former owner, and I, myself had written notes on almost every recipe. One of my favorites is the U.S. Senate Navy Bean soup-it is absolutely delish! Oh, and don't forget, beans, beans the musical fruit, the more you eat, the more you'll toot! Soak the beans overnite with a little baking soda added in the soaking water and it will help with that. Make sure you rinse em good the next day and you are good to go!