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| How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food (How to Cook Everything) | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Bittman
Creator: Alan Witschonke
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $19.57
You Save: $15.43 (44%)
New (45) Used (13) from $19.57
Avg. Customer Rating:  91 reviews
Sales Rank: 299
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1008
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 8.4 x 2.1
ISBN: 0764524836
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5636
EAN: 9780764524837
ASIN: 0764524836
Publication Date: October 15, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Ships from PA, 15-day return for any reason. Fast Shipping, thank you for your order. International and Priority shipping not avaliable on this item
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| Customer Reviews:
 New Favorite Veg Cookbook July 15, 2008
I LOVE this cookbook. I've been an on again, off again veg for about 20 years, but even when we eat meat at home we still cook and eat a lot of veg food because it's cheaper and we feel better (not so heavy, more energetic). This book joins Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian as the three books that I can always count on to deliver great tasting food.
Best yet, of these three books, I have so far found Bittman's book to deliver the fastest, easiest terrific recipes - if I don't feel like shopping for an exotic spice and going the Jaffrey route (and her food has been full of winners too) I can whip up a chowder or other recipe fast with Bittman and it all has tasted great.
Totally, totally worth the investment in another huge hardcover - get this, I don't think you will be disappointed.
Must-Have for Herbavores and Carnivores, alike.. July 13, 2008
I absolutely LOVE this book. As a flexitarian who love. to cook delicious food, while keeping everything fresh and healthy, this is the perfect cookbook for me. This book includes vegan recipes, as well which are conveniently labled. However, I would advise anyone who is vegan to not skip over the other recipies, as almost all of them include vegan variations (except for the chapter exclusively about eggs, dairy, and cheese). With the variations and substitutions, it's noted how these may affect the flavor and texture of the dish.
The first chapter goes over simple cooking and prepping techniques. It includes lists of the type of equiptment and ingredients that you really should have in stock, along with those that aren't necessary, but make things a whole lot easier.
Each chapter starts with the basics, teaching you about the food and how to cook it simply and quickly, covering well-know to lesser known ingredients, making it indespensible for the beginner and intermediate home cooks alike, vegetarian or not.
Each chapter is more or less organized by the main ingredient, progressively offering you ways to enhance any particular dish with variations at the bottom of most of the recipes. The recipes also seem to be labeled by ethnic influence, like "Indian style", "Korean Style" and each is described so you know what sort of dish your about to make. I would have liked to see more information on fusion dishes and maybe mixing different ethnic elements, but I would imagine that's another book. Briefs are included on each main ingredient from produce to beans, to noodles, to grains.. everything, just about. Many sections include tables for these items that include one for "every day variety" and "enthusiast variety". i know that may seem unclear so I'll give an example. The beginning of the grain chapter includes two tables. One is entitled "Everyday Grains" and include the most common, and the second one is called "Grains for Enthusiasts", and that has more lesser known grains worth trying. Both include descriptions on how they look, the texture, flavor, and where to find. The book includes how to select, store, and prepare your foods, as well and has a good amount of "how-to" illustrations for extra clarity.
This cookbook also teaches you how to make a plethora of things from scratch, such as breads, pickled veggies, sauces and vinegarettes, spices mixtures , down to homeade ketchup, mayo, cheese, and yogurt. Vegan mayo too!
The chapter on sauces and spices I particularly like, again because it starts with the basics, teaching about different oils, vinegars, spices. It also describes the components to diffent sauces, like pestos, vinegarettes (this is done throughout the book for other things, also), encouraging you to be more inventive and experiment with different flavors. This chapter also encourages you to make your spices and spice mixtures from whole spices. They have more flavor and you can adjust them to suit your personal taste.
Where many cookbooks include a "meat" chapter, this one has a well rounded chapter on "high protein foods" and is absolutely wonderful. From how to make things like tofu and seitan from scratch, to how to flavor them and make them into burgers and cutlets.
There is a dessert chapter included, that includes sorbets, cakes, ice cream, pie/tart crusts and toppings/frostings. It was nice, though I would have liked to see more cookie recipes.
All in all, this is my favorite cookbook, thus far. For me, personally, it was the spark I needed to get me in the kitchen again. I encourage you all to get it, whether or not you are vegetarian or vegan. Good food is good food with or with out meat. It inspired me as a self-taught home cook and I'm sure it will do the same for you.
In constant use July 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love this cookbook. I accidentally became a vegetarian cook (I eat meat out sometimes, but never cook it at home) because of my vegetarian spouse. For the last two years I've been eating what I used to eat, minus the meat. I never had a heavily meat-based diet, but my pallet of vegetarian possibilities was limited.
This book has opened up the world of cooking to me again, and made me adventurous again. I've cooked some things from this cookbook and hated them, and had other things simply not work. But, mostly, things come out well, and I always learn something from a recipe. I absolutely adore the huge number of variations that Bittman puts at the end of many of the recipes.
I literally go to the farmer's market, buy things that look good, and then use the index to find recipes that use them (title ingredients in the variations show up in the index). I've been able to find a recipe that I can make, maybe with a little bit of substitution of ancillary ingredients, for everything I've bought in the last two months. For example, I had no idea what to do with eggplant (despite looking in the Joy of Cooking several times and trying a few things), and now I'm buying it every week (it's eggplant season!) and doing something different with it.
I've improved some of my old stand-by dishes with tips in this cookbook, started making soups again, entered the world of home-made veggie-burgers, and more than tripled my list of good stand-by recipes. If you like vegetarian food, but are stuck in a rut or simply have trouble being creative, you should buy this book.
You must buy this book July 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is one of the best cookbooks I own. I refer to it all the time. It's full of great recipes, useful tips, and detailed explanations. It's the bible of vegetarian cooking. Even though I am vegan, I find this book to be extremely useful as it contains many vegan recipes (or recipes that can easily be veganized).
A must for your CSA box July 4, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
As a vegetarian and a cookbook lover, I always love it when these two interests cross paths. And while I usually don't really like huge cooking compendiums (no pictures! too hard to pick something to eat! gems get lost in the shuffle!) I love this cookbook.
The recipes are nicely organized. I really like that so many recipes have cute little lists after them with names like "10 things you can add to your scrambled eggs" (that kind of makes up for the fact that his scrambled egg recipe takes 40 minutes... my blood sugar doesn't have that much patience in the morning!) or suggestions of what to serve with the dish. Unlike most cookbooks, where the variations are really recipes unto themselves, Bittman's variations are usually cooking lessons unto themselves: how can you change one ingredient to make this a totally different dish? What tastes traditionally compliment eachother?
But this cookbooks REALLY came into its own when I started receiving my CSA shares this summer. Deborah Madison's "Local Flavors" cookbook should be the go-to, but I find her recipes pretty bland, and decent side-dishes but not all that filling. "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" is just esoteric and the stuff is far too hippyish for my meat-and-potatoes husband. "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian," on the other hand, has not let me down once. Very good, basic, filling recipes for every ingredient that I've have to throw at it. So hearty that the afore-mentioned meat and potatoes husband doesn't even bother to make his own meat side dishes when he sees this cookbook in the cookbook stand.
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