Owning over 300 veg'n cookbooks, I tend to view a new vegan cookbook differently and perhaps more critically than most people. Even so, I was excited by the opportunity to review Robin Robertson's latest work, "Quick-Fix Vegetarian: Healthy Home-cooked Meals in 30 Minutes or Less." She's one of the most prolific veg cookbook authors around (rivaled by maybe Bryanna Clark Grogan or Nava Atlas, esteemed company indeed!), and I will never forget being asked to evaluate her astounding opus, "Vegan Planet" by a local veg/AR group.
Now, years later, it's apparent from Robin's new effort that the cascade of hits continues. From the ambient "Sacred Kitchen," the laid-back percussion of "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker," the symphonic "Vegan Planet," to the brassiness of "Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes," we now have a book of string minuets... fast vegan recipes all creatively composed and arranged to prove the tired, old refrain "it takes too much time to cook vegetarian" just isn't true.
"Potato Dosadillas" (using mashed potatoes), "Garden Vegetable Strata," "Couscous Shepard's Pie," "Linguine with Edamame Pesto," "Black Bean Sauce with Sherry," "Mixed Baby Greens with Pears, Pecans, and Polenta Strips," "Rustic Plum Tart," and the amusingly alliterative, "Phast Phresh Pho," (a hearty Vietnamese soup), are just a few of the many clever, practical, and fun recipes scored.
This cookbook is excellent: well-organized, diverse, with a superb index and abundance of useful tips and advice. In this age of "instant text messaging," FedEx, and hectic lives, the wonderful "can do" melody throughout these recipes is both inspiring and encouraging: you CAN have a healthy and tasty vegan meal in minutes. The proof is in, well, the "Chocolate-Banana Pudding (p. 198)."
"Quick-Fix Vegetarian" is recommended for both the veg'n newbie all the way to the well-seasoned pro... it has a very special place in my collection, and I'll be riffing on the tunes for a long time.
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