365 Vegetarian Soups (Paperback)

by Gregg R. Gillespie (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
No other dish lends itself so well to a satisfying vegetarian diet as does soup. Starting with a rich vegetable stock or even plain water, the cook can add all manner of vegetables and seasonings to produce a distinctive and infinitely variable bowl of refreshment. Gregg Gillespie's 365 Vegetarian Soups illustrates that point perfectly, his recipes generating a soup a day for a year without ever suffering repetition. Gillespie begins with fundamentals: vegetable-based stocks that can then be fortified with a nearly unending variety of ingredients. He even has a section on stocks made with but a single vegetable. Gillespie's soups cover a wide range, and he does allow for use of dairy products in some of them. There are cream soups, fruit soups, and soups especially designed to cook slowly in a crockpot. He offers a few dessert soups for those looking for something more complex for dessert than the usual sweets. Aspiring vegetarians will find this a good introduction to a meat-free regimen. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
Hearty, nutritious, refreshing and delicious, soup has always been the original comfort food. From light consommés to creamy chowders, tangy curries to chilled fruit concoctions, you'll find the perfect dish to fit any occasion. Tasty meals-in-a-pot abound from recipes inspired by regions as far flung as Japan, Italy, Russia, and New Zealand and as close to home as New York, New England and the Southwest. Chase the cold away with Hot & Sour Tofu Soup, Acorn Squash and Apple, and Roquefort Soup with Cauliflower. Celebrate summer with an infinite variety of fresh fruit and vegetable delights: Chilled Curried Peach Soup, Cantaloupe Cooler, Gazpacho, and much more. For dessert, try Chocolate Mint Soup, Cherry Wine, or Chestnut and Amaretto. With tips on making vegetable stocks, hints on blending complimentary flavors, and suggestions on ways to substitute ingredients that may be hard to find, this is a practical and inspiring resource.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Sterling (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806993987
• ISBN-13: 978-0806993980
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,133,143 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fancy soup names that don't inspire, February 16, 2005

By	M. Franz (Costa Rica) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am an avid cook who cooks at least once a day - and usually a dish I have never made before. Consequently, I thought that this book would increase the number of recipes to be tried by quite a bit and was very exited to recieve it. Obviously, as my 2 star rating suggests, my expectations were not met - and here is why:

True to the name of the book, Gillespie does include a plethora of recipes - I didn't count them but I'm pretty confident that the number must be 365 or at least close. However, almost none of the recipes sound as though they might actually be delicious. I found them to be rather uninspired and uninspiring and keep thinking that Gillespie sacrificed the idea of good and wholesome soup for being as fancy and innovative as possible. The overabundance of "fancy" soup is rather burdensome when you are simply looking for a straightforward soup. The back-cover for example, lists several recipes that fall into this category - Brandied Strawberry Soup, Chocolate Mint Soup, etc. just don't do it for me.

When I finally managed to locate a recipe that sounded like I would enjoy it, I had to discover that some of the listed ingredients never showed up in the actual recipe - this should have been caught by an editor. The soup, however, turned out quite well once I had figured out when to add the missing igredients.

Unfortunately, there is more: Gillespie likes to included such illustrious items as dried potato buds, dried onions, etc. to his recipes - I would think that cooking involves fresh ingredients when available. While I understand that not everyone can get fresh galangal and that, therefore, it is helpful to used dried galangal in recipes, last time I checked, potatoes and onions were readily available pretty much anywhere.

In addition, several recipes list chicken stock or fish sauce as ingredients (sometimes optional, sometimes as an alternative for a vegetarian item). Personally, if you publish a vegetarian cookbook, I want to see vegetarian ingredients only.

And finally, one recepie had me laughing in disbelief. Gillespie lists a recipe for a "Super Fast Soup.: Now, if you were in the market for a super-fast soup, what would you do? I'd open a can of soup - and so would Gillespie. To make it a real recipe in his book, he suggests adding frozen veggies and water. Wow, I am so glad I have a cookbook to guide me through this difficult process.Unbelievable.

As is now truly obvious, I do not like this book and I will certainly not recommend it. There are much better soup books avaliable and unless you are on a quest to own every single vegetarian soup cook book ever published, I would strongly advise you to stay clear of this book

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I really like soup..., January 2, 2003

By	Melanie Wilson "vegetarianbabydotcom" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

...especially when the weather turns cold in the fall and throughout the winter and early spring months. Most of the soups that I prepare are simple and nutritious. And while I enjoy the few soups that I regularly make, I wanted to expand my collection of recipes. So I was delighted to receive a copy of 365 Vegetarian Soups. Think of it, a different soup for every day of the year!

Gregg R. Gillespie's soup recipes are contained in the following sections: vegetable stocks, basic soups, fruit soups, cream soups, hearty soups, chilled soups and dessert soups. The ingredient lists and directions are well laid out and easy to follow. Each recipe also contains the number of servings.

As the title states, the recipes are vegetarian, not vegan. While some of the recipes can be easily modified for vegan diets, others containing several dairy products will be more difficult to modify. There are some recipes, like Ginger Melon Soup and Vegetable Soup With Lemon & Mint that require no alterations for vegans. And with 365 recipes, there are sure to be numerous recipes that everyone will enjoy.
--Reviewed by N. Glenn Perrett