Recommend me a good vegetarian cookbook

[Ms T]

Help me, suburbanites. I want a vegetarian cookbook which does imaginative veggie food, not the yoghurt-weaving lentils with everything variety. I'm thinking stuff you could happily serve to fussy meat-eaters, as well as veggies.

I've thought about getting The Gate Cookbook, but maybe there are better ones out there?

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

Italian Vegetarian Cooking by Paola Gavin is my favourite - packed full of decent simple recipes for some damn tasty dishes.

 

[Herbsman.]

Truly Italian by Ursula Ferrigno is bloody brilliant, but it's out of print. Try and get a used one.

 

[Ms T]

I've got loads of Italian cookery books already, so I'd prefer something that doesn't specialise ifyswim.

 

[Orang Utan]

My mum recommends Crocks and Madhir Jaffrey's Vegeterian Cookbook

 

[chooch]

The World Food Cafe one ain't bad. It has pretty pictures.

 

[Ms T]

The World Food Cafe one ain't bad. It has pretty pictures.

I quite like the look of that one.

Has anyone come across Dennis Cotter and The Paradiso Cafe Cookbook?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cafe-Paradi...04/ref=pd_sim_b?ie=UTF8&qid=1200680677&sr=1-2

 

[Firky]

Leith's Vegetarian Bible.

Try the Leek and Stilton Eccle Cakes, mmmmmm.

 

[janeb]

I got this one for Christmas - its mediterranean in the sense of Countries on the, so a good mix of different types of food. Made a few receipes so far and all have been simple to follow and tasty

http://www.amazon.com/Mediterranean-Vegetarian-Cooking-Paola-Gavin/dp/1590770919

 

[moose]

I've got dozens, and they're all pretty crap.

The exceptions are those by Cafe Paradiso in Cork. Check their menu on their website to see what kind of food it is. Otherwise, Nigel Slater makes some lovely veggie dishes.

Oops - just seen your post about Cafe Paradiso Yes, I have them both, and they're excellent but quite fiddly, so more dinner party food than everyday.

 

[oryx]

This one is excellent:

http://www.thebookshack.co.uk/BookItem.aspx?item=9780563488392

I bought The Gate one for my partner a couple of years ago. He appreciated it (maybe it was me waving the rolling pin over his head going 'You like it - don't you? DON'T YOU? ) but the recipes are fiddly and contain some quite hard to get ingredients, though you may find this a positive challenge if you're an experienced cook.

 

[scifisam]

We have about ten, because my partner's family insist on buying her them every Christmas. We also have FOUR gluten-free cookbooks, including THREE vegetarian gluten-free cookbooks, given to me by her family. We don't quite know how to tell them, after all these years, that we never use cookbooks and none of these have been opened at all after a polite flick-through on Christmas Day.

We're trying to sell them online, but you're welcome to the rest (I'll stick them on the recycle your stuff forum soon).

 

[citydreams]

Crank's Bible - Nadine Abensur

Food with attitude. This woman loves her food.

Beware of the chocolate mouse meringue cake.. it's addictive.

 

[susie12]

Madhur Jaffrey's 'Eastern Vegetarian Cooking' has some great stuff, also 'Cordon Vert' by Colin Spencer which is seasonally themed and has ideas for 3 course dinners if you're that way inclined.

 

[Ms T]

I've got dozens, and they're all pretty crap.

The exceptions are those by Cafe Paradiso in Cork. Check their menu on their website to see what kind of food it is. Otherwise, Nigel Slater makes some lovely veggie dishes.

Oops - just seen your post about Cafe Paradiso Yes, I have them both, and they're excellent but quite fiddly, so more dinner party food than everyday.

I'm looking for dinner party recipes, really. I've realised I actually have the latest book by Dennis Cotter (Wild Garlic, Gooseberries and Me), which I was sent at work. I've cooked something from there, which was good, but I'd sort of forgotten about it because I have so many cookery books. I may well give one of the Cafe Paradiso ones a go too.


I picked up a copy of Food from the Place Below yesterday for 3 quid in a second-hand bookshop. I'm liking the look of some of the recipes.

 

[Ms T]

This one is excellent:

http://www.thebookshack.co.uk/BookItem.aspx?item=9780563488392

I bought The Gate one for my partner a couple of years ago. He appreciated it (maybe it was me waving the rolling pin over his head going 'You like it - don't you? DON'T YOU? ) but the recipes are fiddly and contain some quite hard to get ingredients, though you may find this a positive challenge if you're an experienced cook.

I've got quite a few of the Good Food cookbooks, but not that one.

 

[Ms T]

Crank's Bible - Nadine Abensur

Food with attitude. This woman loves her food.

Beware of the chocolate mouse meringue cake.. it's addictive.

I've always associated Cranks with worthy veggie food - you know the kind, food which is predominately brown. Is the Cranks Bible different?

 

[Mrs Magpie]

The Vegetarian Epicure. Really good. You can borrow my copy. There's a website too.

www.vegetarianepicure.com

 

[RubyToogood]

Beware of the chocolate mouse meringue cake.. it's addictive.

I always wonder why vegetarian cookbooks have dessert sections. Nearly all puddings are veggie anyway.

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

I've got loads of Italian cookery books already, so I'd prefer something that doesn't specialise ifyswim.

Oh right, so when you said "I want a vegetarian cookbook which does imaginative veggie food", you actually meant something else entirely whatever, remind me not to bother replying to your questions in future then....

 

[citydreams]

I always wonder why vegetarian cookbooks have dessert sections. Nearly all puddings are veggie anyway.

I think they see themselves more as being cookbooks than being 'vegitarian'.

Though I do recommend the vegan "Cake Scoffer" for some extra healthy sweets.

 

[Badger Kitten]

Delia's Vegetarian Collection is a stalwart of mine.

eta: here are some of the veggie main courses online

The side order root veg things she does are fab, especially the parmesan baked parsnips

 

[citydreams]

I've always associated Cranks with worthy veggie food - you know the kind, food which is predominately brown. Is the Cranks Bible different?

Why've you got that impression?
Crank's Bible (don't know about her other ones) is about as un PC as you can get with veggie food. http://www.nadineabensur.com/cookery_books/the_cranks_bible.html

 

[Ms T]

Why've you got that impression?
Crank's Bible (don't know about her other ones) is about as un PC as you can get with veggie food. http://www.nadineabensur.com/cookery_books/the_cranks_bible.html

From the original book - lots of wholemeal pastry, and from the restaurant, which I used to go to occasionally years ago when I fancied something wholesome.

 

[Ms T]

Oh right, so when you said "I want a vegetarian cookbook which does imaginative veggie food", you actually meant something else entirely whatever, remind me not to bother replying to your questions in future then....

Blimey. Didn't mean to offend. It's just that a lot of Italian cooking is naturally vegetarian anyway.

And the review on Amazon says "many ((of the recipes) can be found in standard Italian cookbooks".

 

[Epona]

Chances are that if you've been veggie for any length of time then you can already do loads of Italian recipes off the top of your head and Italian cuisine forms the main basis of your 'want something quick and easy after work' routine anyway - so when you want to try something different you tend to want something other than Italian - at least that's what I found.

 

[Groucho]

Chances are that if you've been veggie for any length of time then you can already do loads of Italian recipes off the top of your head and Italian cuisine forms the main basis of your 'want something quick and easy after work' routine anyway - so when you want to try something different you tend to want something other than Italian - at least that's what I found.

Like pasta bake?

 

[Epona]

Like pasta bake?

Pasta bake was very popular in victorian England you know. I doubt very much that anything I may bake with pasta would be considered Italian cuisine

 

[Groucho]

Pasta bake was very popular in victorian England you know. I doubt very much that anything I may bake with pasta would be considered Italian cuisine

I hated the Victorians with all their new fangled ways.

 

[ringo]

Leith's Vegetarian Bible - Best I own, use it 2 or 3 times per week.
Madhur Jaffrey's Eastern Vegetarian Cooking
The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook - Jack Bishop
Indian Vegetarian Cooking - Ismail Merchant - Used this constantly since it came out in 1992.
A Vegan Taste Of India - Linda Majzlik


Just received a copy of The Vegetarian Epicure, looking forward to trying it out. Love the dinner party suggestions including what to serve when everyone's had a spliff.