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Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Book Review and Preview: Vegetarian Dinner Parties By Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough

This is a book review and preview of Vegetarian Dinner Parties: 150 Meatless Meals Good Enough To Serve To Company by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough that was recently published on 8 September 2014.

Bruce and Mark are food writers and omnivores and the creators behind the Ultimate Cookbook series and have written 22 cook books. They live in Colebrook, Connecticut in the USA.

 
I love entertaining at home and hosting dinner parties and have cooked for vegetarian friends quite a few times but I find it difficult to pick a stand out amazing meal for my vegetable lovers because I don't want it to be plain and boring - I want their meal to be full of flavour and delicious.

This cookbook Vegetarian Dinner Parties is just what I need on the bookcase at home (although technically speaking I have it on my computer not the bookshelf!). It is packed full of modern vegetarian and vegan recipes all made with ingredients found seasonally.

The book is divided into sections - starting with welcome cocktails and working through the courses hors dóeuvres, starters, soup, salads, pasta, mains and desserts. The recipes can be made on their own or as part of a three course dinner. Each recipe also pairs a beverage to the dish, which I loved.

The recipes are for an experienced home cook, as I found there were only a few basic and easy recipes. Each recipe has a plan ahead section which is useful - I'll always make ahead what I can so it leaves more time to socialise and be a host on the night!

I would have scored this book higher if there were more images. I really needed to see the finished dish and also how to plate up, presentation is such an important part of a dinner party and I was disappointed there weren't images of each dish.

Also, I didn't have a hardcopy of the book and because of the images and recipes I couldn't download it to my Kindle eReader either I had to download it to my computer to read from which I found difficult. I would get much more use out of this book in hardcopy.

I recommend this cookbook to experienced home cooks who love to entertain and cook vegetarian and vegan food.

I give this book 3 stars out of 5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:
1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch re-runs of Neighbours than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not amazing but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd pass up a pack of tim tams for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

Vegetarian Dinner Parties can be purchased from Amazon

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here

Disclosure: Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced readers book of this eBook published by Rodale Books to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

 
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[Image via Rodale Books]


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6 comments:

  1. Hi Michelle, I look cookbooks that are easy to use and I too need photos xx

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  2. I too like recipe books to be filled with pictures so I can decide whether it's something I want to eat. That said, I think I should try out more vegetarian recipes...

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    Replies
    1. I try to go vegetarian once a week - Meatless Mondays I call it on the menu plan :)

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  3. Cookbooks are the one kind of books that I for SURE need a hard copy of! I just want to be able to mark in it, and rate recipes, and see the pictures too!

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    Replies
    1. Yes I have to admit I write in mine as well so I know whether to make the dish again!

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