Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian: More Than 650 Meatless Recipes from Around the World: A Cookbook Paperback - 2002

First line

Dried beans, dried peas, and lentils, also known as legumes or pulses, are among the earliest of cultivated crops.

From the jacket flap

In her most comprehensive volume yet, Madhur Jaffrey draws on more than four decades of culinary adventures, travels, and experimentation for a diverse collection that both intrigues and delights the palate. Dishes from five continents touch on virtually all the world's best loved flavors, for a unsurpassed selection of vegetarian fare.
More than 650 recipes exemplify Madhur's unsurpassed ability to create simple, flavorful homecooking that is well within the reach of every cook. Extensive sections on Beans, Vegetables, Grains, and Dairy explore the myriad ways these staples are enjoyed worldwide. Each section opens with a detailed introduction; Madhur describes methods for preparation and storage, as well as different cooking techniques and their cultural origins. Throughout she balances appealing, uncomplicated dishes such as sumptuous omelets and rich polentas with less familiar ingredients such as green mangoes, pigeon peas, and spelt. Madhur demystifies the latter with clear-cut explanations so that incorporating new combinations and interesting flavors into everyday cooking becomes second nature. She also offers substantial sections on Soups, Salads, and Drinks, as well as Sauces and Other Flavorings, to help round out a meatless meal and add exciting new flavors to even the most easily prepared dishes. Finally, a complete glossary of ingredients and techniques clarifies some of the little-known elements of the world's cuisines so that even the uninitiated can bring the flavors of Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and more to their tables. Throughout this extensive collection, Madhur includes personal anecdotes and historical contexts that bring her recipes tolife, whether she's remembering field of leeks she saw in the mountains of northern Greece or describing how corn-based dishes arrived in Indonesia through colonial trade. Committed vegetarians will rejoice at the wide variety of meatless fare she offers, and nonvegetarians will enjoy experimenting with Madhur's global flavorings. This highly readable resource promises to be a valuable addition to any cook's library, helping everyone make healthful ethnic foods a part of everyday cooking.

"From the Hardcover edition.

Media reviews

"This book is a priceless treasury of eclectic, fascinating, and beautifully written recipes that are unified by Madhur Jaffrey's own seductive esthetic, which is born out of her immersion in the traditions of Indian cooking and her respect and passion for the garden and the farmer's market."
-- Alice Waters

"Colors, flavors, and textures are so artfully combined in these enticing vegetable dishes, one would never have a sense of deprivation for having forsaken meat. With such a seductive diversity, it is a blessing that the recipes are explicit, and most are simple to do."
-- Mimi Sheraton

"In World Vegetarian, Madhur Jaffrey proves as exciting a travel guide as she is a cook! Her gastronomic tour around the globe is accented with useful cooking tips and lively anecdotes, while the varied and well-written recipes are a mouthwatering tour-de-force. From Azuki beans to Zahtar spice, from the Old World to the New, the scope and depth of this book are breathtaking."
-- Michael Romano

"Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian is Exhibit A in showing us just how large that world is today and simultaneously how small the globe, as we connect to cultures and cuisines on a worldwide web of flavors and ingredients. While East Indians are eating Spicy Corn with Sesame Seeds and Tomatoes, Americans are eating Green Peas with Coconut and Cilantro. Jaffrey's clarity is as perfected in small details as in large and everywhere her taste unifies dishes from lands far and near. Buy one for your kitchen shelf and one for your carry-on luggage."
-- Betty Fussell