The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen

by Peter Berley

Peter Berley's mission is to show how the simple act of cooking food can enliven your senses and nourish your life––from going to the farmers߭arket and outfitting your kitchen with the simplest, most useful tools to learning techniques and sharing meals with friends and family. The much–admired former chef of Angelica Kitchen, one of New York City's finest restaurants, Berley takes you through the seasons, with more than two hundred sumptuous recipes that feature each ingredient at its peak.

A cooking teacher for many years, Berley has kept the needs of his students continually in mind in this book. The recipes are written to feature the basic techniques and background information needed to create wonderful meals with fresh vegetables, fruits, and grains. He truly inspires both novice and experienced cooks to understand what they are doing and why, to learn to work with ingredients, and to apply their skills creatively. This wonderful book brings vegetarian cuisine to a whole new level.

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

464 pages, Paperback

First published September 19, 2000

Reviews

[Wouter · Rating 4 out of 5]

After trying about a dozen recipes, I can safely say this should be the goto reference for any vegetarian instead of the classic heavyweight standards (for example, here in Belgium, 'ons kookboek - KVLV'). The instructive section is as important - if not more - than the actual recipes, and it even contains a step-by-step guide on how to make seitan, sauerkraut or sourdough bread yourself. Most stews are simple but complex in flavour but do require several hours including marinating. The focus on vegan food is clear when you get to the desserts as Peter heavily relies on "weird" things like agar-agar and arrowroot powder. The chocolate mousse recipe is downright crazy: it becomes too stiff in the fridge and you need to mix it again before serving to "lighten it up". I'll stick with using butter and eggs, but appreciate the unique take on classic meals.
Be warned though, don't blindly follow everything step by step: the water amount is usually way off when cooking lentils or rice for example. And some thing like "stirring along with nature" are simply too far fetched for me. All in all, The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen will certainly spice up my daily meals and got me out of my cooking rut so that alone deserves 4 stars.

[Luna · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5
Amerykanie używajcie normalnych jednostek masy challenge, bo pojebie mnie kurwa z tymi waszymi kubkami kurwa

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did you read the description of this book? Right. Berely was introduced to macrobiotic cooking by a japanese acupuncturist. Sigh. Despite that, he seems to be a really good cook. There are some great recipes in this book. My advice would be to skip the bits where Berley talks about interconnectedness and cleansing and all that hippie nonsense and just stick with the cooking. As a non-vegetarian (in all honesty, I bought this book so that I could cook for the vegetarian women I was meeting at the time) I was pretty impressed by the tasty meals I could make that didn't even have meat in them. I docked this a few stars because there are too many recipes with long, long ingredient lists and because I can't stand new age jibber jabber. But it's well worth owning, especially if you have a high tolerance for that sort of nonsense than I do.

[Angelar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This could astutely be called "The Joylessness of Cooking" after the author's uber-minimalist portrait on the back, which depicts him in a gleaming, sterile granite-and-steel kitchen, looking off to one side rather angstily. The cookbook itself is not bad--it provides some real gems, such as the irresistible String Beans in Honey-Lemon-Mustard Vinaigrette, which rarely lasts overnight even if I make a double batch, Roasted Root Vegetables, and multiple desserts--and the vector graphic-type illustrations are clear and precise. Appealing seasonal vegetable dishes abound. The main issue I have with this book is that the author seems to be into making things fit into his definition of "healthy" or "minimal" at the expense of flavor, while also making the preparation fussier than it needs to be. The green bean recipe, for example, calls for some minute amount of garlic--1 small clove?--for an entire recipe, and for "mild" honey. My point is that you need to take the recipes in this book with a grain of salt and be prepared to alter them to fit your tastes, not the ex-macrobiotic author's.

And whatever you do, recognize when he oversteps the bounds of his knowledge, like when he gives you a recipe for hiziki salsa.

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you make anything at all, make his famous tofu with mustard and red onion. I don't reference this much, but that recipe alone was worth the price of the book.

[Skirm · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's good. Nothing innovative, as it isn't designed to be. The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen perfects the basics and provides you with simple, elegant meals.

Note: if you purchase cookbooks to study ingredient pairings, and no longer follow recipes from start to finish, this book is not for you. I wasn't able to gain much from reading it.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore this book. Some of the recipes take a lot of work but are worth it. I especially like the quinoa salad with the toasted pumpkin, sesame, and sun flower seeds. You need to chop lots but the textures and the seaweed add such unexpected zing. Everyone asks me for the recipe. If you have toyed with going vegetarian I promise the meals in this book with invigorate your menus!

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very descriptive, with illustrations and good tips on making soups, stews, seasonal salads, assorted vegetable sides, and dishes for polenta, grains, pastas, beans, tofu (and such), then breads, condiments, and desserts. There is even suggested menus for lunch and dinner. I love all the how to included prior to chapters on various dishes.

[Ietrio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Posing and not much else. The bland recipes do not employ something as lowly as "soy sauce". No. Berley needs "naturally brewed soy sauce".

[Klyon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for ideas; love the grain mixtures.

[Stefanie Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vegetarian Cookbook. Has a lot of really interesting recipes and has great variety of ingrediants and food types. However, the variety almost goes too far and there are some recipes with ingrediants that I haven't heard of, don't know where to get, and don't know what to do with the leftovers. (Chickpea flour, amaranth...) I'd need to find a good natural food store and find out what the availablily of some of the ingrediants are before I would be able to start cooking. The recipes seem more like fancy dinner, than weeknight dinner recipes. Great little histories and tips in the beginning of the chapters, about beans, and grains, and soups and whatever the chapter is about. Good explanations, diagrams, but no pictures. I found several recipes that I'm going to try, and then after I find a place to get these more obscure ingrediants, I'll go check it out of the library again, and try some more tasty meals.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the only vegetarian (with a vegan focus) cookbook of this caliber that I have encountered. If you want to learn how to cook high-class, gourmet vegetarian food, this book is for you. It is highly educational, and I'm glad I read it (especially for the pasta section), but it's not a book I would turn to on a regular basis. This book is very well-written, with useful diagrams and graphics of different techniques, explanations of unusual ingredients, and generally in-depth information about cooking (but leaves me wanting more discussion of his nutrition beliefs). However, the author is an elite chef, and as such, thinks it's no big deal to make fresh stock every time you want to make soup, to make your own pasta, or to bake your own bread every morning. He also uses certain hard-to-find ingredients in a large number of dishes, which is likely to discourage the general home cook from trying his recipes. I wouldn't buy this book, but I would encourage you to read it.

[Gabrielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I don't know why it took me so long to add this gorgeous book to my cookbook shelf. Truly deserving of the James Beard award and acclaim, Berley's recipes are far more innovation than most-and it's shocking to me that the first release was over ten years ago.

Best of all, most of the recipes are vegan. I don't even miss the lack of images, and I can tell already that I will be very pleased with the dishes I make from this book. So far I've relished reading it in bed and taking in Berlen's inspired enthusiasm for beautiful vegetarian cuisine.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been one of my go to cookbooks for global vegetarian for about 6 months now. Mostly shies away from the tendencies of much vegetarian cooking to produce cardboardy healthfulness or mimicry of non-vegetarian dishes, and some of the hits are great. Does a good job of incorporating nice, under-utilized ingredients such as millet or rutabagas. Some elaborate, special occasion appropriate recipes, but primarily weekday sort of stuff. I also appreciate the seasonal organization.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set some time aside when you use this one. Good recipes, and uses ingredients (like seitan) that I never know how to cook well. These dinners are elaborate - reads like a menu at a fancy bistro. I rarely manage to eat before bedtime when I use this one, but it does make you feel like quite the chef.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classy vegetarian cooking, with an emphasis on Meditarranean food-risottos, pastas, salads, breads, and a little tempeh and seitan added in. The author is very helpful in showing pictures of food preparation when needed. It's not so much of a staple that you need to purchase it, though. Checking it out from the library will do.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the recipes are too involved for weeknights - this is really a "weekend cookbook" for me. Actually, most of the recipes are too intimidating to even try... but the few I have tried have been delicious, and I've gotten some good ideas from the recipes I didn't try. There is a great section with recipes for tofu, tempeh, and seitan - many of these are easier recipes.

[Alien Citizen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too fancy...cooking shouldn't take an entire day and cost a fortune. ...But if I were entertaining some snooty folks, maybe I'd try some of these. I much prefer Charmaine Solomon when it comes to fancy however.

[Pablo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really only slightly less good than Fresh Food Fast: Delicious, Seasonal Vegetarian Meals in Under an Hour. The recipes can be a little too complicated sometimes. That said, the black bean chili recipe and the biscuits in here are incredible.

[Jennifer Baum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really tasty-sounding recipes, but even better, he explains really well a lot of cooking ideas/techniques I never learned anywhere else, and I read about food and experiment with cooking all the time. Great book!

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my all-time favorite vegetarian cookbooks. He combines knowledge of how to cook with many foods which are considered to be anti-cancer, uber-healthy...and I haven't found a recipe yet that doesn't taste delicious. Best version of sauteed greens I've found yet.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost everything in here is fantastic. Whether or not you are vegetarian, this is a straight forward recipe book with ingredients that are easy to find. He also incorporates cooking tips, which I found helpful even as someone who has spent many years cooking. Highly recommended.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these recipes are very simple and to die for [ie maple glazed turnips]. On the other hand others can take hours or all day. I loved the detail of description given at the beginning of certain sections such as the beans and pulses section and the pasta section.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

vegetarian food even your dad will eat

[Ellen Brenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I used this book the least out of all my cookbooks. It was useful but fairly uninspiring.

[Roniq · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Carolyn...

[Happyreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hate tempeh. I love the BBQ tempeh in this book. I also love the pear-cranberry crisp.

[Astrid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yum! This is a creative cookbook, with very original recipes. It is sometimes a little too pricy for anyone on a budget such as mine. I really appreciate all the seasonal recipes!

[Silke · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of our favorite cook books. Yummy and not too complicated. Several of our staples come from this book.