The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook: Your Guide to the Best Foods on Earth

This jam-packed compendium tries to be all things to all vegetarians. It succeeds as a valuable collection of recipes, even though the nutritional information is rather run-of-the-mill and poorly presented. Each recipe includes calorie, protein, carbohydrate, fat, cholesterol and sodium counts, but Shaw (Almost Vegetarian) doesn't classify the dishes according to nutritional balance, despite a lengthy introduction documenting the pitfalls of some types of vegetarian diets, e.g., lacto-ovo and vegan. The recipes, however, are creative and well presented, offering many suggestions for personalized wrinkles and substitutes (e.g., cilantro and cumin for basil and oregano in pasta sauces). A section on breakfast offers traditional favorites--oatmeal, for example--along with several suggested variations (e.g., cook it with fruit juice), as well as more esoteric treats, such as Pumpkin Waffles. There are plenty of innovative vegetable dishes, such as Spicy Spinach Nuggets with Cooling Chive Sauce, and ethnic favorites, for example, Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce. From soups (Barley Soup with Zucchini) to ""one-dish dinners"" (Potato-Fennel Stew with Mixed Beans and Tofu) and tasty pasta sauces (Three-Mushroom Sauce), Shaw offers much to prod the appetites and imaginations of dedicated cooks. Author tour. (May)