The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet

May 7, 2001
Vegetarian expert Atlas (Vegetariana
and Vegetarian Express) offers a slew of simple, quick recipes, most of which make use of packaged and canned foods. A few unusual soups stand out, such as Rice, Lettuce, and Mushroom Broth, and Cold Curried Cucumber Soup—made tangy with a dose of buttermilk. Salads include Chickpea Salad with Roasted Peppers, made with canned chickpeas and jarred red peppers, as well as a more upscale Warm Potato Salad with Goat Cheese. Some recipes, Pinto Beans and Corn, for instance, involve little more than warming up and stirring together the contents of various cans. Although this is not a vegan cookbook, many of its recipes do eschew butter; Ravioli or Tortellini with Sweet Potato Sauce calls for ricotta ravioli, but replaces butter or oil with nonhydrogenated margarine. Each recipe carries a suggested menu—Atlas encourages readers to match Mixed Olives Pizza (made with a store-bought crust) with Corn Slaw—and nutritional information. A chapter on wraps offers some nice alternatives to sandwiches, such as Eggplant Parmigiana Wraps. Desserts are fruit-based, such as Miniature Fresh Fruit Tarts made with packaged graham cracker pie shells, applesauce and yogurt. Many of Atlas's recipes are already familiar, but will be useful for beginning vegetarians, as well as for those who lead busy lives. 100 b&w illustrations. (June 19) Forecast: The Use-As-Few-Ingredients-as-Possible genre may be reaching saturation, so the title could backfire. On the other hand, Vegetariana sold more than 100,000 copies, and clearly huge numbers of health-conscious people are pressed for time, so this book stands a good chance of finding its niche.

May 15, 2001
Discovering via her web site that her earlier Vegetarian Express, a book of simple vegetarian recipes and menus, is particularly popular with her readers, Nava decided that a collection of recipes made from streamlined ingredients lists would be even more helpful for today's harried home cook. Some of the resulting recipes are fine, but others seem as if they would benefit greatly from another seasoning or two or one more ingredient to round them out. A number of them rely on convenience foods, such as Hearty Pasta and Pink Beans, made with just frozen ravioli, canned beans, jarred pasta sauce, and cheese. Lorna Sass's Short-Cut Vegetarian (LJ 9/1/97) takes a similar approach with more interesting results, but Atlas's Vegetariana has sold more than 100,000 copies. Expect demand. Sciences

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2001
Adult/High School-Atlas writes for the cook in a time crunch, but this simplicity makes her book attractive and useful to novices as well. Illustrated with whimsical line drawings, the original and appealing recipes offer a variety of tastes-from potato salad and applesauce to more adventurous cold soups and frittatas. More sophisticated cooks will enjoy a variety of ideas derived from international cuisines, and YAs will be particularly interested in the recipes for popular foods such as pizzas, wraps, and smoothies. The five-ingredient constraint does result, at times, in unnecessary blandness; often, just another herb or two would make a big difference. But by paring recipes down to their most essential elements, Atlas creates an outstanding introduction to the basic principles of preparation and food combinations that underlie more complex cooking. As they stand, the recipes do work; they are easy to follow, and most call for readily available ingredients. Having mastered them, aspiring gourmets can become more creative, guided by sidebars that explain cooking arcana such as pasta shapes, mixed greens, or meat substitutes. Concise advice is offered concerning pantry stocking and menu planning, and the index is excellent. Many practical tips make this book a good resource for the growing number of people who, for environmental and nutritional reasons, are interested in using locally grown, seasonal produce as much as possible. You really don't have to be a strict vegetarian to love this book.-Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Copyright 2001 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.