Nobu's Vegetarian Cookbook

by Nobuyuki Matsuhisa

Nobu’s restaurants are known the world over for the quality of their ingredients and for the skill and originality with which the food is prepared and presented. Now, in this first cookbook by Nobu to focus on vegetable dishes, the master chef shares his expertise and deep knowledge of Japanese cuisine in sixty recipes that showcase vegetables in all their variety.

Throughout the book, the emphasis is on fine and healthy Japanese dining. Nobu uses a wide range of cooking techniques—from marinating and pickling to steaming, roasting, boiling, frying, grating, etc.—to bring out the full flavors and textures of the vegetables. He also introduces tofu and yuba, both traditional Japanese ingredients made from soybeans, and offers ten recipes for vegetable sweets and fifteen for cocktails. 

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Japan, Cooking

176 pages, Hardcover

First published February 7, 2012

Reviews

[Che · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful, artistic pictures
I don't think I'd eat a lot of the dishes, but it was fun to explore. Definitely gave me ideas to incorporate into other recipes.

[Celia Burn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of the Japanese produce in this book will be tricky to procure for Americans not in large coastal cities, but many ingredients can be found at Asian supermarkets nationwide. Often the recipes can be tailored to whatever vegetables you want to use with several recommended varieties and a set required weight.

The novice home cook might be uncomfortable with the open interpretation for the recipes without a play-by-play in every step, but there are many tips and intros to assist and plenty of vivid photographs to give an idea of your potential end result. Aside from the required specialty ingredients being a drawback, most of these recipes are surprisingly easy to execute for how fancy and intimidating they may seem at first glance with few steps involved, but a few require more hands-off time than some people will desire — such as in the air drying of vegetables, preserving cucumbers in salt, and pickling (which each take several days to a week). Not a bad read if you wish to reimagine the way you use Japanese vegetables and greens in your kitchen.

[Darice Chang · Rating 5 out of 5]

The closest you will get to professional vegetable sushi in English (I would know; I've read the industry publications in Japanese). Highly recommend for any chef - home or professional - looking to up their vegetable sushi game.

[Therese Brink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the photos and the writing. This would make a very good coffee table book. I gave it 3 stars because many of the ingredients would be hard to find.

[Ryen O'Meara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt unremarkable or understated I can’t tell which

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So inspiring and thoughtful. Yeah, some of it is ridiculous for the home cook. I could find all of the ingredients I've looked for at my local international markets.

Treat yourself!

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful coffee-table cookbook! I just hope my mum can help me make some of the recipes ( more complex than my usual fare). My motivation is high though as they sound as delicious as they look.

[Alyssa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too complicated - and too many hard to find ingredients. I'd love to try these dishes at a restaurant, but will I ever make them at home? Nope.

[elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's beautiful as a coffee table book, but I highly doubt I'd go through the time and effort to actually make anything in this book.

[Molly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a bad book- and full of great photos. Just not readily available ingredients or very practical for me.