The Vegetarian Chili Cookbook: 80 Deliciously Different One-Dish Meals [Hardcover]

Robin Robertson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 1998

Today, when millions of households contain—and almost any party will include—both vegetarians and meateaters, vegetarian chili takes away the guesswork: it's robust enough for carnivores, and it's sure to please vegetarians. Robin Roberston serves up a tasty invitation to discover how surprisingly versatile this timeless favorite can be. From mild concoctions suitable for fussy kids to five-alarm conflagrations for committed chileheads, these recipes are brimming with creative ideas and satisfying flavors.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What makes a dish chili? Can there really be 80 distinct versions of this much-loved dish, and all without the meat? For Robertson, any stew-like dish qualifies as chili if it is made with chili powder and includes some combination of cumin, oregano, tomatoes, beans, onions, and garlic. She offers enough variety in this modest, clearly written book that you could make dozens of her recipes and easily tell them apart. To vary her creations, Robertson uses different kinds of beans and lentils. She also calls for soy and other meat alternatives, such as seitan, the chewy, low-fat food made from wheat protein.

Robertson invents unexpected combinations, like Jamaican Jerk Chili, made with tempeh, a kind of fermented soybean cake, with allspice and oregano, plus a shot of rum. Spicy Apple Raisin Chili, a sweet, mild dish made with apple juice, cinnamon, and brown sugar, is an extremely daring recipe to say the least, and may not appeal to everyone. Hot-heads will like the collection of superincendiary chilis. They are made with four tablespoons of a generously cayenne-spiked chili powder that Robertson has you make from scratch. A jug of water is recommended to accompany these chilis!

Most of the recipes are easily put together, including the basic chili powder, which uses only ground chiles, cumin, and oregano, and skips the bitter dried garlic and salt that mars commercial brands. The Vegetarian Chili Cookbook is a deliciously different book. --Dana Jacobi --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"A measure of the universality of a recipe is that it can withstand the vagaries and demands of different global cuisines. Such appears to be the case with chili, which, after sufficient combinations, mixtures, and temperatures, still maintains enough of its original formula to be recognizable. newspaper food editor Robertson is so enthralled with the versatility of this southwestern stew that she pokes and prods it into amazing shapes-with eggplant and portobello mushrooms, for instance, or with spaghetti, cheese, and beans for five-way Cincinnati style." -- Booklist

"For cooks anxious to rev up their dull chili routine, here's a well researched recipe collection that blows the lid off this particular dish." -- ForeWord

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Common Press (November 3, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558321470
• ISBN-13: 978-1558321472
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,448,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A longtime vegan, Robin Robertson has written nearly twenty cookbooks, including 1,000 Vegan Recipes, Vegan Planet, Vegan Fire and Spice, Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, and Quick-Fix Vegetarian. For more information about her books and for sample recipes, visit her website at www.globalvegankitchen.com and her blog at http://veganplanet.blogspot.com.

Before she began writing cookbooks, Robin was a restaurant chef and cooking teacher. When she left the restaurant business in the late 1980s, Robin became vegan for ethical reasons. Over the years, she has fine-tuned her plant-based diet into an eclectic and healthful cooking style which she thinks of as a creative adventure with an emphasis on the vibrant flavors of global cuisines and fresh ingredients. In addition to writing cookbooks, Robin writes 'The Global Vegan' column for VegNews Magazine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple, Delicious and Inventive, April 26, 2000

By 

Shalese Huang (Sunnyvale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Vegetarian Chili Cookbook: 80 Deliciously Different One-Dish Meals (Paperback)

Simple, Delicious and Inventive. What more can you want from a cookbook! Chili is great work-day meal in the sense that it is one-dish, it reheats well, freeze well, and it actually tastes better on 2nd, or 3rd day!

This book opens my eyes on the ingredients that can go into a chili pot: orange, apple, raisin, tequila ...etc. If you think chili all tasts the same, try this book. It is also healthful. Every recipe uses about 1 TB of olive and that's it! And trust me, you won't even care the chili is not fatty, because it tastes so good. I am actually not a vegetarian. So when I have left-over meat, I jump them in the chili pot. No problem.

Most of all, this book is E-Z. Every recipe may have a long list of ingredients (mostly spices), but to cook it is pretty much: dump everything in, stir, and walk away.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious!!, November 23, 2003

By 

merrymousies (Waterford, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Vegetarian Chili Cookbook: 80 Deliciously Different One-Dish Meals (Paperback)

This is such a great book - prior to "going Veg" a few years ago I had a great chili cookbook that was similar to this but with meat all throughout When I first decided to stop eating meat etc I went in search of a new chili cookbook and came across this one and have loved it ever since. There are classic chili recipes from the tex/mex style to different types that are more like veg etable stews to chilis that use ingredients like coffee/wines/tequilla/beer etc. There's a chapter n really spicy chilis and there's a neat chapter on things to do with chili leftovers. I've been really happy with each ofthe recipes I've tried. I have a hard time just sticking to the recipe (love to play/invent in the kitchen) and this book has lots of ideas to draw upon for that purpose as well. There are chilis with beans, chilis with tempeh, chilis with textured soy, etc. The recipes have fun facts about chili sprinkled in and there's even a recipe for homemade chili podwer. The ingredients are integresting and flavorful throughout. Definitely a 5 star cookbook for those with a hunger for chili!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Proof that You don't have to have Meat in Chili for it to be Divine, May 24, 2010

By 

Captain Katie (Long Beach, CA and the Sunny Caribbean) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Vegetarian Chili Cookbook: 80 Deliciously Different One-Dish Meals (Paperback)

THE VEGETARIAN CHILI COOKBOOK is one of ten chili books I refer to when I want to make chili differently than the two recipes I usually use. We have chili a lot in our house and both my Dad and my Mama have their favorite ways of cooking it. I grew up with their recipes and I have documented them in one of my "Amazon So You'd Like to Guides" and I hope you take a look at it. Both recipes are delicious, but when you've had them as often as I've had 'em, you sort of yearn for something a bit different. So, once a week, usually on Saturdays, I break out these ten books and search for a chili recipe I either haven't tried, or one I haven't made in a long time. Of course, like all cooks, I fudge a bit with the ingredients, but not all that much. I like to stick pretty close to the recipes, at least the first few times I make it, so I can get an idea of what the writer/recipe maker had intended.

And let me tell you, you'd be surprised at the subtleties there are in a chili recipe. As they say, no two chile recipes were created equal, but the recipes in The Vegetarian Chili Cookbook have never let me down. I've got a lot of chili books, have tried a lot of recipes over the years, but the recipes here, like the recipes in my other nine fave books, have been consistently good. You can't go wrong with THE VEGETARIAN CHILI COOKBOOK.