Customer Reviews

Vegetables on the Side: The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I keep checking this book out of the library, so I guess I'm just going to have to break down and buy my own copy. It is one of the two vegetable cookbooks I turn to again and again, the other being Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone". Several recipes are given for each vegetable, and most are easy to prepare. If you want to include a varied selection of vegetables in your diet, and you want eating them to be a pleasure, then this book will serve you well.

This book is one of the top five in my kitchen - the only one soley for vegetables. After a trip to a farmers market - this is where you go to learn how to cook the Japanese eggplant or the Jerusalem artichoke or the rabe.

I never thought I would need to purchase a cookbook about vegetables but I was proven wrong. This is a book that is well worth the money you pay for it. From a-z vegetables are arranged in chapters that begin with a discription of each with it's history, storage, how to choose and cooking methods. What then follows is a collection a recipes for each vegetable that ranges from the common place to the not so common. The standard is that all the recipes are very tasty, well explainded and easy to accomplish. Since purchasing this book, when I see a good looking vegetable I will buy it and then go home and look through the book to find how I will prepare it. I have never been disappointed. The author will often even give suggestions on what to prepare as an entree to accompany the vegetable dish.

This is one of the most used cookbooks on my shelf. Each chapter focusses on a different vegetable and gives an introduction that shows the history of the vegetable, how to select the vegetable and basic cooking methods, before going on to give specific recipes. It is an invaluable sourcebook for those of us who would like to add more veggies to our diet, but aren't sure how to select or cook them. This is not necessarily a book for vegetarians, it's more a book for everyday people who want to cook more complete meals at home.

The vegetable portions of my family meals have gone from the obligatory steamed broccoli to a new and exciting variety of dishes that are tasty and wholesome. The recipes are excellent, but even better is the information given about each vegetable and cooking methods that lets the cook to experiment with their own ideas.

I would like to have this book and perhaps in the future I will buy a copy. Some people may not like it because the author doesn't mind using cream, oil, wine and cheese. To me, it gives food flavor and good mouth-feel. That's important to me. I rather enjoy my food than to constantly worry about my health. I don't need to be super slim. And the French eat rich foods, and they are not as fat as us Americans. We eat too much, that's the problem.

This cookbook includes recipes for a wide array of vegetables as well as interesting background on the origin and distribution of each vegetable in human societies. Unfortunately the recipes tend to be high in fat. Most of the recipes include generous portions of butter, oil, or heavy cream. Nutritional information is not included for the recipes. People should eat more vegetables, but with the obesity epidemic, these recipes are not the best way to improve our diets.