Rating: 
Summary: I adore every recipe that I have tried from this book!
Review: Don't miss the hummus recipe! It's a lower fat, better tasting version of the usual Middle Eastern fare--imagine that! I think that recipe alone is worth the price of the book!
Rating: 
Summary: no use as is
Review: I bought this book thinking I would be getting good vegetarian mediterranean food, and found that I had to modify every recipe I have used from it to suit my taste. The modifications included adding a little bit of olive oil here and there to make the food taste better - I find that for example lentils boiled with some onion and garlic taste pretty plain, even after adding the spices suggested. Another thing I dislike about this book is that the author uses A LOT of garlic in her dishes to make up for lack of flavor, and also that she substitutes yogurt for olive oil in quite a few dishes - what a useless idea for those of us who don't even like yogurt. Finally the organization could be better. In summary there are some interesting ideas in her book but there are much better Mediterranean/healthy/vegetarian cookbooks on the market.
Rating:
Summary: Five stars!
Review: I have lots of cookbooks but few are as reliable as this one by Ms. Shulman. The lower-fat hummus recipe alone is worth the price of the book. (Another favorite is the Swiss chard soup.) This book was obviously a labor of love for the author. Thanks!
Rating: 
Summary: Let's be fair...
Review: I have to disagree with A Reader from California. There is no 3-day chicken soup. There is a soup that asks you to make a stock and refrigerate it overnight to facilitate the removal of the fat, but any experienced cook knows that step is optional. But for a book with lowfat recipes, Shulman probably wanted to be sure that all of the fat was removed. And as for the stracciatella, the base IS a stock that has been simmered with chicken, vegetables, and seasonings before turning it into soup. Her recipe for Shrimp with Cumin has an honest headnote, describing the dish as pungent and allowing 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin to taste. I don't mind when someone has legitimate complaints about a cookbook, but this person's review shows what a large part personal taste plays in evaluating a book. For myself, most of the excellent recipes I have made from this book have been winners (although I admit that because I don't like strong spices, I steered away from things like Whiting Poached with Caraway and Spices), especially the hummus and the ratatouille.
Rating:
Summary: After almost 4 years I still love this book
Review: I wrote in April of 2000 that I had lost 50 lbs. I've lost another 20 lbs - 70 in all and maintain that loss now for almost 4 years using this cookbook. I have given it to many friends and relatives. It has changed my eating style for the better for life. Every time there's a news story about the best way to eat it mirrors what Ms Shulman teaches in her books. It's no chore eating this way. I love it.
Rating:
Summary: After almost 4 years I still love this book
Review: I wrote in April of 2000 that I had lost 50 lbs. I've lost another 20 lbs - 70 in all and maintain that loss now for almost 4 years using this cookbook. I have given it to many friends and relatives. It has changed my eating style for the better for life. Every time there's a news story about the best way to eat it mirrors what Ms Shulman teaches in her books. It's no chore eating this way. I love it.
Rating:
Summary: Change Your Cooking Style
Review: I've lost 50 lbs since I began using the book last July (It's April now). Ms Schulman's book has taught me to cook with less fat and choose foods that are very tasty but with no fat or less fat than I was used to before.The foods are spicy, but I LOVE spicy. This is a Great book. I've given it to several friends and family members.
Rating:
Summary: Change Your Cooking Style
Review: I've lost 50 lbs since I began using the book last July (It's April now). Ms Schulman's book has taught me to cook with less fat and choose foods that are very tasty but with no fat or less fat than I was used to before. The foods are spicy, but I LOVE spicy. This is a Great book. I've given it to several friends and family members.
Rating: 
Summary: Too light for today
Review: Many of the recipes in this cookbook are okay, but when I ordered it I failed to notice that it contains a "Forward by Dean Ornish, M.D." That would have been the tip-off. We all know that too much fat is bad for us, and like many Americans my husband and I eat "light" nowadays--nonfat dairy products; very little beef, lamb or pork; no butter or margerine; skinless chicken and turkey. But much has changed in the dietary world since Shulman's book was first published in 1989. We now know that there are "good" fats as well as bad ones, and that an EXTREMELY low fat diet can be almost as unhealthy as a high-fat one. If you are vegetarian, this book will probably be useful to you. However, it contains only nine recipes that contain chicken (note that most are not truly "chicken dishes"). Few recipes contain cheese or dairy products of any kind, and most disturbing is her insistance on reducing the olive oil content of most dishes to a miniscule amount. She even includes a recipe for a traditional provencal onion pissaladiere (pizza) which always includes olives: she writes she "left out the olives . . .for the diet version"! There are many, many excellent mediterranean cookbooks on the market without going to the extreme of Shulman's. Dr. Atkins and Dr. Ornish are at the opposite extremes of the twenty-year- long fat versus carb controversy. Try an alternative mediterranean cookbook and find yourself a satisfying middle ground. I suggest The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook or any of Paula Wolfert's cookbooks. Another, unfortunately out of print, is Mediterranean Cooking the Healthful Way by Marilyn Spieler--my personal favorite. Go ahead: drizzle, don't dump, olive oil on your food and pop a couple of kalamata olives in your mouth. It's okay!
Rating:
Summary: Too light for today
Review: My rule of thumb is, if you get three recipes that you cook regularly out of a cookbook, and you otherwise enjoy it, it has earned its selling price. Let's see: I use the recipes for hummus, white bean and tuna salad, tabouleh, semolina bread, that thing with chard and fish . . . and there's lots more. The author explains how to do it all from scratch, which is always good to know, but I've saved some time substituting already cooked beans and, when I don't have any I've made myself, I've used commercially produced, fat-reduced chicken stock. Nutritional data is provided for each dish.
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