Customer Reviews

Vegetarian Sushi (Essential Kitchen Series)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an OK book for gathering ideas for vegetarian sushi, but appears to be written by somebody that has no clue what a vegetarian is. There are recipes that are vegan, and others that are ovo-vegetarian, but Brigid seems to be clueless as to what a vegetarian is, as her dashi recipes all call for fish flakes. Also, she lists seafood possibilities for various sushi types.

It's not a bad read, and there is good information, but it's yet another book written by a non-vegetarian without bothering to ensure that the recipes are at least lacto-ovo.

It's a disappointment that in a book called vegetarian sushi, there are so many refs to seafood and recipes that call for meat products. Especially considering that the typical American mis-conception of sushi is fish, and this book claims to provicde vegetarian recipes.

i was looking for a strict vegetarian sushi book and this book often uses bonito which is a fish product...

This book has everything it needs to pass as great to the majority of the population; glossy photos, cute names, and it's about sushi.
Very trendy.
As a Vegan, I was not as impressed. The stock recipes include bonito (dried fish), and offered no substitutions for it. Several of the recipes called for the stock, or water. Water doesn't add any flavor to food, obviously. So it's either fish, or a substandard dish. The author also includes seafood suggestions on nearly every page. The last time I checked, fish are living creatures. Fish are not vegetables.
I expected a few mentions of egg or dairy, it is a supposedly Vegetarian book. But I can't say I expected flesh to be involved in the cooking process.
Before becoming Vegan, I had never eaten sushi due to my allergy to seafood. So if you have a similar allergy and are looking to enjoy Sushi, I would recommend searching elsewhere.

I'm a vegetarian and I love sushi. That statement confuses many people, who hear the word sushi and think, "raw fish". This book offers an excellent introduction to preparing and serving vegetarian sushi (including alternatives to the fish-based stock often used in preparation of vegetable sushi), from selecting the ingredients to preparing the rice to creating a roll to setting the table. The color illustrations demonstrate the artful presentation of the food (and make you hungry just looking at them!), and many of the recipes include several different suggestions for filling combinations. This is an idea cookbook, not just a how-to cookbook.

This is a book full of great ideas for all different kinds of sushi. The author's instructions are very clear and the pictures are beautiful! There is a picture of each one of the different types of sushi as well as clear soups and small plates to go along with them. Sushi is very simple and quick to make and looks very elegant. I highly recommend this book.

Wonderful color pictures throughout, lots and lots of different ideas for filling that sushi roll. I like how the idea of brown rice is pulled in as an option too since its so good for you. The beginning shows the step bystep how to prep the rice the rest is all about different ideas and options from adding tempura, to using different bell peppers and spinach, to using seasoned noodles. Nothing weird, just really tasty.

Ms. Treloar tells you everything a beginner needs to know to prepare and serve an exquisite vegetarian sushi meal. She covers ingredients, equipment and utensils, garnishes, sauces, and pickles, and even includes a chapter on sushi etiquette. Her cooking and assembly techniques are easy to follow -- you feel like an expert in no time.

What really makes this book stand out are the photographs. Each kind of sushi is pictured, often bigger than life, in a full-page color photograph that has the presence of a portrait. Even the photographs accompanying the technique sections are little works of art.

You cannot leaf through this book without wanting to make every variety of sushi in it, and there are many. To name just a few, there are spinach and pine nut rolls, avocado-wasabi sushi canapes, pickled plum and brown rice sushi rolls, grilled shiitake sushi, sushi made with various noodles, seasoned tofu pouches, omelette pouches, and very decorative sushi that resemble battleships, camellias, and wisteria.

Many of the recipes can be made with readily available ingredients, but you will probably want to go to a Japanese market to get the full benefit of the book. If there's a Japanese tableware store near you, your checkbook is in trouble!

I use this one more as visual inspiration than as a cookbook; it's got gorgeous presentation ideas, but I'm just not that fond of (for example) raw red and yellow peppers. The focus is far more on the look than on the taste, and I'd rather see at least an equal emphasis on taste.

I was also disappointed by the lack of reference to actual Japanese vegetarian traditions; the author seemed to be basically making up food that 'looked' right without considering what the history involved. (Full disclosure: I've semiprofessionally taught Japanese cooking classes.)

It does have interesting ideas for some nontraditional but tasty-looking dessert sushi made with fruit.

I am a vegetarian, and love sushi. Since so much sushi is sashimi, I wanted to find a good resource for vegetarian sushi. I was pleased to find a book titled exactly that. However, when I cracked the book open, I was taken aback by the multitude of "variations" for the recipes that call for seafood and fish. And the soups all call for dashi, with the provided dashi recipe, which uses bonito, or dried fish flakes. The book does note underneath that "for a purely vegetarian version" you can use double the miso in place of the bonito. This makes no sense to me at all, since the inclusion of fish makes it completely non-vegetarian. It has no place in a book titled "Vegetarian Sushi."

The photos were lovely, but I was hoping for more step-by-step photos on how to actually assemble and roll the sushi.

All in all, this book fell flat. It didn't commit to being what it was intended to be, and didn't make me feel like I could competently take on sushi armed with what I'd learned.

This book is a great resource for how to do all the basic tasks associated with sushi preparation - making the rice, the different types of rolls, preparing seasoned vegetables, etc. As a vegetarian, it was a relief to find a book with instructions on how to do these things that didn't also have tons of pictures of dead fish (even though some of the recipes call for bonito flakes, which is irksome). I found that the actual recipes for sushi rolls in this book are ok, but overall not especially flavorful. So I recommend this book as a jumping-off point to learn the basics, and I haven't yet found any other books that contain more creative vegetarian sushi.