Nava Atlas

I've had this for a while and thought it would be perfect for our July celebrations. For a family picnic I made some of the recipes from the Memorial Day and Beyond chapter, all of which turned out very well, my favourite being a beet and orange salad. The Small Celebrations chapter is a useful one in providing dishes to add to the menu or serve individually. The author provides advice about how to adjust recipes for vegans that is appreciated. I also enjoyed the sidebar notes, one of which show more was "Things not to be forgotten at a picnic" by Isabella Beaton that included "a stick of horseradish, a bottle of mint sauce, teacups and saucers, and three or four teapots". show less

I am super picky so I usually read a cookbook and find one new recipe I want to try, but this one yielded at least 6-7 delicious looking soups and stews!!

this is a fantastic cookbook. not only does it have great recipes (which are ready in a flash, more often than not, as well as being brief in the ingredients), it encouraged me to remember that the best dishes i serve are often the ones in which a very few items shine forth in their best light. Handy for anyone, vegetarian or not, but especially for the cook who wants to whip up a veggie dish without breaking the bank at the market.

The most unusual thing about this cookbook is that the margins on many of the pages have quotes, trivia, drawings and so on. Just a small example: "Homer has not, if I remember correctly, ever said a word about sauces" -- Plato, along with a drawing of Plato (all drawings are done by the author).

For book lovers, it seems like a great combination: recipes and literary references.

I've never been overwhelmed by the appeal of the recipes, and just haven't made very many of them. I suspect that show more it's more my lack of pulling it out to browse through it than the lack in the book.

She's included a typical combination of different categories, but a few that are somewhat unique: Soups, Salads, Sauces and Dressings, Eggs and Cheeses, Grains and Legumes, Tofu and Tempeh, Pasta, Vegetables, Potatoes, Quick Breads and Sweets, Herbs and Spices.

I've looked through most of my other vegetarian books and I don't think I've found more than a single tempeh recipe. Vegetariana has not just one, but 4 recipes (still not a lot, but probably more than all of my other books combined). Tempeh is something that always seems like more of a good idea than it does in practice; mostly because I can never figure out what to do with it besides put it in a stir fry. It's helpful to finally have a few recipes to get a chance to figure out how to combine it with other tastes.

I'd say this book is interesting enough to add to most vegetarian kitchens, but more as a side dish than the main course. You still need at least one of the foundation vegetarian books (Laurel's Kitchen, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, etc.) as the core of your collection. show less