Product Description

A guide for beginning-level cooks shares a wealth of vegetarian recipes that can be prepared in a minimum of time and without extensive exotic ingredients, sharing simple instructions for such options as Creamy Mushroom Pot Pie, Apricot Summer Tart with Macadamia Shortbread Crust, and Ice-Cold Blueb

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #320327 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This bizarrely titled volume is dedicated to simple, user-friendly vegetarian recipes. The author, an enthusiastic amateur in the kitchen, has not so much written a cookbook as compiled one, separating basic recipes into three or four steps apiece and then charting them out in neatly designed graphs. The section on pizza, for example, includes Feta and Mint Pizza; Fig, Arugula, and Goat Cheese Pizza; and Red Pepper and Olive Pizza. Each pizza is prepared the exact same way, and the same directions are listed over and over again ("Preheat oven… gently pat pizza dough," etc.) The only variations are in the toppings, but each recipe is presented as a different item on the pizza chart, giving the illusion that the author is presenting several different recipes. This misleading representation occurs throughout. In addition, many of the recipes are for desserts, drinks and breakfast dishes—that is, foods that are almost always vegetarian and therefore frustratingly redundant in a vegetarian cookbook. The author’s style is chatty and warm, however, and some of her ideas are inventive; Smoky Corn Kabobs are especially tasty, as is the Spring Vegetable Pot Pie. Nevertheless, the book suffers from overdesign. The charts are counterintuitive and difficult to read, and the overall feel of the book is gimmicky. While a good vegetarian cookbook is a wonderful resource, a more traditional format would have served this one better. 40 full-color photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
An engaging collection of simple but sophisticated vegetarian recipes....each presented in a sleek, approachable step-by-step chart format. -- Library Journal

Anyone looking for interesting ideas to add variety to everyday meals will find much to consider. -- Seattle Times, November 24, 2004

Heidi Swanson adds sparkle and ease to simple vegetarian cuisine....the photos are luscious enough to get any tummy rumbling. -- The Oakland Tribune, November, 2004

Her approach is at once basic and innovative.....quick, simple meals that can easily be changed from week to week. -- Washington Post, March, 2005

One cookbook, multiple themes, endless recipes!....Cook 1.0 offers a wide variety of crowd-pleasing favorites. -- Vegetarian Times, Nov/December 2004

Swanson stands out in the cookbook world...has come up with one of the most appealing books of the year. -- Denver Post, November 28, 2004

The best of the year's cookbooks just in time for gift giving. -- Santa Cruz Sentinel, December 8, 2004

About the Author
HEIDI SWANSON founded ChickClick.com in 1997. The site became one of the most trafficked female networks on the Internet; as a result, Swanson was profiled in such national publications as USA Today, Fast Company, Entertainment Weekly, and The Wall Street Journal. Swanson is an enthusiastic, self-taught home cook with a fresh, contemporary perspective on how to approach basic vegetarian cooking.

ART SMITH is the personal chef to Oprah Winfrey and author of the best-selling Back to the Table. He contributes frequently to O magazine.

Customer Reviews

great book for those who didn't know they could cook
This cookbook is my current favorite. It's like music; in each section, the author creates a theme and variations upon it. There is a core recipe with at least four different versions that taste completely different. In doing this, it manages to give you great ideas for what ingredients you can swap to make something new without having to learn a new skill set for each recipe. I have made the parmesan & basil drop biscuits, broken lasagna with cherry tomatoes, salsa verde and two smoothie recipes, and each has been easy to make with simple 3-step instructions and delicious every time. This book hasn't left my kitchen counter since I got it last week! I plan to make just about everything in here.

The best part is that I'm not a vegetarian and there's not a single recipe in here that turns me off. The author isn't pretentious about being vegetarian the way many vegetarian cookbooks are (you know what I mean, "2 organic tomatoes, free range eggs, etc"). It just happens to be food without meat or meat-replacements, which is great because I am not a fan of tofu either.

GREAT FOR ANYONE
This is great for anyone especially those who want to try to eat vegan. It is simple with variety of options offered for each created dish! This is a keeper.

Brilliant!!!
I first discovered Heidi on her website 101cookbooks when I was looking for gluten free recipes. From there I discovered she published two books: this one and Super Natural Cooking. I bought both.

This book is, simply put: BRILLIANT. She takes the book and breaks it up into sections such as main dishes, side dishes, desserts, beverages. But that is as traditional as she gets. In each section she covers one type of food and gives you several ways of preparing it. For example, she does a section on panini sandwiches. She will introduce what the panini is, tips for cooking (such as what type of bread to use), then she will have two or more pages of different panini sandwiches such as brie/apple/ cranberry/"fake" bacon. The recipes are read left to right instead of the standard up and down, in an excel-like format. And all of her recipes only take a handful of ingredients and are made in usually 3 steps or less.

Some other foods covered are pizzas, risottos, pot pies, salads, pocket sandwiches, soups, pastas, stir-frys, dressings, flavored butters, ice cream, sorbets, sherberts, beverages...and the list goes on.

Simple, concise, fun to read, and the recipes themselves taste phenomenial! Highly recommended!

Gluten-free note: as I am vegetarian and my kids are gluten free I found this cookbook appealing on many levels. For me, I can follow the recipes directly, for the kids I can substitute bread and pasta for the gluten free type and make a similar dinner so the kids don't feel left out. And they love the food!