Vegetarian Books

I found this book to be well written and clear. As someone who is new to Ayurveda with a healing need, I have been looking for several books dealing with the same topics...in this case, how to modify one's diet to reach better balance physically, emotionally and spiritually. The content expanded and re-inforced principles I found in other Ayurvedic cookbooks. I felt I have gotten a better sense of how to use various types of foods and seasonings through this book. Highly recommended!

I love this cookbook! The instructions are specific and simple. Out of all my Ayurvedic cookbooks, I use this one the most. I've made almost every recipe in the book. Dr. and Mrs. Lad are living examples of the benefits of the Ayurvedic life style.

Another great book from Dr. Lad. His books are so informative and helpful and really produce dramatic results. Although mostly foods that are not usual, the recipes are simple and the soups and the rice dishes are tasty.

I am a serious student of ayurveda with one lifelong problem. I CAN'T COOK!! This book is easy enough to follow to tell you what to eaet and how to get there. It's so easy to follow and I made the most yummy Kitchari right off the bat! I love it and I'm so inspired that I'm going to get more Ayurveda cookbooks and make MORE yummm food after a lifetime of bad cooking. LOL

I was so impressed by Vasant Lad's "Complete Ayurvedic Home Remedies" book, I wanted to check out this book to incorporate Ayurvedic cooking. I was disappointed after I received and reviewed the book. This is a standard south Indian vegetarian cook book with an introduction to Ayurveda. So, if you are an Indian you might know most if not all of the recipes already. Even if you are not from India and want to learn ayurvedic style Indian vegetarian cooking, there are a dozen other cooking books which might be better than this. The recipes are not in detail, they are all very short. You have to go through some trial and error to perfect these recipes in my opinion.

A superbly organized and presented compendium of recipes reflecting vegetarian cuisines from the countries and cultures of the Middle East and North Africa, "Classic Vegetarian Cooking" offers a cornucopia of wonderful dishes showcasing the use of pungent herbs and diverse spices, aromatic stews and soups, falafels and breads, couscous, stuffed grape leaves, greens and vegetables, hummus, pizzas, pies, omelets, pastries and sweets, yogurt drinks and amazing coffees. Many of the recipes have their origins with the peasantry who could not afford meat as a part of their daily diet. In "Classic Vegetarian Cooking" author and culinary expert Habeeb Salloum presents 330 distinctive, gourmet quality recipes that have stood the test of time and taste. To put it simply, any kitchen chef or community library wanting to add elegance to their vegetarian cookbook collection would be well advised to add a copy of Habeeb Salloum's "Classic Vegetarian Cooking From The Middle East And North Africa"!

I checked this book out from my local library, and will be sad to return it this week. It was interesting to read through, to see some of the different customs associated with different recipes and regions. I also enjoyed learning how the same food (like falafel) differs from place to place. So far, I have only prepared one recipe, falafel Yemeni style, and they were delicious. The directions were clear and easy to follow.

I love this book. It has such a great variety of recipes from every country of the middle east. I have made recipes from this book that I have shared with middle easterners and westerners, and have recieved many compliments from everybody. The recipes are very clear and well written.

The recipes are clearly written, easy to make, and very tasty. This book, more than any other, convinced me that it is practical to be a vegetarian. Most dishes take very little time to prepare, unlike earlier cookbooks that seemed to require the entire day. The meals are healthy, light, and varied.

I'm sure most people reading about "vegetarian middle-eastern" cookbooks are good cooks when they have the time and inclination. But I, for one, have grown bored with my own repertoire. Most cookbooks are more fun to read than to actually cook from. Or they have ingredients that, even living in New York City, seem annoyingly inaccessible.

This book has lots of very easy recipes that are healthy vegetarian (hardly any animal fat with the exception of yoghurt in cold dishes). I can imagine actually(!) making just about everything, there's even a section on arab desserts -- the easy kind made of farina. This is probably the best cookbook I've ever bought. I think it's useful whatever your level of cooking expertise, but you need to be a fan of the meditterranean diet. We're talking beans, legumes, olive oil, yoghurt, eggplant, a few other vegetables.
Recipe details:-- it's true most are simple, but unless you were raised in a middle-eastern family I don't know how you would've thought of these combinations -- even if you're say very familiar with Greek or Italian food, I think this is pretty new stuff.
Some "recipes" include: yoghurt ginger appetizer (includes almonds, onions, ginger, tomato);many types of lentil soups from various middle eastern countries (the egyptian one includes butter and cumin, the one from bahrain adds tomato, vermicelli, and ground coriander);fried pepper salad; orange and olive salad; beet salad; stuffed eggplant; and vegetable casserole.
Nothing sounds 'exciting' but it is all very accessible and well seasoned. It's like you could turn to this book and make every meal from it -- that is if you like meditterranean food.

This is a comprehensive overview of the issues that a person who is considering living a Vegan lifestyle must think about. The information is not presented through the use of scare tactics but with facts and philosophical debates and queries.The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Living (The Complete Idiot's Guide)

I was vegetarian for 3 months and woke one morning with an epiphany- I should go vegan. I researched many issues online, such as the AR reasons to go completely vegan and dietary needs. This book filled in the gaps.
I disagree with the reviewer who mentioned that this book should list specific ethical reasons for veganism. Most people transitioning, aside from the "Skinny Bitch" phenomenon, are doing so because they know the horrors of factory farms. There is a small discussion on wool, but I felt even that was superfluous. I also disagree with the notion of the tone being haughty. This book is not about persuasion, but simply an instruction manual of sorts. There is nothing wrong with it seeming authoritarian when the "complete idiot" is looking for a firm resource.
There are some questionable chapters, as previously mentioned, but the value of the other sections out weighs the misinformation. The authors probably believe these things in their hearts, and it is up to the reader to decide whether or not to vaccinate or eat raw or what have you. I have found many vegan and vegetarian books to have strange ideas or "facts" that weren't cited, which is one reason why I went vege only 2 years ago. The authors have listed other sources, so the reader can research and get straight facts or make up their minds.
I found this book to be excellent. I've cooked several of the recipes, which were delicious and easy enough for a so-so cook to create. I often refer back to the guide, even a year later. If you're even considering living vegan this book is invaluable.

Overall, this book is a pretty good beginning resource for the new vegan, or for those like I am, in the process of experimenting with and transitioning to veganism. It covers common types of vegan staples (such as tofu, tempeh, soy cheeses, milk substitutes, and legumes), hidden animal ingredients to look for (such as carmine red and "natural flavorings"), good ideas for all of the daily meals, non-food-related vegan issues (such as wardrobe, household cleaners, and candles), rebuttals of common myths about veganism, the myriad of health benefits associated with a vegan diet, how to handle eating out, and how to cope with the non-vegans in one's midst. And the book doesn't seem really preachy, holier than thou, or guilt-tripping. The authors stress that such a big sea change in both diet and lifestyle can't happen overnight, and should take place at one's own pace. It's also great how they acknowledge that it's probably impossible to be 100% vegan, no matter how seriously one takes the commitment. There will probably still be some foods, clothing, and household products with unknown non-vegan ingredients that slip through the cracks. The most important thing is to do the best one can.

As wonderful of a resource as the book otherwise is, though, I wished there had been a chapter covering the ethical reasons behind going vegan, not just the health benefits. Granted, the issue of factory farming was covered in depth in 'The Idiot's Guide to Vegetarianism' and they might not wanted to have significant overlap between these two similar books in the series, but it can never hurt to repeat and reword such important information, particularly since it seems to be the main reason most people go vegan. And while they did say that higher prices mean the food is higher quality (one always does get what one pays for), buying only or mostly organic isn't always an automatic guarantor of getting the best food available. Not everyone can afford the grocery bills that go along with buying the more expensive organic versions of normal foods, and there isn't always a huge difference between organic and regular. A number of the recipes (and they are great recipes) thus call for ingredients that are going to be rather expensive and/or hard (if not downright impossible, depending upon where one lives) to find. In spite of what the ultra-health-conscious crowd might say, I really don't think it's going to be jeopardizing my health if I use white flour and wheat grains instead of making a total switch to whole grains only. One can easily be a successful vegan without having a pantry and fridge stocked full of organic foods and hard-to-find products like oat flour and amaranth.

My other major issue with the book was the anti-vaccination section in the chapter on raising vegan kids and having a healthy vegan pregnancy. I kind of think that saving a life takes precedence over all else, even if it means having to violate one's ordinary beliefs and lifestyle. Better a baby get non-vegan vaccines and thus be able to live a full healthy life as a vegan than be at risk for being killed, maimed, or disabled by a scary disease like measles, polio, rubella, whooping cough, or diphtheria. A lot of the "information" in this section was just plain false, like claiming that vaccines cause autism (that ridiculous claim has been debunked by all of the reputable medical and scientific sources), that vaccines cause more harm than good and aren't usually effective (was this section written by the anti-vaccine radicals at Mothering magazine or something?!), that there are a lot of bad side effects (not mentioning that that's only true in a small minority of cases!), and that some vaccines contain mercury (only the flu vaccine still contains mercury, and only trace amounts). Reading blatantly false propaganda like this really raises my blood pressure, and it had no place in an otherwise very sound and researched book!

In spite of some questionable portions, I would recommend the book to someone who's just become a vegan or who is interested in becoming one, but only to be used as a supplement with other vegan-related books that cover some of these issues in more depth.

`The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Living' by Beverly Lynn Bennett and Ray Sammartano, `Vegan Freak' by Bob Torres and Jenna Torres, and `Vegan Planet' by Robin Robertson are three books my godson purchases, believing they were oriented primarily toward what most of us would consider a vegetarian diet adopted for simple health reasons. The primary objective of this review is to warn those who may be interested in these books for the same purpose. And, to make a strong distinction between the first two and the third.
The vegan lifestyle, at its heart, is far more than a dietary regimen. It is a combination of a system of spiritual values, culinary choices for health, and economic values allied with `green' doctrines of helping to preserve resources. Surprisingly, the first is by far the most important of these three, especially to those like the authors of the `Vegan Freak' book. One need read only a few pages of this book to realize veganism may in some senses be considered a Hindu sect, as it shares many of the same values of this religion, including many approaches to animal products which are as extremely anti-scientific as the rejection of some scientific theories by those who espouse creationism. As someone who has some reasonably sound background in Christian and Jewish doctrines, I can say with some certainty that vegan values are NOT shared by either Christian, Jewish, or Muslim value systems. In fact, the Judeo-Christian scriptures are often cited as justifications for using animal products. I will also venture the thought that the vegan doctrines are not consistent with secular ethical theory. By the definition assumed by every ethical value system, including those based on Judaism and Christianity, moral principles are those principals related specifically to behavior toward other humans. Thus, the vegan apologists are truly stretching the meaning of `ethical' or `moral' in order to add cachet to their preaching, which it does not deserve. That doesn't mean these values are baseless. It just means they need some justification which is independent of moral theories.
Now that is not to say many vegan values are not shared by the non-vegan population at large. Most civilized people, and even cultures which may be considered pre-civilized savages, place a value on `humane' treatment of animals. Thus, we have dedicated a fair amount of resources to SPCA organizations and other animal rescue organizations. It is also due more to ignorance than to inhumanity that we indulge in animal products which are raised in an inhumane manner. And, the rationale that these animals would never have lived if it were not for our raising them specifically for food is scant excuse.
As sound as the basic vegan value system is, to some peoples' minds, it seems to cross some line from humane principles to surprising extremes when it raises its ban against literally every animal product, no matter how remotely removed from cruel commercial animal husbandry. Two of the most extreme examples are bans against vaccines because they are incubated in eggs and many beers and wines, because they are clarified using animal products. Less extreme, but similarly questionable are the prohibitions against milk and eggs, especially if one makes the effort to purchase products raised according to humane husbandry techniques. Here, one encounters many of the health concerns of vegans, and for many people, milk and eggs have health problems. But not for everyone. And, eggs and milk products are the basis of some of the most nutritious and delicious food products.
`Vegan Freaks', as one may assume from the title, is the most extremely doctrinaire of the three books. As with the `freaks' of the 60's and later, they revel in their differentness, making that a fourth leg of their vegan lifestyle. `...Vegan Living' is less strident, but, it is no less doctrinally `pure'. It is somewhat easier to read, as it does not have the attitude of poking a stick in the eyes of non-vegans. Both are excellent starting points and both have very good bibliographies for obtaining additional information. But, neither contains any major sections on recipes! And this is where a purchaser may be most surprised, believing that these are `cookbooks'.
`Vegan Planet' is substantially different, as it is a cookbook from start to finish. In fact, it is not even doctrinally pure vegan, as it joyfully includes bread recipes which use yeast! As I write this, I realize that it has been a very long time since I took high school biology, and I'm no longer sure whether yeasts are related to the animal protozoans or the `vegetable' fungi. Except for this somewhat gray area, the book is otherwise true vegan, except that it never leaves the kitchen in order to climb on its soapbox and preach its gospel of avoiding animal products in every form.
In the end, if you have health concerns which bring you to the vegan diet, `Vegan Planet' is certainly the book you want. It will give you hundreds of recipes which simulate dishes traditionally cooked with milk, plus lots of great recipes for the staple vegan protein replacements such as beans, pulses, and grains. The other two books may only be of value if you are interested in the vegan value system. And, although these books mention the raw `cooking' style, neither deals with it in any depth. For that, I suggest `RAW, The UnCook Book' by Juliano.

As a vegetarian going vegan, the table of contents promised to answer a lot of my questions, such as will I be able to keep my weight and what is a good vegan diet for physical excercise.
To my disappointment, many of the headlines covered only chit-chatty chapters on the subjects, revealing the authors' lack of authority on the basic nutrition.
What's even worse is, I found the general tone quite self rightious, which in my oppinion is a very poor way of advocating vegan living.

I received the book in plenty of time for Christmas and it was in top notch condition. I have no complaints.

Thank you for your prompt delivery of my order. I'm eager to start cooking vegetarian meals for my family, and this book is just what I need.

Though included in this book were recipies for many, many differeny vegetables, none were very creative or inspiring. Just basic stuff.

As recent arrivals in the vegetarian world, we are very pleased with this informative and well-written book.
We look forward to many healthy meals, without the gnawing feeling that some animal was killed to feed our carnivore tastes.
Well done, and thanks.

i just started my vegetarian venture so this is a cookbook i picked up. the book gives really good side tips about food that are not common knowledge. i have tried a few of the recipes and they turned out fabulous. so no damage there. the only down side is there are absolutely no pictures of any of the recipes. so if your ok with cooking blindly then this is one for you.

I have always appreciated a healthy lifestyle and diet. Though I am not strictly vegan, I don't deal in meat in my home and have been cooking vegan for about a year now. I was getting bored with my How It All Vegan cookbook, and wanted to venture out. I purchased this one after reading several positive reviews. The book hardly lived up to the hype. Don't get me wrong, it's a gorgeous book with a lot of tasty recipes. However, the recipes really only work if you've just pulled the ingredients out of your garden. I don't have that luxury; in fact where I live I don't even have a green grocer. That said, if you're looking for accessible vegan recipes that use igredients that you can find in your supermarket, this is NOT the book for you. Added to that, the book contains no nutritional info on the dishes, and doesn't even have one of those fun intro to veganism sections. The section about edible flowers just felt like another adventure into recipe erudition. On the whole, this book will probably sit on my shelf and come down on the rare occassion that I have a lot of money to spend at the farmer's market and want to make a big meal. Other than that, I've written it off as a venture that I wish I hadn't taken.

Let me start by saying I have one daughter who is a vegan and that is difficult (none of the rest of the family is) but since she is now the only one left at home we are trying to eat more vegan food. I have tried many vegan cookbooks but this is by far the easiest and tastiest of them all. The only complaint I have about the book is that the binding came apart but was easily fixed. I have tried several recipes from this book, each one being EXCELLENT! We have tried the spinach hummus, (trying to get something different from regular hummus) and it was excellent and probably better for our eyes with the spinach, Sweet Pepper Coconut Corn Chowder, Spiced Red Lentil Soup, Paul's Thai Noodle Salad, Lemon Curried Lentils and Potatoes, and more. I haven't tried any desserts as of yet but I hope to. It is the vegan cookbook I will use over and over again, although my husband and I will still eat our dairy, at least once in a while. Recipes are excellent for vegans and non vegans alike. Wonderful book.

I love this book - everything from the clever name to the mouthwatering pictures to the liberal use of lavender and did I mention that the recipes are delicious too?

The author, Laura Matthias, has quite a story. She was a field biologist raising a young son and wanting to escape the city. When she found a rundown organic farm with a funky house, she jumped at the change to move to the country. With lots of help, she got the farm up and running and then decided to open a Bed and Breakfast where she could serve gourmet breakfasts made from her own farm fresh produce. This cookbook is made up of many of the dishes she serves at the B & B - and lots more.

The appetizers include Spinach Balls, Artichoke Heart Dip, Spicy Stuffed Avocados and lots more that I can't wait to serve at my next party. Since I was reviewing this book in the winter, I was happy about the all the delicious soups to choose from. I made the Spiced Red Lentil, Potato Parsnip and the Sweet Pepper Corn Chowder. We liked them all but the favorite of the kids was the Red Lentil while I especially liked the Chowder - made with coconut milk and jalapeno peppers.

I didn't have a chance to try any of the salads (like I said, it's winter) but there are some great choices like Mint Beet, Tuscan Bean, Pad Thai Noodle, and Sesame Spinach. Side dishes also sound good - like Coconut Cilantro Rice and Lemon Curried Lentils and Potatoes. I just bought the ingredients for the Black Bean Sweet Potato Almond Burgers and my kids can't wait for me to make the Smoky Baked Beans.

I did get to try a couple of entrees. The Vegan Pad Thai was very good - more peanut buttery than the authentic dish but a real hit with my family. The Baked Kabocha Squash with Savory Stuffing was perfect for our holiday dinner and I'm still looking forward to trying the Root Vegetable Pot Pie and the Friendly Shepherd's Pie.

I'm baking my way through the wonderful assortment of muffins, buns, and breads offered. So far, we've made the Apple Walnut Spice Muffins but I want to try the Lemon Lavender Blueberry Muffins next. Speaking of lavender, the Lavender Chocolate Chunk Cookies were amazing. Really amazing. Really, really amazing. I almost always try the chocolate chip cookie recipe in any cookbook I review and this is the first vegan version I really feel I can rave about. If you like thick, crisp chocolate chip cookies (which my husband for one much prefers over the chewy kind), you will love these. I happened to have guests over the day I tried them and they were gobbled up in no time. (Darn, I was hoping for leftovers!)

Okay, I'll go on with my review before I start drooling. There are lots of other goodies like pies, cakes, tarts, brownies, truffles, puddings, "cheese" cakes, baklava - okay, I really am drooling now. I think I'll go do some baking - and you, don't you need to be heading to the bookstore to get a copy for yourself?

Recipe as seen on www.vegfamily.com by Cathe Olson

Mm, mm! When I look for cookbooks, I look for something that not only sounds good but doesn't look too intimidating to make or have ingredients I'll never be able to find. I'm not the world's best cook by far, so I steer clear of anything truly complicated. When I saw this book it sounded delicious so I went ahead and picked it up and boy am I glad! I've only made a few recipes but they have all been DELICIOUS! The veggie kebabs and the shepherd's pie have become staples in my family and when serving guests because they are just SO good. Very good recipes that don't require you to be a professional. Perhaps not for someone who has never cooked before (it's not a tutorial-type book), but well worth having. I have several vegan-specific cookbooks as well as some general cookbooks and I think this may be my favorite of all of them. YUM!

I give great praise for this book and the author. She did an amazing job creating simple delicious recipes that are easy to make and delicious! Everything is so lovingly rendered it makes me feel like I am a guest at her B&B. I don't usually bake but these recipes are so awesome it makes me want to run in the kitchen and bake something. I especially appreciate that she uses alternative flours like spelt, rice, and hemp, which are good for you and better for people with food sensitivities. The main dishes and salads are wonderful too. I highly recommend this book!

This is a preliminary review, but I am writing it because I would want others to do the same for my information. This is not a vegetarian cookbook or a vegetarian cookbook with an addition of a sea life (non-vegetarian) section. The supposedly vegetarian recipes contain oyster sauce, so everything that contains this item is omnivorous, along with the sea life recipes. While these items are easily overcame by the experienced vegan cook by using vegan sauces and such, it is quite annoying that an author of a book doesn't know the definition of one of the words in the title. Also, a beginner cook or someone who doesn't have extra time in the kitchen will not want to make the effort of fixing these recipes to actually be vegetarian.

This is my preliminary review only, but since any recipe I make will be modified to be really vegetarian, I don't know that I can provide any further review of this cookbook.

I bought this book years ago and only in the last two years took it down from my bookshelf and started experimenting. To my delight, I have uncovered all kinds of incredible gems that have become part of my regular dinner menus. In particular the chapter on vegetables has paid for itself many times over. We've perfected "Mushrooms with Broccoli" on page 91 and absolutely love it. The scallion oil and other seasoned oils add depth to the recipes, and the vegetable stock makes a huge difference. While it's true that oyster sauce is called for in some recipes, vegetarian oyster sauce is sold in many Chinese markets, so I don't think this is a serious issue for concern. However, it is true that one of the chapters is on "the occasional fish," which may not be useful to strict vegetarians. My husband raves about these recipes whenever I make them- and said my cooking (and these recipes) was better than that a Chinese restaurant. Granted, he's biased, but we love this book!

These recipes solve the mystery of how to cook vegetables Chinese style.


In my opinion, acquiring all of the author's cookbooks first before buying the other English language Chinese cookbooks makes an important foundation to understanding what you eat in America and how the food is cooked at home. Then proceed to the other cookbooks and hopefully to eating the more elaborate levels of Chinese cooking. I didn't pick up the author's cookbooks until very recently and only after learning that the author is from Sun Tak. I wish I had bought her books long ago.

I have a sagging shelf of cookbooks, most of them vegan. This is the one cookbook I have other than my Betty Crocker (that has so many recipes fun to veganize) that includes mention of meat. Another reviewer gave this cookbook a bad rating due to the author's lack of clarification concerning oyster sauce (vegan versions are readily available at Asian food markets and elsewhere). I think this is a bad move on the reviewer's part. This omission is regrettable, but it in no way diminishes the fine job that the author does in doing what her job was: to come up with awesome recipes and provide readers with instructions on how to duplicate them.

My only complaint about the cookbook is that many of the recipes end up being pretty heavy on oil. I have taken to halving the oil recommendations in most recipes, replacing the remaining volume with water or another liquid. I find it makes the recipes much lighter, with very little loss in taste.

Overall, highly recommended.

This is one of the better books written on vegetarian cookery (biased towards Southern Chinese cooking). There is a pretty good exposition of ingredients at the beginning of the book, and I was able to locate most at the Chinese market. Ms. Lo makes extensive use of flavored cooking oils that you make yourself. This could be a bit time consuming, but worth the extra flavor. Also a good idea is making her recipe for stock; good stock she explains is crucial for good chinese cooking, especially vegetarian cooking. There is also a section on fish, which might seem a bit out of place (fish is not in the same category as land dwelling animals in Chinese tradition). Some of the recipes seem a bit repetitive. The book does include the chinese name as well which might be handy for some of us. All in all a good book for vegetarians who want to inject a bit of Chinese flava into their diet.

Excellent cook book, provides basics for iondian cooking and sources for obtaining unique spices for recipes

This book has absolutely no pics. Kinda boring to look at, but does offer a lot of doable recipes.

I purchased this based on 6 great reviews. I love to cook and am a long-time vegetarian, but I've not found a good Indian cookbook and have little to no experience cooking Indian foods.

Unfortunately, I just haven't had a good experience with the recipes in this book. Most of them seem to use the same set of spices (hence, very similar tastes no matter what you make). I guess the recipes turned out OK, but not a winner. I thought this would allow me to make restaurant-quality Indian food (as it did for another reviewer), but it didn't. Just more fair-quality food. I liked one recipe with spinach and lentils but couldn't find a recipe for Naan, my chipatis didn't poof up like the recipe said they should, another lentil dish was rejected by my kids. You might be more experienced with Indian food and have better luck, but this cookbook was a disappointment for me.

I found the book very easy to follow.
The Receipts are simple but very testy.

This is the first Indian cookbook I've used that was so easy to follow. The layout is simple and the results are always phenominal!

I have been a veggie for about 2 years now and was caught up in the same whirlwind as a lot of us with the junk food syndrome. This book gave me a detail way to cut down my carbs while still enjoying delicious food. The author breaks down the what you need ie. food processor, blender.

Also, she gives you delicious recipes and a break down of calories, fat and carbs in each meal. For you veggies who are like me who have some extra pounds and are tired of high carb and caloric foods this is the book for you.

The cook book is a bit of a disappointment - it's completely vegan which is not what I am. Some recipes I've tried, but was looking forward to some new ideas involving eggs, cheese or even milk.

Buyer beware: Many of the recipes in this book are not what most dieters would consider low carb. About half weigh in with carb counts of 30-60 g. per serving. That's more than many low-carb dieters eat in a whole day!

The author explains that she considers a diet of 130-150 g. of carbs per day "low-carb." This is the type of vegetarian diet that made many of us fat in the first place! There's a reason that most of the popular diet plans call for daily net carb consumption of only 20-50 grams: Clinical experience has shown that higher carb counts simply won't do the job for people who have a substantial amount of weight to lose.

This might be a useful book for people on a maintenance plan, who want to take off 10 lbs., or who just want to cut out "white food" (processed sugar and flour) from their diet. The recipes do look tasty! But it's not going to be very useful for the many people who are looking to lose significant amounts of weight and need to restrict their carbs to lower levels to do so.

What I appreciated most about this book was the food suggestions are tasty! I stay away from most 'health food' restaurants because the food is too bland, but all the products (veggie hot dogs, burgers, bacon, chicken and tuna substitutes, etc. made from textured soy) recommended in this book and most of the recipes are really interesting in taste, texture, and variety.

I was excited to order this being vegan, but I was so disappointed upon receiving it, to discover that almost every recipe called for a processed meat substitute like deli slices, sausages, meat sub crumbles etc, or tofu.
Even when a dish has a solid complete protein in it , like beans, the author still adds tofu. Even the hummus had tofu in it....totally unneccesary.
To use this you will be investing heavily in Morningstar and Boca type products and eating a lot of soy.
I dont want to pretend I'm eating meat with each meal. My omnivore partner doesnt like fake meats either, so theres not much that suited our tastes for natural low carb natural wholesome vegetarian dishes.
There's not even a recipe for homemade seitan which is a wonderful low carb veggie staple.
There's tofu in just about every dessert - bleurgh!
Its a relatively thin book with no pictures besides the front cover which features fake meats predominately - should have looked at the picture on Amazon before I ordered.
I have done vegan low carb for a while and KNOW there's better recipes than this to be made.
I ordered at the same time the wonderful Veganomicon, so I think I'll be subbing out the high carb flours for low carb & getting far more use from that book instead.
Sorry! I really wanted to like this but honestly I wish I'd got a different veggie low carb book.

I love this cookbook. I rarely use cookbooks, because although I love thumbing through them for new ideas, the ingredient lists always have some weird fru-fru ingredients I'd have to hunt high and low just to find at some specialty deli, and take ages to prepare, even when they say they're 'easy' or 'quick.' This book really is easy and quick as it says, and uses normal ingredients that I usually have on hand anyway. It's easy to substitute and recreate as you go, while using her measurements as a guide. Her recipes are tasty, solid, and relatively healthy, and I've made several of the recipes over and over and over again.

I'm not vegetarian, so I find all the strict vegetarians getting their panties in a twist over a recommendation of some chicken stock a bit funny. It's not like you MUST use chicken stock! And the mention of it in a 'meatless' cookbook does not negate the recipes entirely. My darling husband is a vegetarian, and I too have always just used vegetable stock, and it has always been fabulous. She never said she was a vegetarian herself and therefore, her opinion is probably that the meat stocks do taste better. And honestly, sometimes they do. That's not to say that veg stock isn't good as a substitute.

OK, maybe the author is a bit on the clueless side to include recipes with chicken/beef broth. I've always ignored her advice and substituted Vegetable broth and have never missed any of the wonderful taste that most of these recipes have to offer. We've been vegetarian for 18 years and I've relaxed enough now to not get offended when an occasional aberation raises its head -- try the Tri-Color fajitas, the bean/vegetable soup, the ravioli antipasto salad. The recipes range from clever (mushroom stroganoff) to ordinary (you could've figured out the antipasto salad yourself), but my well-worn copy proves that it's the most often used cookbook in my busy kitchen!

True, the book is titled Meatless Dishes in Twenty Minutes, not Vegetarian Dishes in Twenty Minutes however, I found this book in a bookstore in the Vegetarian Cookbook section. I would never read this book, after seeing on page 9 that a recipe called for chicken or beef broth, I knew this author was full of crap.

What can you expect from someone who also wrote Chicken Dishes in Twenty Minutes?

In my quest to begin eating healthier, I stumbled into the vegetarian section and ultimately onto this book. I have purchased vegetarian cookbooks both before and after this book and this is the best. Every recipe in this book is fast, filling and tastes terrific! The recipes are clearly explained, easy to make and pretty kid-friendly (translation: they'll actually eat it)!! The author also provides suggestions for side dishes and alternative ingredients if something might be unavailable (ie due to seasonality). Most importantly (to me anyway) is that it almost exclusively uses ingredients I already had in my kitchen or ones that readily available in any grocery store - as opposed to most vegetarian books I've found, which require ingredients I've never heard of.
This is the cookbook I reach for when I'm home late from work, hungry and haven't been grocery shopping to plan for a meal. It really does provide some peace of mind knowing that I can always put a great-tasting dinner together at a moment's notice.

I received this book as a gift; otherwise I'd return it. I was stunned to find that the base for the vast majority of the "Soups, Stews, and Chili" is chicken or beef broth. The author adds a note that since the major part of the flavor comes from the beef or chicken broth she doesn't recommend using a veg. broth substitute. Ahem. I guess that the definition of "Meatless"needs to be changed to accomodate an author who can't come up with a tasty vegetable broth.

Sorry but I was dissapointed. To be fair I have been a vegetarian since May and decided to transition to a vegan. I haven't had much experience with vegan cooking so I sent for the book. There was a lot of wheat breadcrumbs , soy, soya sauce etc. I try not to use wheat because it is one of the number one allergy sources. I am not to sold on whether soy is good for you or not. I really didn't see anything that looked appetizing. I have tried a few vegan recipes on the internet like lentil loaf and lentil tacos and they were good. I just didn't see anything on here that looked good enough to try.

I have been a vegatarian for about 7 yrs. I've always wanted to go vegan, but living with my parents I couldn't. Now that I'm old enough and living on my own, I've made the move to vegan. However, it seemed like I was always eating the same things and I wanted to try some new recipes. Of course being on my own, when I used other cookbooks I had tons of leftovers and was eating them for days. I saw this book while browsing Amazon and liked the fact that it is designed for busy single people.
I got the book a couple of days ago and so far have liked all the recipes. I love that fact that she gives you a shopping list for each week, and splits the book up into seasons. The recipes can be a little bland, but it isn't hard to add a little more flavoring to whatever you cooking. My only complaint with this book is that not all of the ingredients are readily available to everyone. I live in a small rural town in the Southeast. It is impossible to find some of the ingredients like soy margarine/butter or truly vegan cheeses. I could order them online but that is more expensive. It would be nice if she had alteratives for some of the harder to find items. Right now I'm experimenting with different things on my own, but true newbies to cooking and vegatarian/vegan diets might find it difficult trying to figure out what works if they do not have the ingredients available.

This is BY FAR the most clever cookbook I've ever used. I've had it for a while and just recently decided to use it as it is intended. I followed the shopping list and have been making the recipes for the week. My thoughts:

1. recipes are varied, interesting and delicious
2. recipes are easy to prepare, and quick to make
3. the shopping list takes all the planning out of weekly cooking.
4. because you only have to go shopping once, it is fun to see what the next meal will turn out to be.

Seriously, my husband is not a vegan and he has been eagerly asking me each day, so what's for dinner tonight! Because you know you have all the ingredients and they are so simple to make I almost feel like I am eating out each night trying something new. There really is a lot of variety and taste. These recipes were carefully tested because each and everyone so far has gone off without a hitch (and leftovers!)

I really love this cookbook. I'm not really much of a cook, and after I went vegan I feel into a rut of packaged rice and beans and canned veggies. I got other vegan cookbooks but I didn't really know where to start with them. This cookbook, however, divides the meals into days of the week and puts a grocery list at the beginning of each week. So instead of debating over what to eat and planning ahead for my grocery trip, I just take the list with me and I have dinners planned for the whole week. The food has been surprisingly good, too. I've only had one bad recipe, but I think I cooked that wrong anyways. The deserts aren't really that creative, they're basically just fruit with soygurt or baked fruit with sugar/maple syrup on top (that's good on soy ice cream) but the dinners more than make up for it. If you're a more experienced cook who's just new to veganism then you might like a more elaborate cookbook, like the Veganomican, but if you're not good at cooking or are having problems finding one-serving recipes then you'll love this book.

I decided to go vegetarian a few months ago, and have been purchasing cookbook after cookbook. Out of all the ones I own, this is got to be the most useful. The shopping lists at the beginning of each week's list make preparation a cinch, and I'm not ending up with five times the food. A lot of the recipes end up with some leftovers, which is great for saving money at lunch the next day (and not for the next week!) Some of the recipes are on the blandish side, but I'm one of those people whose philosophy is "the spicier the better." I just add a little extra pepper or something else to give it a kick, and the recipe's fine for me!