Rating: 
Summary: I trust it, enjoy it, and open it first.
Review: I've had this book for quite a while, but had to write after being shocked by some quite negative reviews. Apparently there's one in every crowd. "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" is a compendium of many cooking styles, and everything I've made from it has turned out brilliantly. Delicious, with attention to healthful, seasonal preparation and ingredients. Unless you don't live near a decent market, her ingredients are quite available or easily subsituted. It's laid out simply and intelligently and her comments in the sidebars give the recipes personality. These sometimes quirky comments, combined with my experience of success, give me the feeling that she (unlike some other well-known authors) has actually used/developed the recipes in the book. I turn to this book often for advice, inspiration and good food. Highly recommended, and I trust it.
Rating:
Summary: Simply delicious
Review: Deborah Madison has saved my sanity. Cooking for two vegetarians, aged 11 and 14 and both extremely picky, seemed a real challenge. Her fresh approach to vegetarian food and her recipes have inspired me. All recipes are easy to follow and simply delicious. If you're a meat eater who thinks all vegetarian food is stodgy and boring, this book will change your mind.
Rating:
Summary: The Joy of Cooking, only for vegheads and meat-avoiders
Review: I just counted 34 cookbooks in my kitchen, but this is the one I use the most. Only the Joy of Cooking gets an equal workout. This book is the only vegetarian cookbook I've ever seen that:1) Is comprehensive enough to cover every ingredient you have in your fridge (if you have a head of fennel and a potato, and nothing else, you will probably be able to find a recipe); 2) Is neither too far in the "twigs pebbles and roughage" camp nor the "80 ingredients you never heard of and 3 hours you don't have" camp. Most recipes are reasonable in scope and actually flavorful, although if you want to create a fancy banquet you can. Even if you are not a committed vegetarian (I'm not), but you just want to eat healthier, or to avoid the "vegetables turning into science experiments in the fridge" thing, this is a tremendous great resource.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretentious and sometimes totally inaccurate
Review: Some of these recipes are OK, although I think she used up her best work with The Savory Way, a book I've used happily for years. But the patronizing San Francisco attitude is sometimes unbearable here. Like many similar cookbooks, this one uses obscure or expensive ingredients showily, when more common foods would work just as well (or sometimes much better). She knows durned well that it's commonly called iceberg lettuce, not "crisphead." Sheesh. Like James Peterson, Deborah repeats several old false myths here, such as "Salt makes beans tough" or "Salting eggplant draws out bitterness." Don't these people ever test techniques side-by-side with a control group to see if there's any truth to them? This book has some TRULY gawdawful '60s-style vegetarian messes, such as "Macaroni Smothered With Onions." Does any experienced vegetarian REALLY make stuff like a pile of boiled potato cubes and macaroni, topped with sautéed onions, a cup of shredded cheese and a sprinkle of parsley? Ugh. That's hotplate cuisine for your dorm room, not what you'd expect from such a celebrated cook. It's a definite step above Mollie Katzen's nasty, brown, fat-clogged horrors, but this is hardly the book to make meat-eaters open their eyes to spirited vegetarian food. Its heft (1400 recipes) is a lot of bang for the buck, though.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough introduction to vegetables
Review: While some of the reviewers below have panned this book due to its apparent lack of detailed instructions and imaginative recipes, I found this book to be worth its weight in gold. The strengths of this book lie in its thorough vegetable by vegetable catalog, describing the essentials of buying, storing and cooking different types of a given vegetable. While it's true that there is sometimes a dearth of recipes for a given vegetable, the book has a very handy list of good partners for a given vegetable in each margin. Ultimately, this is the success of the book: it provides you with at least a couple of basic recipes or methods of cooking for each vegetable, suggests a dozen good partners for this vegetable in terms of sauces, marinades, or other vegetables, and gives you control to choose how you want to prepare and present it. For example, while Ms. Madison doesn't provide more than 7-8 recipes for aspargus (pgs 334-5), she suggests her recipe for Hoisin Sauce with Chili Paste and Tangerine Zest (pg. 73) as a good seasoning. While there was no recipe suggesting it, I decided to stir fry the asparagus in the Hoisin mixture, resulting in what my friend called "the best asparagus she'd ever had." I've made it several times since! As a basis for comparison, I own both the Moosewood Cookbook, as well as an old version of Laurel's Kitchen (1976 version), and I use this book most frequently. However, I have yet to get my hands on an updated copy of Laurel's.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book--A must have!
Review: This book is the backbone of my vegetarian repetoire. I have been an avid vegetarian cook for over 10 years. Without it, I would not have learned how to cook turnips, greens, and tofu. But this book is still gourmet and fresh without being too "natural-hippie" like.
Rating:
Summary: Vegetarian Bible
Review: I love to cook and have been a vegetarian for 15 years and this is absolutely my favorite cookbook. She takes you through all the common vegetables and how to cook them, gives great soup and main course dishes - gourmet, but not overly fussy, and the breakfast recipes are THE BEST, bar none. (anyone who thinks they can't make a good muffin at home has to try her basic buttermilk, also oatmeal buttermilk pancakes are to die for) My husband is not a vegetarian and still loves everything I've ever made from this book (and doesn't miss the meat!).
Rating:
Summary: Great Overall Cookbook
Review: My wife has been a vegitarian for 2 years now. We cook quite a few simple dishes but we find this book to be a bible when cooking anything more complex. There are 100's of recipies. This a must have book for vegitarians.
Rating: 
Summary: Giant Wooden Spoon Scares Me
Review: I am not a vegetarian although I do eat more non-meat meals than meat meals. So far, this book hasn't really done anything for me. It is quite complete - you should be able to find a recpe for just about any vegetable/grain on the planet but none of the recipes seem to stand out. I am sill looking for that indispensable vegetarian cook-book. I will continue to give this book a chance but I do not have high hopes for it.
Rating:
Summary: The best cookbook I own
Review: This cookbook isn't just about recipes (although there are thousands of recipes in its pages), it is about the whole concept of vegetarian cooking. It's also about as comprehensive a cookbook you can buy. Everything from salads to breadmaking to frittatas to soups is covered. Each section contains a subject overview as important as any of the recipes themselves. For example, you can learn a great deal about rice, its varieties, and its culinary uses before trying one of the many fantastic risotto dishes or pilafs. Not only that, each recipe has unique personal commentary and suggestions from the author herself that will really help you put your own personal flair into many of the dishes if you wish. This book opened up a whole new world of cooking for me and for all those to whom I have recommended it.
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