Really good vegetarian recipe book?

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

We are going planning on going veggie for lent, but I'm not quite sure where to start!

We do eat veggie 3 days a week usually but it tends to be the same meals: soup, pasta with veggies, risotto. I don't think I've got enough in my repertoire to feel us nutritionally and in a way that won't completely bore us to death. I'm also used to cooking by seeing what I've got in my cupboard and planning a meal, much of my meal planning comes from what to do with a left over roast.

I have the river cottage veg every day book. It has some nice recipes but I don't think there is enough in there to live off. It's also quite meze based and I don't have time to make lots of little dishes.

Can anyone point me in the right direction please, with either a book or a meal planning website. Thanks :)

Leith's Vegetable Bible

Depends what kind of food you usually eat, really. I like Madhur Jaffrey's vegetarian books, eg World Vegetarian, but we tend to eat a lot of Asian-influenced food anyway (Chinese, Japanese etc as well as Indian).

If you want more British/European sort of things, then Rose Elliott might be a good bet, e.g. this one.

Or I bought this for my teenage DS to try and get him cooking, but have ended up using it quite a bit myself: Sam Stern's Eat Vegetarian.

Or as far as websites go, the BBC Good Food website has a very good vegetarian section.

'The Enchanted Broccoli Forest' and 'The New Moosewood cookbook' - both by Mollie Katzen. Full of vegetarian recipes from a variety of different cultures. Highly recommend both - I use them an awful lot (we are not fully vegetarian).

Brilliant, thank you :) I'm going to have to create some meal plans I think once I've got a couple of books. We use a veggie box that keeps substituting bloody cabbage for things at the moment. It's going to take more work than I'm used to but that's not necc a bad thing.

We eat all sorts of food!

Second the moosewood books though they're US based so measure in cups, farenheight etc

It's a shame you're not local to me, as 'm having a clear out of some of my old veggie recipes books!

You should be able to find plenty of veggie recipes online, rather than buying books. Try the Vegetarian Society website.

I have several veggie meal plans on my blog if you want to take a look. The link is on my profile.

Thank you Onyka :) I will have a good read.
Bizarrely your profile link goes to my profile I can get to yours via your name though.

Going to be trying the Mexican rice :)

Deborah Madison's ' Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone' is brilliant. Dreena Burton's website is fab too.

Ooh strange! Glad you found me anyway though.

We eat quite a lot of Indian and Mexican meals, which are based on rice/bread, pulses, veg and spices, so they are easy to make and quite cheap .

try some books from your library if it's only for Lent

I forgot about the library

The Accidental Vegetarian by Simon Rimmer is a corker!

another vote for Rose Elliott, also the cranks books are good, some are v old school but they are great.
for glamorous food go for yottam ottolenghi 'plenty'

Plenty (veggie) & Jerusalem (not veggie but about 60%) both by yotam ottolenghi.

thank you for the recommendations :)

River cottage VEG book is really good.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingwhatsit Veg, and Madhur Jaffrey World Vegetarian. Sorted.

There's also Sarah Brown's book, think it was from the 80s though.

I have H F-W book, it has good recipes, but lots of them are too 'bitty'.

Try Macaroni Peas. Vegetable biriani, caponata, chickpea ketchup curry peanutty noodles and winter stir fry. They've all become part of my regular repertoire since I bought the book.

Second the Leiths Vegetarian cookbook- it ranges from very simple sauces and snacks to amazing fancy meals. Also uses a lot of seasonal and simple ingredients. I love Hugh's Veg Everyday- between those two books, the BBC goodfood website and the Vegetarian Society, I am normally spoilt for choice. Plus of course pop whatever veg names you have to hand into Google along with 'vegetarian recipe'.

I know it's a bit boring, but Delia Smiths 'Vegetarian Collection' has loads of great recipe staples and is listed by food group so 'cheese', 'eggs', 'grains' and also has a section for entertaining. I find myself returning to lots of her recipes and definitely use the 'what's in the fridge' approach to cooking. Good luck -maybe you'll decide to keep it up after lent!

I have a lot of choice!!

Maybe Suzanne.