Cooksbakesbooks' Reviews
207 recipes reviewed. Showing 1 to 50Sort by: Book Title 
| Date | Rating | Recipe Title
Vegetarian Epicure Book Two (Book 2)
By Anna Thomas
Knopf - 1978
This recipe makes a nicely flavored and moist cranberry tea bread. The tang from the cranberries and orange zest counters the sweetness of the bread very well. The whole wheat flour gives the bread a firmer, less pasty texture than all-white flour would.
useful (1)
The mix of vegetables in this soup (split peas, sweet potatoes, onions, carrots and celery) along with the seasonings (dried marjoram, dried basil, ground cumin, fresh garlic, salt and black pepper) and butter, are the perfect combination, to my taste. This is a sweet soup with a bit of spiciness to it. I find that the white wine is an optional ingredient. It tastes great with it, and great without it.
Lately, I have been trying other split pea soup recipes, some with ham in them, others vegetarian, and this remains my favorite.
useful (1)
This is a very assertively flavored soup, and quite acidic. If you like sauerkraut and tomatoes, you may well like it very much. I do add a bit of baking soda and sugar to it to cut the acidity a bit. This is a hearty, winter time soup, with caraway, dill, red wine, paprika, olive oil and butter. It's great with rye bread. If you're in the mood for sauerkraut, make a half batch of this soup and see if it takes care of your craving.
useful (0)
This is a festive and hearty vegetarian stew. It makes a great vegetarian item for Thanksgiving or other wintertime holiday meal.
Leave the mushrooms whole and sauté them over high heat to brown them before they lose their moisture. The smell of thyme, butter and mushrooms sautéing is one of my favorite kitchen experiences, and you get that here. Do not omit the green olives. They are a signature part of the stew. You can omit the boiling onions without compromising the character of the dish. Adding some red wine gives the stew important depth of flavor. The stew is rather acidic, so I add some baking soda to it to cut the tartness.
The 2 tablespoons of flour can be substituted by 1 1/2 tablespoons of potato starch if you wish to avoid using wheat.
useful (0)
Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
By Deborah Madison
Broadway - 1997
The flavoring of orange zest, and cloves with delicious plums is divine. The recommended 1/4 cup of sugar is perfect--not too sweet--and still lets the great flavor of the plums come through. The crisp topping, made optionally with ground almonds instead of rolled oats, is an enhancement, not a detraction as is true of other crisps I have made. The plums are just rinsed and quartered, so this is an unfussy, but very presentable, quick dessert to make. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
useful (1)
Made with tempeh, this was a very good vegetarian main course item. It was not elegant or outstanding, but it was good, and it was a nice change of pace from a slab of meat. This would go well as part of a fall meal (with sauteed cabbage, potato gratin, etc.), or a summer grill, with well-grilled, marinaded vegetables, corn on the cob, and other summery sides.
useful (0)
This is delicious and thrifty. Made too much skinny spaghetti last night? Don't throw it away! Save it and make this well-flavored frittata the next day, for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Flavored with marjoram, parsley, garlic, and lemon zest, it's a yummy twist on a gremolata flavoring--good enough to serve to guests.
useful (0)
The side bar to this recipe starts, "Of all souffles, this is my favorite." This may be my favorite, also. It has a great tangy, goat cheese flavor that is not over much, and the thyme is the perfect herb to go with that flavor. It is elegant, and it puffed beautifully, and held the puff for a few gorgeous minutes. It is also very quick to put together. All around excellent.
useful (0)
Truly exquisite flavor, gorgeous to look at, all around fantastic. I used very fresh shiitakes and corn from the cob. This recipe employs a somewhat fussy technique in that you have to make a stock while you saute ingredients in succession. But I made this for a weeknight meal with about 20 minutes of active cooking time. Then I let it bubble gently while I got some caramelized Brussels sprout halves made, and seasoned turkey chops seared. I served it with reheated hash browns, and pre-made cranberry sauce, and this was a feast. The corn ragout elevated the meal almost into elegance.
useful (0)
Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen
By Deborah Madison
Broadway - 2006
This soup was a mess of off flavors and textures. The greens were bitter, the beans lacked flavor, the rice was a distraction, and the whole thing did not meld together as a soup should. If I were to make it again, I probably would cook it for several hours with the beans, greens, and seasonings, and I'd still put the rice in more toward the end, or I'd have left the rice out entirely.
useful (1)
Vegetable Harvest: Vegetables at the Center of the Plate
By Patricia Wells
William Morrow Cookbooks - 2007
This made a tangy, cold beet soup, that I served out of shot glasses on New Year's Eve, 2010. It was not the best dish I served, but it was festive and refreshing, and I would make it again. The balance of flavors was good--not too tangy, and nicely tasting of beets. A small shot or two was a perfect amount. This soup did not keep well--it was best within the day I made it.
useful (3)
This was a hit at my New Year's Eve gathering, 2010. It was incredibly easy to put together, and extremely forgiving in terms of the time you could ignore it while the sausages and potatoes were simmering. People came late, and the sausages and potatoes held well, simmering, for an hour with no loss in quality. When people arrived, I mixed the meat and potatoes with the vinaigrette in a colorful ceramic baking dish and garnished it with rosemary sprigs and it was so warming and delicious. If we could award half stars, this would get 4 1/2.
useful (0)
I used a mixture of freshly-roasted pumpkin and Hubbard squash, and I substituted walnuts and walnut oil for the pistachios. I used homemade turkey stock, and added 3/4 teaspoon of dried thyme. This was good, and a couple of people liked it a lot. I found the texture a little too smooth and thin--it might as well have been served as a soup. Next time, if I make it again, I will reduce the stock to 1/4 cup, or even less, and keep it firmer. The taste was very good, but the bit of thyme I added gave it some depth. Fresh thyme would have been better to use if I'd had it. If we could award half stars, I'd give this one 3 1/2.
useful (0)
I served this at my New Year's Eve celebration, 2010, to have something nice for the vegetarian who'd be attending. It was super quick to put together after the potatoes were prepared, and it was uncomplicated in its taste, and delicious. I would make this again.
useful (1)
This was very quick and easy to make and very delicious. I served it at a party with some firm, creamy-white cheeses, and it was a wonderful combination. The little tang from the vinegar cut the cloyingness of the honey. The bit of saffron taste was marvelous. I loved this so much that I ate the remainder of it every morning with gobs of Greek yogurt, and it was even better that way. I will definitely make this again.
useful (0)
This was very easy to put together--it required no kneading. The flavor was excellent the afternoon after the evening I made it, and it stayed good to eat for about three days. The texture was very dense, but in a good way. It was different from anything I could buy, and the flavor was excellent. The crunch of the walnuts made it festive. The bread was good with cheeses, with jams, with butter, and even plain. I would not use it for sandwiches, but it was a good snacking or breakfast bread.
useful (0)
Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant: Ethnic and Regional Recipes from the Cooks at the Legendary Restaurant (Cookery)
By Moosewood Collective
Fireside - 1990
This is a West African-inspired dish. As the recipe is written, there is a bit too much vinegar, but if you cut it down to 4-6 tablespoons (60-90 mL), it is better. Also, only cook the stew for about 5 minutes after adding the fish, not the 15 minutes suggested in the recipe. The fish would be way overcooked if you cooked it that long.
I made the stew once with freshly-caught triggerfish and it was fantastic. It also has sweet potatoes, garlic, onion and chilis in it. Flavorful and assertive.
useful (1)
This is a super quick and delicious way to have okra. I use fresh okra when it's at my farmers' market, but you could use frozen, as the dish calls for. I have used frozen a couple of times and it was still great.
I often add chunks of white fish to this dish and it makes an outstandind seafood stew. I love it this way so much that I hardly ever make it without the fish in it anymore.
useful (0)
I have made these so many times over the years; it is one of my favorite recipes. The beureks are yeast dough pastries with a tangy cheese and parsley filling. You glaze the beureks with egg before baking, so they come out shiny and so flavorful.
They are a little bit of work but, once you have made them a couple of times, you may be able to whip out a batch in a flash.
I have made them the size called for in the recipe (which makes 8), and I have also often made them 1/8 that size and made 64 from one batch. That size makes the most wonderful appetizer.
I serve the beureks with a simple homemade marinara sauce, often with some red wine it in. So delicious.
useful (0)
This is a very moist banana bread with a strong lime syrup flavor to it. It makes very good muffins, too (at a farmers' market stall I sold them at, a woman bought one, ate it, then came back and bought all 6 more, sat down, and ate them all, on the spot!). Some people do find this bread very delicious, me included.
I often leave the coconut out. I think it's little better without the coconut, just because it''s smoother then. But leaving the coconut in doesn't ruin it.
useful (2)
This is a very yummy vegetarian split pea soup. It has no added fat at all, which makes it lean in the mouth, which is just what you might want sometimes. It is very well flavored with parsnips, turnips, celery, onion, carrots, allspice, cumin, marjoram and thyme. If you want to make it richer, you can add the optional heavy cream. It is very good that way--nice for a holiday for vegetarians.
useful (0)
This is a fabulous vegetarian main course item, or an equally good side dish for any meal. It makes one 9-inch wide round savory cake that you cut into wedges. It is flavored with thyme, nutmeg and cumin. It is so, so good with sour cream and spiced cranberry sauce or applesauce on it. I make this often.
useful (0)
This makes an Indian-inspired stuffed potato dish, flavored with bell pepper, coriander seed, turmeric, cardamom and cloves, and enriched with cream cheese. If you serve it with the suggested spicy yogurt sauce, it is especially good, to give the whole mixture some moisture. By themselves, the potatoes are a bit dry seeming, but with the sauce, they are just right.
useful (0)
This is meant to accompany the Baked Stuffed Potatoes from this same book (p. 305), and is delicious with those. It is also good on rice, or many other dry Indian side dishes. It has onions, chilis, cumin, coriander seed and tomato in it.
useful (0)
What a delicious brew this makes. It calls for black tea that you steep in a spice-infused water (cinnamon, fresh ginger, cardamom, peppercorns, cloves, coriander seeds). Then you add milk and sugar. A wonderful chai.
useful (0)
These are a bit time-consuming and messy to put together, but they are very good once they're done. I have them with a marinara sauce, for dipping or putting on top, depending on whether I'm eating them as finger food, or as part of a plated meal. They are cheesy and coated with breadcrumbs and baked, so they're crusty and good.
useful (0)
This is a very simple pasta dish with just broccoli, garlic, cheese and oil. It's quick and yummy, and inexpensive to make.
useful (1)
These are a very good side dish for a winter holiday meal. It consists of cooked beets coated with a roux-based sauce containing lemon juice, brown sugar, salt, ground ginger and mustard powder. Festive, easy and very good.
useful (0)
These are kind of like a prune Newton (if you're familiar with fig Newtons). They make a festive holiday cookie. They take a bit of time to make, because each one is shaped by hand, but they're worth it. The shape is so nice: like a tri-cornered hat. Pretty on a mixed cookie tray.
useful (0)
If you like figs and dates by themselves, you will love this. I alter the recipe a little by rolling the stuffed fruit in honey before rolling in shredded unsweetened coconut. I often put together a few of these just for snacking on the weekend. It is healthy and satisfies a sweet tooth completely.
useful (1)
This makes a creamy shrimp-and asparagus-adorned pasta dish. It is ingredient dependent, so if you have good asparagus and good shrimp, this will be good.
useful (0)
This makes a very nice vegetarian pot pie. It is a fair amount of work to make, but a vegetarian would love you if you put this together for him or her. It makes a good holiday item, but maybe not as the centerpiece. It is kind of a humble and yummy pie.
useful (0)
I have made this dozens of times. It is tangy from tomatoes and red wine, and is full of vegetables. The mushrooms, green beans and corn lend excellent textural contrast to the more tender vegetables. If you find it too tart, you can add a touch of sugar and/or baking soda to the stew, and it will be mellower.
useful (1)
I often make these for winter holiday meals. It is a simple dish of lightly-cooked green beans in a sour cream roux-based sauce, with dill. Very tasty.
useful (0)
This is the blueberry tart recipe I always use. The tart shell is pre-baked, and some of the blueberries are cooked down to a jam-like state, then some are added just at the end of the cooking time. Then you add more raw ones in after the blueberry sauce has cooled, so you have blueberries in three different states in this tart. Biting into the jam, the partially cooked berries and the raw berries in each bite is outstanding. Eaten with whipped cream or crème fraîche, this is a dessert you could serve to impress somebody.
useful (0)
This makes a good vegetarian cornbread stuffing. It will satisfy a vegetarian at a winter holiday meal, and meat-eaters will like it, too. I believe there may be a typo in the recipe, because adding 3 tablespoons of poultry seasoning is way too much. I use 3 teaspoons (1 tablespoon, 15 mL), and that is about right.
useful (0)
This makes a very good cornbread. Brown sugar is optional, though I think that many people from the Southern US would say that unsweetened is traditional. I am from the North, so I add the full 1/4 cup of optional brown sugar (and then sneak in a few more pinches). I have made it unsweetened, and it is also very good that way.
This is best eaten right away. It gets dry rather quickly after baking. If you end up with quite a bit of dry cornbread for some reason after you have made it, you can make cornbread stuffing out of it. There is a recipe in this book that you could use (p. 631).
useful (0)
Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge: The Ultimate Guide to Mastery, with Authentic Recipes and Stories
By Grace Young
Simon & Schuster - 2010
This recipe was just about magical. It was so easy to put together--getting the ingredients measured and ready was the main part--and so quick to cook, and the result was super tender, excellently flavored, and unlike any other salmon I've ever had. The light velveting on the salmon was perfect. I used sliced, fresh button mushrooms instead of the straw mushrooms called for, and they were such an amazing part of the dish, so mushroomy in their taste, somehow more than usual. When I have the time to put the ingredients together, this will be my preferred way to cook salmon from now on.
useful (4)
I had some beautiful bok choy on hand and looked in this book for a recipe and, lo and behold, there was an easy one for which I had all the ingredients already on hand. I trimmed and rinsed the choy, got the other ingredients ready to go and the dish was done, start to finish, in just a few minutes. It was so delicious that even my little kids asked for more.
useful (0)
Still Life with Menu Cookbook
By Mollie Katzen
Ten Speed Press - 1988
This is the challah recipe I have used for years now. It makes a rich bread with a great fine crumb. It is very easy to make--I don't knead it much at all, just enough to get everything really mixed together well. After it has risen once, you can put it in the refrigerator for many days as long as you punch it down whenever it puffs up too much. You can also hold the loaves in the refrigerator after you form them and they will wait a couple of days for you to bake them with no ill effect. You just have to wrap them up well so they don't get any dry spots on them. When you get ready to bake the loaves, if you brush the crust with beaten egg, you get the most delectable shiny and tasty crust.
If you make the double braid, a small one on top of a larger one, it makes such a large and dramatic loaf. I make it for parties and it elicits gasps every time. I have also made many very small loaves from this recipe and that also works very well.
useful (1)
These green beans are crunchy and well flavored with sesame oil, garlic and crushed red pepper. Once you clean and trim the beans, the recipe is a snap. It's quick to make and even the kids find them tasty if you leave the chili flakes out.
useful (0)
If you use very freshly-ground spices in these and mild-flavored molasses, these cookies are delicious. The texture is kind of firm on the outside yielding to a chewy inside. They are quite spicy which I like in a spice cookie.
Sometimes people think they are a chocolate cookie when they see them, and are disappointed when I tell them they are spice cookies instead. But they usually eat several of them uncomplainingly. They are rather addictive like that.
useful (1)
When I was vegetarian, this soup was a revelation. There were a few things that I missed from my meat-eating days, and chicken soup was one of them. This soup approximates a meat-based soup very well, especially if you put the parsnip and scallions in. The little bit of turmeric in the recipe helps make it seem meaty somehow, and the sweetness of the parsnip makes it taste like the good homemade (not)-chicken soup that it is. If you add some finely chopped fresh parsley to the finished soup, you will really be pleased with the result. This is so satisfying when you are sick, or anytime during the winter.
There is a matzoh ball recipe with the soup recipe that I have never tried. I have just put in some fine egg noodles near the end of cooking, but only in the amount of soup that I will be serving that day. The noodles do not store well; they actually ruin the soup if they're left in there overnight, soaking up too much broth and getting very large and slimy. Rice is also excellent in this soup but, of course, you have to cook it quite a while to get it tender. Same thing for the rice: only put a small amount in the amount of soup that you will be serving that day, or you will have rice porridge the next day.
useful (1)
Starbucks Passion for Coffee
By Dave Olsen
Sunset Publishing Corporation - 1994
You may see the word Starbucks in the title and make a judgment, for or against, based on that. I look at the recipe developers, and make my judgment based on that. John Phillip Carroll and Lora Brody are accomplished cookbook authors, and the recipes reflect that.
The Grand City Granola is simply fantastic. It is not "lite," but it is filled with scrumptious ingredients, and the directions and proportions are well tested so you will end up with granola that you will want to eat each day until it is gone. As always, quality ingredients make a difference. Use real butter, fresh spices, fresh grains and nuts, and fruits that have a bit of moisture left in them. If you like coconut at all, do not omit it. That element takes the recipe a notch higher than it is without it.
If you make this to give away (as I often do) have some copies of the recipe on hand. Someone will surely ask you for it.
useful (1)
These get so large and they're so crisp, they are really fancy but are very easy to make; they're sort of like a nut brittle. They are very brittle, so they do not travel well. They make a very nice addition to a platter of several cookies.
useful (0)
Smoothies: 50 Recipes for High-Energy Refreshment
By Sara Corpening Whiteford, Lori Lyn Narlock, Mary Corpening Barber, Amy Neunsinger
Chronicle Books - 1997
This is a good basic smoothie. It's useful for getting the proportions of frozen fruit to juice right, so you can improvise from there. This is one of the few recipes in the book that calls for ingredients that many people may have on hand. There's no added sugar in it, which is a plus for a breakfast item.
useful (0)
Sacramental Magic In A Small-town Cafe: Recipes And Stories From Brother Juniper's Cafe
By Br. Peter Reinhart
Running Press - 1994
This makes a yummy slaw. There is tons of sugar in it which is what makes it so good. I have liked this best when I have cut the cabbage in tiny squares with a knife. When I have grated the cabbage, the cabbage juice somehow makes the slaw less good.
useful (1)
Rose's Christmas Cookies
By Rose Levy Beranbaum
William Morrow Cookbooks - 1998
These are dog biscuits! My old dog used to love them! They are not hard to make, and they last as long as you need them to, because they come out dry from the baking. So if you leave some moisture in them, they will not last too long.
useful (1)
Rose's Celebrations
By Rose Levy Beranbaum
William Morrow & Co - 1992
This recipe has no flour in it and, true to Rose Levy Beranbaum's style, she gives expert instructions on a technique that makes the crispest, cleanest-tasting potato pancakes I have ever had. They are so good with homemade applesauce and sour cream. Really delicious!!
useful (0)
Cooking McIntosh apples with their peels makes a lovely slightly-pink applesauce. This is lightly cinnamon flavored and a little bit tart (from two whole tablespoons of lemon juice), but is also quite sweet due to the addition of lots of sugar. If you put the cooked sauce through a food mill, it has the most wonderful silky texture. It's addictive to eat, and is good plain or with anything that applesauce is good on including latkes, regular pancakes, yogurt, etc.
useful (0)