The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone: [A Cookbook]

By way of background, I am an experienced - albeit not a gourmet - cook, with a wish to have more vegetarian options in my repertoire. This is the best cookbook that I've ever used, and comparable to the Joy of Cooking is its range and everyday utility. I believe that people's mileage does vary widely in using cookbooks. In my case, I've bought a number of Mark Bittman's books, because I love his philosophy, and like his meal planning and modular approach to cooking. I really appreciate the underlying thinking that cooking should be less recipe driven and more of a flexible approach to what's in your kitchen, or fresh and seasonal. That said, I've found many of the recipes that I've tried to be very pedestrian in flavor - they taste like they were created by health conscious folks in the 70's. Other recipes have had seasoning that is so pronounced that the end result is inedible (3 Tablespoons of cumin? Really??? Was that a typo?), had major timing issues, or required ingredients that I generally don't have. However, other people do love using his cookbooks, so YMMV.What I've liked about the Deborah Madison cookbook : 1. every single recipe has turned out from "very good' to 'Wow!..awesome!" 2. From my relatively well stocked larder, I can almost always find the ingredients 'in house' There are plenty of recipes to address cooking the staple vegetables and proteins (tofu, etc.) that are common to have. Equivalents/ substitutions are noted, and multiple uses for many recipes are also mentioned. Somehow, it's been much more successful in prompting me to cook with a modular, flexible approach - something I'd really wanted from the Bittman books, but not actually achieved. 3. It's changed my approach to vegetables, from treating them as an afterthought - the "just saute or microwave a bunch of broccoli" school of thought to using sauces that make vegetables a true pleasure to eat. 4. Clear, clear, crystal clear instructions. I can now prepare a golden, crusted tofu that is a huge improvement over my previous efforts.5. Pretty comprehensive - the joy of an all-purpose cook book.If you're unsure about purchasing, try out a few recipes first. Then, you will buy the book.

Thousands of recipes and they are nearly all simple and have variations listed. It's actually crazy how much is in this book. Want to know how to cook anything besides meat, any time of the year? Here you go. Sad I've wasted money on other vegetarian/vegan cookbooks that only had a small selection of really specific, detailed recipes of which I only ever made a few and sad that I've spent so much time scouring blogs for recipes when I could have just had this book all along!

My book came today, and I am very happy with it. I get the feeling that the book is not new, that it was perhaps returned by a prior buyer, largely because one of the pages has been turned over, as people sometimes do as a bookmark, but I suppose that could have happened during handling. It does appear that the pages have been turned, however.Still, it's in good shape, and I didn't buy it as a collector's item, so it would have that used look soon enough, anyhow. Cookbooks aren't meant to be pristine, although there's nothing wrong with starting them out that way.I haven't actually used any of the recipes yet but I have paged through them and am impressed. There are several introductory sections, at the beginning of the book, and for each section, which appear to be well-written and helpful. There is a good balance of recipes, and the recipes themselves are explanatory. It is a huge book with a lot of recipes and other useful information.I pick up on things like typos and misspellings pretty quickly and haven't come across anything that jumps out at me.Later...I have used several of these recipes and would be using more of them if I could get my wife to try more vegetarian recipes. They are explanatory, and those that I tried came out very well.

I love the girth of this cookbook and the extensive recipes. It clocks in at close to 660 pages and has a crazy variety of recipes and options. I think a lot of folks get stumped when it comes to cooking vegetarian dishes - this will help keep your creative juices flowing. We are not vegetarians exclusively, but we LOVE veg and have a really big garden. It just made sense to find a great cookbook to expand out horizons. A dear friend, who is a former hotsy totsy chef, suggested this cookbook. So glad she did!

Lots of usable and easy recipes. Fun to go thru the recipes

Massive, thorough book. I love love love this cookbook. It reads more like a kind person teaching you how to cook. For example, it doesn't say, "Make sure that the vegetables are evenly spaced while cooking." It says "make sure the vegetables are evenly spaced in the bottom of the pan in an even layer while cooking-if they’re too close together and are touching, it won’t cook evenly and will stick to each other.” I love that attention to detail. Perhaps for other folks, that may not be what they like nor need, but for me, and never being taught how to cook, it’s always been a bit overwhelming. Reading a recipe I am always like, ok, I’ll make sure do to it. But with this book it’s like she’s explaining why you do the things you do while cooking. She thoroughly explains everything. History, the dos and don’ts, the breakdown and basis for all foods. It’s lovely. I’m not a picture person (they don’t help me cook really) so I didn’t mind that the pages weren’t glossy and there weren’t many pictures. I highly, highly recommend this cookbook!ONE CAVEAT. The printing process of this was a little questionable... I received this with some quality issues with the pages, the first 10 pages or so had a dog eared part that wasn’t cut properly (See pictures) If you are ordering this for a gift, I’d highly suggest not getting it from here if that’s something that concerns you. However, for me, seeing the cover price on the inside, and then knowing I paid half that, I’m fine cutting off a little dog eared pages.

Love this well-written and helpful cook book. Returning to a vegetarian diet after a long time, it's a great support. HIghly recommend.

I'm not a vegetarian but I've found a lot of inspiration in this book. The comparisons with "The Joy of Cooking" are apt. If you had only one cookbook in your (vegetarian) kitchen, this could be it. The dishes are sophisticated yet familiar; the techniques are manageable in a home kitchen; Madison doesn't send you on crazy searches for exotic ingredients. I would highly recommend this book to everyone -- vegetarian and meat-eater alike!

A Very good and well designed book that will I am sure become a clasic. I particularly like the way the index gives individual vegetables so that you can easily find a reciept for what you have in the fridge.

A cooking book without pictures? Sending this one back.

Borrowed the Greens cookbook from the libray and have since bought that and this one