Customer Reviews

Joy of Cooking: All About Vegetarian Cooking

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The first cookbook I ever used was a 1954 edition of Irma Rombauer's "The Joy of Cooking." The updated version of this classic is still one of my primary sources.

This new edition repackages the vegetarian recipes already contained in "The Joy of Cooking" into a useful smaller volume. The extras include shopping and cooking techniques and full color photos of many of the dishes. The photography is excellent, and will tempt you to drop everything and head for the kitchen.

The same "never-fail" standard of the original is preserved here. The recipes are well written, and include easy-to-locate ingredients. If you're a vegetarian and have been avoiding getting the original all-inclusive "Joy of Cooking" because you'll never use most of the recipes, then this is definitely the book for you. While a large number of the recipes are for ovo-lactos, there are a substantial number that are suitable for vegans as well.

And even if you're not vegetarian, you'll still find tempting treats in this volume.

I am only a college student whose cooking skills are almost nonexistent, yet this particular book made me the chef of the day. The first thing I cooked out of this book was the cheese stuffed eggplant - at first I was terrified how it was going to come out, but the recipe was delicious, meat free (meat's expensive, so meat free is a great plus for a poor college kid), and with pictures to compare whether what I have made is actually what was supposed to be made. My roommates liked it very much, nobody complained, and I didn't blow up the kitchen or anything :).

I highly recommend it to anyone whose major concern is the ability to cook cheaply and effectively. Most of the recipes include things which can be stored for a couple of days prior to final preparation. It also includes a basic overview of dietary needs of a meat eater and vegetarians, explaining the alternatives for both. But the best thing about it, that since it is so beautiful and classy looking, it gives you confidence to cook and doesn't make you feel like a total moron in the kitchen.

Most households including mine had a copy of Joy of Cooking. It was quite a tome, but this selection of vegetarian recipes in Joy of Cooking: All About Vegetarian Cooking is contained in a slim volume, easy to handle in the kitchen, and with great color pictures. I think these recipes are all in the latest Joy of Cooking, but to have them all in one place, with pictures and tips for beginning chefs, is very useful. The book is priced to fit a student budget, but contains recipes which range from casual dining to fancy enough for entertaining friends. The recipes also include a variety of courses. A good summary of the variety of vegetarian diets is included in the beginning, as well as an alternate food pyramid for vegetarians. A section of Egg recipes is included, for those who eat eggs along with their vegetables. This is one of those cookbooks which you can just pick up and read, and it really lives up to its name, and should be a useful holiday present for anybody.

I originally found the Joy of Cooking in the public library, took it home and even though it wasn't specifically vegetarian I found most part of the book helpful as it gives detailed descriptions on how to properly cook almost everything. When I saw the vegetables section available on it's own I had to purchase it.

I'm quite satisfied with this book, especially since it has photos. It's not as detailed as the original, but I still like the simplicity of the recipes and the writing style. Even though I've been vegetarian for some years now it's great to have a reference book that gives instructions on how to properly do things, such as roasting your own capsicum or making your own tomato sauce.

Taken from the time-honored Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006, All About Vegetarian Cooking is a lovely introduction to eating vegetarian and includes an informative intro about various kinds of vegetarians (lacto, ovo, macrobiotic, vegan), the advantages of eating organic veggies, nutrition for vegetarians, serving sizes (based on the 1995 guidelines), dietary essentials, and menu planning based around a variety of ethnic favorites such as Italian, Middle Eastern, Asian, Indian, and more.

The included recipes are fairly standard versions of those you'll find elsewhere. The bonus here is the numerous photographs of prep and informative footnotes sprinkled throughout. For example, the soups chapter starts with the basics of making homemade stock. There are numerous delicious whole-grain recipes calling for wheat/rye/spelt berries mixed into hot and cold salads, grilled veggie sandwiches with homemade focaccia and tapenade, falafel, hummus, and baba ganoush, curries and Moroccan stews, pilafs and risottos, and a chapter devoted to eggs (frittatas, souffles, timbales).

In all honesty, I own over a dozen vegetarian cookbooks, and there's a lot of overlap with other volumes such as Mediterranean Harvest: Vegetarian Recipes from the World's Healthiest Cuisine and The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, but if you're new to vegetarian cuisine, this is a very serviceable introduction to some of the varied, tasty possibilities.

This book is chock-full of really good vegetarian recipes. I've enjoyed everything I've made from this book. The downside is that many of the recipes tend to be a little complicated, or involve esoteric ingredients (which means I have to go out of my way to buy something I'll use maybe a few times a year).

Since buying this book, I've learned a little more about what I like in cookbooks: I like recipes that let me use things I already have in my kitchen, or involve new additions that I can use in other dishes. I really want to expand my repertoire, but also don't want to clutter my (small) kitchen with little-used ingredients. This book isn't great for that.

The recipes are, however, reasonably easy to follow, and everything tastes fantastic. There are also nice tips on basic cooking techniques, storage, etc.

I am a long term vegetarian who bought a share in a local organic garden. I needed some info re: basic preperation of ordinary vegetables - ex. how long to cook cabbage, should eggplant be peeled before saute, how to cook beet greens and beets, what about turnips and greens? What this book provided was recipies to turn vegetables into fairly elaborate main course dishes. I guess the recipies were good, just not what I wanted.

This is a very well-organized book, with simple, clear, specific directions on how to cook a variety of vegetarian dishes. It starts with the basics of cooking and goes on to describe how to make some tasty, good-looking dishes. Has lots of pictures.

We just got the book and finished browsing through it. My wife and I are vegetarians and cook a lot, and we can tell the recipes are good. We look forward to some delicious experimentation with the dishes described here.

Well worth the price.

This cookbook is worth it for the Spanikopita recipe alone-make it with fresh spinach and freeze the leftovers. Reheat at 350 for 20-30 minutes or so and it tastes almost as good as fresh. My copy accidentally ended up in the Goodwill pile and I miss it so much I am buying it again. Definitely a keeper.

i was given this book as a gift, and i am in love with it, many of the recipes in here are very filling and delicious, i love the fact that it includes alot of pictures in it. i do have a lot of good cookbooks that don't have pics but it's nice to have them. i own a few other veg books, but this is my favorite. the whipped feta recipe with roasted peppers is amazing. great book