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Summary: A MUST FOR VEGETARIANS
Review: This book is fabulous! Cresent is wonderfully creative with her dishes. This book is great for the vegetarian who is tired of the same food all the time, and perhaps, misses those memorable meat dishes. Her recipes are creative, innovative and just plain wonderful. Her stories before each recipe helps the reader envision the dish, and what it is best suited for.
I have never been disappointed with a recipe. While I may not find each one to my taste, that doesn't mean they aren't good. My family loves all the soup recipes. They are hard to beat. My family thinks that I can actually cook as a result!
This is a must for vegetarians. You can't go wrong with this book. It will open up worlds of new food combinations to widen your pallet and increase your health.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite cookbook, vegetarian or otherwise, hands down
Review: This book is so clearly a labor of love. Every single thing I have made from it, from a chilled squash soup to an apricot glazed tofu, to a mixed grain casserole to a killer pecan pie, has been fabulous. The types of dishes range from homestyle family dishes and what the author calls "quick fix" dishes to those you could proudly serve the pickiest guest. It's huge! But besides the terrific recipes, all of which WORK, it's personable, warm, easy to use. I don't agree with some here who've found the recipes too complicated: I am an average home cook with two kids. I like to cook but am short on time, aren't we all. There are many simple choices here, but even the complicated recipes are so carefully explained that not only are they goof-proof, but you learn something as you go along AND you end up with such good food. I love the author's sense of how cooking, eating & life combine. She writes clearly, is lively, funny, educational & moving: much more than what you think you would find in a cookbook. All of this and the best green beans (the Greek Style) you ever ate! We are not vegetarians but lean in that direction (even my non-tofu-eating 9 year old, who fell in love with the broccoli-tofu enchiladas). But veggie or not, anyone wholoves good food would find an infinity to enjoy here. I can't say enough about this great book. I've bought 5 copies for gifts so that tells you something. Oh yeah, one more thing: also very reasonably priced.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, a good cookbook!
Review: This book not only taught me how to cook, the basics of vegetarianism, but also how to cook many whole (aka health) foods not covered in traditional cookbooks. I also like the personal notes included. They helped me (ex fast-food junkie) be excited about cooking! While most of the recipies are for the dairy and egg set, most include side notes that allow you to transform them into Super Vegan.
The only drawback is the amount of time it takes to read/write down the recipie directions... very wordy, but, what style. This is my number 1 cookbook... The Joy of Cooking for Vegetarians!
Rating:
Summary: Creative, Delicious, but not too difficult to prepare
Review: This cookbook has just been a wonderful purchase. There are so many recipes to choose from. Once a week, I pick out a new one to try. The kungpao tofu is out of this world! I also really appreciated Ms. Dragonwagon's quirky sense of humor and her stories about life and cooking. She is an insightful writer with a knack for explaining all the steps of cooking in language that even a beginner can understand. I've read other reviews that complain a little that she uses ingredients that mainstream americans wouldn't use. I can understand this, there are a few ingredients that left me thinking "huh?" Until I tried them, that is. Take it from me, broaden your horizons and try some of the recipes that may sound a little out of your comfort zone. You won't be dissapointed. Best Wishes and Peace in your kitchen, Shellie Tabb
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Summary: Destined to Become THE Cookbook of the 21st Century
Review: Vegetarian diets are becoming more popular as nutritional concerns arise and environmental awareness increases, and vegetarian cookbooks are a perfect gift for anyone who has a new domicile or simply loves to eat. In fact, Crescent Dragonwagon has crafted a cookbook so generous and intriguing that I think it would inspire anyone to roll up their sleeves and create a meal. Vegetarian meals are not for vegetarians only anymore!Dragonwagon takes into account the time and budgetary constraints under which the typical reader may be living and gives wonderful suggestions about how making a little extra of one recipe will be such a time-saver when creating a new dish later in the week. She gives all kinds of anecdotal information about the recipes. I am reading the book cover-to-cover, honestly, because it's so interesting and fun. It conveniently stays flat while you're cooking from it, too-- amazing that all cookbook publishers haven't caught on to this trick yet. This is the most accessible cookbook I have ever read, and at over 1100 pages and 1000+ recipes, the cover price is an incredible bargain. I predict that The Passionate Vegetarian will become the cooking tome passed from generation to generation and will have a venerated place in kitchens all over the world.
Rating:
Summary: A glorious, must-have book; a joy to cook from & read
Review: With this exuberant, deeply felt, beautifully written work, I think Crescent Dragonwagon has reinvented the cookbook! While PASSIONATE VEGETARIAN is filled with recipes that will make you want to get into the kitchen immediately, it's also personal, funny, joyful, sad, full of dimension and color --- a vivid slice of life itself, as told through and in food. You feel the author as a friendly, reassuring kitchen presence: knowledgeable but gentle, careful to explain but taking time to laugh with you, swap stories, and enjoy every step of the way. Delicious (the artichoke-lima bean stew with lemon and garlic is on my must-make list; I've already tried her divine tempeh-broccoli-mushroom stroganoff, quick but irresistible Garlic Spaghetti, and fabulous "Killed Lettuce Salad," with hot sauteed mushrooms), it's also diverse (curries, chillies, lasagnas, Asian dishes, great appetizers and desserts), and definitive (info on every grain, every vegetable, every bean as well as an amazing trove of well-researched culinary information). Astonishing! It would be worth purchasing at almost any price, but at a 1000-plus pages (they say 800-something pages here, but it's longer)...[and this price](much less at amazon) it is a bargain... as well as the book everyone, vegetarian and otherwise, is getting from me for Christmas! For just as it reinvents the cookbook, making it literature as much as how-to (though excellent how-to it certainly is, in every recipe's clearly detailed instructions) it also rethinks vegetarianism, making it take its rightful place as a distinct and global cuisine, not just healthful or an "ism". Vibrantly flavored, this book has every color of the palette and palate. It is indeed passionate: also playful,intimate, full of life, and something anyone who appreciates good food would love. A joy to cook from, eat from, and read, its food and words will nourish the body, mind, heart and soul.
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