Fresh Food Fast: Delicious, Seasonal Vegetarian Meals in Under an Hour

by Peter Berley

Book Overview

Fresh Food Fast is a collection of mouthwatering seasonal vegetarian menus that can be created in under an hour, from James Beard and IACP Award-winning chef Peter Berley, a culinary instructor, family man, and chef with a passion for delicious meals that use seasonal produce and are easy to prepare. In Fresh Food Fast , a Food & Wine Best of the Best Cookbook, Berley provides 48 sophisticated home-cooked vegetarian meals--12 for each season. You'll...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060515147
• ISBN13: 9780060515140
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 294 Pages
• Weight: 2.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

changed my life!

This book has changed my life- seriously! My kids and husband are now convinced that I am a good cook, and we can all sit down to a delicious vegetarian dinner every night of the week! The recipes are easy to prepare, and once you start using them, you will have most of what you need on hand to create almost anything in the book for that season! Its really terrific; I can't recommend it highly enough!!

If you love good food, you have to buy this book. No question about it.

This is an amazing cookbook. Filled with delicious, fool-proof recipes and wholesome ingredients, "Fresh Food Fast" has become a regular part of our work-week routine. Though we try to do most of our cooking over the weekend (reheating meals during the week), there are invariably nights when we prefer to cook something fresh after a long day at work. This book gives us a wide array of options arranged by season, from black bean & zucchini quesadillas to bruschetta with goat cheese, olive, tomatoes and thyme. This past Friday we made Berley's 'Thai-Style Tofu & Vegetables in Spicy Coconut Broth with Jasmine Rice' - it was divine. We felt like we'd been transported to a gourmet, five star Thai restaurant, only we had the pleasure of enjoying such a satisfying meal in our comfy clothes. :) The only downside to this book is that most dishes require a hefty amount of produce, which, admittedly, can get expensive. Nevertheless dishes in this book are so delicious that careful planning can work around this, using leftover produce in other meals and reheating uneaten portions later in the week. Overall I love this book - how could I not appreciate the feat of satisfying, perfectly flavored meals that can be made in under an hour? (And yes, they really can be finished in under 1 hour, many in under 40 minutes.)

Delicious, convenient and fun!

I love this cookbook! I'm a pretty good cook who likes to make good food...but does NOT have hours to do it. Berley explains that although he is a professional chef, when he cooks at home, he takes the express route--and that's what these recipes are. As mentioned in other reviews, the cookbook is organized by seasons. Within each season are 12 menus of two dishes that can be made within an hour. (Desserts are included at the end of each section.) Plus each menu includes a shopping list and a "game plan" with a suggested order of cooking. I have most of the ingredients (eg onions, oil, basic spices) in my kitchen already, and it doesn't take too long to make a brief stop at the market and pick up the 5-8 ingredients I don't have. Plus cooking the menu itself doesn't take longer than an hour. Since these menus are for 4 and I'm cooking for 2, these recipes usually provide at least one more meal. The other thing I like about this cookbook is that, because I "trust" the recipes and have found a number of them to be very good, it has encouraged me to try ingredients I don't use too often--such as delicata squash, masa harina, or quinoa. Important note: it would be easier to use this cookbook if you have access to a grocery store with a variety of items, such as the ones I mentioned above. If you don't have these ingredients nearby, you may have to get creative about getting them, or make substitutions.

Simply Fabulous

Peter Berley - you have managed to do it again! I am not even considered near - Vegetarian, yet I found Berley's recipes to be delightfully scrumptous. A beautifully written and easy to follow book, I highly recommend it.

Amazingly simple & elegant!

I received this book as a gift and immediately put it to use for father's day. I made the cold avocado w/ lime and jalapeño soup to start and seared tofu w/ black beans & mango salsa as the main dish. They were really both fantastic, and even my extremely carnivorous father was pleased! The meals are very quick and yet are quick and sophisticated. The book itself is gorgeous, and Peter Berley did a very interesting thing with the organization, where it is organized seasonally into menus. Whats so nice about this is that it makes making an entire meal even easier because you are given the ingredient list for everything (in addition to individual recipes), and a "game plan" for what to do and in what order. Fabulous book!