Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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!!! :-)

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.

I try to be a fan of Mollie Katzen's... her passion for good fresh food is obvious; her drawings a refreshing personal touch; her subject matter (fresh, vegetarian ingredients) all appeal to me, not to mention that she is one of the bestselling vegetarian cookbook authors in history.

Unfortunately, the recipes are the weak point in this ambitious book that emphasizes combinations of dishes, smaller plates, for a more varied meal. In fact, such variety is at the heart of the problem for the weekday cook looking to supplement a recipe collection with tasty, simply prepared meals. Too much clean up, too much time, too many ingredients, and sadly, too many flavors, make this book nothing more than a dust collector in my library.

The foreword is misleading...Katzen's first sentence reads that she imagines a world with "all kinds of vegetables, bursting with flavor and prepared in sumptuous, yet uncomplicated, ways..." Further, she espouses that her collection seeks "to enhance, rather than overpower, the natural taste of the ingredients..." Really?

I spent two hours laboring over Firecracker Red Beans, mixing the recipe's 18 ingredients, only to end up with a pan of weird, overspiced beans that tasted like a spice cupboard explosion and inspired nothing more than a "hmmm..." at our 4th of July party. Same for the two-page Persian Layered Pilaf, which takes far longer than the 1 hour listed, calls for no less than 23 ingredients and again elicited nothing more than ho-hum reactions from both me and my husband. In addition, both recipes and many others I've tried, tend to leave me with more dirty dishes than I'd bargained for. And that's for just one recipe--forget the "tiny plates" concept, which calls for ridiculously long commitments to prepping and cleaning.

If fresh vegetables and grains are the real superstars of the table, why not let them really shine and accent them with a few ingredients that complement, rather than smother the food and confuse the palate.

One more thing...though this book was a finalist for a Julia Child Cookbook Award, it did not win, as some have stated.

I have most of Mollie Katzen's cookbooks, but this is hands-down my favorite one from her. Anyone who's interested in her cookbooks may want to start (and end!) with this one. She moves away from the egg and cheese based cooking that appeared in her Moosewood Cookbook and has taken a fresher approach, using cooking techniques (such as carmelizing) and creative condiments (my favorite: balsamic syrup, which is simply balsamic vinegar boiled down for 30 minutes) to add wonderful flavor without adding much fat. And the recipes are easy -- many of them have shorter ingredient lists than she had in the past. Definitely try the Soft Lentils with Roasted Tomatoes and Carmelized Onions!

This isn't just a good vegetarian cookbook--it is just a plain old good cookbook. I am not a vegetarian but I am also not a big meat-eater and I've been looking forever for a vegetarian cookbook that I can live with. This is definately it! The recipes are simple and flavorful and the best part is that the ingredients are not hard to find. Many vegetarian cookbooks rely on specialty foods that can only be found in health food stores, which was always a turn off to me. I highly recommend this book to everyone, herbivore or carnivore!

"Vegetable Heaven" is a rare combination -- it is both very simple, very good and very creative. Mollie Katzen has learned the lesson that the real trick is to create good food by doing the right things to a few simple ingredients, rather than by pouring in ingredient after ingredient.

The cookbook is pleasantly organized into sensible but slightly unusual categories. The recipies themselves are clearly presented, with ingredients listed clearly on a side bar. And the deserts I've tried are excellent and easy to prepare. Furthermore, the cookbook is healthy without being dogmatic about it. Most of the recipies have little or no fat, but she's not afraid to use some butter where it's really worth it. Also, while not a vegan cookbook, vegans will find lots of recipies that they can use.

Mollie Katzen is one of the early vegetarian cookbook pioneers (she wrote the famous "Moosewood Cookbook" and "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest"), and her cookbooks have improved greatly since her first books. Another great book of hers is "Still Life with Menu".

Every recipe I have tried from this book has been very labor-intensive and a complete disappointment. I'm baffled by all the good reviews here. I am getting rid of this book so that I am never tempted to cook from it again. (For a great everyday veggie cookbook, try Simple Vegetarian Pleasures instead!)

I wrote down the wrong number for a book club order, and ended up with "Vegetable Heaven" rather than a biography I wanted. Well, I won't be sending this one back!! I am not a vegetarian, but these are some of the most tempting recipes I've seen in a long time. We've tried the roasted vegetables--YUM! A perfect summer cookbook--many of the recipes are light but still full of tasty ingredients. The book is as visually appealling as the recipes. Can't wait to try out more.

My husband and I are not vegetarian but enjoy vegetarian cooking. We get a box of organic produce from a local farm every two weeks and look for novel dishes in which to use them. Roasted Eggplant Strata is out of this world. I've made Bitter Greens with Sweet Onions and Tart Cheese over pasta more times than I can count. The Coconut-Lime Rice is ravishing. The roasted red pepper and walnut paste is as good as aioli. The Stovetop Cassoulet could have had more depth of flavor for the amount of work. I had trouble today with Mollie's coconut macaroon recipe. Luckily she makes herself available for questions on molliekatzen.com via a bulletin board.* I highly recommend this book for those who want to eat well and healthfully. *She did indeed reply; the trouble was my oven!