Easy Vegetable Meals

by Larissa Olczak

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Easy Vegetable Meals is a well curated collection of appealing plant based recipes by Larissa Olczak. Released 16th June 2020 by Callisto on their Rockridge Press imprint, it's 188 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

The book has a logical and easy to follow format. Following an introductory chapter which covers the background of vegetarian nutrition and lifestyle, tools, supplies, and ingredients, the following chapters include the recipes, arranged thematically by season. Nutritional information is included in the footer at the end of the recipes and includes calories, fat, sugars, carbohydrates, proteins, and micronutrients.

The recipes have their ingredients listed bullet style in a sidebar. Measurements are given in US standard only. Special tools and ingredients are also listed, along with yields and cooking directions. Special classifications for each recipe (gluten free, nut free, 5 ingredient, vegan, etc) are included in a header bar. Most of the ingredients are easily sourced at any moderately well stocked grocery store. The book also includes a short author bio and a metric conversion chart, but lacks any index or a general ingredients index. The recipes themselves are varied, and represent a number of world cuisines. They're tasty and easily prepared and many are simple and easy to prepare, requiring few ingredients and little prep time.

My main quibble with the book is that the recipes are mostly not photographed. There are a few photos, and they're clear and attractive, but they only represent about 5% of the recipes included in the book. It is, however, a very well written book with a positive and upbeat "voice".

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.