Customer Reviews

Vegetarian Express Lane Cookbook: Really Easy Meals for Really Busy Cooks

5 star:		(10)
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These are extremely well engineered recipes. In many cases, Ms. Fritschner has taken recipes that are sometimes made with meat (e.g., split pea soup) and removed the meat, simplified the preparation, and---according to my meat-eating spouse---greatly improved on the original. To add meat to her recipes would be like adding mayonaise to grapenuts. One could say that Ms. Fritschner finds the right set of ingredients and just gives them a little nudge in the right direction.

A perfect example is the garlic and chick-pea soup, which is essentially just two cans of garbanzo beans run through a blender, with some spices and simmering. Hands down, best soup I've ever had. No chef at an elegant restaurant could have conceived of something so simple. Rather than relying on the natural creaminess and flavor of chickpeas, they make a butter, flour, and cream base that needs to be flavored with something tangy like clams or bacon (and cheese!), with potatoes for added texture. The difference is between fresh-off-the-stalk corn to canned spinach: one is naturally perfect, while the other has to try hard not to suck.

I am a vegetarian & a working mom & this is by far the most valuable cookbook I own. I can honestly say I use it almost daily - the recipes make it so easy to fix a quick, healthy, tasty meal after a hard day working. The only (minor) quibble I have is that a lot of the recipes call for more fat or cheese than I like to use. The Creamy Chickpea Soup with Garlic & Lemon was the first vegetarian food my husband ever requested that I fix again! And I've served Lucky Beans & Rice to everyone & everyone likes it - even the bean haters. I honestly can't reccommend this book too highly.

This is the book that taught me how to cook. I was intimidated by other cookbooks with their long ingredient lists and complicated preparations. Recipes from this cookbook are easy to make and absolutely delicious. I would recommend this book for people who want to begin to cook more meals at home, even if they aren't vegetarian -- the recipes are so good that even meat-eaters would appreciate them.

This book has mouthwatering, uncomplicated, vegetarian recipes. There is something for everyone. Most cookbooks require many ingredients and have tomatoes or tofu in just about every recipe, this one makes it easy with minimal, simple ingredients. There are great tips to help you before you experiment, which is really thoughtful. I made the Sweet Potato Soup and it was an interesting surprise, really good and very easy to make.
The only thing I found lacking in this book is nutritional information for the recipies, it would be nice to know fat and calorie content per serving.

I found the recipes interesting and easy to follow. Most of the recipes didn't have many hard to find ingredients - I usually have most of the ingredients on hand. So far I've tried Curried Potatoes and Eggplant, White Beans with Sage, and Quick Greens and Red Bell Peppers. All have been delicious. I like the fact that there are simple recipes like Quick Fried Cabbage that only have 2 ingredients - some cookbooks only have complicated recipes. My only negative comment is that the index could have been better. For example, if you look up Kale, it doesn't tell you all the recipes for Greens as well, only the Kale and Currants recipe.

The recipes in this book are delicious, and most importantly, the ingredients are simple and inexpensive. I've seen a lot of books that have terrific recipes, but the cost of ingredients ends up being prohibitive. This is great vegetarian eating on a budget!

I have had and used this cookbook since it was published. I pulled it out again yesterday to make Aromatic Persian Rice, telling myself this recipe was probably going to be harder than usual, take longer than usual, etc., etc. Although I'd never tried this recipe before, in less than 45 minutes, we were at the table eating -- and it was terrific. (Even my picky 8-year-old enjoyed it!)

All the recipes I've used in this cookbook have been terrific. I've bought other (more pricey; better known, including Moosewood) vegetarian cookbooks, but this is the one I keep coming back to.

My title says it all. The recipes are easy, cheap and delicious, and I'm not even a vegetarian! What more can you ask for. I've given this cookbook to at least 10 people, and I use the recipes from it weekly.

Wow, I can't believe I have owned this book for over 10 years now. It is well-loved, with the post-it notes, dog-ears, and occasional food stained pages to prove it. Like another reviewer, this is the book that taught me to cook, during my first summer away from home. As someone totally new to the kitchen, I appreciated that the recipes that involved little more than opening a few cans, chopping a few vegetables, and mixing everything together. Because she uses a mix of canned, frozen, and fresh vegetables, there is usually not too much prep work and the recipes in this book provided a very easy way to ease myself into cooking. I now love it, but unfortunately I don't often have the "luxury" of spending hours creating a complicated recipe, so I often find myself turning back to these classics. For those learning to cook, the other book that was essential to my development as a cook, and that gave me the confidence to experiment, was How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart by Pam Anderson (no, not that Pam Anderson).

This really is my favorite cookbook! I have a lot of other vegetarian cookbooks and this one is by far the best. The recipes are all easy and turn out great. Everone in my family loves them from my not vegetarian husband to my 2 and 4 year old.
I really can not say enough great things about this cookbook.