The Millennium Cookbook: Extraordinary Vegetarian Cuisine Review

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(More customer reviews)Overall, this is one of the best cookbooks I own, and I make that claim as a former meat-eater and a recent most-of-the-time vegan. I have been using "The Millennium Cookbook" since February and have made roughly half of the recipes in the book, including nearly all of those for pasta and pizza. I use this book all the time. My husband--a sometimes meat-eater with an open mind and palate--says nearly always that our Millennium meals are "exquisite." I certainly concur. Here are some stand-outs, in our view:
Appetizers: Roasted Tomato and White Bean Galettes; Plantain Torte; Grilled Portobellos with Herb-Tofu Aioli and Red Onion Marmalade
Salads: Oil-Free Caesar Dressing; Millennium Warm Spinach Salad; Curried Almond Dressing; Ruby Grapefruit, Avocado, and Pickled Red Onions with Baby Spinach and Grapefruit Mojo Dressing; Moroccan Eggplant Salad
Soups: Yellow Split Pea Soup with Sage and Smoked Dulse Gremolata; Brazilian Black Bean Soup with Coffee and Orange
Pasta and Pizza: Pasta with White Wine-Marinated Tomatoes and Basil; Mushroom, Fennel, and Dill Cream Penne; Marinated Fig, Onion, and Black Olive Pizzas with Herb-Tofu Aioli; Caramelized Garlic and Smoked Portobello Pizzas; Tempeh Pizzas with Puttanesca Sauce
Sides: Millennium Fat-Free Mashed Potatoes
Entrees: Baked Madras-Glazed Tofu with Saffron Basmati Pilaf, Sauteed Vegetables, and Peach-Lime Chutney; Rosa Bianca Eggplant Torte with Smoked Onion Ratatouille and Flageolet-Sage Sauce; Seitan Piccata; Grilled Jerked Seitan with Coconut Mashed Yams; Spring Onion, Morel, Fresh Pea, and Lemon Thyme Risotto
Brunch: Smoked Tempeh and Potato Sausages; Flaxseed-Apple-Battered French Toast with Warm Apple Compote; Millennium Oat and Walnut Pancakes with Blueberry-Orange Sauce
Desserts: Mocha Mud Slide; Mad Good Chocolate Cake; Pine Nut and Anise Cake; Brownies a la Mode; Chocolate-Almond Midnight; Meyer Lemon Bundt Cakes with Blackberry Sorbet and Meyer Lemon Sauce; Fig and Almond Tart with Red Wine and Pear Cream
The desserts are "to die for," especially the fat-free version of their brownies. Overall, the meals are delicious, filling, and very satisfying. We don't hesitate to accompany them with a good bottle of wine.
Another plus is that with time, you get a feel for using fat substitutes (e.g., braised garlic, stewed prunes, and the amazing silken tofu) and can soon come up with your own novel creations.
Readers should be aware that this book does have its drawbacks. While many of the recipes can be made easily and quickly (pasta and pizza, mostly), many others require considerable time and effort. Close inspection reveals that there are a certain number of errors (sometimes of omission, e.g., saffron-cream sauce that leaves out the saffron ..., or even lack of directions). It should be noted that these can be attributed ultimately to the editors and not to the authors. I'm sure the second edition will clear these up. I've also found that many of the recipes work better with a little less liquid than called for (I don't know if this is a question of personal preference, altitude, or something else). For the above reasons, the "Millennium" is not for beginning cooks, in my view. But if you know how to cook, want to be a vegan, and are tired of searching "Gourmet" for the odd recipe that doesn't contain animal ingredients, this book is for you as much as it is for me--an inveterate "food snob" of the first order.
Given rising rates of population and chronic disease, along with diminishing resources, vegan cooking is inevitably the culinary wave of the future. Compared to the other vegan cookbooks out there (even "The Vegan Gourmet"), the "Millennium" is the best. It's certainly worthwhile to join its celebration of great plant-based food. This is the best investment I've made in a cookbook in many years.

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