Product Description

This cookbook is the perfect introduction to vegan cooking. Packed with over 350 delicious, easy to make dishes, it offers a wealth of dairy-free, meat-free ideas from around the world. With exciting recipes for starters, soups, main courses, side dishes, sweets and salads, it includes dishes from America, Mexico, Japan, India, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. If you think that vegan food lacks variety, this book will prove just the opposite.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #782460 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Lesson: Don't judge a book by its cover.
Doesn't the moist chocolate cake on the cover look delicious? Don't you wish you knew how to make a wonderful vegan chocolate cake that was moist and rich? Well, I'm sorry to say, you won't learn it from this book. Although, the book is full of new ways to prepare old favorites, if you are an American, the European terms, serving sizes and flavor combinations may be a bit of a turn-off. However, if you are the adventurous type, you may welcome the new taste experience. Just, do yourself a favor, and stay away from the chocolate cake.

User-friendly and imaginative cooking
I am a vegan and I've really enjoyed the dishes in this book. The only problem I have with it is that there are few dishes omnivores would appreciate. When you become a vegan, your taste changes somewhat and more foods become appealling. Those trying to use the ideas in this book to cook for nonvegans may need to make some changes to make the dishes enjoyable for those with more limited culinary experiences.

Interesting, Middle of the Road Starter Vegan Cookbook
This was one of the first vegan cookbooks I ever bought, and I thought it was a great starter cookbook. I found the recipes REALLY simple and approachable, given that I had almost no cooking experience at that time. Recipes generally have between 2 and 5 steps, clearly laid out in list format as 1), 2), 3), etc., and the steps are really simple and non-threatening for novice cooks (e.g. "Chop the mushrooms finely. Saute in the oil until tender" is a typical step). I generally liked everything I made, my two favorite recipes being the Macaroni, Mushroom, and Tofu Casserole and the Spicy Tofu Scramble with Red Pepper and Tomato.

I would agree with other reviewers that this isn't the best cookbook if you're going to be cooking for non-vegans, and I'd like to point out that when recipes call for "Nutritional Yeast" they are definitely not not NOT (as suggested by another reviewer) calling for Vegemite, which yes, is totally disgusting to most people (including me!), but actual Nutritional Yeast, such as that made by Red Star and sold on Amazon .

All that said, I'd agree that there are better vegan cookbooks on the market, particularly if you have any cooking experience. I would recommend this cookbook, but only as a supplement to one of the better, more comprehensive vegan cookbooks such as Robin Robertson's Vegan Planet or Sarah Kramer's How It All Vegan, or Isa Moskowitz's Vegan With a Vengence.

Bottom line: This cookbook gave me cooking confidence as a new, transitioning vegan, but I've moved on to better cookbooks and rarely look back.