The Bold Vegetarian Chef: Adventures in Flavor with Soy, Beans, Vegetables, and Grains

by Ken Charney

Book Overview

Discover the secrets of lively vegetarian cuisine Think vegetarian cooking is bland? Not any more! Now you can create outrageous appetizers, adventurous soups, exciting entrees, and daring desserts... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471448265
• ISBN13: 9780471448266
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.2" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

best vegetarian cookbook ever!!!!

Finally, I found what I was looking, a vegetarian cookbook full of flavor. Bland food is my nemesis, so I was very delighted when I saw his very creative style of cooking and flavorings. and so many things to choose from!!!. from reading the book my brain started briming with ideas of my own. seitan tamales, and empanadas yippy!!!. I can now return to my native hispanic flavors without having to use meat yeah!!!! Im in love with this book. Most vegetarian books out there--which are not vegan--use fat and dairy to make food tasty which to me gets boring rather fast. as one who does not want to eat meat and is also trying to loose weight the fact that he relies on herbs and spices for flavor instead of fat is very useful.

Delivers on the title's promise

I bought this book because my vegetarian daughter's tastes have evolved beyond the usual fare offered by cookbooks for vegetarian kids or teens. Now she wants her dinner to be something worth salivating over during soccer practice. This book delivers on its promise: the recipes use readily available ingredients in innovative ways and combinations that result in memorable dishes with a ton of flavor. Yes, we already have a dozen recipes for really nice lentil soup, so why buy this book? I mean--think hard, now--when was the last time you were truly surpised by a bowl of lentil soup? Mr Charney gives you recipes for lentil soups unusual enough to make you raise your eyebrows before you start licking the bowl. Yes, we already have a serviceable recipe for vegetarian shepherd's pie, but Mr Charney's shepherd pie puts those other pretenders to shame. Yes, we already have a teriyaki tofu recipe, but Mr Charney's teriyaki tofu is so good you'll want to raid the fridge for it at 3 AM. And so on and so on, right through the sandwiches, burgers, pastas, side dishes, salads... The recipes do not require weird ingredients (I can get everything at my regular market or at Whole Foods), no fussy techniques, no equipment you can only get at the cooking specialty store. There are plenty of recipes that give you a great dish in 30 minutes or less, but there are also some recipes for those long, dark, bone-chilling January days when you want to spend an hour or so in a steamy and tantalizingly fragrant kitchen. The book is intuitively organized and has a good index. When it's time to start the holiday gift shopping, I will be getting this book for all the vegetarians and parents of vegetarians on my list.

Great Vegetarian Fare!

I LOVE this cookbook. It is so much better than a lot of the bland fare in vegetarian cookbooks. Charney is innovative and not afraid to spice things up. He must be a well trained, skilled cook because his recipes are far from ordinary! Everything I've made in this book so far is great. Our family loves the teriyaki tofu, the spicy tofu sald, the black bean and avocado soup and the lentil soup wtih taragon. I've given this book as a gift more than once and have really enjoyed cooking vegetarian dishes where I don't miss the meat one bit. By the way, most of the recipes in this book are actually vegan!

How bold it is!

The recipes in this book are authentically appealing and full of flavor. Vegetarian food has never looked so delicious and flavorful. The food, filled with spicy, fusion flavors, is sure to tickle the palate of any vegetarian. Keeping the true vegetarian in focus, I was offered clear instructions and creative ways of cooking with soy, tempeh, and seitan.

Thank goodness!

The recipes in this book are so easy to follow. And they're not your run-of-the-mill boring vege recipes either. This book offers a creative array of ideas and the writing couldn't be any easier to follow. The ingredients are easy to find and I couldn't be happier.