Home > Media > Books > Mollie Katzen - Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven: Over 200 Recipes for Uncommon Soups, Tasty Bites, Side-By-Side Dishes, and Too Many Desserts
Mollie Katzen - Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven: Over 200 Recipes for Uncommon Soups, Tasty Bites, Side-By-Side Dishes, and Too Many Desserts
Author Mollie Katzen is famous for her ground-breaking vegetarian cookbook "The Moosewood Cookbook." Last I checked it still held the title of most copies of a vegetarian cookbook ever sold. I love The Moosewood Cookbook, and her cookbooks in between (Broccoli Forest, Still Life with Menu) are pretty good too, but her newest and the one I'm reviewing here -- "Vegetable Heaven" -- is my one of my very favorites. (I have quite a nasty habit of collecting vegetarian cookbooks by the dozens, so this is actually a pretty big complement in my kitchen.)
The Good:
1) This cookbook generally has good recipes, more good recipes in one place than any other vegetarian cookbook I own. It would make a great gift for someone interested in trying some vegetarian recipes. Some of my all time favorites from this cookbook are: Pineapple Pilaf, Black Beans and Mango, and "Guacmollie."
2) Mollie takes a decidedly healthier turn in this cookbook. That's not to say it's "low fat" or rigidly "low" anything. She uses oil, sugar, butter, etc. when it's integral to the recipe, but doesn't use it excessively. (Contrast The Moosewood Cookbook which, while good, showcases vegetarian cooking circa 1975 - heavy on the cheese, cream, oil and nuts in everything.)
3) This cookbook reflects interesting influences from all over the world without being to esoteric or unapproachable. There are recipes with a mexican bent, italian, indian, thai, middle eastern, european, etc. and then mixes of all of them.
4) The recipes are well-written and easy to follow.
5) The book is beautifully illustrated by Mollie herself.
6) I've actually met Mollie once. She's a very generous and nice person. I asked her if I could buy video tapes of her cooking show and she sent 4 tapes to me free of charge -- now that's pretty cool. (She's from Berkeley, an alternate universe of liberal, trusting, communal folk.) She also has a remarkably great website. If you want to try some of her recipes before investing in the cookbook, go to: www.molliekatzen.com.
The Bad:
1) Some occasional loser recipes: Skip the "Firecracker Red Beans" unless you really really have a thing for red beans. Skip the "Kale Crunchies" if you value your spouse's company (my husband almost threw me out of the house for making him try this recipe). Those are the only recipes that were really bad in my opinion. Also, I'm generally not a huge fan of Mollie's desserts. I haven't had any disasters with them, they just aren't that good. Dessert recipes from Cook's Illustrated Magazine are the way to go for desserts.
2) Generally the recipes are not too complicated or long, but Mollie does seem to have a chronic problem with underestimating time it takes to prepare a recipe. Either that or I'm a chronically slow chef -- hard for me to tell.
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