kaye16's Reviews
17 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 17Sort by: Title 
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Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian: More Than 650 Meatless Recipes from Around the World
By Madhur Jaffrey
Clarkson Potter - 2002
Broccoli with Potatoes : page 147
I'm not quite sure if this should be a side dish or a main course. I was a bit short on broccoli and made a 2/3 recipe (with all the spices). This made a sufficient main course for two. It tasted good though.
To make this, I made a 1/8 recipe of the Trinidadian Mixed Spices (amchar masala), and still have quite a bit left. Haven't found a clue so far (in the index or otherwise) for what I can do with this.
useful (2)
Carrot and CIlantro Salad : page 618
At the last minute, I thought a carrot salad would be a nice side for dinner. I found this recipe and gave it a try.
Result: a nice small and quick-to-make salad.
For two I used three medium-ish carrots; I didn't weigh them. Halved the rest of the ingredients.
It was good at room temp. Have a dab in the fridge for a small bit with lunch or an afternoon snack.
useful (1)
Carrot Pilaf : page 547
Tasty and pretty. A bit sweet because of the carrots, but a nice alternative to the raita recipe I usually use. A half recipe would probably serve three as an dinner accompaniment.
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Really tasty and easy!
(The ingredient list here has one of my recipe pet peeves: potatoes to be cut into 1"x3/4" chunks. What's the third dimension? 3/4"? 1"? 2"?)
I forgot to soak the chickpeas, so used some I had cooked and frozen a while ago. No problem. I used water for the missing cooking liquid.
The recipe calls for 2tsp salt. I used 1-1/2tsp and we thought it was borderline too salty. Next time I'll use on 1tsp salt total.
Just before adding the amchar masala, I mashed the potatoes a bit with a potato masher.
The recipe says it serves 4 to 6; 2 to 3 is more like it, and 3 only with some side dishes. (I served as a one-dish dinner with some flour tortillas for mopping up.)
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This is a recommended go-with for Sour Fennel-Flavored Eggplant . Can't says I really saw the relationship.
If you like the taste of tamarind this is delicious. If you're you don't, it will be less appealing.
A third recipe served two generously.
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Greek-Style Lentil Salad : page 630
This is really a simple salad, but very yummy. It sounds plain, but is wonderful in taste. The acid lemon taste really complements the earthy lentils. Everyone liked it as is, but those of us who like a little bit of spice in our food thought a bit of chopped chili or maybe red pepper flakes would only make it more wonderful.
This would serve 4-6 as a side dish. As a main, there are probably two generous servings.
Would be a good, portable dish to take to a picnic or potluck.
Definitely a do-again.
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Very good. (I really like tamarind. :-) ) Easy and fairly quick.
- I made a full recipe, served over rice, and it will serve four. (Half in the freezer for another night.)
- The carrots need to be cut fairly small (narrow) to be done in the same time the other veggies are.
A yummy and satisfying dinner.
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We really loved this salad of roasted green bell peppers. The recipe serves two very generously, especially considering that I had only medium bell peppers, rather than large.
I used a little more than 1/2tsp salt (of the 1tsp asked); we bought thought it was a tad salty. Not that it stopped up for eating it all.
Might be a nice dish to double or quadruple for a party.
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I'd give this a 4 for the food, but the instructions have a big omission, i.e., you sauté some onions and garlic and set it aside but are never told what to do with it! (I added them to the potatoes with the eggs.)
Easy to make, the most successful fritatta-like thing that I've made. Tasty and nice texture.
The recipe calls for a lot of fat (olive oil, olive oil and butter, or ghee), and I expect the amount for sautéing the onions could be cut by half, and the amount for cooking the kookoo could be cut by at least a third.
Can be eaten warm, room temp, or cold. Thin wedges would make a good starter. Eggs&potatoes could be a nice brunch dish also.
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Red Lentils with Zucchini : page 70
A very nice dinner, and nothing special in the way of ingredients -- all stuff we usually have on hand.
Easy to assemble the zucchini part while the the lentils cook. Made all and froze half for another time.
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Risotto with Tomato and Eggplant : page 408
Excellent, if unexpected (to me), risotto. The two of us ate all of the risotto, advertised to serve 3-4. I meant to served a salad with it, but was feeling lazy and though it was full of veggies anyhow, so gave the salad a miss.
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Pretty good. A goodly slog of Tabasco helped a lot.
Oops, my stash of dried chickpeas was empty, so I used canned chickpeas instead.
Actually, I wonder about how this would work using dried beans. First the spinach is boiled for 5min, then sautéed for 5min, then simmered with the soaked beans for 1-3 HOURS. Wouldn't you have mush?
Anyhow, this was fine with canned beans, and I think frozen chopped spinach would be fine too, making it all quite easy.
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Sour Fennel-Flavored Eggplant : page 195
Dish from Pakistan.
Two of us ate all of this. And good it was. I didn't soak the eggplant piece as asked; it didn't seem to make a difference. Tasty stuff.
Served with the recommended go-with Chickpeas and Chana Dal Cooked Together in a Mint Sauce.
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DEElicious! Plus it's easy as these things go. There's a bit of peeling and chopping to do as prep, although not much, then it cooks for a long while to allow the cook to do something else.
As is often the case with Jaffrey's recipes, I used about half the oil asked to start frying the spices.
The recipes feels a bit like a clean-out-the-pantry sort of thing. I'm sure you could use bits of veg that need using up. Jaffrey gives instruction for adding okra. Anything that has a shorter cooking time would just be added later.
The result was a yummy stew that we ate pretty much on its own, as a one-dish dinner. The recipe says it says four to six. I think four would be stretching it. Two of us had dinner and we'll have a mugful each for lunch one day soon, so it might serve three comfortably.
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Sri Lankan Eggplant Curry (Vambotu Curry) : page 189
This dish was surprisingly bitter. We had trouble locating the source of this, but it seemed like while most of the eggplant in the dish was fine, some bits were nasty. I had bought two eggplants to make up the weight, thinking to use one and a half for this recipe and the rest for something later in the week. One of them, although it looked lovely on the outside, had a brown bit down through the middle from the stem-end. I discarded this, plus a bit extra, and sliced the rest. My guess is that even though I had discarded the part that looked bad and the rest looked fine, a nasty taste pervaded the entire eggplant. A dose of mango chutney mitigated this somewhat.
The recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon cayenne. In the recipe prologue, Jaffrey says that the original recipe called for 2 teaspoons. Since we tend to like things hot, I used that amount. First bite, seconds of nothing, then wham! Good stuff! But only if you like it hot.
I poured the 1 tablespoon of oil for coating the eggplant slices into a little dish and used my fingers to anoint the slices. There was lots left here, so I used that plus just a dab more to finish the dish.
Two of us ate all of this dish, advertised as serving 3-4. Three maybe, four not, unless it were part of a larger meal.
I will try this again when eggplants are in season, since it seems like it should be a good meal. It's easy and fast, would make a fine one-dish (with rice) weeknight vegetarian dinner.
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Tuscan Zucchini Pie (Tortina de Zucchine) : page 541
Pretty good, fairly easy. I didn't add cheese to the batter, since we were having cheese for after. This might be nice, but we enjoyed the nice clean squash taste.
Serves 4 as main, but these are very light. I had my quarter, but DH ate half. Nice accompanied by a salad.
Would make a nice starter.
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Zucchini and Feta Cheese Salad : page 640
This is a super salad, a hit at home and a hit as potluck. Even my DH, who is not a zucchini fan, likes it.
Jaffrey suggests cutting the zukes into 1-1/4" segments. This seems too big to me, so I cut them about 1/2"-3/4". And, since European courgettes are typically bigger than American zucchini, I half or quarter them first. A tidy bite-size is the idea, I think.
It's important either to really undercook the zucchini bits or to cool them fairly quickly so they don't get too soggy. You want them to still have some crispness.
Better to start out with about half the prescribed dressing. It's easier to add more olive oil and lemon juice if you think it needs it than to take it out.
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