Everyday Greens: Everyday Greens

I bought this book last year, when it first came out, and since then it has become of one of my favorite cookbooks. (I'm not a vegetarian, BTW.) I've cooked about twenty-odd recipes from this book, and I've been pleased with all of them. The recipes are well-written, reliable, and delicious. The term "everyday" may be misleading to some folks. These are not recipes you throw together to put a meal on the table at the end of the workday. They're more like simplified restaurant recipes that have been adapted to the home kitchen. Some of my favorite recipes: potato salad with green beans, corn quesadillas (addictive), and grilled fingerling potato salad. I made the tomato pizza with feta and lemon for some friends, and they swooned over it. (Then they went out and bought the cookbook.) This is also one of the most beautiful cookbooks on my shelf. It's a visual pleasure to use this book. Kudos to the illustrator.

Another wonderful vegetarian presentation reveals more dishes from Greens, the vegetarian restaurant, and provides enthusiasts with the first Greens book in a decade. Annie Somerville's Everyday Greens showcases main-dish salads, soups and casseroles which lie at the very heart of good vegetarian cooking. Everyday Greens presents feasts which sound exotic and may require a minimum of unusual ingredients, but which are a cut above any competing vegetarian guide.

This fine cookbook breaks a lot of rules that SHOULD be broken... Rule 1) Cookbooks from great restaurants rarely have recipes that work or are anything like as good as their fare. Not true here! Annie (her warmth makes you get on a first name basis pronto) has gone to great length to translate Greens' justifiably renowned food into working recipes for the home kitchen. Rule 2) Vegetarian food is bland, boring, brown, blah. Wrong! Annie proved, at Greens and here, that v-food is vibrant, voluptuous, varied...wholly inviting. Rule 3) Chefs not only can't write a working recipe, they can't write well, period. Annie writes with enthusiasm, precision, passion, sensuality, humor, knowledge, wit. This and PASSIONATE VEGETARIAN by Crescent Dragonwagon are my two very favorite vegetarian cookbooks, in fact cookbook period: working recipes, delectable food, sensual, personal writing. How delicious! More, please!

After skimming through many new vegetarian cookbooks, I have selected Somerville's 2003 publication as seeming the most reliable and tasteful. The book includes a lot of innovative ideas, and yet, it serves well also as an everyday cooking companion. The fact that most of the dishes have been on the menu at the Greens restaurant gives me the confidence to serve them up for my guests without the usual need to preview. Whatever I have tried so far (5-6 lunches for company) has received rave reviews! The salad chapter appeals especially. These are new, varied, and brimming with fresh California flavors. It is also an asset to have a separate dressing recipe to accompany each one. The fruit desserts are especially suitable for summer. Since I count on using this book for many years, I appreciate the crisp, white paper, sturdy binding and cheerful paintings. There are no photographs to cramp the imagination. A negative is the possible difficulty in locating some of the featured ingredients, but substitutes can be had mostly, and part of the adventure of cooking is to discover or search for new supplies.

The cheerful vibrant illustrations are almost reason enough to buy this book. The recipes are inspiring and clearly an attempt has been made to address the needs of a home cook who does not have restaurant resources available. The lists of ingredients are a bit off-puttingly long in many cases so keep in mind that most of the recipes are quite easy and exact quantities not critical. Some of the ingredients may be hard to find but there are plenty of recipes with ordinary ingredients and she often suggests alternatives for more exotic items. Still, reading this makes me long for the farmer's markets in Northern California.