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Summary: a vegetarian encyclopedia
Review: Crescent Dragonwagon, chef, writer, and inkeeper, has been a vegetarian all this time! Who knew? Somehow she has found the time to create and test over 1000 pages of fabulous vegetarian recipes; with her signature enthusiasm and personal anecdotes, it's like having Crescent in your kitchen, cheerfully urging you on to try new things, in new ways. This is a very comprehensive volume, with lots of information about vegetables, grains, soy products, and beans, how to prepare them ,with variations on variations, and vegan adaptations. I personally have tried about 5 of the recipes and they are all fabulous, with readily-available ingredients (even in my rural location), healthy withour being fussy, innovative without being ridiculous. The ginger sorbet is intoxicating; it has literally changed the life of a family member who previously was in the habit of consuming entire pints of Ben and Jerry's or Sara Lee cakes at a sitting. Now all he wants is CD's Ginger Sorbet--be warned! it is addictive! One of the things I really like about this book is that the recipes are written such that each cook can find his/her comfort zone in terms of fat content, eggs or no eggs, dairy or no dairy. A soup, for example, can be made with cream, or low-fat milk, or soy milk, or yogurt, or just broth. This is a great book for someone who wishes to incorporate more whole grains, or soy, or vegetables into his/her diet but is unsure as to how to do it. It's also a must-have for a long-time vegetarian like myself, who has fallen into some ruts making the same tofu dishes, bean soups, and vegetable curries over and over. If you add just one cookbook to your collection, it should be this one. It will expand your repertoire exponentially.
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Summary: Cookbook Perfection
Review: I am a cookbook author and creative chef. Dragonwagon's book is brilliant. Vegetarians will delight in its content. This book defintely spends more time in my kitchen than it does on my shelf. It is a must have!
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Summary: An Excellent Vegetarian Cookbook and Reference Tool
Review: I am an occassional vegetarian, always looking for inspiration on ways to take my family closer and closer to a vegetarian diet. I ordered this book through a cook book club and have been absolutely enervated by it. Not only does she have fantastic recipes for every grain, fruit, nut, or veggie under the sun, she also has pages and pages of how-to tips for those of us who have not worked extensively with some unusual ingredients.This is the part I really appreciated - she has lots of variations accompanying every menu. When I'm cooking something new, I want to know which way it can bend and turn, and her tips and casual recommendations for variations really help me learn that from her experience vs. my own. Time saving, big time. She includes some musings and biographical stories among the recipes, and I enjoy reading all of them. I am a big fan of cookbooks in general, I'll read them even if I don't cook from them, and her writing just made this one all the more interesting. You're going to enjoy this cookbook. I have half a dozen veggie cookbooks, but this is the OED of them all. Every vegetarian or veggie lover should own it.
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Summary: A Phenomenal Cookbook
Review: I have a lot of cookbooks. I enjoy reading bits and pieces from many of them. Most, if I am lucky, give me a handful of recipes that my family and I can enjoy, but there always seems to be large portions of many that I just ignore as not relevant, not delicious enough, or just not interesting. Well, The Passionate Vegetarian is like no other cookbook I own. It is phenomenal; the recipes are delicious and appeal to my entire family. There is a ginger-carrot-curry dip that I bring to many parties and it is always a huge hit (even with several carrot haters I know). After cooking several tremendous recipes in this cookbook I realized that there are just no stinkers in here, everything is tasty and you can trust in Crescent Dragonwagon. One wonderful bonus to this cookbook is Dragonwagon herself. Each recipe is preceded by a little story of how it came about, and after reading a few of these stories, you will discovery what a warm and wonderful person Dragonwagon is. Unlike many vegetarian cookbooks, The Passionate Vegetarian recipes will appeal to the meateaters in your crowd. I highly recommend this cookbook. It is a delight to read and the recipes are imaginative, yummy and fun to make. Never anything too complicated and always logical. This is a terrific cookbook.
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Summary: Outstanding
Review: I love this book for a lot of reasons. Where to start? First, this is a very complete volume, covering everything from familiar vegetarian fare (greens, eggs, tofu, beans) to more esoteric items (seitan, nutritional yeast, umeboshi paste). Many recipes include variations, including how to make dishes for vegans, how to "gild the lily" of a dish, etc. Pick a vegetable, vegetarian protein source, legume, or grain, and you're sure to find at least two (four, ten, twelve) recipes for it in this book. Second, the writing is conversational, comforting, and humorous. You get a feel for not only Crescent, but the people she gleaned her recipes from and the people who have shared meals with her. Third, the recipes are solid. I've made a dozen items from this book, and some I've made several times over. I've yet to be disappointed. In quite a few cases, I was blown away. Fourth, the recipes are geared toward people who are fat conscious, but not fat phobic. She's lightened up many traditional meals without taking away flavor. Again, I've yet to be disappointed by anything she suggests. Fifth, the "quick fix" section! Nuff said! Even if you're a dyed-in-the-wool carnivore, I heartily and enthusiastically recommend this book to you, your Aunt Mildred, and your nextdoor neighbor Bob. It's a robust 1000-page invitation into a world of delicious vegetarian cuisine, and well worth the price of admission.
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Summary: Outstanding
Review: I love this book for a lot of reasons. Where to start? First, this is a very complete volume, covering everything from familiar vegetarian fare (greens, eggs, tofu, beans) to more esoteric items (seitan, nutritional yeast, umeboshi paste). Many recipes include variations, including how to make dishes for vegans, how to "gild the lily" of a dish, etc. Pick a vegetable, vegetarian protein source, legume, or grain, and you're sure to find at least two (four, ten, twelve) recipes for it in this book. Second, the writing is conversational, comforting, and humorous. You get a feel for not only Crescent, but the people she gleaned her recipes from and the people who have shared meals with her. Third, the recipes are solid. I've made a dozen items from this book, and some I've made several times over. I've yet to be disappointed. In quite a few cases, I was blown away. Fourth, the recipes are geared toward people who are fat conscious, but not fat phobic. She's lightened up many traditional meals without taking away flavor. Again, I've yet to be disappointed by anything she suggests. Fifth, the "quick fix" section! Nuff said! Even if you're a dyed-in-the-wool carnivore, I heartily and enthusiastically recommend this book to you, your Aunt Mildred, and your nextdoor neighbor Bob. It's a robust 1000-page invitation into a world of delicious vegetarian cuisine, and well worth the price of admission.
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Summary: Wonderful writing and even better food
Review: I loved not only Crescent Dragonwagon's writing style, but (most importantly) her amazing recipes. Her "Hungarian Potato Soup" is absolute heaven in a bowl. Her recipes are well-written and helpful - as a brand new vegetarian, hers was the first cookbook I bought. Every technique that was new to me was explained, and every ingredient that was new to me was explained as well. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.
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Summary: Restoring A Passion For Food
Review: It took me awhile to get a copy of THE PASSIONATE VEGETARIAN, mostly because I wasn't sure I wanted a thousand page cookbook taking up more space in m y kitchen. But I am so overwhelmingly pleased with it that I couldn't imagine my kitchen without it. The pages are already dog-eared from use.
The thing that impresses me most about THE PASSIONATE VEGETARIAN is that from start to finish the author not only conveys her own passion for "beautiful eating", but as a reader it is hard NOT to get caught up in her infectious passion! Her cookbook is an inspirational delight. It has restored my own passion for good food and good times around the table.
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Summary: If You Own Only One Cookbook, Make It This One
Review: Packed full of the best recipes I have encountered (including my current favorites: Kung Pao Tofu and Black Forest Raspberry Yogurt). This book reminded me why I became a vegetarian, and why I feel so much better when I make, eat and share healthy, delicious food.
Crescent's delectable, tantalizing, original recipes are what make this book great. However, what makes it the shiny jewel that it is are the tested techniques and tips, seasonal menus, funny stories and tender memories she shares with her reader. She says it took 10 years to write this masterpiece, during which she endured the unexpected death of her husband. (Who is, by the way, very much alive in this book.) I hope she found that finishing it was a big part of her healing process, and all I can say is THANK YOU to her for sharing her passion for cooking and eating with the world.
This book continues to comfort and inspire me with awesomely good food. It has enriched my life, my health, and added a creative spark to my cooking. It is a must for most any cook--vegetarian or one wanting to try delicious meat-free dishes.
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Summary: A splendid memorial to the rich culinary life
Review: Passionate Vegetarian: More Than 1,000 Robust Recipes With Notes On Cooking, Eating, Loving, And Living Fearlessly is one of those ''bible" type of vegetarian cookbooks that contains so much more than recipes that it is almost an invitation to live, or to live more fully. Almost overwhelming in its 1000 plus pages, it is dauntlessly studded with jewel-like recipes within recipes for special sauces, seasonings, condiments and exotic blends. Author/creator Crescent Dragonwagon is the famed Vegetarian chef and owner of the former celebrated Bed and Breakfast establishment Dairy Hollow Inn in Eureka, Missouri. Though it is now a writer's retreat, many remember fondly the days of its other operation which saw the evolution of many of the succulent recipes contained in Passionate Vegetarian. I never was lucky enough to be a guest there, but I had a friend who did with her husband and never stopped raving about the place and the food. Chock full of delicious vegetarian classic recipes, Passionate Vegetarian is that wonderful composite, a cookbook designed to educate. Though you might be looking for, say, the definitive recipe for a garbanzo bean stew, when you arrive at the recipe entitled "Spice-Market Melange of Chickpeas and Cauliflower" in the chapter entitled "A Bountiful Bowl of Beans," you absolutely cannot help reading page after page about "Bean Diversity, ""Beans and Grains," "The Three Sisters (beans, corn and squash)," and more. Divided into fifteen exciting chapters, each crammed with scrumptious recipes and suggestions, Passionate Vegetarian covers all things vegetarian from hors d'oeuvres, to soups, stews, savory cobblers, wraps, beans, soyfoods, savory cakes, burgers and patties, to sauces, salsas and seasonings. And of course the grand finale of Just Desserts contains such gems as Triple-Caress Moch Chocolate Chip Cookies, Hazelnut Biscotti, and Ginger Sorbet. However my absolute favorite new recipe that I tried and fought with my husband over the division of was Roasty-Toasty Jerusalem Artichokes, a simple recipe made with Jerusalem artichokes, vegetable oil, and tamari sauce. Clearly, Chef Dragonwagon is unafraid of simple combinations and doing more with less, as well as complex and palate- teasing adventurous dishes, for which she must be justifiably famous. I really cannot rave enough about this cookbook. It is a classic, a "must-have", and destined to become a favorite of vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. It is all the more enriched by the author's marvelous sense of humour and her willingness to share her history. I am very sorry to learn of the sudden death of her husband Ned November 30, 2000. Passionate Vegetarian stands as a splendid memorial to the rich culinary life they shared as vegetarians.
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