Real Vegetarian Thai

by Nancie McDermott

Real Thai has gone vegetarian! Everyone loves Thai food, but it's not easy to find truly meatless dishes. Thai cooking expert Nancie McDermott has developed inventive variations on traditional recipes, providing health-conscious cooks with a repertoire of meatless dishes that captures the vibrant spirit of Thailand. A helpful glossary introduces readers to the seemingly mysterious yet widely available ingredients and equipment used in Thai cooking and offers tips for finding or substituting them. With an emphasis on the classic techniques, ingredients, and flavors of Thai cuisine, this groundbreaking cookbook provides one hundred delicious recipes for everyday meals and special occasions.

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

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1997

Reviews

[Katie Scherrer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I am a really strict judge of veggie Thai recipes after living in Thailand. It's a paradise of creative vegan food over there, and cookbooks often keep it a bit too tame for my liking. This one is OK, but I'd love to see some tasty Thai staples from the Isan region, such as prik nam ong and tofu laap. Maybe I should write my own...

[Sps · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-reading. I think the only thing I made before was a squash curry (p.108). That might be what I make again: I remember it being awfully good and not requiring a pre-made curry paste. But I also kind of want to make a bunch of curry paste and hot garlic sauce to keep in the refrigerator and put in everything I cook for the next month. (Except not in borscht. No Thai-Russian fusion for me.)

The sweet and hot garlic sauce is fab over stir-fry and rice. Though it made my nose run, it didn't actually taste all that hot. Maybe I'll add more chili-garlic paste next time.

Red curry paste took some doing but then I made three or four quick, lovely curries from it, so it was absolutely worth it.

Bean thread noodle soup was just OK. It needed something--ginger, peanuts, a more intensely flavored broth?

[Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This cookbook is amazing. Clear, well thought-out, and most importantly for me, the food I made when I cooked out of this book, tasted incredible.

A note about me and cookbooks; I tend to separate them into 3 categories.

First are the ones where the author(s) has taken the time to perfect the recipes to the point where when I make them, I look like a great cook.
I have a number of cookbooks where I know anything I make out of them is going to be impressive. Both of Nancie McDermott's Thai cookbooks are in this category. Not many are. The New Basic's cookbook is here.

Second are the ones that have a lot of recipes, and anything I want to make, they have a recipe for it. The Joy of Cooking is in this category. Mark Bittman's cookbooks are here too. Some recipes are good, some workman like, but over-all the book is almost a must have.

The third category is cookbooks that are flashy, have pretty pictures of the dishes, but really...the recipes are often not that great.

I really appreciated that in Nancie's cookbooks she told me exactly how to handle unfamiliar ingredients, and where to find them, and also letting me know what I could substitute if I needed to. Make the chili paste--your kitchen will smell incredible--make the soups, make the curries. Not a lot of fancy pictures, but amazing recipes.

[Revathi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The vast majority of the recipes in this book are astonishingly simple - both in terms of ingredients and time. If you choose to prepare the basic pastes and broths from scratch, the process becomes a bit more involved, but one batch generally yields several servings/meals and keeps well in the fridge.
Alternatively, you can team up with Whole Foods and cut the preparation time even further by purchasing pre-made vegetarian paste and broth. This is my method of choice, and I must say the results so far have been fantastic. My first meal (the red curry with tofu, vegetables and rice) took fewer than 20 minutes to make and was absolutely delish.
My only gripe with this book is that it doesn't have as vast a selection of noodle recipes as I'd like. In particular, I was hoping for a good Drunken Noodle (Pad Kee Mao) recipe and was disappointed when it was nowhere to be found.

[C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author tells you right in the intro that the title is a lie - there is no such thing as "Real Vegetarian Thai," but she does a good job of aproximating. Honestly, I've only really used this book to make the excellent Pad Thai, but everything else looks good. Very good suggestions for substitutions for those of you who don't live in Manhattan and can't find such things as tamarind paste easily.

[Charise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I can't get a lot of the recipes to turn into food. I tried the mushroom turnovers and the dough has no gluten whatsoever to make it useable. I tried the Mushroom "pearl" dumplings and ended up with weird mush with tapioca bits in it.

That said, the paht thai is pretty awesome, and the curry I tried was pretty good. I guess I might need to use this book as a base and modify to make the recipes actually turn out.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is how is learned to cook Thai food. I've branched out since to learn about the fish products Thai people use-to better know what I am trying to imitate. Thais really don't have a vegetarian history.

[Jenn "JR" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic cookbook - great recipes - a very good standard Asian reference cookbook. We have awesome thai food available in the Bay Area and I find myself very lazy and going out to dine out when I want thai but love this book anyway.

[Madelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little hard for me, being new to Thai cooking, but full of good information. I'm learning!

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The flavors are fantastic, the food is delicious, and the recipes do not take too long to prepare.

[Angela Lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

i know i have given this as a gift. i really like the recipes