Leon: Fast Vegetarian

LEON

by Jane Baxter, Henry Dimbleby (Contributor)

A new cookbook from Leon is always something to celebrate. Leon Fast Vegetarian , created by Leon co-founder Henry Dimbleby and food writer Jane Baxter, explores the flavorful, vibrant meals that can be created from the wonderful range of vegetables on offer.

Leon's 13 restaurants in the UK are all about delicious, healthy fast food made from sustainable ingredients and that's the philosophy at the heart of this book. Eating less - or no - meat has become key to the way many of us cook and this collection of more than 150 really simple recipes is a treat for vegivores everywhere. As with any Leon book, cooking is not about spending hours in the kitchen but bringing family and friends together with simple, gutsy, happy food.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Reference, Vegetarian

304 pages, Hardcover

First published February 4, 2014

Reviews

[Marina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not wild about ‘Fast Vegetarian’. There are a few nice recipes in it ( I made the beetroot hummus and it was lovely ).
However, ‘Fast Vegetarian’ is a bit of a misnomer . Soups that take 50 mins to cook (not including 4 hours soaking for farro)? ‘Go for a walk and look out for a good nettle patch’!
The authors seem to be aiming for a slightly quirky tone, with a page on favourite ‘fridge buffets’, mini-biog’s and childhood photos of the authors and contributors. Some of them, it transpires, come from very privileged backgrounds and the overall effect is of posh people being pally.
I’d better take the chips of my shoulder and go and fry them…!

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some nice recipes in this book, and it's nice to look through. Shows the finished dish for each recipe along with some family photos, family history, pretty table cloths and quirky serving suggestions. I own and have read lots of recipe books for vegan and vegetarian food so for me there wasn't anything particularly new, a few twists on things I might try. There are as always quite a few recipes that require egg for binding, I tried one and as you usually can, you can get away with leaving out the egg if you can put up with a slightly crumblier version. Having said that I think it's a really nice book for someone who doesn't already have lots of veggie/vegan recipe books or for people who want to eat less meat.

[Muphyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully designed cook book, you can tell the love that's been poured into it. Lots of simple dishes using root vegetables and pulses (+ lots of cauliflower ones, which I just love!).

Each recipe is marked as to V (vegetarian), WH (wheat-free), GF (gluten-free) and DF (dairy-free). Liked that.

Will definitely try a few of recipes but not sure that the majority is for me (in terms of making them at home, the "yummy" factor is certainly there!). The Mashed Potato recipe (or rather the photo) looks amazing!!

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice colourful book jam packed full of vegetable based meals. Lots of recipes which are suitable for vegans. A large amount of the recipes are using common ingredients although some of them use slightly obscure things which makes the recipe slightly less accessible to all.

I can't wait to try some out!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather run of the mill vegetarian cookbook, not terrible and some tempting pictures, but also not really bringing anything new to the table. The recipes felt a bit like they were trying to mimic the (amazing) River Cottage Veg Every Day!, but fell a bit short. Once weirdly annoying thing is that they have a system in all the Leon cookbooks for marking recipes as vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free, healthy, etc etc.... so every single recipe was marked V, which seemed rather superfluous. RCVE!, on the other hand, marked vegan recipes with a V, which is far more useful.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son brought my attention to this series of cookbooks. So far, this is my favorite! I love the layout and organization for ease of use. Included is some useful supplementary information, which I enjoyed reading through, and the realistic pictures of the food are great! During their visit over the Holidays, my son's girlfriend made the "Sweet Potatoes with Garlic, Ginger & Cilantro" for us. They were so good that I requested she make it again! She acquiesced with grace and enthusiasm, which brought her even closer in my heart. I should add that the dish was great the second time around, and I look forward to trying out this recipe for myself as well as many other recipes.

[Peacegal · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very interestingly presented cookbook--it looks more like a scrapbook. (Though I could have done without all of the baby pictures.)

I didn't find many recipes that I would be willing to prepare. They are simply far too involved and include way too many expensive and difficult to find ingredients (no, I do not keep truffle oil in my cupboard.) They also seem to be very big into eggs at Leon, and don't include vegan exchanges for these recipes.

[Mrs Reddy Mallender-Katzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its a good book but for some reason seems less healthy than the other books as it has 'fried'a nd deep fried food in it and lots fo double cream with added cheese etc ... i think i actually prefer the vegan one !

[Caroline Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

This was definitely an enjoyable read and gave me many new veggie friendly recipe ideas. It was beautifully done with nice graphics and images.

I couldn’t give it 4⭐️ because some recipes seemed a bit complicated or included harder to find ingredients.

[Piotr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ongoing as all the cook books, so far 3/5... will continue exploring.

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great collection of recipes for me. Everything sounds good, and it leans heavily on ingredients that will be coming out of my garden in the next couple of months. The recipes are not super fast, but they're ordinary, the kind of thing I would cook for everyday fare. I checked it out of the library and am planning on buying a copy.

The main downside to this book is that I thought these recipes might appeal to my husband (who is the actual vegetarian in the house) and kids. So far, no such luck.

[Mckenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I checked this out on a whim and so far it's helped me make three great dishes. It's got a great layout and a fun point of view, so definitely a keeper.

[Evan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried multiple recipes from this book and they were...ok. Not bad, not good, just ok. And often fairly time-consuming, which would be ok if the result was really amazing.

[Arlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I LOVED the pictures and the stories about the individuals. The recipes? I am still thinking about.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't wait to start trying some of the recipes, but there are some errors.