Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: A friend gave me this cookbook six years ago and I have tried nearly every recipe. This began my collection of vegetarian cookbooks, namely those from this author (Mollie Katzen) and the Moosewood Collective. I highly recommend it--it is easy to follow, has a lot of great information about ingredients, and the recipes all are delicious! The only drawback is that some of the recipes are time-consuming, but each recipe has an estimated time for its preparation and cooking. This is very helpful, especially if you are cooking for company. If you are vegetarian, this is a MUST for your collection. If you are not, it's a great cookbook to have anyway. Treating non-vegetarian friends to these recipes has often resulted in their reconsidering their eating habits!
Rating: 
Summary: best cookbook for those who love to eat and hate to cook!
Review: Absolutely fabulous recipies that are extremely simple to prepare. The names of the vegetarian dishes are inventive and somehow make the recipes really come to life.If you're like me, you like eating healthy and great-tasting food, but dread food preparation time and following hundreds of directions and end up missing a crucial step that ruins the dish. Some people are born with a gift for whipping up recipes from their own imaginations, but I'm not one of those people. The only reason this book doesn't get 5 stars from me is that it should have been spiral bound. It's almost impossible to keep the book open on a kitchen counter unless you put heavy objects (very heavy) on both pages or you go an buy one of those gizmos that hold books open. Nonetheless, this is my favorite recipe book. My kitchen is full of them, but this is the only one that almost never has any dust on it like the other ones. :-)
Rating: 
Summary: A Lousy Book from a Lousy Cook
Review: Because of its overwhelming popularity, this was one of the first books I consulted when I began cooking a few years ago. My college housemates and I followed the book's instructions dutifully, but many of the recipes turned out to be utter failures. Now my palate is a bit more sensitive (from frequenting the excellent and diverse restaurants in the Bay Area) and I finally have my chops in the kitchen (from cooking regularly, paying attention to how different ingredients behave, and working on technique). I now know why the Moosewood recipes were so bland . . . by way of a few examples: Pg.9--Miso soup--Traditional miso soup requires miso and dashi (a fish stock made from shavings of a dried bonito fish). This recipe calls only for miso and water. The result is a near-flavorless soup. I know dashi would be off-limits in this vegetarian cookbook, but AT LEAST suggest miso and veggie stock. Pg.31--Gazpacho--Way too tangy, flavors are not balanced. Tastes like a salsa cruda/fresca with the strange addition of cumin and cucumber. Pg.80--Italian Tomato Sauce--Recipe calls for honey, which does NOT belong in an Italian tomato sauce. This recipe, as with so many of the others, does not call for browning the solids before adding liquid. The result is more bland food! Pg.95--Mexican Red Sauce--Perfect example of how this book strives for mediocrity. This recipe is really light on flavor. Would benefit from the addition of a flavorful chile (chipotle, ancho, negro, guajillo . . .), less tomato, more intense reduction, and straining. Pg.114--Corn Bread--Recipe does not have enough egg, honey, or butter. The result is a dense, dry, corn-like hockey puck. Pg. 180--Gado Gado--Terrible. Nothing could salvage this recipe. Anyone who has tried a good Chinese or Indonesian peanut sauce knows that this isn't it. THE EXCEPTION--Pg. 189--Ukranian Poppyseed Cake--Excellent recipe, but it benefits from cutting out 1/3 of the butter. Instead of Moosewood, I would suggest Sauces and Splendid Soups by James Peterson--two books that give incredible foundational knowledge for a beginner AND new, exciting ideas for a pro.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and pretty easy intro to veg cooking
Review: Definitely a fun cookbook. It's a good guide to preparing some fun and interesting vegetarian foods. The recipes are easy to follow, and not too complicated at all. It's a collection of recipes which were prepared at the Moosewood restaurant, a vegetarian collective. The book is illustrated with a series of pen-and-ink drawings and cartoons. These drawings, along with the hand-lettered text, give it a fun, friendly feeling. In the first edition of the cookbook, this feeling of cooking as fun, and vegetarian cooking as a rich and varied cuisine was enhanced by the choice of recipes, including some which weren't necessarily good for you, but ended up tasting stellar. The updated edition, unfortunately, attempts to make many of the recipes healthier, by cutting oil, cholesterol, and eliminating some of the classic tasty yet dreadfully unhealthy recipes. In my experience, the modified recipes occasionally come up short of the mark. This book is still entertaining, and certainly worthwhile to have around, but if the opportunity presents itself, try to dig up a copy of the original cookbook rather than the recent edition.
Rating:
Summary: Lighter versions of the same wonderful recipes--and more!
Review: First published in 1977, this classic vegetarian cookbook still has the same charm and warmth of hand-drawn pictures and handwritten recipes, and now it also has bright color photos interspersed among the familiar pages. There are 30 new recipes, and many of the old ones have been rewritten, since, as the author describes, her cooking has become "more streamlined in preparation-and lighter in 'weight' while richer in flavor" over the years. The oil content has been pared down and only 15 recipes include eggs. Tips for "dairy reduction or substitutions" are included, so this version will probably appeal more to the vegan set. Also included: pantry notes, recommended tools for the kitchen and a table of conversions.
Rating:
Summary: If your palate is use to good food...
Review: I agree with the Oakland, Ca. review! The Bay Area has completely refined fresh, wholesome cuisine and this book is no match for any of the food that is readily available in this part of the country. I was a major fan of Mollie Katzen until I moved out here and became acquainted with the Bay Area cuisine. The Moosewood recipes tend to be bland and many of the ingredients just don't jive with each other.
Rating:
Summary: More inventive recipes from Mollie Katzen
Review: I don't like to cook. It bugs me. But I love to eat. I'm a strict vegan, and the only one in my family, so its hard to find good food to eat. To be honest, I don't like tofu much more than the average schmo, and I like to eat entrees that actually has flavor, not something like a slimy "healthy" greens salad you'd be served on an airplane. If you can relate to me, you can appreciate the New Moosewood Cookbook. The recipes in this book are meatless and pretty low-fat, but I'm sure you can add something meat-based to them if you wanted to. The recipes are simple, and they taste good. They are recipes you wouldn't mind giving up so time to make. One of my favourites was the Lentil-Bulgar salad. Instead of the refrigerated tabouli like version, I just ate it fresh and warm. It was so good I scarfed it all in about two days, a total of 12 hours, and I made enough for the average household. Lentil-Bulgar Salad and the other recipes in the book are that good. Even non-vegetarians enjoy her recipes. Thank you, Mollie.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome to healthy eating! Easy, step-by-step instructions.
Review: I have been a vegitarian for 4 years now and have successfully introduced my family and friends to vegitarian cuisine. My meat-loving parents rave over the eggplant-almond enchiladas. My friend who eats meat and venison regularly is about ready to give it up! She adores the Sri Wasano's Infamous Indonesian Rice Salad (which is DELICIOUS!!). We call it "rice salad" for short!
Rating:
Summary: Tasty, well directed, and encouraging
Review: I have had such great success with this cookbook that I am quickly finding that Mollie Katzen's recipes are becoming both a part of my everyday repertoire as well as entertaining staples. What I like best about it is that nearly every recipe is tasty (although some just don't seem to work out- particularly some desserts, hence 4 out of 5 stars), they are all super easy to make, and the ingredients are fairly easy to find (which is a plus to those of us living in parts of the country almost devoid of gourmet shops and whole foods groceries). Also, the recipes are so good, unpretentious, and down to earth that you almost forget that this is is vegetarian cookbook! Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite cookbooks
Review: I have had such great success with this cookbook that I am quickly finding that Mollie Katzen's recipes are becoming both a part of my everyday repertoire as well as entertaining staples. What I like best about it is that nearly every recipe is tasty (although some just don't seem to work out- particularly some desserts, hence 4 out of 5 stars), they are all super easy to make, and the ingredients are fairly easy to find (which is a plus to those of us living in parts of the country almost devoid of gourmet shops and whole foods groceries). Also, the recipes are so good, unpretentious, and down to earth that you almost forget that this is is vegetarian cookbook! Bravo!
|
