| Delia's Vegetarian Collection | 
 enlarge | Author: Delia Smith
Creator: Victoria Wood
Publisher: BBC Books
Category: Book
List Price: £25.00
Buy New: £15.00
You Save: £10.00 (40%)
New (23) Used (13) from £11.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 2466
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 264
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.5
Dimensions (in): 11 x 10 x 1
ISBN: 0563488182
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5636
EAN: 9780563488187
ASIN: 0563488182
Publication Date: October 17, 2002
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: UNUSED - Unwanted gift
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Delia Smith has tossed the odd crumb to non-meat eaters in previous books: in Delia's Vegetarian Collection, finger on the pulse as always, she pulls the best of those together, tops them up with a selection of new ones, and presumably has herself and the BBC another bestseller. Lest this sound ungenerous, it's as well to say that this is a fine collection, wide-ranging and full of variety; and also visually very appealing. Vegetarians are likely to feel that the wait was worthwhile; many other cooks will be grateful for an inspiring repertoire, which happens not to contain meat. As always with Delia Smith, there is nothing here to frighten the tentative cook. Perhaps the most demanding recipe is the rather modish Red Onion Tarte Tatin. But even here, Delia's calm directions provide the most reassuring of guides (practically every sentence in every recipe starts with the words "First" or "Next" or "Then"). Delia has cast her net widely, both geographically and, as it were, chronologically. While Vegetarian Sausage Rolls , "Not Pork" Pie and a variety of hefty vegetable gratins, such as Roasted Vegetable and Brown Rice, evoke a time of wholefood earnestness, before vegetarian food lightened up, most of the recipes belong to a more modern era, characterised by the flavours of the Mediterranean and the Pacific Rim, where vegetables play a more central role in the cuisines. Pasta and noodle recipes, for example, include the wonderful Trofie with Pesto, Green Beans and Potatoes, together with many other classic Italian dishes; while the East contributes Singapore Stir-Fried Noodles and Soba Noodles with Soy and Citrus Dressing. One of the pleasures of this book is the presence of many classic recipes, included simply because of their deliciousness. This is plainly the case in the Puddings chapter. Suet aside, puddings can't cause vegetarians too many problems. But here are Crepes Suzettes, Bananas Baked in Rum, Creme Brule and Strawberry and Balsamic Vinegar Ice Cream to remind us that some of the best things to eat have always been meatless. --Robin Davidson
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 disappointing November 27, 2008
Delia has fallen into the meat-eaters' trap of thinking she has to replace meat and fish with dairy products or eggs in the same quantities. If you used this book as your main source of recipes your chloresterol levels would go through the roof. There are whole sections on cheese and egg recipes and most of the others feature a lot of full-fat dairy products as well. You would also need a palatial kitchen to house the myriad of specialised ingredients and equipment required (no wonder that she has her own range of cookware).
I admit that some of the recipes are very delicious, if somewhat time-consuming to make, and the instructions are clearly written. However, as a vegetarian cook for a vegetarian family, I found a lot of it unapproachable.
 Not fully vegetarian July 13, 2008
Delia knows her cooking, however, she hasn't researched vegetarianism properly. She is using parmesan. All vegetarians know that parmesan is not vegetarian, so she should mention to use the substitute cheese. It is misleading new vegetarians into thinking parmesan is ok. That's why only 2 stars.
If one reads the recipes carefully and alter it accordingly then there are some very nice new ideas in this book..
 NOT AS GOOD AS IT LOOKS December 13, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
My initial reaction to this anthology of recipes from earlier Delia Smith books was much the same as that of earlier reviewers. The recipes are generally inventive, and the book itself is well laid out, and visually attractive. But the more I use it, the more irritated I get. First, the colour photographs are a 50 per cent waste of space. There are typically four pictures on each illustration page, two of them of one of the dishes, which is fine, and two of pretty arrangements of a few ingredients. This is OK if you're a fan of photographic still lifes, but not much use if you want to see how a given recipe is meant to look. Second, Delia's style is execrable. Every step in a recipe is prefaced by wholly unnecessary phrases like "after that you do X.." or "the next thing to do is...". Given the price of the book, it would have been nice if someone could have converted Delia's telly-speak into good plain English instructions. Third, and most important if you are trusting her to take you through a recipe for the first time, she is sometimes ambiguous or downright wrong. Take, for example, her basically admirable recipe for mushrooms in Madeira in puff pastry cases. She specifies "900g of both oyster mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms". 450g of each, or 1800 g in total?. She then goes on to tell you how to roll out 500g of ready made pastry into 6 13 cm squares 2 cm thick. Try it - she obviously hasn't. You'll be lucky to get three squares out of this quantity of pastry. So do you roll it out more thinly or double up the quantities? You can probably work it out what she means by going to something like the magnificent Mastering the Art of French Cooking; but should you have to?
In short, a nice book to look at, with some creative ideas, but marred by sloppy writing, arty production values, and some glaring mistakes.
Delia's Bandwagon Book December 5, 2007
4 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is Delia jumping on the Vegetarian bandwagon, thinking that she can do it right. The answer is an indigestible NO.
Not all Veggies can wallow in gluts of cream. Some of us are Galactosemic - no that does not mean we are Vegan, you can choose to be Vegan - but Delia wouldn't care about that.
This is a total rip-off. Avoid if you want to be healthy.
 Even non-veggies will love this book September 21, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Before I got this book, I'd never cooked a lentil or chick-pea, and had little interest in doing so, it's now the mainstay of my cookery shelf.
Have several vegetarians in the family so I started using this book to try and get recipes that would allow us to have a meal where everyone ate the same food, so I needed vegetarian recipes that were attractive to non-veggies. This book came up trumps.
Everyone I feed from the book ends up wanting their own copy!
I don't agree with the cheese and egg gripe in one of the other reviews, the dishes are well balanced and so far the only cheeses I've used are mozzarella and parmesan, both in moderation.
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