Simple Vegetarian Pleasures [Hardcover]

Jeanne Lemlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 1998

Taking the simplicity movement into the kitchen and returning to the themes that made her Quick Vegetarian Pleasures a top seller (nearly 90,000 copies sold), Jeanne Lemlin offers 200 recipes and tons of tips to help today's time-pressed readers prepare delicious vegetarian food with a minimum of fuss.

Designed to Restore Ease, Simplicity, and Healthy home-cooked food to the kitchen, Simple Vegetarian Pleasures is the book for anyone who has come home from work, gazed into the refrigerator in despair, and then picked up the phone to order yet another greasy pizza. Written by Jeanne Lemlin, the muse of all that is fast and vegetarian, it shows how with a bit of simple planning, readers can create sophisticated and delicious vegetarian meals without getting bogged down in burdensome, labor-intensive cooking.

Lemlin's key to simplicity in the kitchen begins with a well-stocked pantry, and she offers specific lists of what to buy and store in the cabinets, refrigerator, and freezer. The book also features a host of recipes and practical information, including tips on quickly roasting peppers or pitting olives; suggested menus; easy vegetable stocks to have on hand; fast breakfast dishes; make-ahead casseroles and gratins; a range of pizzas, quesadillas, sandwiches, and burgers; desserts; and much more.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It would appear that the idea underlying Simple Vegetarian Pleasures is vegetarian food that doesn't require a great deal of labor to deliver big flavors--"simple" as in "not too much trouble." Lemlin also alludes to the simplicity movement, where simple means cutting back to what's really important, gaining both time and quality of life. If one has actually embraced the simplicity movement and has the time and ambience, it remains unclear why there's so little time available to give to the preparation and eating of food, one of the more important elements of daily life.

Ignoring all the simplicity stuff, however, leaves the cook with a cookbook filled with recipes pulling on the flavors of all corners of the world. Fill your pantry according to the master plan, shop wisely, plan ahead, and have at it. This is vegetarian cooking of a sophisticated kitchen and palate (using "sophisticated" in the title would presumably scare off anyone not inclined to struggle with food). Many of the recipes could fall out of cookbooks of various ethnic origins where a mainly vegetarian diet is the rule rather than the exception.

What this book really helps us do is move beyond the notion of vegetarianism as just so much brown rice, ragg socks, hairy legs, and save the whales. That is, Simple Vegetarian Pleasures moves right to the heart of cuisine, of food with soul, and makes the absence of meat an insignificant thing. It's that simple.

Ultimately, that it is simple, and that it is vegetarian, means a lot less than that it is exceedingly pleasurable. Enjoy these lush recipes. --Schuyler Ingle

From Publishers Weekly

Lemlin (Main-Course Vegetarian Pleasures; Quick Vegetarian Pleasures) adds to her meat-free oeuvre with this unpretentious repertoire of quick-to-prepare vegetarian dishes. Without precisely defining "simple," Lemlin uses her introduction to give suggestions for stocking a pantry and a brief rundown on vegetarian nutrition. Recipes are fairly basic, although special touches enliven Mesclun Salad with Dried Apricots and Spiced Nuts; Beer Pizza (the brew's in the crust) and Coconut Lime Rice. Innovative approaches evidenced in such recipes as Tiny Eggplant Turnovers (thin slices of eggplant folded like ravioli around a goat cheese filling) accompany standards along the lines of Kale, Butternut Squash and White Bean Soup; Black Bean and Red Onion Burgers; and Macaroni and Cheese. Chapters like the one on tofu and tempeh dishes (Marinated Fried Tofu and Vegetable Salad with Mesclun, Baked Tofu and Mushrooms Hoisin, Garlicky Tempeh and Potato Ragout) open with useful tips (buy sealed tofu, because the loose variety is a breeding ground for bacteria). The chapter of breakfast recipes and that titled Pizzas, Burgers, Sandwiches, Quesadillas, Etc. brim with good ideas. Lemlin's refreshing, no-nonsense, unproselytizing attitude inspires.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks; 1st edition (April 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006019135X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060191351
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,381,551 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These recipes are true vegetarian pleasures!, September 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Simple Vegetarian Pleasures (Paperback)

I have had this book for over three years and I have yet to cook a bad recipe from it! I am not a vegetarian, just someone who likes to offer her family non meat alternatives a few nights a week. Most of the pages are worn and stained. And I find myself coming back to this book over and over again. Even my "carnivore" husband loves the recipes from this book. I especially love the long list of menu suggestions at the end of the book. It is yet another dimension that makes this book stand out from all the other vegetarian cookbooks out there.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this cookbook!, September 25, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Simple Vegetarian Pleasures (Paperback)

I have a lot of cookbooks, many of them vegetarian, but Jeanne Lemlin's books are the only cookbooks I get "stand-by" recipes from - recipes that I make again and again - and the only cookbooks from which I use lots of recipes, not just one or two. I've made several of the recipes from Simple Vegetarian Pleasures so far with great results, and I intend to continue. Favorites to date are: Sweet Potato Chili; Spinach, Roasted Red Pepper and Corn Enchiladas; Thai Fried Rice; Couscous Topped with White Beans, Tomatoes and Zucchini; and Chocolate Almond Orange Torte (made for company, who were very impressed).

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Everyday favorites, August 8, 2004

By 

E. Mathieu (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Simple Vegetarian Pleasures (Paperback)

One of my favorite vegetarian cookbooks. Nothing fancy, but lots of reliable everyday meals and a few real gems. My favorites are the black bean chili (meat eaters don't realize it's veggie) and the triple rice salad (beautiful and perfect for the holidays). I've given this book as a gift to at least 3 others--none are vegetarians, but they all love this book.