The Clueless Vegetarian: A Cookbook for the Aspiring Vegetarian

As a college student, I have very little experience cooking. It's the little things that experienced cooks do automatically that I wouldn't know how to do - how to make a good white sauce for pasta, for example. "The Clueless Vegetarian" offers great & delicious recipes - with a much wider variety of options than most similar vegetarian cookbooks I've seen - along with little tips I've found absolutely essential and would never have known to even think about otherwise (how in the world to deal with defrosting phyllo dough when making a quiche, for example). I've used plenty of vegetarian cookbooks designed to be easy before, but this is the first I've found to be actually accessible with tons of options for really great food.

This book was a fantastic find! I first became a vegetarian 6 months ago but gave it up when I found it frusterating to maintain because it seemed I was eating the same thing every day because I didn't know how to properly cook vegetarian dishes. When my meat allergies recently kicked into overdrive I felt it was time to go vegetarian again and stick to it, so I picked up this book feeling exactly like the title describes. Clueless. This book is wonderful, it has fun tasty recipes that make being a vegetarian much easier. It's also great for those who want to have tasty dinners and kick meat off the menu every now and then. A definate keeper.

This book is absolutely wonderful for the beginning vegetarian, or for the experimental cook. In addition to fabulous recipes, it also contains little hints to make cooking easier, serving suggestions, as well as a visual guide to whether a recipe is entirely vegan, or if it contains eggs. This book is also completely appropriate for teen cooks. The recipes, while good, are not too complicated, and are explained in detail. I heartily recommend it.

This book was incredibly helpful to me as a delved into the vegetarian lifestyle. It does a great job of helping the less-informed understand ingredients that they hadn't encountered prior to experimenting with veggie cooking. (tempeh? what's tempeh?) Many of the recipes are easily converted to vegan and my carnivorous boyfriend even likes some of them. Most of the recipes are also quick and quickly become staples. The Spicy Black Bean Dip is now a common request at all of my parties.

Until I acquired THE CLUELESS VEGETARIAN, I had no luck at all with vegetarian cookbooks. The food combinations were often odd, the prep work was time-consuming, and worst of all, the finished products just didn't taste all that good. I'd spend hours kneading and chopping, only to have my husband and kids turn up their noses when dinner was served. But wow, this cookbook is different. The recipes are refreshingly "normal"-- lasagna, shepherd's pie, spinach pie, crepes, quiches, pancakes, muffins, and moussaka, to name a few. There are some unusual ethnic entries for those with adventurous palates, but plenty of delicious, easy-to-follow recipes for those with more standard American tastes. There's also some helpful info on easing into the vegetarian lifestyle and feeding a "mixed" family, all rendered in light, witty prose (that's another thing about most other vegetarian cookbooks...they're so deadly dull and serious). Best of all, the results are awesome and leave my family asking for more. I'm rooting for a sequel!