Product Description

Add flair and flavor to your meals with the first vegetarian cookbook to incorporate wine or spirits in every recipe

With the simple addition of a splash of wine or spirits, meatless dishes take on a new dimension of flavor. Potato Salad springs to life with a Red Zinfandel Dressing. Saffron Risotto is especially aromatic when served with vegetables in a Chardonnay sauce. The Spirited Vegetarian offers a totally different and unique approach to vegetarian cooking, demonstrating through over 100 tantalizing recipes how the innovative cook can use wine and spirits to prepare meatless cuisine with sophistication and style.

Well-known cookbook author Paulette Mitchell draws on classic recipes as well as her own contemporary creations as she serves up entrées that range from hearty Roasted Vegetables with Polenta Triangles and Sangiovese Tomato Sauce to delectable Ruby Port-Glazed Portobello Mushrooms. Chilled Prosecco-Melon Soup is a refreshing addition to a sizzling summer brunch; Cannellini Bean Bourguinonne is sure to satisfy on a frosty night; and anyone for whom dessert is an anticipated and irresistible part of the meal will revel in such confectionary delights as Chocolate-Cherry Bread Pudding with Sherry Cream, Apricot Brandy Pound Cake,and Salame Dolce, a rich Amaretto-flavored chocolate log.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #455868 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-19
• Released on: 2005-01-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This collection of vegetarian recipes laced with liquor from the Minneapolis cooking instructor and author of the popular 15-Minute Gourmet series fills one of the last untapped niches in the ever-burgeoning vegetarian cookbook market. Following the recent success of countless books pairing food with wine, Mitchell enhances mostly familiar meatless dishes with a wine or spirit accent in the ingredient list. Traditional combinations such as Sesame Noodle Salad dressed with Mirin (a low-alcohol, sweet golden wine) or Bow Ties with Marsala-Mushroom Sauce are balanced with curious inventions like Curried Lentil Soup with Merlot, and Tequila-Braised Kale. Desserts mainly involve fruits and flavored liqueurs. In truth, alcohol is a minor player in most of the recipes, but its presence is intended to lend a feeling of sophistication and celebration to standard veggie fare. For the most part, it works. Mitchell outlines desirable qualities for cooking and drinking wines for each dish and includes a chart detailing the spectrum of wine characteristics (e.g., body, acidity, fruitiness) and their food compatibilities, offering affordable options from far-flung regions (e.g., Australian Shiraz) as well as French, Californian and Italian staples. Armed with this chart and the short terminology glossary, even novices will be able to select a suitable wine or at least have the vocabulary to consult a wine merchant for help. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
PAULETTE MITCHELL, is known internationally for her gourmet vegetarian recipes. She is a cooking instructor, lecturer, television personality, and the author of 11 popular cookbooks, including A Beautiful Bowl of Soup and The 15-Minute Gourmet: Vegetarian. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota and travels widely for culinary inspiration.

Customer Reviews

Surprisingly good cookbook
To put this review into perspective for you, it is written by a serious student of cooking that has been actively studying food on their own for 25 years. I have been focusing on Italian food for the last 10 years. My favorite cookbook is "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute of America.

I purchased this book on a whim prior to embarking on a vegetarian lifestyle because I love to cook with alcohol and wanted to add more healthy meals into our family diet. I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this book from day one.

The author includes a nice wine chart in the front of the book for those of you that aren't familiar with all types of wine. I found it handy since I tend to stick to the Italian wines.

Once I saw the recipe for Limoncello (a family staple in our home) I was hooked. If you have never made this yourself give it a try. The recipe is very simple and the end result is addicting. The recipe for spaghetti with beets is amazing. I never liked beets until I made this dish. It now reappears monthly in my home. Likewise, the chilled prosecco and melon soup is wonderful. It is such a refreshing start to a meal on a hot day. How about a Sangria fruit salad, that is included as well.

My only complaint about this book is that it doesn't have the pretty pictures that I love. If you are vegan this is probably not the book for you. Although I have been about to successfully adapt some of the non-vegan recipes with trial and error. If you have been a vegan and a home cook for long time you can probably do the same thing with ease.

Vegetarian Epicure
My husband teases me that I have an obsession for cookbooks, particularly vegetarian cookbooks. He is not a vegetarian and often quotes the line from Pulp Fiction spoken by Samuel L. Jackson: "I'm not a vegetarian, but my girlfriend is- which pretty much makes me one, too."

I have made most of the recipies in this book and we both love them, particularly the Wild Mushroom Soup and Vegetarian Cassoulet. I've made many recipes for my omnivore parents as well. They loved everything- so I bought them a copy. They actually use it!

The prinicple of this book is that all foods benefit from a little kick- it's absolutley true! Every recipe has booze in it, so be prepared. As well as cooking with it, the author provides wine pairing suggestions- unusual for a vegetarian cookbook. While I don't eat meat, I do drink. However, if you shouldn't be drinking it, you shouldn't be cooking with it.

Most ingredients are easy to find at my local grocery/liquor store. Most recipes are vegan or will be if one ingredient is omitted- which the author occasionally points out. A few of the desserts have no vegan prospects, such as triple chocolate-casis brownies, but there are several (sans chocolate) that would be suitable.

If you are a strict vegan, this may not be a book for you. (The author considers honey to be vegan, for instance.) If you require pictures, not the book for you either. But if you want a fantastic cookbook, vegetarian or not, I can't say enough about The Spirited Vegetarian.

Good Resource
Since I'm not a vegetarian, I wasn't sure if this cookbook would be helpful, but it has some really interesting recipes, and I've made a couple of them and they were quite tasty.