Vegetable Basics: 84 Recipes Illustrated Step by Step (My Cooking Class) - Softcover

Current nutritional wisdom advocates substantially increasing the quantity of vegetables in one's daily diet in order to promote sound health. Vassallo has assembled dozens of straightforward and intelligent recipes that will encourage those intimidated by vegetable cookery to overcome their qualms and serve up tasty and reasonably healthy food. Recipes range from simple guacamole to sophisticated butternut-squash ravioli. Crumbled feta cheese enriches zucchini fritters and may make even zucchini-haters look forward to the summer harvest. Vegetarian here doesn't always mean totally meat-free cooking. A split-pea soup includes a big smoked pork hock. Chinese pot stickers have ground pork for flavor and Napa cabbage for texture. Recipes are easy to follow and include metric measurements as well as those familiar to American cooks. The clear, bright colors of the photography and the careful layout that mark this series stand out in this volume. (Mark Knolbach Booklist 2011-01-01)

This is a series by various authors with complete (and I mean complete) step-by-step and how-to colour photos to describe every conceivable step in every conceivable process. Each with 70 to 97 recipes. These books are extremely clear in presentation, right down to photos of egg yolks (with every other ingredient) so you don't accidentally reach for, say, Palmolive dishwashing soup when you should be making Bearnaise sauce. Some might think the series is too dumbed-down but, at only $25 a copy, I think these books are perfect for entry-level cooks who want to move beyond Kraft Dinner to discover that homemade lasagna does not always have to be made with dried gypsum board. I'd be tempted to give the whole set as a gift to the right person. (Byron Eade Ottawa Citizen 2010-11-25)

Owing to the popularity of food-focused TV programming, the effective arrangement of the "My Cooking Class" series (which also includes Steaming, Chocolate, Middle Eastern, and Pasta Basics) will have you wondering why it has taken cookbooks so long to get visual. Beyond a one-page preface, an ingredient index, and concisely measured instructions, you won't find much text here, but this does not mean the books lack detail. Each recipe is pictured step-by-step with the crisply reductive clarity of a minimalist still life.... This series of stripped-down pictorials worth a thousand words is the missing link between elementally vague text-based cookbooks and video instruction you can't slow down enough or take into the kitchen. Elegant design you can't help but devour. Highly recommended for all experience levels. (Ben Malczewski Library Journal)

This series includes books on Pasta, Vegetable, Chocolate, Sauce, Steaming, Middle Eastern, and Indian Basics. Each book includes 60-100 recipes, each with not just an image of the finished product, but photos of every step. Perfect for the family chef, foodie, or cookbook collector. (James Sanford Battle Creek Enquirer 2013-01-03)