18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Inspired, show-stopping recipes with a decidedly Asian influence., October 19, 2009
This review is from: New Vegetarian (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
New Vegetarian is the real deal, a book of 75 global recipes, some of them vegan, that are delicious and inviting. If your motto is "Try something new every day," this book will keep you sated and happy. Practically speaking, I would classify this as a special-occasion vegetarian cookbook for a couple of reasons:
a) many ingredients (mock abalone, goji berries, kamut, coconut cream) require an extra stop to an ethnic or health food store...or, at the very least, some advance planning if ordering via the internet.
b) many, but not all, recipes are more time or labor intensive than most people can manage Monday through Friday
Still, this book has its place on my bookshelf because the recipes are delicious and the food presents well. It's what I'd reach for when I'm tired of the same 30 or so ingredients I tend to use over and over. It's also perfect for impressing guests. The book is divided into the following sections:
1. Appetizers/small plates - full of beautifully presented dishes that will impress any guest.
2. Salads - one of my favorite sections of the book, because the combinations of fruit, vegetables, nuts and cheeses are unique and mouth-watering
3. Soups - another favorite section, because she understands the importance of good soup making...which always starts with a good homemade broth.
4. Main Courses - I was less impressed with the main courses here, if only because there is a slight emphasis on "mock" meat dishes, a pet peeve of mine, since vegetarian eating shouldn't be construed as a way of pretending to eat meat. Many would argue otherwise and I see their point. I just enjoy honoring wholesome ingredients as they are.
5. Desserts - all vegan, a great idea, since there is an overabundance of great desserts that call for butter and eggs. good section with an offering of both traditional American goodies and some international sweets that may be less familiar to readers.
Some observations on the book overall...the food photography does its job, bringing the author's recipes to life with mouth-watering images. The food styling is excellent.
Valuable information in the introduction about how vegetarians get their nutrients. Also helpful is a resource guide for some of the harder-to-find ingredients.
As briefly mentioned above, this book contains both vegan and vegetarian recipes. Many of the vegetarian recipes could be amended to accommodate vegan diets with simple omissions.
One gripe I have with this book (and some other Chronicle Books publications I own) is this: while I appreciate the clean negative space on the recipe pages, my eyes do NOT enjoy reading such a small typeface, especially when many critical measurements have fractions in them, at what I estimate to be about 4 pt. type. Much, much too small.
Recommended.
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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
What Were They Thinking?!, October 24, 2009
This review is from: New Vegetarian (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I love to get new vegetarian cookbooks, I usually experiment with them for weeks until I've tried many of the recipes. As background, I've been a vegetarian for the past 30 years and own more than 150 vegetarian cookbooks.
I received New Vegetarian as part of the Amazon Vine program and I must say, I'm glad that I didn't spend any money on it.
If I had seen this book in a bookstore, I would have put it back on the shelf after glancing at it briefly. For me, cookbooks are tools that I use again and again. There are certain design aspects that are important. First and foremost, legibility. This book reminds me very much of a visit to the optometrist when they ask you to read the line with the smallest print that you're capable of seeing. I think that most of the print is in a size 9 font with the italicized items and the index in a size 8 font(it might be even smaller - a size 4 or 6). The book is very difficult to read and you certainly wouldn't be able to glance at it casually while preparing a recipe. For this reason alone, I would never buy this book or give it as a gift.
Another reason that I am not interested in using this book is that almost every recipe has a very LONG list of ingredients. Each recipe will inevitably require the reader to purchase one or more exotic items, that will probably then sit unused in the pantry. I live within a mile of a Whole Foods Market so I have access to a variety of interesting vegetarian ingredients. However, I live in a city with a very limited selection of ethnic foods, so that it would be difficult to obtain many of the ingredients in this book. The author does not offer suggestions for substitutions for these ingredients. I have a well-stocked kitchen and pantry and I still feel intimidated by the items needed for these recipes.
The recipes may be delicious, but they look like too much trouble to be bothered with.
Here are a few unfussy cookbooks that I would recommend instead:
The Roasted Vegetable
366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice, Beans, and Grains
Vegetarian Classics: 300 Essential and Easy Recipes for Every Meal
Quick Vegetarian Pleasures: More than 175 Fast, Delicious, and Healthy Meatless RecipesSimple Vegetarian Pleasures
Main-Course Vegetarian Pleasures
Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites: Flavorful Recipes for Healthful MealsMoosewood Restaurant New Classics
Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast and Easy Recipes for Any Day
Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers: Fresh Ideas for the Weeknight Table
Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
can't seem to get anything to come out right, February 8, 2010
This review is from: New Vegetarian (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
We've tried several recipes from this book, and not a single one has come out well. They've all been edible, but not much more than that. (And i know that a mere human cooking from a recipe should never expect their finished product to look exactly like the picture, but i've had a few that were so different that no one would ever guess they were supposed to be the same dish.)
I'm ambivalent about the author's choice to make the dessert section vegan. On the one hand, it's true that making vegetarian dessert is pretty darn easy and you don't need a special book for such recipes. On the other, there are also dozens upon dozens of other vegetarian cookbooks out there, but the author seemed to think she was providing something novel with the savory dishes, why not something novel with the sweet as well? I wish that, instead of doing vegan desserts, she'd done something like suggest full meal plans from the book, and the perfect dessert to finish the evening for each. That would have made me much happier than a list of vegan desserts. If i wanted to make a vegan dessert, i could get a vegan dessert cookbook.
I can imagine flipping through this book for imspiration, but i doubt i'll ever bother actually trying to follow one of the recipes again.
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