Vegetarian Cookbooks

If you are looking for very a different vegetarian cookbook then here’s one you may want to take a close look at. It is an extremely sincere high-end vegetarian cookbook. In the past, vegetarian cookbooks have focused on either mixing vegetables (cooked or raw) in various combinations, using pastry and wonton skins in different ways, and interesting uses of tofu and tempeh but this new book is totally different.

The author, Chef Tal Ronnen is the most celebrated vegan chef working today. In the spring of 2008, he became known nationwide as the chef who prepared vegan meals for Oprah Winfrey’s 21-day vegan cleanse. He has since catapulted to fame, catering Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi’s vegan wedding, Arianna Huffington’s party at the Democratic National Convention, and the first vegan dinner at the U.S. Senate and now he is writing vegetarian cookbooks.

His latest and first book “The Conscious Cook: Delicious Meatless Recipes That Will Change the Way You Eat” is a must-have for vegetarians and vegans or anyone who entertains the occasional vegan or has a family member that is vegan. More importantly, it is likely the best resource out there for those who wish to ‘wow’ a meat-eater with vegan dishes. These dishes will blow you away, and Tal pays well deserved respect to some of the leading vegan chefs in the world (so a reader has the benefit of their expertise as well).

However, if you are not into highly proceesed vegetarian mock meats or are wanting a book with every day meals then this book is propabaly not for you. If you want to learn to cook sophisticated high-end resturant meals to share with friends at dinner parties or special occations, then this book is a must have. In it, you will find great rationales for eating vegan and ways to use new-to-newish vegan ingredients, such as Gardein (vegan “meat” products; chicken breasts, chicken strips, and beef strips), Earth Balance (vegan butter in solid form), Vegannnise (vegan mayo), Field Roast Italian Style seitan sausages, New Chapter All-Flora probiotic capsules (to culture homemade cashew or macadamia cheese and give it a sharp flavor), tempeh bacon, precooked udon noodles, vegan mozzarella, etc . You will also find ingredients for more involved recipes such as cashew butter, hazelnut milk, Asian slaw, the use of ground flaxseed in baked goods as a substitute for eggs, and new ones such as chipolte cream and tofu ricotto.

For those who haven’t cooked from vegetarian cookbooks before, this book will give you contemporary “how-to” that will make your first efforts worthy endeavors. Working from this book is like cooking with vegan master chefs and is the type of book beginners need to cook their way through. By the time they get to the last page, they will be a master vegan cook with a sophisticated repetoire… a very nice thing indeed.

It’s a bit disappointing that a lot of Vegetarian Cookbooks don’t have many pictures. I don’t know about you, but pictures always make me want to cook. Its always inspiring to see a great presentation of the finished dish and this book is full of them. In fact it has pictures for every dish. This is not like other vegetarian cookbooks, it is gourmet food and is deffinately a book every vegetarian, vegan and chef should have on their shelf.