Claire's Classic American Vegetarian Cooking: 225 New and Favorite Homestyle Vegetarian... at Chef2Chef

For exciting twists on familiar classics, look for polenta with fresh corn and chopped tomato studding the steaming cornmeal, and Sweet and White Potato Burritos topped with exquisitely creamy, gently fiery Avocado-Jalapeño Sauce. Criscuolo devises unexpected ideas for using veggie burgers. For Chicken-Fried Veggie Burgers, they are in dredged in flour and pan-crisped, then bathed in properly creamy Sawmill Gravy. Her Vegetable Burger au Poivre is elegantly imbued with Cognac, while tangy sauerbraten-style burgers are served on bed of noodles and topped by the properly sweet-tart sauce made with gingersnaps and German spices that should accompany this dish. Soy foods, from tofu and soy milk to sausage and other meat alternatives, are used liberally in dishes as simple as Beet and Tofu Salad with tangy balsamic vinegar dressing and as sophisticated as sausage-studded, saffron-gold Garden Paella, bright with 10 vegetables. (This book includes generally outstanding vegan food, though some may object to its generous use of margarine.) Vegetarians will find new pleasures in this exceptional collection of recipes, and lovers of Italian cooking will be particularly well-rewarded. --Dana Jacobi

From Library Journal
Criscuolo and her husband have run a vegetarian restaurant in New Haven, across the street from Yale, since 1975. The follow-up to Claire's Corner Copia Cookbook (Plume, 1994), this new collection includes more homey, healthful recipes. Many are dairy-free and vegan; others give vegan variations. Some would appeal to anyone, vegetarian or not, but a surprising number call for fake bacon and sausage, meatless hot dogs, and the like (to satisfy those hungry college students?): a salad of apples and tofu hot dogs with a dressing of curry, lime, and dairy-free mayonnaise, for example, sounds like a rather unfortunate combination, and New England Boiled Dinner is made with "fat-free veggie dogs" and "veggie back bacon." For libraries where the first book was popular.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Claire's Classic American Vegetarian Cooking: 225 New and Favorite Homestyle Vegetarian Recipes (Hardcover) I bought this book as a gift for my wife and wow, we love it. The recipes for the soups are fantastic, easy to follow, and delicious! The split pea recipe is particularly good (even if we do tend to throw a smoked ham shank into it)! One word of caution, however, the soup recipes make a LOT of soup. If you are only cooking for 1-2 people, you might consider in halfing the recipe. Comment | Permalink | (Report this)