The reviewer finds 'How to Cook Everything Vegetarian' to be an excellent and comprehensive cookbook, rivaling their frequently used 'Joy of Cooking' and 'Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone'. They appreciate the book's extensive index, simple yet varied recipes, and useful tables, making it a practical and enjoyable resource for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian cooks.
The reviewer highly recommends 'How to Cook Everything Vegetarian' as a valuable addition to any kitchen. They note that the book is thorough and exhaustive, with a comprehensive index that makes it easy to find recipes. The recipes range from very simple to moderately complex, and the book includes indications of serving sizes, preparation time, and whether the recipes can be made ahead of time. The reviewer appreciates the book's focus on flexibility and simplicity, with almost every recipe offering suggestions for variations and substitutions. They also highlight the useful tables and illustrations that provide additional cooking tips and ideas. Overall, the reviewer finds the book to be a pleasure to use and a practical resource for anyone looking to expand their vegetarian cooking repertoire.
Quick quotes
The cookbook we consult most often is the non-vegetarian _Joy of Cooking_
Bittman's book is large: 996 pages with an excellent 62 pages of an index, which is essential part of any good cookbook.
It has many recipes for commonly-used ingredients and also some for rarer ones: for example, burdock, kamut, morel mushrooms, and tamarind.