Customer Reviews

The Vegan Gourmet: Full Flavor & Variety with Over 100 Delicious Recipes

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This really should be called the "low-salt, new food, kind-of-hard-to-prepare, and ok-but-not-really-fantastic Vegan Gourmet cookbook." I've tried about 8 of the most interesting-looking recipes in the book, and haven't been terribly impressed with them. Most of them have left me with a feeling of "well, that's ok, but not really great."

After some "adjusting" of the ingredients, some of the recipes were a bit better. Perhaps the most annoying thing about the recipes is that they are written like they should be in a low-sodium cookbook, but the author doesn't mention that her suggestions for salt might be on the low side for most people. Thinking there was some reason for the low amounts of salt, I prepared the recipes exactly as written, and found them to be "missing something." Doubling or tripling the suggested amount of salt substantially enhanced the flavors.

Another thing I didn't like about the book is that many of the recipes are what I would call "new food," meaning that they are odd combinations of ingredients made up by the author that aren't based on any particular culinary tradition or cuisine. I realize that "gourmet" usually means trying new and different combinations of foods, and I do applaud the attempt at variety, but I just can't say that I was that impressed by most of what I've tried from this book.

Lastly, the recipes are substantially more difficult to prepare than they're worth. I love to cook, and don't mind spending 2 or 3 hours cooking a dish that is absolutely fantastic, but I'm not going to spend that kind of time for something that's just OK. Here's a perfect example... the Sweet Potato, Wheat Berry, Bell Pepper, and Pumpkin Seed Salad in Tomato-Chive Vinaigrette. For starters, the idea of sweet potatos and bell peppers combined with a tomato-chive vinaigrette simply isn't appealing to me. Then, take into consideration that the recipe takes 6-8 hours of soaking time, 1 hour of cooking time, and another hour of chilling time for the wheat berries, plus grilling of the sweet potato, roasting and peeling of the bell peppers, roasting of the pumpkin seeks, and mixing of the tomato-chive vinaigrette, and you've got an all-day project on your hands for a salad! To be fair, the author warns the reader that this particular recipe takes a lot of time to prepare, but sheesh...

This book does have some good recipes in it, does contain some good ideas for interesting food combinations, and does contain a listing of recipes that "should" take less than 30 minutes to prepare, but overall I found the recipes required too much effort and too much "adjusting" for what I got out of them. I find that I don't use this book much. The Vegan Gourmet is good for experimentation, but not great as an everyday cookbook. I much prefer "The Mediterranan Vegan Kitchen," which is simply an outstanding cookbook that I use all the time.

Too often vegan and vegetarian cook books are entitled "quick and easy meals," or "vegan cooking in 15 minutes." What I crave is complex taste, and thoughtful, interesting, beautiful food. the Vegan Gourmet is one of my favorite cook books because it is just that: thoughful. The recipes are not difficult to prepare and many take less then 30 minutes... all I have tried tasted wonderful, but the Calde Verde soup & the beta carrotene bisque (carrots & sweet potatos, YUM!) have a special place in my heart. This is a must for your vegan library... and is great for those times when you want something besides the same old quick and easy tofu.

LOTS and lots of diverse meals, according to this book. Vegan cookbooks I've bought in the past have been little more than 101 different ways to make spaghetti and burritos without meat. Not this one! I am a newly-born vegan as well as a newly-formed cook (previously never trying more than mac'n'cheese!) and this book was a delight nonetheless. It contains great food that isn't hard to make at all! Not only did I purchase it for variety, but I was dying to try the french toast and pizza recipes, which came out wonderfully!

The only thing I wish this book had is prep times for each of the recipes-- I'm thankful for the "almost instant" index (15 min or less) but some of the others I undertake without realizing prep time can take 45 minutes, before cooking!

At any rate, I'm sure more experienced cooks will not suffer my prep time dilemna! I've served to vegans and non-vegans alike and gotten rave reviews with this book, definitely one to add to your kitchen library.

I find that a lot of vegan food tends to be tasty but unattractive. The great thing about this book is that it provides a whole raft of elegant and tasty meal ideas that don't provoke dubious looks from my friends (none of whom are even vegetarian). My favorite recipe is Rice and Lentils with Pimiento-Stuffed Olives, which I have started to make with spicy Cajun-style marinated olives. A great company meal is Cappellini with Tomatoes, Arugula, and Calamata Olives, which, when made with the full amount of red chili flakes, is very zippy. After Jay Soloman's 150 Vegan Favorites, this is my second favorite cookbook.

This book is a wonderful surprise. It was one of the first vegan cookbooks that I found to offer such incredible variety of flavors and cuisines.

The authors have not limited themselves to tempeh and garlic granules to give a recipe some flavor. They've even seem to include, can you imagine, vegetables! Oddly enough they seem to realize that vegan and vegetarian both contain *VEG* in them and as such base recipes on a good dose of vegetables.

They are also unafraid to try out a variety of unique grains (from Kamut to Quinoa) which lends a wonderful variety that I've not found in many other veg*n cookbooks.

I'm not even a Vegan but since I try to limit my dairy/egg intake as much as possible, this book actually beats out some good Vegetarian books I have on my shelves. It's a huge success.

I highly recommend this to anyone searching for fun, healthy and unique dishes that are, as a whole, easy to prepare.

Enjoy!

This book is outstanding, from the beautifully photographed front cover to the "Almost Instant" Recipe Listing in the back! This book is not an "alternative" long-live-tofu cookbook, thank God. You don't need to be vegetarian to enjoy the fantastic collection of entrees and side dishes that predominately flaunt Asian and South American flavors. The roast vegetable dishes are great too. Page after page presents some of the most delectable recipes I've seen in one book in years. Recipes are appropriate for informal meals as well as upscale entertaining for the epicurean palette. There's so much here: nutritional information, cooking notes, a complete glossary of specialty ingredients. Use of a few out of the ordinary ingredients may transition you into being an altogether more inventive cook!

If you are looking for a vegan cookbook that actually has recipes you have not seen in other vegan cookbooks, here's that book! They are not only original but they are almost simple and I tried several recipes from each chapter and they were all good...you know I never knew little red potatoes cooked with a little olive oil and basil would turn out to be something I could eat almost every day of my life. Okay one drawback is that some of the ingredients required for some recipes may not already be on your shelf and may not be that easy to come by. But that is my only and not much of a complaint. Most of the recipes are fast and all are nutritious and if you are one of those cooks who can always make food look good, like my friend susan can, this book has some recipes that could be real showstoppers. Yummy

I owned this book for about a year and cooked about 1/3 of the dishes. Each one seemed bland and uninspired, although the recipe titles sounded interesting. I gave it to a coworker who is vegan and his family agrees that the dishes are a good launching point, but they all needed a little something added to finish them. Sometimes it was just upping the spices while sometimes it was adding, say, a sweet vegetable to counter balance a spicy or sour ingredient. It's a shame- the recipes are easy to follow, have simple ingredients and are fairly healthy... they just aren't very good.

I've found this book to be a great addition to my collection of vegan cookbooks. The recipes are simple, based on whole foods, and provide interesting twists on common foods. One of the features that is most helpful is the inclusion of prep times and nutritional information, so that you can see ahead of time exactly how many calories, fat grams, etc. each recipe contains and choose accordingly.

Several of my favorite recipes from this book include black bean stir fry with broccoli, corn and cilantro; asparagus and green bean stir fry with tofu; and orzo pasta with olives, tarragon, and pecans. The curried lentil stir-fry with fennel and apricots was delicious as well. I haven't tried many of the soups, but I was not impressed with the chilled asparagus orange soup - it tasted bland and the texture wasn't great either.

I don't disagree with several reviewers who said a number of the recipes were a bit bland or needed extra salt, but I appreciate the author's attempt at making low-sodium recipes - you can always add it later. As with all recipes I get from other people, I just take the time to experiment with what I need to add to get the recipe just right. In many recipes from this book, some extra salt, soy sauce, or liquid aminos do the trick just fine.

In short, I would recommend this cookbook. It isn't perfect, but it's very good and has a variety of healthy dishes that are relatively easy to prepare.

I just have to say that this book is practically perfect in my eyes. It's creative and informative and the recipes I have tried (about 30 so far) are all DELICIOUS. It's not just a tofu and brown rice thing. In fact, even if you are allergic to soy products, you will find plenty to love in this book. The same authors also wrote The Complete Vegan Cookbook, which is also fantastic. Of course, you don't have to be a total vegan to use this book--it will help you include a few vegan meals in your week, which is a good way to start getting healthier. Enjoy!