Vegetables Every Day: The Definitive Guide to Buying and Cooking Today's Produce With More Than 350 Recipes

This has become one of my most-used cookbooks (and I'm not a vegetarian). I wanted to serve more interesting side dishes than just plain blanched, steamed, or roasted vegetables, and this book has lots of them. From mango-and-jicama salad to fennel with pine nuts and raisins, I found lots of things to try, and liked all of them. It has a wide range of vegetables (celery root was a real find), and includes simple notes on purchasing and storing them. It's very easy to use, with the vegetables arranged alphabetically. No photos, which is fine with me. I liked it so much I gave a copy to a friend.

Lots of good recipes here and probably the best vegetable cookbook I've got.I am very happy that it deals with side-dishes rather than fiddly intimidating vegetarian tour de forces.If anything I would like to see even simpler preparations included. I know from experience a range of easily prepared yet inspiring vegetables on the table every night is delightful. The ideas for this however are not at all simple to obtain.I am quite happy about the lack of pretty pictures. So much information is needed that there simply isn't room, and this book educates about substance rather than presentation.But why only 4 stars?Well I don't think a 5 star vegetable cookbook has been written yet.In the past vegetable recipes have been a haphazard affair with some happy discoveries, but a failure to be really systematic.So what is needed is a systematic re-examination of vegetables from the ground up, yet incorporating the happy discoveries of previous cooks with modern health and creativity added. Jack's book doesn't quite get there and would really need to be doubled in size to achieve this task.The style of the majority of recipes involves the development of flavours with olive oil and browning techniques, but there are many other techniques I would enjoy seeing more fully developed, such as creative variations, hot or cold salads, oil-less recipes, use of a full palette of spices, and health discoveries such as dressings with flax seed oil.

This unique cookbook, organized by vegetable, is invaluable. I keep it on my counter so when I open the refrigerator to prepare a meal and find only radishes, mushrooms, and/or celery in the vegetable bin, I can turn to that vegetable and find a delicious way to prepare it. I consult it when I want to know how to store a vegetable. I consult it when I've found a new-to-me vegetable in a recipe and have no clue how to select one in the grocery store. I've found many recipes that have become favorites. I couldn't believe how delicious asparagus is roasted. And it's the same with mushrooms; roasting concentrates their flavor amazingly; you'll never think of plain button mushrooms as boring again. I've served them to guests for appetizers; they always love them. And who would think to braise radishes?? It's a GREAT way to use those radishes that have been in the fridge for too long. There are lots of gems in this cookbook. It's one of my TOP FIVE COOKBOOKS that sit out on the counter and get used again and again. No glossy photos, just plain good advice on every page.Update 2010: Believe it or not, seven years later I stand by this review. This book has never left the top of my kitchen counter and I turn to it regularly. I'm just sayin ... :-)

There is never anything fancy with Jack Bishop's recipes. There are simple and to the point, letting the vegetables--from A to Z--to shine. We bought this book after using Bishop's collection of vegetarian pasta recipes, Pasta e Verdura, which we liked so much over the years that we've given several copies as gifts. So far, we've made four recipes from Vegetables Every Day. They are indeed everyday recipes, mostly unsurprising, but good and open to your own elaboration. The one standout was a recipe for roasted green beans that worked well with end of season beans from our garden that had gotten a little too tough for most other uses. Surprisingly, given this book's comprehensive coverage, there were no recipes for lima beans. The book will likely gain a place on our kitchen shelf of frequently-consulted volumes.

This book is great! I belong to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and I get lots of vegetables every week, some that I've never eaten before. This book is a life-saver on telling one how to select, store, and prepare many vegetables, from the common ones to the ones I've never heard of. I use it to know a basic way to prepare each vegetable, to help me find new ways to cook common vegggies, and to know good spices that go with each vegetable. I've cooked many of the recipes, and have loved most. I don't always like everything Bishop suggests - for my taste he overprocesses some vegetables (e.g. peeling celery for cooking, de-seeding cucumber). But I still enjoy the suggestions. Try Roasted Asparagus, Braised Carrots with Orange-Honey Glaze, and Maple-Braised Turnips and Carrots. This book is not particularly a low-fat book (some cooking with butter and cream, for example). Also, it is not particularly a "vegetarian" cookbook, in that it is mostly about cooking each vegetable as a side-dish, rather than cooking full vegetarian meals. But, I still highly recommend it for helping us all to eat more veggies and make them GOOD!

This is a great book on vegetables. I found it in the library when my husband decided to go vegetarian, and although I cook A LOT, I felt i needed to find more and different veggie recipes. I liked it so much, I bought it from Amazon. I love that it not only provides recipes but tells you all about the vegetable, how to cook it, clean it, store it, etc. The book is easy to read, cleanly written, and well laid out, with all the veggies in alphabetical order. The few recipes I've tried weren't all that tasty to me, but the book offers great starting points with which I can work--and YOU might like them! Highly recommend, especially if you're not familiar with a lot of veggies or how to cook them.

Could ask for more

I haven't yet tried any recipes from this book. I bought it in hopes of feeding my family more vegetables. My reasoning for this, as it probably is for most people who strive to eat more vegetables, is that vegetables are healthy. However, there isn't nutritional information (calories, fat, etc.) for the different recipes. This kind of defeats the purpose of the book, at least for me.

I really like this book. It lists over 60 types of vegetables and for each one at least three types of recipes. They are basic, healthy, and easy to make. The recipes are not complicated at all. The book explains how to select, store, and prepare each type of vegetable. I recommend it for people who want to expand their culinary expertise, food palate, and try new foods for their families in an affordable and easy way. If you want to have a cookbook in your kitchen, make sure you have this one!

Love these recipes. Although there are no pictures, once you try the recipes, you won't mind. Very simple and the ingredients are easily found in any grocery store. Truly he brings vegetables to life.