Canadian Living: The Vegetarian Collection: Creative Meat-Free Dishes That Nourish and Inspire

by Alison Kent, Canadian Living Test Kitchen

Cooks across Canada are trying to eat well, incorporate more healthful foods into their menus and accommodate the dietary choices of family members. Canadian Living's new collection of vegetarian recipes caters to this trend with nourishing dishes that work every time - whether you're cooking for vegetarians, flexitarians or vegans, or just want a little something meat-free and delicious. The book is packed with helpful information on different types of vegetarian diets, advice on shopping for and preparing new and interesting ingredients, and tips that ensure success in the kitchen.

• 9 chapters, most of which feature recipes focused around a specific food category, such as soy products or grains.
• Helpful sidebars and tips sprinkled throughout
• Introduction to new and interesting vegetarian ingredients, with cooking and buying advice
• Recipes for soups, salads, appetizers, sandwiches, side dishes and main courses

Chapters Include
1. Introduction to new ingredients, tips and techniques, plus a guide to different types of vegetarian diets
2. Pulses and beans
3. Grains
4. Pasta
5. Soy Products
6. Nuts and seeds
7. Eggs and cheese
8. Vegetables
9. Basics you can make at home and keep on hand: breads, sauces and even homemade soft cheeses

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 14, 2010

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good recipes in this book when I want to go meatless. Yummy.

[Lucinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of cookbooks out there for vegetarians and vegans. I've picked up quite a few and separate them into 'use regularly', 'use for ideas' and 'almost-never use' piles. 'Almost never use' cookbooks are the ones where the pictures are gorgeous but the recipes are so simple that you basically already know how to make them and wish you hadn't wasted your money to buy the cookbook. The 'Use for Ideas' cookbooks are ones that either call for all kinds of ingredients I can't find or afford, or have too many steps/ take hours and hours to make. Or I don't have the culinary skills to make the recipe turn out how it should. I usually try to adapt ideas from these cookbooks for my simpler and more time-crunched (and less skilled) cooking. Then there are the cookbooks that you just want to tell everyone you know about. They have original recipes that are manageable and affordable and that taste really spectacular.
This cookbook falls into my 'use everyday' category - with a few reservations.

Among the really great recipes, and there are many, are Moroccan Vegetable Pie with Chickpea crust, Vegetable Lentil Gardener's Pie, Bean and Wheat Berry Salad with Coriander Chili Dressing, Sweet Potato Strudel with Balsamic Mushroom Sauce and Oven-Roasted Ratatouille on Cornmeal Pancakes. There are 250 recipes, though some are for sauces and breads. There is a seed and nut section and a Tofu and Tempeh section, both of which have really tasty and original ideas (yes, there are stir-frys, but I guess every veg cookbook has to have those, right?). I wish, though, that a salad and a dessert section was included.

Also contains nutritional information and color photos for many, but not all, recipes. I am definitely a sucker for color photos.

[Jill Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Working my way through. So far 90% of the recipes have been delicious. It's been so good, I gave it to a friend for Christmas. You do not need to be a vegetarian to enjoy the food in this book.

[Jennifer Lucking · Rating 3 out of 5]

Borrowed from the library. Some good looking recipes, and I’m so grateful that unlike another magazine recipe book I just read, these recipes are available to view for free on their website. So saved about 5 that I really want to make. I prefer my cookbooks to have pictures for each and every recipe, and this one probably has pictures for (I’m estimating) 3/4.

[Jean-Sylvain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's cook !

[Capn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An oldie but goodie, I still drag this one out. Lots of easy (like, actually easy), simple (not 400 ingredients and with specialty items that you'll struggle to use up 3 days from now) and economical recipes that really are "tested until perfect".

As an adult with a sensitive palate (and who has been accused of being a food snob, or worse, a 'foodie' - I hate that word. I'll take 'epicurian', though!), some of these are very bland and ordinary. HOWEVER, as an adult who also has to feed a whole family (and make sure they're nourished and aren't going to wake me up at 2AM (who am I kidding - this happens regardless!) with a hungry tummy), virtually every recipe I've tried in this book passes muster with KIDS, which just goes to show that in 'playing it safe', they have been utterly successful. There's been nothing here that I disliked, though as I said, most of my commentary is "GOOD - EASY!" or "GOOD - FAST!". So nothing super exciting - it's just not that sort of cookbook.

The number of cookbooks with the theme of "kid-friendly foods for the whole family!" is truly staggering, and I won't touch any of them (I've been recommended a few, and had a few forced upon me. Urgh. Would truthfully rather my kids eat McDonald's than have to serve soulless, sticky, sweet-potato-mush-clumps for supper). This one is actually kid-friendly, and it wasn't even marketed as such.

For meatless (but not necessarily vegan) weeknights, this one is truly useful for quick and satisfactory meals from cupboard and fridge staples. The layout is good, the instructions clear and concise. I've had it for decades now, and I still find myself flipping through, trying something I haven't annotated, and being pleasantly surprised.

(We did black bean quesadillas for dinner tonight. You might think, "I don't need a recipe for that," and you'd be right. But the brilliance of this book is that they've made a 'tested 'til perfect' version of that, and it effectively guarantees results. Sure enough, the entire family gobbled it, green peppers and all. So who am I to snub such a book? I'd season mine differently, maybe, but then it would have a higher rejection rate. This book, man - for those tired, mid-week days where you're trying not to give into the lure of delivery or another dodgy casserole or stir-fry, this is the lifeline!)

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I purchased this book on the strength of the recipes I've seen in Canadian Living magazine. I have not had a chance to make anything yet, I just picked it up, but the first dish will be a Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Tangine that looks delicious. After I try a few recipes, I'll re-visit my rating and raise it if warranted.

[Vandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved:
sushi pizzza
pizza dough
rye cracker

[Myriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is much better than I expected. It is obvious that the author actually eats vegetarian food on a regular basis. The dishes are nutritious and tasty, if not particularly original.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many dishes that I want to try !!!