[.ca] The 15-Minute Gourmet: Vegetarian (ISBN 0028635299)

When she says 15 minutes, she means it:
I have a VAST collection of vegetarian cookbooks. Recent changes in my lifestyle and schedule mandated that I learn to cook faster meals, so I ordered several books promising fast meals. This one delivers. While some of the recipes take a bit longer than 15 mintues, few take more than 30, and much of that time is cooking time, not preparation. Most of the ingredients are common, and a few, such as tahini and miso are less common, but not rare. 15 Minute Gourmet: Vegetarian is divided into food groups such as soups, sauces, entrees, desserts, and appetizers. She includes some "basics" on nutrition and good health, as well as suggestions for balancing a healthy vegetarian diet. There are several complete menu suggetions and many recipes include a suggestion for a recipe that would make a good companion. There are even good ideas for setting up an organized kitchen to save MORE time. These are not Standard Amercian Diet foods made faster. These are very nutritious recipes with some ethnic diversity. Quite impressive for a collection that all can be assembled in moments, and many are even low in fat. For those who are curious, some recipes include...quick tomato sauces, pesto, orange-tahini sauce, cheesy vegetable spread, peanut dip, asian stew, quick pea soup, moroccan chickpea soup, fresh croutons, strawberry and blueberry soups, peach vinaigrette (and many others), thai cucumber salad, pasta with herbed ricotta and pine nuts, sweet and sour tofu, vegetable curry, nut burgers, vanilla poached pears, and chocolate dipped pineapple with raspberry sauce. In addition to all of these wonderful features, the layout is simple to read, directions are numbered and divided by steps (less confusing) and there are quite a number of full-page color photographs of the recipes. I highly recommend this book to those who are afraid that "quick" vegetarian food also has to mean "bland". Paulette, I commend you.

Variety:
Becoming a vegetarian is simply a matter of creating vegetarian habits, and this book makes it surprisingly easy, by offering a wide variety of recipes that really are exceptionally delicious, and remarkably easy to prepare. Paulette Mitchell really has won my respect, by creating a variety of very healthy meat-free meals, that are full of flavor, and richly satisfying. The appetizers are very tasty, the soups are savory, the salads are simply delicious, the entrees are mouth watering, and the desserts, honestly... will make your knees buckle! I've had this book for a couple of years now, and it's the bedrock of my dinner menu. I've got a few other vegetarian cookbooks, but "The 15-Minute Gourmet: Vegetarian" is the one I keep going back to for the best recipes, night after night. Bon Appetite!

Just What I Was Looking For!!!:
When I decided to go Vegan a couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a cookbook that I could use regularly, even on busy weeknights. This book delivered. I'm having a hard time trying to decide what to cook because everything looks amazing. This, as the author points out, is not a vegan cookbook, but many of the recipes are easily convertable. I highly recommend this if you want good food fast!

I used to dislike cooking, but now...:
I received this book a couple of years ago as a gift and it may be one of the best gifts I've ever received. I cannot recommend it enough. I've cooked nearly every recipe in the entire book and they've all turned out very well. Maybe the best thing I can say about this book is that I didn't care much for cooking--nor did I know how to cook very well--when I first got this book, but it has really changed my mind. I feel that I learned a lot of key cooking skills from this book, in addition to picking up a few little extra tips that have added a lot to my cooking beyond the recipes in this book. Now I love to cook! These recipes gave me confidence that I could. The techniques and the ingredients are simple, but the results are always good. The Meatless Mission Chili is something we often serve at parties (my meat-eating friends really like it) and the Pasta with Peanut Szechuan Dressing is a staple in our house. The helpful hints that accompany each recipe (usually, a little tip about preparing or storing one of the ingredients in the recipe) are great. The nutritional information at the end of each recipe is a big plus, too.

Delicious!!:
This cookbook is amazing. So many great recipes!! There are recipes for sauces and dressings, soups, salads, entrees, even desserts! And everything can be done in 15 minutes or less!! Also, all the recipes are tweakable - so you can end up making several different variations of the same dish. Try the Asian Stew on p. 42. That alone makes this book worth the bucks.