73 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Relies too much on meat substitutes, November 6, 2007
This review is from: Low Carb Vegetarian (Paperback)
I was excited to order this being vegan, but I was so disappointed upon receiving it, to discover that almost every recipe called for a processed meat substitute like deli slices, sausages, meat sub crumbles etc, or tofu.
Even when a dish has a solid complete protein in it , like beans, the author still adds tofu. Even the hummus had tofu in it....totally unneccesary.
To use this you will be investing heavily in Morningstar and Boca type products and eating a lot of soy.
I dont want to pretend I'm eating meat with each meal. My omnivore partner doesnt like fake meats either, so theres not much that suited our tastes for natural low carb natural wholesome vegetarian dishes.
There's not even a recipe for homemade seitan which is a wonderful low carb veggie staple.
There's tofu in just about every dessert - bleurgh!
Its a relatively thin book with no pictures besides the front cover which features fake meats predominately - should have looked at the picture on Amazon before I ordered.
I have done vegan low carb for a while and KNOW there's better recipes than this to be made.
I ordered at the same time the wonderful Veganomicon, so I think I'll be subbing out the high carb flours for low carb & getting far more use from that book instead.
Sorry! I really wanted to like this but honestly I wish I'd got a different veggie low carb book.
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81 of 89 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Reduced carb maybe, but not Low Carb, April 30, 2005
This review is from: Low Carb Vegetarian (Paperback)
Buyer beware: Many of the recipes in this book are not what most dieters would consider low carb. About half weigh in with carb counts of 30-60 g. per serving. That's more than many low-carb dieters eat in a whole day!
The author explains that she considers a diet of 130-150 g. of carbs per day "low-carb." This is the type of vegetarian diet that made many of us fat in the first place! There's a reason that most of the popular diet plans call for daily net carb consumption of only 20-50 grams: Clinical experience has shown that higher carb counts simply won't do the job for people who have a substantial amount of weight to lose.
This might be a useful book for people on a maintenance plan, who want to take off 10 lbs., or who just want to cut out "white food" (processed sugar and flour) from their diet. The recipes do look tasty! But it's not going to be very useful for the many people who are looking to lose significant amounts of weight and need to restrict their carbs to lower levels to do so.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful recipes and easy to prepare, August 11, 2004
This review is from: Low Carb Vegetarian (Paperback)
Until I acquired the "Low-Carb Vegetarian Cookbook", I had no luck at all with vegetarian cookbooks and Low-Carb diets. The food combinations were often odd, the prep work was time-consuming, and worst of all, the finished products just didn't taste all that good. I'd spend hours kneading and chopping, only to have my husband turn up his nose when dinner was served. But wow, this cookbook is different. The recipes are interesting and appealing like Pasta Puttanesa, Twenty-Minute Chili and my favorite, Dixie's Butternut Squash Soup to name a few. There are some unusual ethnic entries for those with adventurous palates, but plenty of delicious, easy-to-follow recipes for those with more standard American tastes. There's also some helpful info on easing into the vegetarian lifestyle and comparing some of the more popular "Low-Carb" diets rendered in light, witty prose (that's another thing about most other vegetarian cookbooks...they're so deadly dull and serious). Best of all, the results are awesome. I'm rooting for a sequel!
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