Customer Reviews

The Greens Cookbook: Extraordinary Vegetarian Cuisine from the Celebrated Restaurant

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I made a handful of recipes from Deborah Madison's cookbook, "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone," I wasn't incredibly impressed with the flavors. Well, everything that her other cookbook isn't, this one is. "The Greens Cookbook," based on the cooking of the Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, delivers enough fantastic flavors for any two cookbooks.

Recipes are laid out very well. This cookbook covers the basics right down to brown rice and egg pasta; it never leaves you stranded wondering if you have a recipe for such-and-such. Also included are seasonal menus, wine pairings with vegetarian food, a glossary of ingredients, and a list of useful kitchen tools.

But this cookbook doesn't stop there. There's a Wild Rice and Hazelnut Salad that includes currants and orange juice. There's an Asparagus Soup that's quite good. The Mexican Vegetable Soup with Lime and Avocado is fantastic! There's a Basque Pumpkin and White Bean Soup, a Pumpkin Soup with Gruyere Cheese, a Grilled Tofu Sandwich, Creole Egg Salad Sandwich, Basil Fettucine with Green Beans Walnuts and Creme Fraiche, Spinach Noodle Pudding, Potatoes and Chanterelles Baked in Cream, Squash Stew with Chilies Spices and Ground Nuts, and an absolutely fantastic Cheese and Nut Loaf... among many other fantastic recipes.

This cookbook does occasionally call for the odd hard-to-find ingredient like hazelnut oil, but it doesn't get out of hand, and I think it's quite worth it. Ms. Madison takes her inspiration from all sorts of cuisines to wonderful effect. All in all this is a fantastic cookbook, whether or not you're a vegetarian!

This, together with Yamuna Devi's "The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking," is my favorite cookbook.

As has been mentioned in other reviews here, the recipes are somewhat complicated. I am slowly working my way through the book and have already attempted almost 50 of the recipes.

The first few recipes were daunting and I was tempted to give up on the book, but the more recipes I tried, the easier it got. I found that I was learning something.

As others have mentioned, I also don't have all day to prepare a meal, and more often than not, I will only cook from this book on weekends, though to be fair, not all of the recipes are as time-consuming as they seem.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who also considers cooking a hobby and not just a means to an end.

This book is from the ether. Really great cookbooks draw you into a world that you had not understood before. Many people who love the Marcella Hazan book love it because it includes the comfort foods of Italy they are familiar with, but also has tons of wonderful, varied surprises. This book is kind of similar. There are recipes that you will realize are the province of the vegetarian and are very appealing, and then there are new things to be discovered that will make you feel, upon their discovery, almost ashamed. The first recipe I prepared was for the White Bean and Tomato Soup with Parsley Sauce. I just about lost my mind. I had only recently started using the mortar and pestle for prepping garlic and this recipe made use of that technique to stunning effect. With a piece of crusty bread, it is as fulfilling as anything you are going to find to eat with animal parts in it.

I also like DM's 1400 recipe book but this one is more exciting as a cookbook, the other more encyclopedic. The soups section is especially amazing. I've made almost all of them now. Also, as some people may know, many cookbooks have blunt wrong recipes. I haven't had any recipes miss yet from this book.

I'm sure every recipe in this cookbook is delicious, but I seldom use it and regret buying it. This would be a good book for people who see cooking as a hobby: something they do occasionally, for fun, without worrying about time, convenience, health or expense. For everyday cooking, it's pretty much useless. The recipes are all quite time-consuming and complicated, requiring, for instance, special stock which must be homemade and for which store-bought substitutes would be unacceptable. Lots of the recipes are heavy on the butter and cream, which is fine for special occasions but not the way I want to cook on a regular basis.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for special-occasion recipes. Everything I've cooked out of it has turned out great, and I would definately consult it for dinner parties or similar occasions. But I don't think it will be a particularly useful cookbook for busy people trying to eat in a reasonably healthy manner.

I have a weakness for buying cookbooks and probably have far too many. Whenever I go to make a meal (7+ times a week) I think that I should use some of the untouched cookbooks with glossy photos, but inevitably I return to the Greens. Even though I eat meat, I don't notice that this is a vegetarian cookbook. With the advent of more varied produce sections in most grocery stores, you owe it to yourself to get this book and use it. You will be eating healthy without even realizing it! There are some wonderful pizza recipes (including homemade crust that is fun to make) and an intriguing spinach soup with Indian spices. The restaurant in San Francisco is also definitely worth a visit; the tempting menu vies with the stunning view of the bridge for your attention.

I just got this book a week ago, and made my first dinner with it last night. I made the Mushroom Lasagne, and the Peach and Blueberry Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream. All three dishes we superb. One of my non-vegetarian friends summed it up nicely by asking "Who needs meat?"

If you enjoy a finely crafted meal, and do not mind the time involved in creating it, get this book. It provides a lot of background information on various ingredients, and provides pretty good how-to instructions.

Things to know: Everything in this book is from scratch. For example, the Vanilla Ice Cream calls for 2 vanilla beans, not vanilla extract. All of the pasta dishes assume you will be making your own pasta, so get a pasta machine (the pasta turns out great with regular flour, no need for semolina. I did add an extra 2.5 Tbsp water to the intial pasta recipe, too dry otherwise). The soup recipes usually require a stock to be prepared in advance. While this increases the prep time, nothing can compare to the taste and quality of fresh ingredients.

I've tried over ten or so recipes in this book and all were both delicious and easy to prepare, however, if you can't cut or chop vegetables, then don't buy the book and stick to your macaroni and velveeta or have a bowl of cereal instead.

This book is for elegant vegetarian cooking and, like the book "Olives Table", is for special occasions and intimate dinners.

I learned a great deal while reading this book, especially about vegetables that I don't use on a regular basis (celery root, parsnips, brussel sprouts). I also learned about making thin-crust pizza and a different way of making homemade pasta.

The only problem I found was that she uses measurements like "one celery root" etc. Since her restaurant uses organic vegetables, they tend to be smaller that your average supermarket variety. If you know how to read a recipe and figure out proportions, this should not be an issue. If it looks like you've added too much of one vegetable, then you probably have. But not to worry, the recipes are very forgiving. Let's face it, how can you screw up a carrot?

Let me get this point out of the way right now: the recipes in the Greens Cookbook are not quick or particularly easy. Frankly, Greens is a fantastic, high-end vegetarian restaurant - anybody who bought this cookbook expecting great food in a jiffy was kidding themselves. Making recipes from this cookbook is TIME-CONSUMING, occasionally requires HARD-TO-FIND INGREDIENTS, and is not meant for a busy person who only has 30 minutes to put together dinner.

That said, this is a great vegetarian cookbook. The food you eat at Greens is a labor of love, so expect the same from many of the recipes in this book! I especially appreciate their fritatta and pizza recipes - two types of food I love and hadn't really considered making at home. If you're ready to put in the effort required for a great vegetarian meal, use this book.

I have been to The Greens Restaurant in San Francisco a number of times since 1991, including one special occasion: my best friend's wedding reception in 1996. The restaurant is superb, one of the best in SF and in any city! My husband turned me on to the cook book back in 1992, and since then we refer to it more often than The Joy of Cooking. Our favorite recipes include the mushroom pizza with jack and dry jack cheese, and the mushroom lazagne. These are not beginner's recipes, but the directions are easy to follow if you're familiar with all the standard cooking techniques. The recipes are out of this world!

I personally am not a vegetarian, but these recipes take your vegetables and taste buds beyond your wildest dreams. I would recommend this cook book to anyone who likes cooking and eating fine food. If you're looking for easy recipes that take 10 minutes, you'll have to settle for hamburger helper or kraft macaroni and cheese... this is not the place for you! But if you love cooking and love trying new recipes, this is one to add to your collection.

The Greens Cookbook has, for many years, been my first point of reference when I want to prepare something extraordinary tasting, either just for myself, or for a houseful of guests. In fact, the early edition was one of the few items I brought with me when I moved overseas as a student in 1990.

Yes, some of the recipes are, in the author's words, "a labor of love" to prepare, but there also plenty of simple and practical instructions, ranging from a failsafe way to boil eggs to grilling peppers and making salad dressings.

I have happily worked my way through the cookbook - and through its companion, "Fields of Greens" - and all of the dishes I have made, without exception, are sensational. Guidelines in the book are clear, and, in my view, easy enough for beginners to follow.

It would be difficult to say what my favourite recipe is, but the book is worth buying for these five:
<UL>
<LI><A> Chinese Noodle Salad with Roasted Eggplant (the dish I always take to parties)</A></LI>
<LI><A> Cheese and Nut Loaf (a special treat that makes great sandwiches)</A></LI>
<LI><A> Pizza Dough and garlic oil (I make these often, and my friends say it's the best pizza they have ever tasted)</A>
<LI><A> Baked Polenta Layered with Tomato, Fontina, and Gorgonzola (tastes as good as it sounds)</A></LI>
<LI><A>Cherry and Apricot Crumble (augments the humble crumble into something sublime.)</A></UL>
This book is for people who love good food and love to cook. And I'm not even a vegetarian!