The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet: 250 Simple Recipes and Dozens of Healthy Menus for Eating Well Every Day : A Cookbook

If you're shopping for a fancy hard cover book, with beautiful photographs of sumptuous meals, this is not the book you are looking for. The only photographs are on the front of the soft cover. It does have many line drawings to illustrate and this does keep down the price of producing the book.Instead, it's a practical and a very helpful guide to preparing a multitude of delicious, simple, and nutritious vegetarian foods. It does make use of dairy products, which is great for me, but many vegetarians don't eat dairy products.I appreciate the way the book starts with suggestions of the many things to stock in your pantry for simple meals. After a few pages of these the author, Nava Atlas, moves on to discuss weekly planning and includes a set of guide sheets that can be copied and designed to write in using categories of products to stock. Such guide sheets might be handy to look over before going shopping - or to take with you.The book contains 250 health promoting, simple to prepare, recipes. There are many - from soups to salads, to main dishes. Besides the recipes, the book speaks on such topics as handling beans and other foods that beginners might not be familiar with. And the last chapter has suggestions for handling fruits.I think I've made a practical choice for my first vegetarian cook book.

I cook. A lot. Since that is a subjective term, let me specify that I own around 200 cookbooks, cook at least two dishes a day, every day, and have been doing so for about 30 years. 25 of those, I was a vegetarian.I bought this book in 2005 and you know how often I have used it? Not once. Why, you ask?Well, first off, I find just about none of the dishes in the book appealing. I read the titles, I look at the ingredients, and I think "meh!"Second, I've cooked long enough to understand that sticking to five ingredients generally won't produce a gourmet meal. Sorry, it's not going to happen. You might produce an okay meal, but beyond that, the author is dreaming.Next, if you have ANY experience cooking anything, your skill is beyond the scope of this book. How so, you wonder? Well, think about how you'd make pizza if you have no idea about any of the processes but want neither delivery nor a frozen pizza. Got some idea? Me, too: I'd go to the store, buy pre-made dough, some pre-made pizza sauce, some cheese, and whatever toppings I feel like. See? Not such a difficult task. However, this is EXACTLY one of the recipes presented in this book and it aptly illuminates who the audience for this book is: Beginners.I'm sorry, but I need more than "just open a can of soup" as a soup recipe and thus, this book - at least for me - serves absolutely no purpose. Perhaps it's not he worst cookbook I own, but it is certainly the most superfluous.Still, if you are new to cooking, I'm sure you'll find it inspirational. As you can see, there are quite a few high ratings to be found - my guess is that the majority of these positive ratings come from absolute novices to vegetarian cooking or even to cooking in general. For me, however, this book deserves only one star - it offers me absolutely nothing.

Yes we have all heard how healthy it is to eat more vegetarian like meals. I am not discounting this in anyway. I was excited about getting this book however was so disappointed in the format when it arrived I had to return it and only refunded about the cost. The format, size of font and faint color used for the text made it visually too difficult to read and follow. No colorful pictures of the finished recipes made the book less inspiring. So if you have any diminished eye-site, AMD, cataracts even corrective lenses or like cook books with pictures make another choice of cookbooks. I do not recommend due to text color and size difficult to see or follow directions.

These recipes may be simple to make and pretty cheap as well, but many of them are mediocre or downright bland. You can tell just by looking at some of the recipes that there's not much flavor. There are a few keepers, such as the Marinated Beans (canned beans, parsley, scallions, vinaigrette, pepper), Black Bean Salad with Feta and Peppers (black beans, red bell peppers, vinaigrette, parsley, feta or goat cheese), Baked Barbecue Tofu and Peppers (tofu, bell peppers, onion, barbecue sauce), and Black Bean Burritos (tortillas, onion, black beans, green chiles, olive oil). Most of the other recipes I've tried are things I would not make again, and many of the recipes I would never make because they just don't appeal to me. The recipes are pretty healthy for the most part, though some of them call for the processed vegetarian "fake meat" products that I try to stay away from. This cookbook might be handy for those without cooking skills, those with very small kitchens, or those on a tight budget. I wouldn't recommend it to others. There are many other vegetarian cookbooks out there that are much better than this one. If you're looking for quick and simple recipes, I'd recommend Donna Klein's "The PDQ (Pretty Darn Quick) Vegetarian Cookbook" or Joanne Stepaniak's "Vegan Deli" over this one.

I read a review that someone wrote saying "I'm not the most gifted cook around, but this was a little too basic even for me." I have to disagree VEHEMENTLY with that comment. I, too, can cook. But coming up with easy vegetarian dishes with my ultra-busy schedule was so hard before I got this book. I carry this book around with me, and when I don't know what to make for dinner, I just pick a recipe, stop at the store for an ingredient or two that I might not have, and then go home and whip it up. My husband loves these dishes, and he's a carnivore!Sure, there are quesadillas with refried beans that would seem like a no-brainer. But the author always puts an interesting twist on the dish that I wouldn't have thought of myself. And there are a lot of recipes that I would have NEVER thought of myself.5 Ingredients is all I can really handle most week days, so this book is PERFECT for me. I have it with me today and I'm going to try the Green chilie and ricotta rice tonight with one of the quesadilla recipes. Yummy!

First off let me just say, I don't like cooking. I hate it. I am trying to eat more healthy though, and I want to move to more of plant based diet. This is the perfect book to do that. It isn't fancy (hard to do fancy with five or less ingredients) but it is healthy and tasty. Other books have 50 ways of tossing a green salad but this doesn't do that. It has simple ways of preparing foods such as beans, lentils, and tofu in an easy and non-intimidating way. All of the recipes that I have tried so far have turned out well and that encourages me to keep on trying new stuff.I never intended to become a vegetarian, but going through this book I can plan meals (that I look forward to!) for weeks at a time without meat!I don't think a book on vegetarian cooking can get a higher compliment :)

Gave as Gift. Happy with what I received!

Makes cooking easy and fast. I found out I couldn't eat meat because of a allergies. I knew nothing about being vegetarian and needed help with cooking.

I use this cookbook all the time, very simple recipes ... great for a fast easy meal. I like that she has recommendations for complementary sides, etc.

Pictures would have helped make this book better. Although the recipes are quick easy to follow and ultimately that's what I wanted.