How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food

I'll just add to the raves of other readers who found this book to be a wonderful addition to their cookbooks. I must have over 150 cookbooks, and this was on my shelf for quite some time before I picked it up recently. I was amazed at the recipes, and I will turn to this book more and more in the future. I'm trying to incorporate more vegetarian meals into my diet, but beyond that, I just find this book to be quite useful in all aspects of my menu planning. I will now reconsider other books by Mark Bitman.

A co-worker of mine brought this cookbook to work and said "here, take this home and look it over." I thanked him politely, but inside was feeling imposed upon. Sure I'm a vegetarian, but does this mean I have to take home YOUR gigantic cookbook and look at it? I ended up taking it and also cooking from it. The things I discovered were that Mark Bittman is talented and knows how to create food that tastes really good. Dependably good. The recipes are not complicated, and sometimes very easy yet produce delicious and interesting vegetarian food. This book engaged me in a way no other cook book has. There is something thrilling to me about making a exotic sounding Senegalese Peanut Soup full of rich flavors including chard and having my 16 year old picky son tell me it is delicious. Or seeing my husband (carnivore) with a plate heaped with black-eyed pea fritters looking blissed out as he snarfs them down. As a result, I got hooked, maybe even a bit obsessed with the cookbook for a while. It seemed to have the same effect on others, however. I caught another co-worker holed-up with the copy machine and the book. I fortunately got a copy for Christmas. I am really happy about that.

I'm not 100% vegetarian, but I love many vegetarian foods and dishes, and was really looking forward to this book. I haven't actually made any of the recipes yet. Those two caveats aside, this book is fantastic. It's absolutely comprehensive, and I would imagine extremely useful for vegans or someone like me who still eats meat but enjoys meatless foods (and everyone in between). Mr. Bittman has a great way of explaining things as if assuming the reader really doesn't know anything, without dumbing it down or writing as if he's talking to a child. I have loved "How To Cook Everything" for a few years, and this book has a similar style of recipes. Very simple, with the emphasis on using the best quality of ingredients (or, making the best use of what you have handy), but also lots of international variations and many lesser known ingredients. He gives a very basic example of a particular recipe, then lists 10 or 15 variations that could be made, to please just about anyone. I sat for a couple hours just perusing the recipes and there are many that I really can't wait to try, and quite a few that I hadn't heard of or thought of before. Also, the book has lots of useful information as far as preparing techniques and equipment.

Bottom line, I have lots of cookbooks, but would do pretty well with just this and "How To Cook Everything".

This is hands-down the best cookbook I've ever bought, for several reasons. First, at a whopping 900 pages it is far more comprehensive than competitors such as Laurel's Kitchen and the various Moosewood Cookbooks. For example, when I brought home fresh chestnuts from the store and needed ideas on how to cook them, I was impressed to find a good half-dozen uses for them in the cookbook, from basic roasted chestnuts to bean and chestnut soup to chestnut ice cream. I rarely come up empty-handed when I go looking for a recipe in this tome. Second, the straightforward recipes eschew fancy techniques when they are superfluous and thus can actually be made by everyday cooks in a reasonable amount of time. This sets it apart from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, which constantly makes use of specialty sauces described elsewhere in her book. Her approach works fine if your own a restaurant and have an army of minions to prepare these specialty ingredients, but not so well if you're cooking alone and trying to get dinner on the table. Third, the cookbook teaches you *how* to cook, rather than simply follow a recipe by rote, by describing the key techniques and principles of cooking and offering a plethora of variations to go with most recipes. Cook with this cookbook for a few months -- and read the author's "Bitten" blog on the New York Times website --- and you'll find yourself starting to experiment more and more with your cooking, creating your own variations. I find this incredibly freeing! If you're like me, once you get this book you'll find yourself reaching for it to the exclusion of most others.

This one is my new favorite. Here's what I like about it:

* His approach to vegetarian cooking. I learned the term "flexitarian" from this book, which is how I now describe myself. His approach to meat consumption is reasonable and works with where I am in life (limited weekly consumption of animal products).

* This is not a "diet" book, a nutritional guide or a lecture on why you should eat more plant-based foods. You can find that elsewhere. This is still, first and foremost, a cookbook. Bittman has a demonstrated appreciation for the environmental and practical benefits of consuming more plant-based foods. This book will help you appreciate that you can have a more wonderful, flavorful diet by increasing your consumption of vegetables, fruits, grains, and dairy. You will not get bored with these changes and will not be doomed to a austere life of celery sticks and bland purees. You can also cook delicious meals for others who don't share your outlook on food (and they probably won't realize you are omitting meat). If you eventually remove dairy and eggs from your diet, this cookbook will still serve as a comprehensive guide to great cooking.

* Bittman's recipes are typically minimalist and focus on fresh, simple ingredients. They also encourage creative expermentation. I appreciate how he will start with a good, basic recipe (i.e., pancakes), and provide several realistic and effective variations. This flexibility is great for those times when you want variety in your diet (or your pantry is lacking in certain ingredients).

* Every time I read through this book, I learn something new. He doesn't pretend that you aspire to be the top chef at a 5-star restaurant, but realizes that most of us can take our daily cooking to the next level. Essential tools, techniques and shopping tips are covered. He also guides you through what you need to know about a particular food. For example, he will explain the characteristics of a specific vegetable, how it can be cooked, what to remove, and how to clean it; then he presents recipes that feature the vegetable.

* It makes a lovely gift. I should know... I gave it to myself. I wouldn't hesitate to buy it for a friend who would appreciate it.