Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven: Over 200 Recipes for Uncommon Soups, Tasty Bites, Side Dishes, and Too Many Desserts [Hardcover]

Mollie Katzen (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 6, 1997

This companion volume to the 26-part public television series which begins airing in October 1997 contains more than 200 recipes for delicious and surprising fare and is illustrated with more than 25 of Katzen's luminous paintings, richly evocative of the pleasures of cooking and eating.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Author of the popular vegetarian classic Moosewood Cookbook, Mollie Katzen now offers Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven, another celebration of nature's bounty. The book (also illustrated by Katzen), presents more than 200 approachable recipes for a wide range of vegetable dishes, from openers, soups, and side dishes to pastas, condiments, and entrees. The recipes draw freely from diverse culinary styles, and cooks of all kinds should enjoy the dishes, as well as Katzen's casual, spontaneous tone. Standout recipes include Roasted Eggplant Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette, Tomato-Fennel Consommé, Giant Mushroom Popovers, and Frittata with Red Onions, Roasted Garlic, Greens, and Goat Cheese. The book's "Side-by-Side" chapter, a collection of small dishes meant to be served together, features bean and grain delights like Coconut Rice with Ginger, Chilies, and Lime, Tuscan Bean and Pasta Stew, and "Don't Knock 'Em Till You Try 'Em" Soyburgers. Condiments and sauces are used to enliven simple vegetable fare and Katzen accordingly offers recipes for such flavor boosters as Red Onion and Shallot Marmalade, Summer Fruit Salsa, and Chipotle Cream. There are dessert recipes, too, for old favorites like Ginger Thins and Homemade Butterscotch Pudding and "newer" enticements like Mexican Chocolate Cake, Pineapple Pomegranita, and Blueberry-Lemon Mousse Pie. With a selection of seasonal menus and useful ingredient notes, the book brims with modern vegetarian cooking ideas presented in Katzen's much-loved style. --Arthur Boehm

About the Author

Now a household name, author and illustrator Mollie Katzen is widely credited with bringing vegetarian cooking into the mainstream. Born in Rochester, New York, she studied at the Eastman School of Music, Cornell University and the San Francisco Art Institute, where she received a B.F.A in painting. Katzen's published her first cookbook, The Moosewood Cookbook, in 1977, which showed millions of Americans that eating healthy doesn't have to mean sacrificing taste or style. Her classic illustrated cookbooks include The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, Still Life with Menu, and Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven. Katzen has also published several award-winning cookbooks for children, and is currently a featured writer and illustrator for Children's Television Workshop On-Line, as well as Sesame Street Parent's Magazine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1 edition (October 6, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786862688
• ISBN-13: 978-0786862689
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.9 x 10.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #379,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

With more than six million books in print, Mollie Katzen is listed by the New York Times as one of the bestselling cookbook authors of all time. A 2007 inductee into the prestigious James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame, and largely credited with moving healthful food from the "fringe" to the center of the American dinner plate, Mollie has been named by Health magazine as one of the "Five Women Who Changed the Way We Eat."

In addition, she is a charter member of the Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Roundtable and an inaugural honoree of the Natural Health Hall of Fame. An award-winning illustrator and designer as well as a bestselling cookbook author and popular public speaker, Mollie is best known as the creator of the groundbreaking classics Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Her other books include the children's trilogy Pretend Soup, Honest Pretzels, and Salad People (referred to as the "gold standard" of children's cookbooks by the New York Times), and a collaboration with Walter Willett, M.D., of Harvard, on Eat, Drink, and Weigh Less.

Since 2003, Mollie Katzen has been an adviser to Harvard University Dining Services, and cocreator of their new Food Literacy Project. This is the first volume of her new Get Cooking series, continuing Mollie's lifelong mission to spread cooking knowledge and food literacy as broadly as possible. Please visit the companion video-based website, www.get-cooking.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Quick, simple, satisfying recipes for meat-eaters, vegans. January 11, 2003

By David Huebel

Format:Paperback

I've never created such flavorful and satisfying dishes from such simple recipes as I have with this book. A good example is the roasted beans with garlic and olives: two or three ingredients to buy at the grocery store, ten minutes of work, two items to wash when you're done, and a rich, tasty dish that I was proud to present to dinner guests.

The introduction, which unfortunately is not included in the preview pages, gives a good idea of what to expect: food "prepared in sumptuous, yet uncomplicated ways.... opulent, yet clean and simple". _Vegetable Heaven_ isn't a vegan cookbook, but most of the recipes are vegan or adaptable. It stands out among such cookbooks for its simple, flavorful, *filling* dishes. The Achille's heel of most vegan cooking is the inability to combine flavor with the heaviness that creates a satisfied feeling after a meal. In recipe after recipe, _Vegetable Heaven_ shows how this difficulty can be overcome. Since the recipes are filling and don't use as many exotic ingredients as some vegetarian cookbooks, they're useful when cooking for unadventurous eaters, such as parents, children, and meat-eaters. Some of the recipes are quite spicy, but a few are bland children's food or comfort food. The descriptions are clear, so you won't be unpleasantly surprised.

Besides being full of great recipes, the book is durable, exceptionally well laid out, and mostly a pleasure to use. However, it doesn't lie open unless you're using a recipe from the middle third of the book.

Of course, _Vegetable Heaven_ doesn't try to be all things to all people. It's not a report of gastronomical research and innovation, so if you're an experienced cook, don't expect to be provoked and stimulated on every page. It's also not a coffee-table cookbook -- the artwork is pleasant but not captivating, and there are no photographs of professional presentations of the dishes.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, this cookbook SINGS! August 3, 2001

By C. Sullivan

Format:Hardcover

I have Mollie Katzen's older cookbook, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, and while that book is nice to flip thru, I haven't found it terribly inspiring. Many of the recipes are full of eggs, cheese, dairy and, well, I cook cause I like to play in the kitchen, and frankly I've played with eggs & cheese & dairy far too long to get toked about recipes that fall back on such pedestrian ingredients.

But this book... OH MY!!! Her intent here is to create uncomplicated dishes that celebrate the full bounty & beauty of vegetables, grains, spices, nuts, and seasonings. The recipes are amazing! Some require only one ingredient, even, and many simple-but-creative cooking techniques are explained that will probably expand your kitchen repetoire considerably.

Recipes range from elegant & sophisticated dishes that sparkle on your table, to simple rustic peasant fare that fills your belly without overloading on the fat. And LOTS of sauces, condiments, and other "extras" that will add color & flavor to almost any meal.

A word about the so-called exotic ingredients she sometimes calls for: Mollie often suggests a substitute if you can't find something, but honestly, most of this stuff is pretty easy to find anywhere --even the unusual stuff-- if you put a little effort into looking for it. I live in a verrrrry small rural town in the middle of Georgia, and I have been able to find almost everything I need at my "local" Kroger (have to drive 45 mins into town, but I do that every week anyway). Get familiar with your store's ethnic & natural foods aisles, and you'll be surprised at what's available.

Buy this book, and enjoy it. Such deliciousness!!! :-)

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Tasty Simple Creative Delicious! Go Molly! June 25, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

This is a very well thumbed cookbook in my house. We are not vegetarians but I have prepared many of the recipes for my family and they have been well received. I like the fact that Katzen's recipes have become so much more light and sophisticated and also more flavourful than those in her earlier cookbbooks-they relied too heavily on cheese and fat. The "Bulgur Noodles" alone are worth the price of this book. They are amazing! I also appreciate the sidebar tips and suggestions. The artwork is very attractive, as is the layout in general. The lack of photographs is not a problem-just watch the series on television.