The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet: 250 Simple Recipes and Dozens of Healthy Menus for Eating Well Every Day: A Cookbook

I have two teenagers: one vegetarian, one omnivore. I refuse to cook two separate meals, so I need recipes the whole family can enjoy. This cookbook is easy to use. The ingredients are readily available at any mainstream grocery store. I can get home from work and have dinner on the table in 30 minutes. Really.

I bought this cookbook for my mom, a vegetarian who seems to subsist on peanut butter and crackers and vitamins. The problem is that she doesn't seem to ever have the ingredients or the time to make good vegetarian dishes. And it doesn't help that my dad, an extreme carnivoire, insists on doing all the grocery shopping. This book is genius in it's ability to provide tasty recipes with very common and very few ingredients. In fact, the author gives a sample list of things to keep your pantry and refrigerator stocked with. The recipes are so appealing that I'm tempted to become a vegetarian myself. This is a recipe book that you will actually use on a regular basis rather than letting it look pretty on your shelf. And, it's fairly inexpensive.

I disagree with the previous reviewer. Everything I've made from this book is simple but tasty. That's the point of it. I stocked my pantry according to the author's suggestions and so there is always something easy and healthy I can make for my family, even if it is 6:30 and I am already brain-dead. Because the recipes are so clear and simple, if I am in the mood and time allows, I improvise on them. That makes it fun, too. I have a lot of cookbooks but this is the only one I use during the week. Not everyone in my family is vegetarian, but they are always happy with these meals.

Hooray! This is the cookbook for which I have been waiting. In fact, if you are vegetarian or vegan, you have very likely been waiting for it, too. It truly has wide appeal. Whether you are a veggie teen, an active and over-committed adult, or a senior citizen wanting to keep it simple (as in easy), you will enjoy and value Nava Atlas' book as much as I do. There is so much I love about it, and only two things I would change; but they are teensy-weensy criticisms. First, about the recipes: true to her word, Ms. Atlas has somehow managed to create 250 recipes, each with five or less ingredients. You will find familiar stand-bys, as well as new and imaginative dishes. Looking for a hummus recipe? It's in there. How about veggie pizza? It's in there, too (twelve pages of pizza recipes-delicioso!) Do you enjoy a comforting, nourishing soup? Yep; you will find that, too, in "Chapter 1: Simplicity in a Soup Pot." What about tofu? I have been eating tofu regularly for nearly ten years now. You can imagine that my favorite tofu recipes no longer create much excitement at the dining table. Therefore, I am always on the lookout for an addition to my tofu repertoire. Was I ever excited to find an entire chapter ("Chapter 5: Essential Soy") devoted solely to tofu recipes! That's where I headed first. There is so much more to The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet than recipes. If your mantra is, "I don't have [pick one or more] a) the time, b) the inclination, c) the know-how to successfully prepare a vegetarian or vegan meal," have no fear. Ms. Atlas has done all the thinking and the work (except the cooking, of course), including a complete shopping list for stocking your cupboards, menu suggestions for each and every recipe, a menu-planning guide, and nutritional statistics. There are even shopping list and planning forms that you may reproduce over and over again. My absolutely favorite thing about this book is that every chapter-indeed, nearly every page-includes interesting and fascinating information about the various recipe ingredients. Ms. Atlas has also provided numerous helpful hints regarding preparation. Remember the two teensy-weensy criticisms I had about The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet? One is that it has no color inside. I think it deserves more pizzazz than shades of gray. The other is that it is not in hardcover, and I fear this treasure of a cookbook will wear out long before I am ready. ...

I have been vegetarian(ovo-lacto) for over 10 years and I have plenty of vegetarian cookbooks, but this one will be a big workhorse in my kitchen. I am a mom and I work outside the home as well, and this book has given me hope and inspiration to get out of the "sandwich-pizza-frozen dinner" slump that I've been in. All the recipes in this book call for only 5 ingredients, but there are endless ways that you can change or add to the recipes. I made two of the recipes tonight and both came out really well (Cabbage, Carrot & Apricot Slaw and Red Pepper and Corn Quesadillas). Also, the prep didn't take that much time or require a lot of clean up. Many recipes can be made using fresh convienience foods like pre-shredded or chopped veggies and canned broth and tomatoes. There are a few recipes for kids and also menu suggestions for dinner, parties and potlucks. I think that this is a very well thought out addition to anyone's kitchen library.