All About Vegetarian Cooking

by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker

Is it possible to improve upon perfection? Apparently, the answer is yes! Joy of Cooking reaches new heights with this series of illustrated volumes. All About Vegetarian Cooking begins with a short section on organic ingredients and nutrition for vegetarians and then plunges into a collection of more than 100 of Joy 's best-loved vegetarian recipes. With the addition of cooking tips, serving suggestions, and more than 150 stunning photographs of finished dishes and cooking techniques, this is truly a joy. After more than 60 years, we've learned to trust America's favorite cookbook to provide clear, well-written recipes that always work for dishes as diverse as falafel, spanakopita, and succotash. Perusing its pages, however, used to be a very plain experience. Now it's just plain mouthwatering! The full-page photograph of the Grilled Eggplant and Roasted Red Pepper Panini dish--focaccia with tapenade and fresh mozzarella--is a showstopper and leaves nothing to the imagination. The big earthenware bowl of Winter Vegetable Couscous redefines comfort food. And the golden, crispy crust on the Persian Rice, made with basmati rice, saffron, onions, and dried apricots, will leave you breathless and starving. Somehow, we never noticed these gems buried deep in the big Joy . Mixed together in the vegetables section, we didn't realize until now how many of them are dishes that can stand alone as entrées. Joy has always been a good bet for kitchen novices, but these volumes go the extra step by illustrating the finished dish (always reassuring for a beginner) and suggesting many useful techniques, such as how to separate eggs, press tofu, and prepare artichokes. For those of us who already own a copy (or two) of the original tome, this adaptation is simply inspirational and a great addition to anyone's cookbook library. The presentation is so beautiful and stimulating, you'll hardly recognize that the recipes are the good old reliables, all dressed up and ready to go. --Leora Y. Bloom

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Reference

Hardcover

First published October 25, 2000

About the author

In 1931, a St. Louis widow named Irma von Starkloff Rombauer took her life savings and self-published a book called The Joy of Cooking. Her daughter, Marion, tested recipes and made the illustrations, and they sold their mother-daughter project from Irma's apartment.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fabulous find recently for me. I really love the Joy of Cooking: All About series. Even though some of the recipes are duplicates from the original Joy of Cooking, the recipes are organized a little differently and there are some fantastic pictures. A book I definitely recommend if you are like me and give meat up once a week. We just had the Spanakopita for dinner this evening and it was fantastic!

One of the things that I like best about Joy (this book or others) is that they rarely call for weird ingredients or equipment that you don’t already have. In addition to giving you information about special ingredients or just a basic history lesson, Joy helps you get a great dinner on the table, without spending too much time or money.

[Christine Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

None of the recipes particularly appealed to me but did learn things.

Learned about making stocks, sprouting beans, grilling peppers, and some tips on chopping onions.

When chopping onions, tears can be reduced by chilling onions before peeling, or by peeling them under running water.

Love a caprese sandwich, didn't know it's based off of the Insalata Caprese (Tomato and Mozzarella Salad), or that it's named for the island of Capri.

Learned tips on preparing greens for salad too:

Greens still attached to their roots are usually more intense in flavor than those severed at the stem. Use greens as soon as possible after buying them. If you have to store them, removed any leaves that are wilted or show signs of decay and take off any rubber or metal bands holding greens together. Unwashed greens will keep for 3 to 4 days at most. Store greens in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator in a plastic bag with holes poked in it.

+Best way to wash greens is in large bowl/sink full of cold water, swish, lift from water, repeat process until water is clear.
+If greens are strong & pungent, they can support more flavor & garnishes; mild & tender greens tolerate less.
+"The simplest way to enhance a green salad is to add condiments or seasonings to the salad while or after you toss it with the dressing... With a light coat of dressing on the greens, small accents such as croutons, nuts, cheese, and olives will cling to the salad and are less apt to fall to the bottom of the bowl."
+Best time to dress green salads=very last minute.
+Pour dressing or its ingredients down the side to form puddle at bottom, toss so topmost greens fall to the bottom

[Lyes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book

[Vjera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid overview of the basics. Pictures are often of random ingredients and not the actual recipes. Some of the health info is outdated but the techniques are straightforward. Well organized.

[b00ks_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

I think they overcomplicated being a vegetarian. It’s much easier and simpler than they make it seem, but there are some good recipes.

[Kendycineus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rendu

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is nothing I want to eat in here, and the pictures aren't all that appetizing. The stuffed acorn squash looks uncooked? The ingredients are sprinkled throughout the recipe (in bold type) and not listed at the beginning. Good thing it was a library book.

[Notdorothy]

Joy of Cooking: All About Vegetarian by Irma S. Rombauer (2000)