Can you recommend a good veggy cookbook?

[Cathy]

A good friend of mine is getting married soon :) , and I thought a cook book might make a good present. She is vegetarian but her husband-to-be is not, so I need to find a book which has recipes which even a carnivore will enjoy (ie. Not 'The Bean Cookbook' or 'The Frugal Cookbook'! ;) ). As a non-veggy I'm finding it hard to choose a book, none of the big chefs I know of feature in this category, except Delia, which seems a little boring. I like the look of 'Fast Fresh and Fabulous' by Rose Elliott from its Amazon write-up but it only has one review there so its hard to know. Can anyone help me out here? Have you heard good things about Rose Elliott or even read the book? Or are can you make any other recommendations? Hope you can help!!

[megustaleer]

I heartily recommend the "Good Housekeeping Step-By-Step Vegetarian Cookbook", published by Ebury Press.

It has really yummy recipes, from all over the world, there is a good section on ingredients, and in addition to the pictures with the recipes there is a fully illustrated index to tempt you to explore further. Have been using mine for about 7 years, when I needed something special for a vegetarian Christmas guest.

Before that i had been using a couple of Rose Elliot's books, but found the food a bit boring and brown! (admittedly these were books published in the early '80s, during the sandals and lentils era)

[Elfstar]

This might be too late or too expensive.......
Why not buy a recipe book (the kind you write your own in), I'm sure M& S do them and Smiths add a couple of nice recipes to it... such as Nigella's garlic mushroom sandwiches a couple of downloads may be or magazine cut outs....leaves loads of space for them to add what they want. An ideal extra would be a hostess book (this lets you record who came to dinner, what you served, etc) or a subscription to a good quality food mag, I loved the BBc Good Food mag when I had that and they always have lots of options for veggies. That way the present lasts longer too, especially if the cook book you might have chosen wasnt quite right.

[Cathy]

Thanks, that sounds like a great idea for next time (is it just me or do weddings always come in twos?!). In the end I saw a book just called 'Vegie Food' which had lots of cool pictures and the recipes looked good, I don't know how good they will taste! Plus its kinds petite, and as I have to carry it with me to the event I didn't want something too bulky. But a recipe book you can add to is such a good idea!

[Jen]

I'm really late on this one, but for the record, Madhur Jaffrey had a lovely veggie cookbook called 'World Vegetarian'. The hardback edition is very attractive (good for a pressie!) and the recipies are very diverse as you might expect.