Customer Reviews

The Spirited Vegetarian: Over 100 Recipes Made Lively with Wine and Spirits

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To put this review into perspective for you, it is written by a serious student of cooking that has been actively studying food on their own for 25 years. I have been focusing on Italian food for the last 10 years. My favorite cookbook is "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute of America.

I purchased this book on a whim prior to embarking on a vegetarian lifestyle because I love to cook with alcohol and wanted to add more healthy meals into our family diet. I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this book from day one.

The author includes a nice wine chart in the front of the book for those of you that aren't familiar with all types of wine. I found it handy since I tend to stick to the Italian wines.

Once I saw the recipe for Limoncello (a family staple in our home) I was hooked. If you have never made this yourself give it a try. The recipe is very simple and the end result is addicting. The recipe for spaghetti with beets is amazing. I never liked beets until I made this dish. It now reappears monthly in my home. Likewise, the chilled prosecco and melon soup is wonderful. It is such a refreshing start to a meal on a hot day. How about a Sangria fruit salad, that is included as well.

My only complaint about this book is that it doesn't have the pretty pictures that I love. If you are vegan this is probably not the book for you. Although I have been about to successfully adapt some of the non-vegan recipes with trial and error. If you have been a vegan and a home cook for long time you can probably do the same thing with ease.

My husband teases me that I have an obsession for cookbooks, particularly vegetarian cookbooks. He is not a vegetarian and often quotes the line from Pulp Fiction spoken by Samuel L. Jackson: "I'm not a vegetarian, but my girlfriend is- which pretty much makes me one, too."

I have made most of the recipies in this book and we both love them, particularly the Wild Mushroom Soup and Vegetarian Cassoulet. I've made many recipes for my omnivore parents as well. They loved everything- so I bought them a copy. They actually use it!

The prinicple of this book is that all foods benefit from a little kick- it's absolutley true! Every recipe has booze in it, so be prepared. As well as cooking with it, the author provides wine pairing suggestions- unusual for a vegetarian cookbook. While I don't eat meat, I do drink. However, if you shouldn't be drinking it, you shouldn't be cooking with it.

Most ingredients are easy to find at my local grocery/liquor store. Most recipes are vegan or will be if one ingredient is omitted- which the author occasionally points out. A few of the desserts have no vegan prospects, such as triple chocolate-casis brownies, but there are several (sans chocolate) that would be suitable.

If you are a strict vegan, this may not be a book for you. (The author considers honey to be vegan, for instance.) If you require pictures, not the book for you either. But if you want a fantastic cookbook, vegetarian or not, I can't say enough about The Spirited Vegetarian.

This is an awesome cook book. The steps and directions are easy to follow. This cook book could make any one a life time vegetarian the recipes are just that good!

Since I'm not a vegetarian, I wasn't sure if this cookbook would be helpful, but it has some really interesting recipes, and I've made a couple of them and they were quite tasty.

Love this cookbook! The recipes are not difficult, but yield gourmet-tasting meals. The charts of various wines and their flavors is extremely helpful, especially to someone who is not "wine savvy" like me!!

The Spirited Vegetarian: Over 100 Recipes Made Lively With Wine And Spirits is a testament to the fact that a vegetarian lifestyle can be gourmet and fun. Paulette Mitchell is a renowned vegetarian chef who has been crating delicious, palate pleasing, appetite satisfying recipes from decades. Now this veteran cooking instructor and prolific cookbook author has published a compendium of recipes for the vegetarian that incorporate wine and spirits into dishes as an essential ingredient that elevates their flavors for even the most discerning. From Diced Vegetables In Endive Leaves with Sherried Plum Sauce; Yukon Gold Potato-Leek Soup; and Saffron Risotto with Vegetables in Curry Cream Sauce; to Red Wine Ratatouille; Spaghetti di Vino with Beets; and Broiled Bananas with Rum-Raisin Sauce, The Spirited Vegetarian is a unique and welcome addition to any and all dedicated vegetarian cookbook collections.

It's amazing how much a little bit of spirits can add to the flavor of a dish. Paulette Mitchell has another winner here. Her meals are always delicious, but also fast and easy. This is a keeper!