Customer Reviews

The New Vegetarian Epicure: Menus--with 325 all-new recipes--for family and friends

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Unfortunately, Anna Thomas has caught the "lean cuisine" bug.

The original Vegetarian Epicure distinguished itself with recipes that showed that vegetarian food didn't have to be bland or thin. I loved (and all of my dinner guests raved about) the Corn & Cheddar Cheese Chowder, for example.

I mean, just because we're vegetarians it doesn't mean we've lost our taste for rich food or bold flavors!

The new version is a disappointment because it focuses on, for want of a better phrase, "health food." Anna Thomas celebrates the abandonment of butter, cream, cheese. And by doing so she abandons the very thing that made the original Vegetarian Epicure interesting.

For my money, don't bother with the new edition -- get yourself the original Vegetarian Epicure!

I simply love this cookbook. As an occasional vegetarian, it's a thrill to find a source for elegant, delicious food. Thomas' recipes deliver all that she promises in her nicely written text, and everything I have cooked from this book has been luscious, from fresh tomato risotto to roasted winter vegetables. It's easy to forget that's there no meat in menus so beguiling and satisfying. I also like Thomas' emphasis on seasonal fresh ingredients, and the balance she strikes by presenting recipes you can do on a weeknight without compromising on quality. Finally, I was pleased by her decision to organize the book around menus. Although you don't have to cook the courses as she suggests them, I have tried it and found that the dishes blend beautifully, and that they don't all demand attention or the same piece of kitchen gear at the same time--one person working alone in the kitchen can reasonably produce the full menu without too much angst. A gem for cooks and eaters of all persuasions.

I have dozens of vegetarian cookbooks and they get pretty repetitive. I bought this book because I loved Anna Thomas' Vegetarian Epicure books 1 & 2 -- and I was not disappointed! Like her other cookbooks, the inspiration for these recipes comes from around the world. Also, this book has an updated cooking style compared to her older cookbooks.
The recipes are original and fresh. I particularly recommend the Tomatillo and Squash soup. My family loves Mexican food, but typical vegetarian Mexican fare is heavy on the cheese and fat. Anna Thomas presents a number of Mexican-inspired dishes that offer a variety of tastes; many are relatively low-fat.

Like a number of long-time vegetarians, Anna Thomas's first cookbook (The Vegetarian Epicure) was my first vegetarian cookbook. Though I still use it for some recipes, after 15 years of vegetarianism I needed something more interesting, challenging, gourmet.

When I got The New Vegetarian Epicure as a gift ~5 years ago, I couldn't have been more pleased. Nothing has ever turned out badly.

The Red Pepper Pesto is so popular at parties that I always have to at least double the recipe - everyone loves it, even those who don't like roasted red peppers, sundried tomatoes, and/or olives (all of which are in the recipe). My personal recommendation: serve it with some soft goat cheese!

In recent years, I've taken to even more serious cooking, and I still always start with this cookbook when planning special dinners. The recipes are primarily organized into menus, which is very handy, but they all stand well on their own.

Two things may detract from the appeal of this cookbook for some chefs:

First, many of the recipes are a bit more complicated than a beginnner or quick-cook will want. However, instructions are very clear and reasons for complicated steps are explained, and I learned a lot when preparing these recipes (much of which is useful in other recipes). But, if you are looking for a basic, how-to-cook, vegetarian cookbook, this is not for you.

Second, some of the ingredients will be harder to get in your average supermarket. However, almost everything can be found in a big city or higher-end grocery store, and of course there's online stores if you prefer. Flexibility and/or planning makes it all possible, and many recipes can indeed be made without the special ingredients.

If you like to cook, you like to entertain, and you love to eat, you really can't go wrong, unless you think absolutely everything must include meat. These recipes will keep even the skeptical meat-eater satisfied, and may even convert a few.

Having received this book as a gift in the last week, I would like to lay to rest the idea that there is a spread on how to carve a turkey -- there isn't. There are three pages at the end of the book which explain how to spit roast a turkey. However, these pages weren't written by Anna Thomas, rather they were written by her husband. And the logic to his argument is reasonable -- in a household that is diverse, someone might want or need to know how to integrate a turkey into an otherwise vegetarian menu at Thanksgiving.

The other recipes, however, far outweigh the slightly disconcerting presence of the turkey at the end. Many fascinating presentations -- from yummy corn tamales to an interesting frittata supper -- there's something here for everyone. One of the useful features of this cookbook is the menu format -- solving the oft time dilemma of what to serve with X. The recipes are mostly designed to serve between 6 and 10 people. Perhaps a bit much for some of us, but leftovers are a wonderful thing.

The other really nice feature is the "What do kids eat?" section, which reminds us that we all went through strange food periods when we were kids and it's often easier to go with the flow than to fight.

All in all this is a wonderful cookbook with clear instructions and a good sense of balance. I'll be cooking happily from it for years to come.

I am the only vegetarian in my family of five, and it is a daily challenge to entice them to try vegetarian recipes. This cookbook certainly rises to the challenge. I have prepared several recipes from the book, and my family have devoured them all! Out of all my vegetarian cook books, this ranks as high as my "gold standard" Moosewood cook books. An added bonus to the book are the menus which I found very helpful.

I am vegetarian, and I purchased this book to give to one of my nonvegetarian friends. We're both gourmandes. I wanted to try out some of the recipes first to give my suggestions and comments on the book. I liked the presentation of the meals in the book. I find that most cookbooks, especially vegetarian ones, just throw out recipes and expect the cook to find flavors that meld properly. I believe that The New Vegetarian Epicure is a great reference for planning a meal, but the recipes themselves aren't that great. First, I think that the proportions of the ingredients are off; for example, she usually calls for an excessive amount of onions. All the recipes I've made from the book, I either really didn't like or just thought they were OK. Secondly, the book is not at all practical for everyday cooking. Most, but not all, of the recipes require 2 or more hours to prepare. In some of the recipes, there is a much quicker way to get from step A to step B other than the path proposed by the author. I would recommed Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone over the New Vegetarian epicure. Veg Cooking for Everyone has more healthful, simple dishes, that are fancy enough for even the most uptight company.

I collect cookbooks. I have a bookshelf in my kitchen groaning under the weight of my vegetarian cookbooks. Some are mediocre, some are excellent.

This one, however, doesn't even fit in since it isn't a vegetarian cookbook. The inclusion of turkey cooking and carving information is unnecessary and offensive to me. She even states, "Everyone is happy, and even the vegetarians usually want to try my great spit-roasted turkey." I don't know what kind of vegetarians she's been hanging around with, but this Thanksgiving, a group of us got together so we could specifically have a dead-animal-free holiday. Most vegetarians I know aren't going to be interested in her turkey because they are VEGETARIANS.

As for the meatless recipes, enough of them call for expensive or rare ingredients that I am discouraged from trying many of them. The planned meals have a lot of recipes that just don't sound very good, and she relies much too heavily on dairy products in most of these recipes.

I suggest the recipes in "Living Among Meat Eaters" over the ones in this book. I also recommend the Hare Krishna Book of Vegetarian Cooking for those who want to give Indian cooking a try.

I love, love, love this cookbook. I'm a sucker for any cookbook that has a whole menu for a dinner, and the entire book is set up that way. It has easy soup dinners to dinner parties. The food comes out delicious - I'm planning on making the tomato risotto for dinner tonight. There's a picnic menu that we take to the beach. While I wouldn't consider it light fare, it's not heavy with cheeses and creams. I feel most of the recipes are based on grains and veggies.
A few reviewers have flipped out about the spit-roasted turkey included in the book. It is the ONLY reference to meat and is included as side to her Thanksgiving meal, which is entirely vegetarian otherwise. There are 325 vegetarian recipes and one reference to turkey. So if that bothers you, you might not want to get this cookbook. But, if you're like me, and dabble in a range of cooking, it's a great book.
A few other reviewers complained about the difficulty of obtaining ingredients. Notably, much of her cooking does seem inspired by California's wonderful produce. I envy their farmer's markets as a New Englander, but the only ingredient I've never been able to find is nopalitos, and she suggests substituting green beans if you can't find them. I actually find most of the ingredients more easily than I might for recipes based in soy substitutions, like tofu, seitan, or tempeh. This cookbook calls for none of those things.
So if you like whole foods with a fresh flavor, this is a great cookbook.

Unfortunately this book does not live up to the standard set by the original Vegetarian Epicure; the ingredients suggested are sometimes difficult or impossible to obtain without access to specialty food stores, and not inexpensive when they can be found. Prep times are lengthy and sometimes require what appears to be the use of every pot in the house; perhaps Ms. Thomas's target audience has become those familiar from her primary career as a film producer, who can pay someone else to do the washing up?

While I commend Ms. Thomas's husband's desire to be accommodating to guests, presumably those accepting an invitation to dinner at the home of someone who has made a reputation by publishing cookbooks aimed at vegetarians would not be expecting to be served turkey?

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone would be a better -- and more accurately marketed -- investment.