The World in your Kitchen: Vegetarian recipes from Africa, Asia and Latin America for Western kitchens (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: chopped oil salt, toor dal, mung dal, Sri Lanka, Meghna Guhathakurta, West Africa (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Hold the groans at the announcement of yet another vegetarian cookbook, because Wells and readers of the New Internationalist magazine have put together an information-packed gastronomic tour of other worlds. Plus, the excellent color photographs appearing on nearly every page lighten her occasional preachy text on the merits of vegetarianism. And the six full-page sidebars on specific ingredients (such as bananas, corn, and noodles) provide useful--and amusing--data. Her 150 recipes are divided into four sections, from starters to desserts, and are further grouped by area and country. So, in addition to the all-too-familiar dal, hummus, and tabbouli, more exotic dishes include Mozambique's cashed nuts piri piri, Bahamian gunga (pigeon peas and rice), boiled pumpkin from Malawi, and Aamras, an Indian mango dessert. Barbara Jacobs --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This colourful book demonstrates the amazing world-wide diversity of vegetarian ingredients and shows how just about every non-Western culture in the world has developed healthy non-meat cuisine." - JANE BROPHY, THE VEGETARIAN SOCIETY; " The World in Your Kitchen cookbook is very welcome. My imagination will be given a very necessary fillip by this international gathering of recipes." - GLENDA JACKSON, MP

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: New Internationalist; Revised edition (June 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904456200
• ISBN-13: 978-1904456209
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #915,204 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real multi-cultural cookbook, November 3, 2003

By	merrymousies (Waterford, VA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The World in Your Kitchen: Vegetarian Recipes from Africa, Asia and Latin America for Western Kitchens With Country Information and Food Facts (Vegetarian Cooking) (Paperback)

There are a number of things that I like about this cookbook, in addition to the tasty recipes themselves. First, it really does cover most of the world (the only countries left out are Europe and the US/Canada but I guess the author figured we already get a lot of those cookbooks). There are recipes from Bangladesh, Bahamas, Cambodia, Ghana, Syria, Kenya, Thailand, Guatemala, Brazil, Jamaica, Indonesia, Malaysia, Afganistan, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Haiti, Algeria, Peru, and I could go on.

There is a nice intro section (35pgs) that talks about nutrition, where to get certain vitamins/minerals and some history of eating habits/the force of marketing/big money - how we got so hooked on eating animals.

Then the recipes are broken out into the following sections:Starters & Snacks, Main Dishes, Side Dishes, Deserts & Drinks. Within each of these sections the recipes are broken out by continent (Africa, Asia, Middle East, Caribbean & Latin America) and the recipes themselves have a little intro that's stpecific to the food as well as the country its from and the native name for it.

Color pictures and artwork is on every page and there's lots of interesting information - more than just a cookbook but short stories about world eating which is neat.

The recipes are good from what I've tried so far. They're pretty straightforward and rely more on the flavors of the vegetables than on putting lots of different spices in there. The spices that it does call for are easily found (e.g. cumin, chili peppers, paprika, cilantro etc)

Thumbs up on this gem - lots of fun to read as well as cook from.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Cookbook, May 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The World in Your Kitchen: Vegetarian Recipes from Africa, Asia and Latin America for Western Kitchens With Country Information and Food Facts (Vegetarian Cooking) (Paperback)

The World in Your Kitchen is a window on basic recipes and foodways usually not included in higher brow cookbooks. Filled with vibrant photography including pictures of people growing harvesting, selling and preparing food, this cookbook presents a generous array of recipes, introduced by a brief history of the ingredients involved. Both metric and non metric measures are used in this combination geographic tour and culinary exploration.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Global Flavors, December 11, 2008

By	Amaranth "music fan" (Northern California) - See all my reviews

"The World in Your Kitchen" is an excellent cookbook for the vegan, vegetarian, or person on a budget. Troth Wells has easy recipes, and introduces readers to unfamiliar cuisines such as those of El Salvador, Tanzania, and Ecuador. It's not the usual vegetarian recipes from China, Mexico, and India. It's exotic without being intimidating. The recipes are delicious. There's a forward from Glenda Jackson,and two recipes from cinematic star Julie Christie.

Recommended recipes- Ecuadorian potato pancakes with peanut sauce, Chilean bean&pumpkin stew (served atop spaghetti with fresh basil),Malaysian coconut curry with peanut sauce (from Julie Christie),Cambodian carrot stir fry (again,from Julie Christie),Tanzanian beans with coconut&cilantro,South African bean&tomato brede (stew),and beans with cocoa from Sierra Leone (think of an African mole)

There are some minor drawbacks to the cookbook-
1)No pictures of recipes.
2)Use of British terms like courgette,aubergine,haricot beans,cowpeas,and "pancakes" for enchiladas. And British measurements can be confusing.
3)Some dubious politics blaming the World Bank for Zimbabwe's dire situation,and dubious philosophy from Peter Singer,who considers animals human,but is okay with euthanasia and infanticide.
Again,these drawbacks are so minor they don't affect the rating. It's still a great cookbook.

"The World in Your Kitchen" benefits fair trade. It's got excellent,delicious,easy recipes. It brings the world into the kitchen!