Reviews for
Very Vegetarian:
Thrifty Appetizers, Main
Meals
and Desserts in Minutes
by Lily Erlic
Very Vegetarian, Thrifty Appetizers, Main Meals, and
Desserts in Minutes! is a refreshing cookbook. Often
the plethora of authors and glitz of the publishers stand
in the way of honest cooking. Lily Erlic has ventured out
with her own unique approach of compiling a cookbook.
The recipes on the CD were developed and tested by Lily. Good
Cooking liked her food shots for their non-styled approach.
Ms. Erlic obviously wanted control over what she was producing.
She said, "Each recipe comes from the heart and goes
straight to the stomach." Good Cooking says, "You
can tell Lily loves to cook, good job, good eBook!"
On the CD Cookbook there is a brief listing of ingredients
that are used for those who might not be familiar with some
of the basics. An index of recipes follows starting with appetizers,
then main meals and desserts. The "Vegetable and Miso
Soup" was so easy to make, looked good in the bowl and
was satisfying.
Lily's Croatian heritage comes through with Palacinke, the
Croatian word for crepes or pancakes. What was nice about
this version was the use of whole wheat flour, it added a
nice nutlike taste.
Other recipes for Meatless Beef Stroganoff and Lentil Balls
with Whole Wheat Spaghetti will give any vegetarian pleasure
in eating. There were many recipes for Pita dishes, which
appear to be of Croatian style. The Pita is made with homemade
filo dough and is rolled and stuffed like an apple strudel,
not at all like what one thinks of as Pita bread from the
Middle East. This was quite impressive because of the pictures
of the dough being made and rolled with different fillings
and the variety of fillings.
There were plenty of desserts to chose from, including Sweet
Pinches, yeast risen wheat flour balls that are deep fried
and dusted with powdered sugar and drizzled with melted chocolate!
~ Chef John Vyhnanek
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was only a matter of time before the publishing industry
caught up with the latest information technology and started
to make books available in other than a conventional print
format. This book is sold in a number of formats, but they
do not include the books that we're all used to. "Very
Vegetarian" is made available to the public either as
a CD-ROM, or can be emailed to the purchaser as a .pdf file.
The former means that it has to be loaded and read via a CD-ROM
compatible computer, or using the latter format, the text
is emailed to the purchaser. An Adobe Acrobat reader, which
can be downloaded free, is necessary to read the text, which
can be saved in the computer's memory or just read on the
screen as and when required.
The author, Lily Erlic, who is based in Canada, developed
and tested the recipes in her own home, and believes that
every single recipe in the book is a delight to prepare because
it is so simple. Each recipe, she feels, comes from the heart
and goes straight to the stomach!
Lily is a food writer and a cooking show host. and has had
a TV show called "Cooking for the Health of it",
in her hometown of Victoria BC, Canada. The theme of the book
is very much an international one, as Lily believes that food
brings people together. It ranges from Cabbage Curry from
Delhi, India, via Corn Tamal from Costa Rica, to Aunt Cath's
Pancakes from Victoria, British Columbia. It includes many
recipes that clearly derive from Lily's Croatian background.
Lily goes to some pains to point out that the key ingredients
are simple, delicious and economical; many of the items being
those already in your kitchen. A few are somewhat more specialised
and may have to be bought, but are well worth it.
Very Vegetarian is not, and does not pretend to be, a vegan
offering, and it's recipes do include the use of dairy products,
but an enterprising cook could no doubt easily adapt them
to be vegan. Lily recommends free-range eggs over battery
ones, not only for the obvious reasons, but because she feels
they have a richer colour and texture than the "regular"
eggs. She does promote the use of soya milk, of which many
varieties are on the market today in Canada (and in Australia),
and tofu, which similarly is widely available. She upholds
the use of whole-wheat flour, brown long grain rice or brown
basmati rice, and brown sugar, raw sugar, honey or maple syrup.
the recipes are arranged in categories, ranging from Appetisers
to Salads; Sandwiches to Soups; Party Favorites; Side Dishes;
Main Meals to Desserts, Sweet treats and even Shakes!
The main dishes include several that will be very familiar
to readers of New Vegetarian and Natural Health, such as Lentil
Burgers and Pasta dishes, but some that may be less familiar
include "Whole Wheat Penne Pasta with Red Pepper sauce
and Almonds" , which is a recipe that Lily created for
a pilot TV cooking show. A Potato and Kidney bean Salad is
suggested as a accompaniment, using freshly boiled or steamed
potatoes, fresh herbs and kidney Beans Without doubt, my personal
favourite item in Lily's book would have to be Palacinke;
a Croatian pancake or crepe. Known by many different names
throughout Europe, it's a cross between a pancake and a crepe;
it's not too thin and not too thick, and although the original
recipe calls for the use of eggs and milk, it's easy to substitute
these with soya milk and egg replacer. Filled with jam, it
tastes divine!
It sounds well worth obtaining!
~R.W. Fraser
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