Not Just For Veggie's (Delia's Vegetarian Collection - Delia Smith)

Member Name: Picasso

Product:	Delia's Vegetarian Collection - Delia Smith
Date:	15/10/05 (2371 review reads)
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I'm not a vegetarian but I don't eat red meat preferring either chicken or fish but I do enjoy vegetarian food. Looking for a recipe in my well thumbed "Delia's Vegetarian Collection" I realised just how much I have come to rely on this book over the last couple of years.

There are 10 chapters containing over 250 recipes. Soups, Starters and Salads, Eggs, Cheese, Pasta and Noodles, Food for Friends, Grains and Pulses, Simply Vegetables, Baking and finally Puddings. I have tried and tested recipes from each of the chapters, the ones below are my favourites:-

1 Soups
Chickpea, Chilli and Coriander, Slow Cooked Root Vegetables and my favourite of all especially for this time of year Pumpkin Soup with Toasted Sweetcorn. This is delicious served with warm granary bread.

2 Starters and Salads
Asparagus with Lemon Butter, Roasted Tomato Salad, Feta Cheese, Spinach and Pine Nuts. The latter, I sometimes serve as a main course using larger quantities.

3 Eggs
Egg and Lentil Curry with Coconut and Pickled Lime, Slimmer's Scrambles Eggs with Mushrooms or simple and popular Spanish Omelette.

4 Cheese
Warm Roquefort Cheesecake with Pears and Balsamic Vinaigrette, Asparagus and Cheese Tart or a simple variation on the traditional Welsh Rabbit by adding sage and onions.

5 Pasta and Noodles
Pasta with 4 Cheeses, Penne with Wild Mushrooms and Crème Fraiche or Lemon Pasta with Herbs and Cracked Pepper which is simple to cook and great when you are in a rush.

6 Grains and Pulses
Spiced Chickpea Cakes with Red Onion and Coriander Salad, Non Meat Loaf and my husband's favourite Roasted Vegetable Biryani with Toasted Cashews.

7 Food For Friends
Frying pan Pizza with Mozzarella and Sundried Tomatoes. This is a great dish if you are having friends back for supper. Wild Mushroom Stroganoff and in at number three, Vegetarian Shepherds Pie with Goats Cheese Mash which can be made in advance and frozen if needed.

8 Simply Vegetables
As the title says, but cooked using imagination. Oven Roasted Cauliflower and Broccoli with Garlic, Oven Roasted Winter Veg and my favourite for the winter months Parmesan Baked Parsnips.

The last 2 chapters have not been as well used because I don't do puddings, finding that they don't usually get eaten if you have had a starter and personally I prefer to eat and cook savoury dishes.

9 Baking
Banana and Walnut Loaf, Chocolate Marbled Energy Bars and Irish Tea Bread. I've picked these three because there is some goodness in all the recipes and I don't feel as guilty eating them.

10 Puddings
Plum and Butternut Cobbler, A ver easy One Crust Blackcurrant Pie and Baked Apple and Almond Pudding.

VEGANS
There are over 60 vegan recipes and most of the others can be adapted by replacing milk with soya milk and traditional cheeses with vegan ones. Other dietary requirements such as wheat free are also covered.

LAYOUT
I love the layout of this book. There are colourful pictures for most of the recipes so you can see what the finished product should look like.

AVAILIBILITY
In her earlier books, Delia was criticised for using produce that was either too expensive or hard to get hold of. Since then produce like Extra Virgin Olive Oil has dropped in price and I usually stock up when it's on offer. I found all the food stuffs easily available in most supermarkets, markets and farmer's markets. The book contains a useful list of suppliers and stockists together with website addresses and phone number for ingredients and kitchen equipment used in the book.

AND FINALLY DELIA
She's Britain's best selling cookery author. I have all her books from the How to Cook 1,2 and 3 range and her best selling Christmas Collection but this one is my favourite. I have been introduced to vegetables such as fresh beetroot, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and butternut squash for the first time and I now cook them regularly. Meat eating friends who in the past have said " You wouldn't get me eating that veggie rubbish" have and thoroughly enjoyed it.

COSTS
On the whole it is cheaper and healthy to eat vegetarian food. The retail price for this hardback book is £25 but I bought it for half of that. It is often on offer at a reduced price in most book shops and book clubs. Read, digest and enjoy

Summary: Vegetarian cook book