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Title: The Conscious Cook: Delicious Meatless Recipes That Will Change the Way You Eat
ISBN: 0061874337
Author:
Tal Ronnen
Publicate Date: 2009-10-01
Publish: 2009-10-01
List Price: $29.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $15.93
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $15.92
Amazon Merchant Price: $18.97
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| Customer Review: |
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1: The Conscious Cook
This is a cookbook for serious cooks. The recipes are excellent and the dishes will impress the most discriminating palate, vegan or not. It is a cookbook that I use when I have lots of time, as the preparation is more involved than in an average recipe. I do like the pictures and tips the book provides. I am happy that I purchased the book and would recommend it to others.
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2: Fabulous
LOVE THIS BOOK! Every recipe we have made is absolutely delicious. Within our family, we have purchased multiple copies.
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3: Fantastic
This book is great! The recipes are ..intricate and definitely not for beginners, but..they are absolutely fantastic.
I was going to make the fingerling potatoes, tomato bisque, all green salad and pepper crusted portobella entree (with mashed potatoes) as a surprise for Valentines day. It didn't work out that way, so my boyfriend and I cooked it together. We ended up making it in pieces, spanning three days. The food came out amazing! I'm happy I didn't try it on my own all at once, because I think it would have been overwhelming, but you definitely feel that the end result is worth the work.
My extremely omnivorous boyfriend was thrilled with everything, he took leftovers to work and refused to share!
We are looking forward to trying other recipes, starting with the coffee date cake
Highly recommend this book!
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4: Looove this book
I saw this book last week as one of only 4 vegan books that a major book chain had (only 4 vegan cookbooks, and that in California?) and being very visual, I loved that it actually had pictures for every dish. I sat on the floor and looked everything and my mouth started watering. But I ordered the book through Amazon (price was better) ;-).
I'm a 2.5 months vegan and love to cook. Having ordered about a dozen vegan cookbooks in that time, I tend to be disappointed, that most don't have many pictures. maybe I'm strange (well, ok I am ;-) ), but seeing pictures makes a big difference to me. I just don't enjoy the recipes that much, if I don't see a great presentation of the finished products.
Anyway, having received it yesterday I can't wait to start cooking with this. While the recipes are probably not your every day meals, they are certainly comparable to high end gourmet dishes. I love the ingredients, the presentation. I go to a lot of potlucks and really enjoy putting some effort into the preparation and have people be amazed at the kind of vegan dishes that are possible, other than salads and basic veggies.
In between having seen the pictures in the book and receiving it, I had already used the little 'beggars purses' idea that is on page 46 with a garbanzo bean roast recipe that I've made before. People at the potluck loved it.
While this book is probably not for the person that doesn't enjoy cooking, I think it is perfect for those, like me, that are emotional eaters and who's
taste buds need to be happy, and who enjoy cooking and making unique dishes. These recipes would certainly impress meat eaters out there.
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update: In the past 3 days I cooked the tomato bisque, corn chowder and celery root soup (was that the name?). They are all awesome and I have made portions, that I put into the freezer. My favorite is the corn chowder, with the tomato bisque following. All the recipes were very easy to follow.
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5: Some issues, great recipes so far
First off let me state that I am not vegitarian or vegan. I bought this book to because I was tired of the same bland vegetables as sides and needed a tastier way to incorporate them into my family of five's diet. I would only reccomend this book if you really enjoy cooking and have enough skill to improvise on the fly.
My eldest son and I are the only ones who will eat asparagus. I made the soup on page 97 (first time I ever made soup from scratch!) with the cashew cream and my entire family liked it. I could not find cheap vegetable bouillon so I bought Better Than Bouillon brand chicken bouillon (real chicken, there was no vegetable) and substituted 1 tablespoon of bacon grease for 1 tablespoon of olive oil. I could not find any microgreens to garnish the soup. Not only is it amazing that my entire family likes it but it was very creamy. The cashew cream exceeded my expectations. The book says this makes 6 servings but it's more like 15.
I will be making the chicken scaloppini on page 155 next. Several issues with the recipe so far without even having made it. I can not find packaged cooked Udon noodles anywhere (can't find a good asian market) so I have to make them myself from dried noodles and worry they won't be packed tight enough for this recipe. I found gardein "chicken" at fresh and easy (whole foods is a drive) but it is very expensive for a family of five and they were all preseasoned (wet). If they sell plain faux chicken I haven't seen any. None of the seasonings would be a match for this recipe but since I eat chicken I'll just use the real thing. The recipe calls for 1 pound of shiitake mushrooms, this is for four servings and each entree of chicken has about 5 mushroom pieces on it so it is more like 4-6 ounces not 16 for the entire recipe. I could not find pea shoots so I will be substituting spinach.
Again, if you already have some skills in the kitchen you can deal with the errors and lack of access to the ingrediants, if you are a novice you will be wondering why you are putting 4 ounces of mushrooms on top of 7 ounces of "chicken".
I can't wait to try the cashew cheese!
**EDIT**
I just went to the gardein website and they reccomend two different types of "chicken" to use. One of which is "chicken" scaloppini in the frozen food area. I did not check the frozen foods, I thought all gardein products were fresh for some reason. The chicken appears to be 2.5 ounces (the noodles are 7 ounces before cutting) and everywhere you see his recipe it asks for 1 pound of shiitake mushrooms, that seems way too much but I'll confirm after I cook it with the 6 ounces I bought. 6.5 ounces total (4 ounces mushrooms and 2.5 ounces "chicken") does seem to be a good amount for the "meat" course but it sure looks like more "chicken" than mushrooms in the pictures I wasn't going to spend $18 + on mushrooms.
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