Vegetarian Books

Many years ago and upon a friend's recommendation I bought Jaffrey's well-known Indian cookbook and found it complicated and intimidating. It's gathered dust in my pantry since then, and every time I've noticed it the book has seemed to taunt me for my "inability" to make good Indian cuisine. Thanks to Batra's wonderful book this is no longer true. I'm not sure why one reviewer found this text hard too use. It's as simple as an ordinary recipe out of Cooking Light and the results are astonishing.

While I am still new to the art, and my dishes don't always look like somethiing from a fine Indian restaurant, the taste is remarkable. What they remind me of is the food you find at those unassuming little groceries in London that feature a small hot deli case. That food is made by someone's mother and it is to be treasured. This is food like mom used to make--if Mom was Indian, I suppose.

Marrying Indian with American cuisine in recipes which can be served in an American menu as well as Indian, Batra offers barbecued eggplant in yogurt, okra stuffed with spices, curried baby potatoes, soybeans in curry sauce, cucumber and mint chutney snadwiches, lots of chutneys, homemade yogurt cheeses and more.

None of the recipes are very hot although they can easily be hotted up. Although the dishes are naturally healthy - depending as they do on yogurt and vegetables and spices - Batra does not intend this as a diet book and nutritional information is not included.

Its an amazing book, I got this book from the library for the first time.... such simple explanations and awesome recipes.... the procedure for each dish is soooooo simple for a beginner and the taste is just awesome and makes ppl wonder if u are an expert..... wud recommend this book agn and agn to everybody i know. Its a must have!!!!
- Kavitha

After owning this book for about two years, I am still a bit ambivalent about this cookbook. Most of the recipes are actually decent, and the major different between this and a traditional book is that this book use less oil in deference to today's health-conscious eaters. However, I have to say I wish the author offered a bit more of a guidance for those just venturing into Indian cuisine. I have had some cooking basics when I first started with this, but not in any type of Indian cooking, and let me just say that the first few times (as in first 3 months) I blotched up horribly anytime I tried anything from this book. It was by the long process of trial-and-error that I finally got my technique down. Also, there are absolutely no pictures in this book, and many times I have to guess when the dish was actually done. It didn't help that everything came in 8-serving sizes that makes cooking even more difficult for beginners.

My other complaint about the book is the way it presents the material. If you're not accustomed to cooking with spice, the long list of spices in a recipe looks intimidating. The author does nothing to dispel such perception. In the two years which I struggled with this book, I never understood how and why spices were used, much less grasping any systematic method to spicing. It was not until I met an Indian friend, who basically taught me the basic spicing principle over the course of 3 days, that I understood spicing was not a random compilation of esoteric plant parts.

The recipes themselves were decent, though I have yet to locate a standout dish that make this book a must have. Usually in my favorite cooking books I always locate a few absolutely delightlful recipes that made me want to keep the book even if I make nothing else from it for a year. So far that hasn't occured with this book.

To sum it up, if you want standard Indian dishes, and a few dishes that has been adapted toward the American living habit, and have some background in Indian cooking, this book will suit your need. If you are like me, who loves trying different foods but not in the 'catered' form, or need very clear directions in a cookbook, I would suggest trying another cookbook first.

Book is devoid of any photos.
Neelam Batra offers a variety of recipes.
The book is okay.

We bought this book about 12-15 years ago and I wanted to see if it was updated. The book was real good then and I tried lots of things that didn't even sound like something we would eat. They were all good and passable then and probably still are. It must have been put together by someone who know what they were doing. The only thing I object to is when premade items (like soup, or roll mixes) are used in the "homemade" recipes.

Great book for diabetics who are vegans or who want a few vegetarian meals a week.

I found this book to be helpful in understanding the basic proportions of a healthful vegetarian diabetic diet, but have some reservations about it overall.

First of all, this book, which is sub-titled "Vegetarian Pleasures" might lead a practicing vegetarian to believe that it is focused on vegetarians, but ...throughout the book, vegetable protein sources are referred to as "meat substitutes". To a practicing vegetarian, there is no such thing as a meat substitute because there is no meat on your plate. The editors should take note of this for the next edition or be more up front about the fact that this book is really for non-vegetarians trying to add meatless meals to their diabetic routine. Which I completely support, by the way!

I also found some of the meals a little awkward, like this one: 1 soy dog, 1/2 c EACH carrot and celery sticks, 1/2 brussels sprouts AND 1 c bean salad, made with legumes. I really didn't know what to make of this either from an aesthetic or nutritional viewpoint. And I found the use of a certain brandname dried soup mix throughout to be annoying when it's so easy to make up and freeze nutritious home-made soups.

All that being said, though, I would still recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a selection of usually tasty, nutritious vegetarian diabetic meals, in a easy to read format. I liked the mix and match concept, the meals provide good templates for designing your own favorites, and the nutritional information in the back is very helpful. The menus tend to be the :30 quick-fix at home sort, but some of them are really good and they appeal to a contemporary palate in their mix of ethnic and old standard recipies. The use of soy product is minimal and most folks trying to just add some vegetarian variety to their diets will find many appealing options. The value to the practicing vegetarian is in the way menus are modelled on proper amounts of fats, carbs and proteins, so that you can train yourself to make appropriate and well-balanced meals of the correct portion size. So, despite flaws, I do recommend this helpful and useful book.

First I must admit that I hate every book that doesn't have at least one image every two recipes. This book has about 10 images for the entire book.
I think the recipes are what some could qualify as simple, but really the good term would be obvious, you could figure it out yourself. Imagine what you would put in a spinach lasagna... Did you guess? lasagna pasta, tomato sauce of some sort, cheese and spinach. A little bit more taste? add onion and garlic and a little bit of dried oregano. Come on! Can't you make it up yourself? The recipes in that book have nothing new at all. Boring.
An other thing that infuriates me when I use a cooking book is when it uses prepared food. When a book tells me that I could cook spaghetti and use canned spaghetti sauce, but spice it up with dried italian herbs, I would slap its author with a cooking mitt... And you call that a recipe? I call that a college student meal.

I have always enjoyed vegetarian meals but find that sometimes they take too much time and a lot of trouble to prepare until I found the Month of Meals; Vegetarian Pleasures. The recipes are easy to prepare and they are very tasty. I am very pleased with this book and would recommend it for anyone with diabetes or not to become a healthier individual through vegetables.

I've tried many raw food cookbooks and this one is tops for flavor. The author gets just the right combination of spices and herbs to make the food pop... and the variety of choices is excellent.

Robyn knows just how to put together great flavors that taste amazing. My six year old son asked to go all raw foods because he loves these recipes so much. All the foods are so easy and we eat something out of this book every day. We do everything from one dish to dinner parties with this guide.
Lisbeth ( Santa Cruz, CA)

I was hoping to get a bunch of good raw recipes. The title says "raw with some cooked." It should say cooked with some raw. If you are looking for raw recipes, this isn't the book.

Rawsome Recipes is a great book. I have had the pleasure of attending two of Robyn's workshops and got to see how things were made first hand. Not only are they easy to prepare, they are also incredibly delicious AND healthy. One of my favorites is her 'Raw Oatmeal Delight'. The papaya puree really adds a wonderful flavor to this perfect dish to start your morning.
And for a refreshing summer (or anytime!) drink, you can't beat her 'Cocunut Vanilla Mystic'. The flavor is exquisite and it both cools and energizes at the same time.
I would highly recommend this book AND her hands-on workshops if you get the opportunity to go. Jeri in Santa Cruz, CA.

This is a lovely book that includes pictures and clear instructions. A majority of the recipes are raw. Some of the cooked recipes include soups, grains, and a few desserts. All of the recipes are well marked if they are raw or not. If you're 100% raw this may not be the book for you. However, if you're like others that combine raw uncooking with a little bit of cooked food then this may be a good fit. This is a good book for families that are combining both.

My mother-in-law gave me this cookbook and I was anxious to try out some of the recipes to show my appreciation for the gift. However, many of the recipes seem overly exotic to me - and I am used to a wide variety of international cuisines. It seems to me that perhaps the author has sacrificed authenticity on the altar of innovation. I most recently attempted the banana cheese empanadas, despite my initial misgivings at the absence of fat in the dough. This is the first time I've seen a recipe for empanadas in which the dough consists of only flour and water. Needless to say, it was tough and flavourless. I have not had much more luck with the other recipes I tried, either. What I find especially irritating is the author's decision not to include photographs of finished dishes or diagrams of cooking techniques, but to showcase her own original, and completely irrelevant, artwork.

This is one of my favorite cookbooks. I'm a bit of a cookbook addict and tend to buy lots of them, then when I realize I never actually COOK anything out of a book, I get rid of it. This one, on the other hand, is off the shelf nearly every week, it's ripped, it's dirty, it has lots of food stains on it because I use it so often.
Some of the recipes are true breathtakers. The Thai appetizer is amazing. And the seeded tomato soup. Lots and lots of yummy things here. She has a whole section on "quick and easy." And I can always find something that I have the ingredients on hand for.
Mollie writes great introductions to the recipes, so you always know what you're getting into with each one.

Just shy of 400 pages this is a gem of a cook book.What I appreciate about the book is it is laid out as meals. Of course you can make one item or all or mix and match and combine with family favorites you already have.

On page 17 the author has a "How To Use This Book" section where she reminds the reader that sometimes it is when we do not follow a recipe so closely that we learn to love cooking.

Now I will probably sound a tad snobbish so forgive me , but I think this is a cookbook that will appeal to people who are well traveled, very curious about food, willing to try new things and probably educated and upscale. I say this because the person who likes what is called "All American" meat and potato and high fat and unhealthy food will probably be lost here.

We live in California where we have a year round bounty of the best fruits and vegetables so this is an easy to use book as far as ingredients go. And we loved the Roasted Red Peppers with Garlic and Lime on page 56, the Strawberry Meringue Pie on page 85 the Chinese Vegetable Soup on page 89 the Greek Stuffed Eggplant with Bechamel Sauce on page 151 the Southwest Salad with Black Beans and Corn on page 178 the Yellow Split Pea Dal on page 191 oh and the Spinach Roll Ups with Lime Chutney. We love Indian food!!

My husband would live in Tuscany if he had his way I would choose the south east area of rural France, so he loved the Linguine with Quick Tuscan Tomato Sauce on page 239 and the Pasta with Marinated Vegetables like roasted peppers, artichoke hearts tomato mushroom and olives. Not canned olives but the luscious oil cured type you find in Italy and Greece.

On page 331 she has Week-Long Menu Planning Guide where she lays out everything you will need to aquaria as well as some encouraging words about how to combine and end up with great leftovers. And like all her wonderful books she did all the paintings. The recipes are easy to follow as well.

I bought this book over 20 years ago, when my best friend became a vegetarian and I wanted to cook meals that we could share. I have 3 of Mollie's books; starting with the Enchanted Brocoli Forest (which to me, is the best) I bought this one after I had run through almost all of Brocoli Forest, and loved the recipes there. Still life is a bit more refined, as she lays out menus; paints a picture, or landscape with food. I have, over the years bought many other vegetarian cookbooks, but this book, along with the other two mentioned above, are classics, and present meals easy to prepare and ones which almost all meat-eaters find equally appealing. I high recommend this book for anyone just starting out on the vegetarian way of life, as well as for established vegetarians, or those who want to eat in a more healthy way. This is a very practical cookbook.

make everything-- especially the ginger snaps and chocolate chip mint cookies. worth every penny. nice art too!

I'm not a fan of Moby's music, but I am a fan of tea and vegetarian food. Even if this book sometimes looks like a huge advertisement leaflet for teany, it also has really useful information and recipes that may or may not involve tea, but that are really good. When I read the one for Pan Bagna, I actually dreamt I was eating Pan Bagna that night! That's how yummy everything is! And I've already bought online a large amount of teas that come in the book. Can't wait to get them and do drink recipes with them, like lavender lemonade. Oh the luxury! If you are lucky enough to live in New York City, go pay teany a visit.

I loved this book, my only complaint...it should have been longer. It was funny, interesting and informative. I've been a vegetarian for 5 years so alot of the recipes were familar but the desserts were mostly new to me. Like a review posted earlier said, it's hard to classify this book. A little history, recipes, humor and Moby background...equals an entertaining book.

If you are stuck for something to give someone in your life who might be vegetarian/vegan, tea-totaler or just enjoys collecting unique cookbooks, look no further. Written by DJ Moby and the manager of his restarant, "Teany", this book shares insights about living an eco-friendly life with some tasty receipes. I made several of the them; they were not complicated or expensive and turned out great.

I'm a bit biased because I've always been a Moby fan. I believe, though, that anyone who buys this book will enjoy it. Moby has a great sense of humor and it really comes through in this book. From hangover cures to general ramblings about everyday life, there's something for everyone.

As a tea enthusiast, I thought that I knew as much as you could know about the stuff. Wrong! I learned a great deal about different kinds of tea and how you should prepare them. There's also some info on how to use tea/tea bags as remedies for different ailments.

The recipies are great. The Cashew Nut Butter sandwich is tasty and Moby's mom has a good burrito recipie in the book as well. I'm not a vegetarian and I liked the way that it wasn't "shoved" down your throat (as some of my friends have done). There were also hints on how to change some of the recipies to suit your meat loving friends.

This was a book that I really wanted to like, but I found the entire premise and content a little too 'precious' for my tastes. As a devoted tea drinker, I was hoping to find some new ideas for what to serve up to go with my afternoon break -- instead, while some of the stories and touches of humor are funny, the ingredients were just a bit too odd for me to contemplate. Too, the book gets overly cute in spots, and while I do admire the author's stand on vegantarism, his self-effacing manner really begins to grate after about the fifth time that he mentions that he's trying not to be self-promoting. Hm-hmmm -- and what about that big sticker on the cover informing me of the latest cd release? It's nice for a once through, but I won't be adding it to my pernament collection.

Love this book. It is not only full of a variety of great recipes but it has useful tips and suggestions as well. My husband thought he was going to have to do away with the grill when I switched to a vegetarian lifestyle. This book has shown him that there is more to grilling than just using it for meat.

If you enjoy grilling and vegetables, you must have this cookbook. I used it at least 3 times a week all summer long, and I liked it so much I've been buying copies for other people every time I get a chance.

I have never tried a recipe that let me down. Everything has been delicious and fairly easy to make. The author does a good job of explaining what to look for as you're grilling, so it's rare for me to have something over or under cooked. Every recipe is interesting enough to be tasty, but not so outlandish that it would be out of place at an average American backyard barbecue.

There are a few recipes where the author suggests using chicken or vegetable broth, as other reviewers have mentioned. Maybe they'd be happier if the title was "The Vegetable Grill" instead? I'm not too worked up about it. This is a solid cookbook, and it definitely fills a niche that was open for far too long.

The author recommends buying either a flat grill pan or a grill wok. I bought both and have only used the wok once or twice. I would recommend to other readers to buy the grill pan along with the cookbook and skip the wok entirely.

Two things made this a great book for me.
1. I've been a vegetarian for 16 years.
2. I've been living in Sydney, Australia for 6 of those and we were given a huge gas Barbeque as a wedding present.

Since I moved to Sydney I drag a bag of veggie burgers to every BBQ. There's only so many types of veggie burger you can try before eating at the next BBQ is a real chore.

Since I got it, this book has opened up a whole new world of BBQ enjoyment to me. I've had it a week; we've had three BBQ's and I have tried a half dozen recipes. All of them worked out really well. We are talking red pepper Quesedilas, herb-grilled potatoes, veggie skewers in Tandoori sauce, char-grilled vegetables with cous cous. Yummmm. The (normally carnivorous) guests were all well impressed too.

Recipes are from around the world as you might have gathered and are not overly complex or time-consuming. They are well described, but this is not a glossy book. There are no photos bar the cover. Illustrations are hand-drawn but clear. The layout is easy to read and pleasing to the eye. This is a food-lovers book, not a coffee-table decoration.

The only slight limitation is many of the recipes require a special vegetable grill pan. I've never seen one of these things and reckon they aren't commonly available down here. So a few of the recipes will result in much loss of your vegetables to the coals below. But you learn the work-arounds fast. For me half the fun of cooking is adapting recipes to what you have, so if a few of the ingredients are not available, it's just fun making a new recipe.

I thought I had too many vegetarian cook books in my library. This one proved me wrong! If only I could find a way to get this in the hands of a few more people in Sydney, I wouldn't have to do all the cooking. How about an Australian edition?

My husband and I have been vegetarians for about twenty years and are raising our kids vegetarian too. For years I've always brought veggie burgers and tofu pups to other people's barbeque parties every summer. I thought we needn't bother owning a grill of our own because all we could make on it would be garden burgers anyway (how exciting is that? not very!) Anyway, this book has shown me how wrong I was. We recently acquired a very nice gas grill and I have been cooking up a storm on it! I've been using this cookbook and everything has been delicious. Not one bad recipe so far. I had a BBQ party of my own finally for my sons first Birthday recently and it was a totally hit. I made veggie pizzas (with the recipe from this book, although I used my own pizza dough recipe.)I grilled up all the veggies and than had everyone fix their own pizzas which I grilled for them. It was a lot of fun. Everyone gobbled them them up, raving about how delicious they were. Plus it was nice for people to see that a BBQ doesn't have to revolve around meat.

As for the comment below about the chicken stock, there is one recipe that says you can use either veggie or chicken stock. (I haven't noticed any others.) I agree it shouldn't be in the book. Vegetarian means no meat at all. I didn't see any mention about adding meat to the recipes, though I haven't read every page of this book, so maybe I just haven't seen it. I haven't seen any recipes that actually call for meat or anything. (No mention in the index either.)

So far I've made about 6 recipes from this book and they have been totally great. Plus, despite the fact that I'd say I know my way around a kitchen, I'd never grilled before and there was a useful chapter just talking about tools. (A vegetable grill rack is a *must* have for veggie grilling. I use mine constantly and would have been very frustrated had I not known about it.) To me, a newbie vegetarian griller this book has been indispensable. My husband keeps commenting on how fun it is to sit out on our deck and eat yummy food from the grill.

Let me start by saying that I enjoy reading cookbooks as much as I enjoy using them, and from the first read, I am not very impressed. I really wanted a vegetarian grilling book, what I got was a book that calls for chicken stock in at least one recipe, tells me what kind of meat I could throw in to the mix and tells me that I won't even miss the meat. While there may be pros and cons to the cheese question, how can anyone justify chicken broth in a vegetarian cook book?

I'm a huge soup fan - not sure why but I just love it. So, this book hit the spot for me. I love cooking with vegetables that are in season and this book makes it so easy - this time of year (summer) when I can go to the farmer's markets to get really fresh foods it's just that much better. I just flip to that section of the book and can easily make my shopping list not having to wonder well do I have to go to the supermarket to get that other ingredientt hat needs to be flown here from half way across the world? The recipes are sooo tasty and there's lots of variety. There are curried soups, cream based soups, hearty bean soups, and they cut across nationalities/ethnicities. You won't be disappointed with this one.

I haven't yet made anything from the book, but as an experienced cook myself, I can read a recipe and know pretty much whether I will like it or not. I might make a mistake once in a while, but it's very unlikely that anyone who calls themself "a skilled and experienced" cook would choose as many as six recipes and not be able to tell they would be "vile" once made. I'm all for honest reviewing, and if you don't like a book, so be it, but this review was unnecessarily harsh and, in my judgment, probably the act of someone who has very little nice to say about anyone or anything.
Once I try some of the recipes, I'll try to report back on them. For now, I've just read through them, and there's hardly one that doesn't sound interesting to me. On that basis alone, I feel justified on giving the book 5 stars, since I can't say that about most non-dessert cookbooks!

For me, the one thing that matters about a cookbook is: is it *inspired* or not? The ones that are not may have one to a few usable recipes, almost by accident, but the majority are either based on stale ideas, or they are too heavy, due to their use of meat, fat, sugar, or other such ingredients.

This book far surpassed my expectations. The recipes are original, hearty, satisfying - and low-fat. One of these soups with some bread and cheese makes for a simple and delicious weekday meal.

Most of the soups we've tried from this book have come out very well. We got off to a good start with Garlicky Cream of Celery Soup (p. 39). Examples of other successes: Cream of White Vegetables (p. 15; this worked fine with Chinese white radish/daikon; turnip is unavailable in Taiwan) - very smooth, soothing and flavorful; Gingered Pumpkin-Apple Soup (p. 25) - I'm not sure I'll put the apple in next time, but we all enjoyed the complex flavors of this one; Cream of Broccoli Soup with Whole Wheat Pasta (p. 96) also wasn't bad, even with plain macaroni shells. The Moroccan-Style Vegetable Stew (p. 26), with pumpkin, chickpeas and couscous, was very unusual and quite tasty. I was less impressed with the Tomato-Rice Soup with Snow Peas (p. 93) - this ended up something like Campbell's tomato rice, but then but I did make some substitutions, like white rice for brown. And I probably should have let the Curried Cauliflower-Cheese Soup (p. 84) thicken more before serving. You can skip the Sauerkraut Soup (p. 36) - this was edible, but didn't much appeal to any of us; too heavy on the sweet and sour, and not very satisfying. Still, I'm very gung ho about continuing to try out the other recipes. Well over half the recipes look doable to me in our environment, and that's a remarkably high ratio. I have found no other soup cookbook that can compare with this one. The recipes that work - and that has been most of them so far - are excellent, and just our style.

The book not only gives individual recipes but in fact teaches a *method* for making good vegetarian soups, i.e. pureeing cooked vegetables for a thick and hearty but not too rich base. Organizing the recipes by the seasons makes it easier to find a soup suited to the weather.

P. 27 has a recipe for 'Squash and Corn Chower', but that's the only typo I've spotted. The pencil drawings and quotes are quite charming. I haven't yet tried the bread and other 'accompaniments' recipes in the back, but they look intriguing.

In short: if you like soup but not meat, and are looking for ideas for simple but very good meals on the light side, this book is an outstanding choice.

Sorry to disagree with the other reviewers, but this is the worst cookbook I have ever bought. I am a skilled and experienced vegetarian cook, and recipes in this book are perversely, malignantly vile. There will always be recipes we don't like in any cookbook, but I tried half a dozen soups in this book and they were just wretched. After the last one I just threw the book in the recycling bin. Back to Moosewood!

I own about 35 vegetarian cookbooks, and decided to stop buying any more. However, finding a variety of good soups that I could center a meal around has never been easier once I gave in and purchased this book. I've so far prepared about fifteen recipes, and enjoyed each and every one, and plan to make them all again. This may be the one cookbook that I eventually prepare all of the recipes therein. A MUST HAVE cookbook...you won't regret the purchase. Your mouth, stomach, heart, and pocketbook will all thank you regularly for your wise decision!

I had a hard time finding a book for diabetics going vegetarian or vegan. I found this one, thinking it was going to be mostly recipes and all, and was happy to see it covers a very wide range of topics. Three chapters convinced me this was the book to get: the diabetic vegetarian, losing weight the vegetarian way, and the vegetarian athlete, all applicable to my new lifestyle change. It also convinced me that I want to go vegan, which I never thought would happen. Milk is baby food after all for us mammal types! So give this book a try, has delicious recipes included, and vegan alternatives on menu plans for diabetics.

This was one of the first books I read when I decided to follow a vegan diet, and a year and a half later, I am glad that I found it so soon. Though it also contains stuff about other issues and problems that many vegetarians encounter, the main value of this book lies in the nutritional information it contains. The book goes through what vitamins and minerals are needed, why they are needed, where to find them in vegetarian foods, and what studies have shown about vegetarians and their relations to these nutrients. There are larger chapters discussing protein and calcium, which are the primary concerns that people who don't know much about vegetarianism seem to have. Messina is a registered dietician and cites her references carefully. She tries not to make any unfounded claims, though she cites correlational studies whose conclusions are more unclear than she makes them seem. For the most part, the information is very much consistent with current knowledge of nutritional science, and if you are a new vegetarian who is unsure of where to start, this book will prove to be extremely useful in understanding why other people become vegetarians, how such a diet affects certain illnesses, how to address the special needs of infants, children, teenagers, pregnant women, athletes, and how to start planning and preparing vegetarian meals. Of course, it's a big change to alter your dietary habits, so you want to read many other books as well. And cookbooks will no doubt be helpful. But you can't go wrong starting with The Vegetarian Way.

You don't have to be a vegetarian to take advantage of this book. I am a non-vegetarian with a 1 1/2-year-old daughter who does not like meat. I was very worried that she would not get enough protein and iron so I purchased this book to educate myself more about non-animal sources of the nutrients. What an eye-opener! Even the nutrition courses I took in college did not provide me with such wealth of information. This book will tell you all you need to know to feed yourself and your family healthily and nutritiously. Interestingly, it will also change the way you look at the food on your plate. I'll be delighted if my daughter will one day happily eat red meat (organic of course). But I no longer worry that she doesn't.

This is a book for those who want to know more about the nutrition of being a vegetarian or those who need some reinforcement. I have not read such a well written book on this topic. I think that everyone whether vegan, vegetarian or omnivore should read this book.

I would like to echo the positive remarks that other readers have made. The nutrition information alone is a must-read for anyone considering becoming vegetarian or anyone who is concerned about the diets of their loved ones.

I was very pleased by the overall honest tone of the book. The authors were never "preachy" and were willing to admit that some claims in the book were not yet fully substantiated. The result is a book that is very balanced and convincing. Bravo!

This cookbook provides recipes for simple and tasty meals using dried beans that can be found in any grocery store. I have other bean cookbooks that call for exotic beans that are difficult to find. My only problem with this book is that half of the recipes call for bean flours that are not so easy to locate. Health and specialty food stores may have one or two types of bean flours such as soy but not all of them called for in this book. The only place I could find pinto bean flour (used in many of the recipes) was in online stores with high shipping charges. The author directs the reader to Bob's Red Mill in Oregon but their web site did not offer any bean flours which may not be available anymore. Because I really wanted to try many of the recipes and I was intrigued with using bean flours in cooking, I took the author's advice and bought a K-Tec Kitchen Mill to grind my beans at home. I am happy with it and I think the instant refried beans made with pinto bean flour is tasty and will be a money saver over time. The soups thickened with bean flours will also be a healthy and tasty way to eat. If you are not interested in searching for bean flours or grinding them at home you may want to look at other bean cookbooks before you purchase this one. Although, this cookbook would be helpful for those allergic to wheat because the recipes show how bean flours can replace products containing gluten.

There is a great Gluten free recipe in this book to make Cream of Chicken condensed soup. Great for any recipe that calls for this.... for example that great Green Bean casserole your mom used to make. Of course, use GF tater tots on top.

My wife has a lot of food based allergies--wheat and cow dairy to name a few. This bean book is amazing for us! We recommend it to anyone with food allergies (especially if you have a wheat intolerance).

Is a great way to turn whole beans/peas into "fast food" with the help of a grain grinder. Refried beans in just 5 minutes! Wonderful ideas.

This is another favorite book by Rita Bingham that is full of information as well as recipes. Like her other books, this is a compendium of healthful cooking. Mrs. Bingham recommends a grain mill that I have on my wishlist for now. But happily I discovered a COFFEE mill at Sam's Club for $30 that grinds what I need, with very little mess. If you are on a budget but want to get started you can read my review of the little Cuisinart Coffee Mill. If it breaks, there's no big loss!Cuisinart DBM-8 Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill

Finally, fairly authentic Indian cooking that is manageable at home. I love Indian food, but normally don't make it at home b/c it is involved and time consuming. These recipes are do-able and lend themselves to adjusting. I first tried "Preeti's Brown Onion Chicken". I was looking for a little more in the way of vegetables and heat, so added some celery and a chili when sauteeing the onion. When it was nearly browned, I added some spinach, then pureed it.
When cooking the chicken, I added some chopped carrots, chard, and diced potatoes. I know my additions would make a purist faint, but it was fantastic, healthy, and family-friendly. Cheers!

My fiance and I are capable in the kitchen. We've tried two recipes out of this book. Here are our thoughts.

First, finding a recipe is not so easy in this book. There are not many pictures, so when we're sitting around with tummies grumbling, we have a hard time choosing. There are no high-level descriptions either.

The first time we picked a recipe, it was a curry chicken. We had to drive around to different stores to find all the spices we needed. We live in San Jose, CA, and we have access to Indian grocery stores. So, we're probably in better position to get these than most would be. Also, many of these spices are pricy.

After we tracked down all the ingredients, we faithfully followed the recipe. The result: bland and dry chicken. The chicken did not pick up much flavor at all! The curry was OK, but the chicken ruined the meal.

Our second attempt was another chicken dish. This one called for thighs, so we were hopeful that they would be juicier and absorb more flavor. They did. The dish was pretty good, but not as flavorful as we would expect from an Indian meal. Maybe we just need to double up on the amount of spice. We held back on some of the water since it seemed like it might be too watery. Despite that effort, it was still very watery.

This is my first Indian cookbook. I like this cookbook a lot because, as others have stated, it's very well laid out and has clear instructions. There are also helpful pages on spices, other ingredients, techniques, etc. I like most of the recipes I have made out of it. However, I don't feel like they have ever quite tasted like the Indian food I get in American restaurants - it doesn't seem quite as good to me. Maybe this is because she has made them low-fat, or they are actually more authentic than restaurants, or she has simplified the ingredients (although I still find the recipes time-consuming, like 1-2 hours each). So I'm still on the lookout for an Indian cookbook that duplicates that (expensive) restaurant experience.

The book provides all the information needed for a novice to cook and enjoy authentic Indian cooking. Common substitutions for ethnic ingredients are very helpful. The photography is more than adequate, and evocative. I have enjoyed learning more about foods that I enjoy, and a culture different from mine. I recommend this cookbook to anyone who enjoys Indian food and cooking.

I love to plan, prepare and eat Indian food but let's face it, cooking several dishes each requiring many different spices and lengthy preparation isn't often workable in our lives today. This book has made my joy of cooking Indian dishes renewed!