In My Kitchen: A Collection of New and Favorite Vegetarian Recipes [A Cookbook]

Madison is well-known as a chef and author of vegetarian cuisine and this book has new recipes that are not terribly difficult and most don't require unusual ingredients, although there are plenty of recipes with ingredients not to be found in our rural area such as posole (dried hominy), roasted green chile, berbere spice mix and nettles. But that doesn't make up the bulk of the recipes and most are very accessible. And they are adjustable to gluten-free and vegan in most cases, with some simple alterations. Though watch out, you need to use your brain, a recipe for Lentil Minestrone with Kale has added pasta means you will be using GF pasta of course, but this is not specified in the ingredients. Or you leave it out. Likewise, the recipes indicate vegan (V) or if you can convert them, suggestions are given. As I sometimes entertain vegan family members, I'm familiar with the conversions (no milk, no honey, no cheese, no eggs, and there are standard substitutes to use, it's not difficult.) I liked a red lentil soup with "berbere" --a Northern African peppery spice mix I've come to enjoy. Also the breakfast porridges looked good--oatmeal with fruits, and a rice porridge with chia seeds. Brown rice porridge has some fiber, but chia seeds bump that up nicely. The few desserts (the book is organized loosely as menus) are useful or not. A blood orange olive oil cake looked lovely but I'm allergic to almonds, sad to say, but it did look delicious. Nectarines in a verbena syrup would be a great finisher for a summer dinner. Mostly, the book is useful for great vegetarian pasta sauces, polenta with mushroom ragout, lentils this way and that, and of course the inevitable quinoa these days, which I'm on the fence about. Sometimes I like it and other times I wish it had stayed in South America as I see too much of it. Vegans will find probably there are too many recipes relying on cheese that can't be substituted out by nutritional yeast so unless you have a vegan artisan cheese source, a lot of her recipes will be unusable for you. And for me, I have to leave out tree nuts which are a major protein in vegetarian cooking and provide some of that "umami" (protein or amino acid savory flavor) and there are few things that substitute for it (sometimes sesame or sunflower seeds but usually, nothing.) Even so, I liked the book and found many things I want to make, starting with the Red Lentil Soup with Berbere. You can buy Berbere online from spice houses but Madison gives you an easy mix to make up yourself and store in a jar. Although I'm not a vegetarian or vegan, I mostly cook foods without meat or poultry as a matter of health. The older I get, the more that's the kind of fare I prefer. This book by a reknown vegetarian chef has been praised by many, including restauranteur and author Yotam Ottolenghi and it deserves praise.

This book is really OMG good. I was kind of experimenting when I purchased this book. It had good reviews, so thought why not try it. Wasn't expecting anything groundbreaking, but the recepies in this book are too good! Very impressed! I made one recepie, it came out amazing, then another one, amazing again, then another one, ditto. I start a recepie thinking let's try this one and by the time I am about to finish, I can already tell without even tasting yet that something great is coming out. And when I taste it...yumm!! So flavorful; I did not even realize that vegeterian food can made be this good even though I have been vegeterian all my life! All friends have LOVED the food prepared using recepies from this book. kudos to Deborah, so glad that I found this book!

This is the third Deborah Madison cookbook that I own, the others being the amazing "Vegetable Literacy" (2013) and the seminal "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" (1997). I've also read all of her other cookbooks over the years. "In My Kitchen" is a lovely addition to the trilogy in my library. Her writing comes across the way I believe she intended: one feels as though one is thumbing through the favorite recipes that she uses most frequently today. She is honest about when she uses prepared foods such as canned chickpeas and roasted red peppers. I love her flexibility about what ingredients to use and how to serve her dishes for vegetarians, flexitarians, and omnivores alike. Many of the recipes are revisions of ones previously published, and she tells us why she tweaked them. She lives and cooks in New Mexico, and I live and cook in a very cold part of the U.S. a couple of thousand miles away, yet almost all the ingredients in the recipes (except for the variety of fresh chiles) seem to be accessible to me. Unlike her "Farmers' Market" or "Vegetable Literacy," this book is not vegetable-centric, so one doesn't have the feeling of being somewhat left out if one has neither a Southwest farmers' market nor a garden. I'm retired, love to cook, and own many cookbooks, yet this one has about 20 Post-It's on the pages for recipes I'm anxious to try.

I believe I have every one of Deborah Madison's books. And here is yet another, a beautiful book with well trusted recipes. Thank you, again.

I am such a fan of Deborah Madison's and this book is truly a treasure that will find a special spot in my cookbook collection. Thanks Deborah for bringing us yet another marvelous guide to wonderful food we can share with our loved ones. I'm off the the farmer's market to find the best ingredients so I can make the chard tart. Yummy!

This is a totally amazing and delicious cookbook. I had not discovered Deborah Madison before, so this is my 1st from her. Just made her baked Ricotta Tart which I adored. Added some honey to ricotta, mixed with freshly-cut rosemary, and put slices of preserved lemon on top along with a sprinkle of olive oil and flaked salt. Man!

As always, Deborah Madison knocks it out of the park. I love her comments when describing how she previously prepared a recipe and then contrasting it to how she now cooks. The evolution of a genius. The recipes I've tried are excellent and I particularly enjoy her comments regarding her life in Santa Fe.

I really like Deborah Madison and her cookbooks. This one has complicated and hard to get ingredients and it made me not want to make the recipes. Also, there weren't enough recipes that I thought were reasonable for a regular dinner.

Schon wieder weiterverkauft.

Deborah Madison has lived a lonely existence on my cookbook shelves for many years, I was interested in vegetarian cooking, but nervous and always reticent, why? Who knows? After looking at her books regularly, but never cooking from them I suddenly was hit with the courage this past spring. OH MY GOSH, I fell in love on the first recipe, why did I wait so long? I cooked Roasted Asparagus and Arugula with Hard-cooked eggs and walnuts (page 33), and I have since made it four times this past spring every time I have a new group at my table. The recipe works well for a casual Sunday dinner and as a great entrée with guests on Saturday evening. My fear of vegetarian cooking was silly, "will I feel satisfied?" "are the ingredients hard to find?" "how do I structure a meal?" "I'm a card carrying carnivore, will I enjoy this, i'm going to miss meat!" The answer was simple, once I had the courage to try her recipes all my silly worries were gone and out the window. When I (wrongly) think of vegetarian cooking I immediately think of hippies who need a shower, and to organize their kitchen, but that is an ignorant way to think that I now know is stupid, silly and uneducated on my part. I implore you to try her food, it is simple yet incredibly sophisticated and of a quality that will far exceed your expectations. I think it is better than restaurant food, i'm not a fan of restaurants, as I think well-cooked food at home is always better. Trust yourself and keep Mrs. Madison by your side, she speaks to you as your friend, her tone reminds me of Julia Child, I was never afraid to try her recipes, because of how she spoke to me the reader, Mrs. Madison is as kind, gracious and knowledgeable. I don't know if I can ever be a full-time vegetarian, however I can assure you we are now vegetarians 4/5 days a week and genuinely look forward to our food on those days. It's not a sacrifice or burden, it's a pleasure!! Her writing is beautiful, recipes foolproof and I'm never disappointed. BUY THIS AND ALL OF HER BOOKS, TRUST ME!!! Thank you Mrs. Madison Your fan, Charles

Deborah Madison is a well-known American vegetarian food writer. She is an advocate of using good quality ingredients, organic if possible, and over the years her cooking style has simplified. For some recipes it will probably help if you have a veg plot or allotment to get the freshest produce. After an introductory section, recipes are listed by alphabetical order of the primary ingredient (the recipes are all listed at the beginning of the book). To whet your appetite, here is a selection of recipes from the book, some of which I have tried out, others will need to wait until the seasonal ingredients become available. There's a lovely smoky-spice butter designed to counteract the sweetness of carrots, sweet potatoes & squashes which it does very well (later there is a carrot soup where this butter can be used as an alternative to the onion relish included in the recipe); bulghur & green lentil salad with chick peas & preserved lemon which is a great winter salad; a lovely citrus & avocado salad with a lime & cumin vinaigrette. There is a great aubergine gratin with a custard of ricotta & saffron, some delicious ricotta fritters, a nice variation on red lentil soup enhanced with an Ethiopian spice mix for which a recipe is provided (coriander seeds, allspice berries, fenugreek, cardamom, chilli, paprika, ginger & nutmeg); a chickpea and potato stew; sweet potato & coconut curry; several recipes involving tofu; a gorgeous tomato & red pepper tart; another curry, this time involving tomatoes and cauliflower. For breakfast there is a lovely mix of oats, dried cherries, raisins and almonds - the slightly sour flavour of the cherries works well with the raisins and nuts. For dessert I liked the look of white peaches in lemon verbena syrup - roll on the summer when I can try this out, and also the quinces braised in honey & wine. There are a few things that will be unfamiliar to, and in all likelihood unavailable to, a non-American cook such as the collard greens (not something I like anyway and I am not really sure there is a European alternative). A specific potato is used in a number of recipes, called a fingerling - I used charlotte potatoes as an alternative which seemed to work OK. In addition there are perhaps too many recipes for things I am not fond of - kale, chard, porcini. There were also recipes which duplicate others I have, and more where a recipe seems almost superfluous. My own view is that this isn't Deborah Madison's best book (The Green's Cookbook would top my list). One downside is that recipes have not been converted to European measures but the photography is beautiful.

As a keen cook who has recently embarked on a largely vegetarian diet for health reasons I have been looking for inspiration and recipes that will allow me to build a repertoire of dishes and compose menus in the same way I have in the past. This book fits the bill perfectly as a starting point. There are many interesting and appealing recipes which, when combined with Madison's thoughts on flavour and menus, represent an excellent resource to help me develop my cooking in a new direction. In addition it has substantial longevity as a collection of quality receipes if you are simply looking for the occasional dish or two, Highly recommended.

I own several cookbooks by this author that are in regular use in my kitchen. Deborah Madison has a beautiful chatty/friendly style in her writing and the recipes always work. The photography is really well done and I am looking forward to trying most of the recipes. So far, I have only tried the mushroom soup and quinoa and buttermilk pancakes, and both were delicious! Get this book if you like eating meals starring vegetables without going to any fussy extremes making them but with yummy results.