Rating: 
Summary: Liked the recipes and not the art
Review: I purchased this book on a Wednesday and read it on Thursday. The recipes are creative and interesting, and do able, unlike some cook books. It looks like you could actually find the incredients and follow the procedures. I did not care for the art. Its a nice mix of recipes, not just vegetable side dishes. Worth the money for the variety.
Rating: 
Summary: She's running out of the ideas...
Review: I regret I bought this one.
While her very first one (the moosewood cookbook) is full of very creative and very tasty dishes, in this book she is merely trying to scrounge any ideas from any sources (her childhood memories, very common dishes with little changes...).To make the recipes appealing and in a way deluding (b/c they are not really good or her own), and for her fun, she loaded the book with so many of her paintings--- which may be whimsically cute, but not artistic. And even some of the recipes I tried turned out to be very bland, many times not tasty at all.
I don't try the recipes in the book any more.
But I do still use her other book (the moosewood) quite often.--it is a very good one.
Rating: 
Summary: Katzen's biggest disappointment yet
Review: I try to be a fan of Mollie Katzen's... her passion for good fresh food is obvious; her drawings a refreshing personal touch; her subject matter (fresh, vegetarian ingredients) all appeal to me, not to mention that she is one of the bestselling vegetarian cookbook authors in history.
Unfortunately, the recipes are the weak point in this ambitious book that emphasizes combinations of dishes, smaller plates, for a more varied meal. In fact, such variety is at the heart of the problem for the weekday cook looking to supplement a recipe collection with tasty, simply prepared meals. Too much clean up, too much time, too many ingredients, and sadly, too many flavors, make this book nothing more than a dust collector in my library.
The foreword is misleading...Katzen's first sentence reads that she imagines a world with "all kinds of vegetables, bursting with flavor and prepared in sumptuous, yet uncomplicated, ways..." Further, she espouses that her collection seeks "to enhance, rather than overpower, the natural taste of the ingredients..." Really?
I spent two hours laboring over Firecracker Red Beans, mixing the recipe's 18 ingredients, only to end up with a pan of weird, overspiced beans that tasted like a spice cupboard explosion and inspired nothing more than a "hmmm..." at our 4th of July party. Same for the two-page Persian Layered Pilaf, which takes far longer than the 1 hour listed, calls for no less than 23 ingredients and again elicited nothing more than ho-hum reactions from both me and my husband. In addition, both recipes and many others I've tried, tend to leave me with more dirty dishes than I'd bargained for. And that's for just one recipe--forget the "tiny plates" concept, which calls for ridiculously long commitments to prepping and cleaning.
If fresh vegetables and grains are the real superstars of the table, why not let them really shine and accent them with a few ingredients that complement, rather than smother the food and confuse the palate.
One more thing...though this book was a finalist for a Julia Child Cookbook Award, it did not win, as some have stated.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Mistake I Ever Made
Review: I wrote down the wrong number for a book club order, and ended up with "Vegetable Heaven" rather than a biography I wanted. Well, I won't be sending this one back!! I am not a vegetarian, but these are some of the most tempting recipes I've seen in a long time. We've tried the roasted vegetables--YUM! A perfect summer cookbook--many of the recipes are light but still full of tasty ingredients. The book is as visually appealling as the recipes. Can't wait to try out more.
Rating: 
Summary: not nearly as good as the original moosewood
Review: I'm a vegetariam, and have been for many years. I am not a super gourmet cook, but I can prepare fairly complex things... point being, vegetable heaven is a little too frou-frou for me. Unlike the original moosewood cookbook which combined easy to find items with innovative ideas, culminating in super tasty food, vegetable heaven goes to further reaches, incorporating more expensive ingredients to create recipes that just aren't as yummy. I flip through several of my cookbooks before grocery shopping every week in order to inspire myself (i try to eat a variety of foods, and to shop inexpensively), and this book rarely makes the cut. Although, there is one thing I found in it that has proven to be indespensible: YOGURT CHEESE! I use it as a substitute for sour cream and dallop it on everything from pasta to eggs. TAKE FAT FREE PLAIN YOGURT SPOON IT INTO A COFFEE FILTER THAT HAS BEEN PLACED IN A COLANDER OVER A BOWL, STICK IT IN THE FRIDGE AND LET ALL OF THE WATER DRIP OUT (ABOUT 24 HRS). mmmmm.... she doesn't say this, but you can chop up veggies really tiny, or add honey, or garlic and cucumber... it's awesome!
Rating:
Summary: You'll never miss the meat!
Review: I'm not a vegetarian but I think this book is fantastic. I use it a lot when I'm going to potlucks where there will be vegetarians, but I also cook from it for myself. I've made a wide variety of dishes from it and they have all turned out great. I have a few favorites that I make again and again. That is saying a lot, since I have abot 100 cookbooks, and I don't get back to many recipes unless they are totally amazing and/or simple. My favorites from this book are the Blackberry Buckle, Coconut Lime Chili Rice and Golden Chickpea Soup. Everything has so much flavor it doesn't matter that there is no meat. Also, Mollie gives a great introduction to flavor combinations from lots of different cuisines, so you can try a few dishes before delving more deeply into ethnic cooking. Try it, you'll love it!
Rating:
Summary: Don't do it! Order something by Deborah Madison instead!!
Review: I've never been as disgusted by a cookbook as I have been with "Vegetable Heaven". I am a fairly experienced with respect to vegetarian cookery, yet every recipe I tried from of this cookbook was an unmitigated disappointment. Usually I ended up with bland semi-liquid muck. The "Black Beans in Mango Sauce" recipe was appallingly bland and grainy. The butterscotch pudding had absolutely NO flavor. And the mashed pea guacamole substitute, or "Guaca-Mollie", was so pasty and nasty that eating it gave me the dry heaves. Get the original Moosewood. Or Moosewood Low Fat Favorites. Or ANYTHING by Deborah Madison. Or try the vegetarian recipies from any of Madhur Jaffrey's cook books. But I beseech you to save your money and save yourself from this cook book.
Rating:
Summary: Don't do it! Order something by Deborah Madison instead!!
Review: I've never created such flavorful and satisfying dishes from such simple recipes as I have with this book. A good example is the roasted beans with garlic and olives: two or three ingredients to buy at the grocery store, ten minutes of work, two items to wash when you're done, and a rich, tasty dish that I was proud to present to dinner guests. The introduction, which unfortunately is not included in the preview pages, gives a good idea of what to expect: food "prepared in sumptuous, yet uncomplicated ways.... opulent, yet clean and simple". _Vegetable Heaven_ isn't a vegan cookbook, but most of the recipes are vegan or adaptable. It stands out among such cookbooks for its simple, flavorful, *filling* dishes. The Achille's heel of most vegan cooking is the inability to combine flavor with the heaviness that creates a satisfied feeling after a meal. In recipe after recipe, _Vegetable Heaven_ shows how this difficulty can be overcome. Since the recipes are filling and don't use as many exotic ingredients as some vegetarian cookbooks, they're useful when cooking for unadventurous eaters, such as parents, children, and meat-eaters. Some of the recipes are quite spicy, but a few are bland children's food or comfort food. The descriptions are clear, so you won't be unpleasantly surprised. Besides being full of great recipes, the book is durable, exceptionally well laid out, and mostly a pleasure to use. However, it doesn't lie open unless you're using a recipe from the middle third of the book. Of course, _Vegetable Heaven_ doesn't try to be all things to all people. It's not a report of gastronomical research and innovation, so if you're an experienced cook, don't expect to be provoked and stimulated on every page. It's also not a coffee-table cookbook -- the artwork is pleasant but not captivating, and there are no photographs of professional presentations of the dishes.
Rating:
Summary: Quick, simple, satisfying recipes for meat-eaters, vegans.
Review: I've never created such flavorful and satisfying dishes from such simple recipes as I have with this book. A good example is the roasted beans with garlic and olives: two or three ingredients to buy at the grocery store, ten minutes of work, two items to wash when you're done, and a rich, tasty dish that I was proud to present to dinner guests. The introduction, which unfortunately is not included in the preview pages, gives a good idea of what to expect: food "prepared in sumptuous, yet uncomplicated ways.... opulent, yet clean and simple". _Vegetable Heaven_ isn't a vegan cookbook, but most of the recipes are vegan or adaptable. It stands out among such cookbooks for its simple, flavorful, *filling* dishes. The Achille's heel of most vegan cooking is the inability to combine flavor with the heaviness that creates a satisfied feeling after a meal. In recipe after recipe, _Vegetable Heaven_ shows how this difficulty can be overcome. Since the recipes are filling and don't use as many exotic ingredients as some vegetarian cookbooks, they're useful when cooking for unadventurous eaters, such as parents, children, and meat-eaters. Some of the recipes are quite spicy, but a few are bland children's food or comfort food. The descriptions are clear, so you won't be unpleasantly surprised. Besides being full of great recipes, the book is durable, exceptionally well laid out, and mostly a pleasure to use. However, it doesn't lie open unless you're using a recipe from the middle third of the book. Of course, _Vegetable Heaven_ doesn't try to be all things to all people. It's not a report of gastronomical research and innovation, so if you're an experienced cook, don't expect to be provoked and stimulated on every page. It's also not a coffee-table cookbook -- the artwork is pleasant but not captivating, and there are no photographs of professional presentations of the dishes.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good
Review: Katzen produces good cookbooks - but if your looking for straight vegetarian substitutes for a meat and potatoes diet, this book may be a bit overwhelming. If you are a "Katzen Disciple", you know what to expect. New folks: there's bulghur, kale, beans, soba, and other good stuff that may require a bit more looking at the market.
However - if you're looking to make healthy choices for you and your family, there are plenty of recipies that won't scare off the others at the dinner table. Plenty of vegetables, good soups - and yer, too many good deserts.
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