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carlyxjack17's review
3.0
With all the positive reviews, I was a bit hyped. However, to be honest I was a bit disappointed by the recipes. Many recipes do contain coconut oil, coconut milk, mainly rapeseed oil and/or sugar. I expected a recipe book which tried to minimize on those ingedients. That are some min points from me. However, I love how the author incorporates sections which include information on some ingredients which are interesting. I have to give credits for that.
ari_reads_sometimes's review
5.0
A vegetarian recipe book that doesn't solely rely on beans and pulse!
catapultingtcup's review
3.0
Great instructions, great photos, great desserts. Unfortunately, I had to modify too much for my reflux so I can't say just how good the other recipes are.
perfect_leaves's review
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Nearly every single recipe is fantastic. It is rare for cookbooks to have even a handful of smash hits, let alone an entire book full. Meera Sodha delivers on her promise of flavorful, inexpensive recipes. I can find the majority of the ingredients at Kroger or Walmart, which makes these recipes very accessible as well. I had to go to a local Asian market to find lemon grass, black vinegar, and a few other herbs but in some places, even these are available in large, local supermarkets.
About the title of my review: I HATED beets before trying this book. I find them to be too earthy, and I dislike white vinegar so I had a hard time finding good beet recipes. Sodha uses a combination of rice vinegar (which is more mellow) and seasoning to make these dishes palatable. I was scared to try the Sri Lankan beet curry, but I had no reason to worry. I was less scared to try the beet and ginger soup, but I gulped it down. Now I'm actually excited to try the beet and yogurt rice, as well as the clay pot noodles with beets.
About the salt: I cook with course sea salt and I know from experience that I need to use about half as much salt as the recipe calls for. My intuition was correct here. I suspect Sodha uses kosher salt, based on the quantities given.
My main gripe is that the book lacks an adequate table of contents. If I want to find a specific recipe, I have to rely on bookmarks or keyword searches. It would have been lovely to see all the recipes in a list.
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ADVANTAGES OF THE BOOK:
- truly easy-to-find ingredients (and all condiments get used repeatedly, making them worth the investment)
- flavorful recipes
- vegetarian recipes are easily made vegan
- no meat or seafood required
- no fancy kitchen equipment is required
- very few wasted vegetable pieces
DISADVANTAGES OF THE BOOK:
- no real table of contents (there's an "alternative" table of contents that does not list all the recipes)
- chopping the vegetables into small pieces can be time consuming
- does not specify the type of salt, so you need to use "chef's intuition"
- the recipes calling for Sichuan pepper are gritty. I recommend using a fine grind instead of a coarse one
FAVORITE RECIPES:
- overnight soy eggs
- Thai salad with grapefruit and cashews
- silken tofu with pine nuts and pickled chiles (I omitted the pine nuts)
- carrot achar
- salted miso brownies (I recommend using a neutral oil instead of coconut oil, but this is personal preference)
About the title of my review: I HATED beets before trying this book. I find them to be too earthy, and I dislike white vinegar so I had a hard time finding good beet recipes. Sodha uses a combination of rice vinegar (which is more mellow) and seasoning to make these dishes palatable. I was scared to try the Sri Lankan beet curry, but I had no reason to worry. I was less scared to try the beet and ginger soup, but I gulped it down. Now I'm actually excited to try the beet and yogurt rice, as well as the clay pot noodles with beets.
About the salt: I cook with course sea salt and I know from experience that I need to use about half as much salt as the recipe calls for. My intuition was correct here. I suspect Sodha uses kosher salt, based on the quantities given.
My main gripe is that the book lacks an adequate table of contents. If I want to find a specific recipe, I have to rely on bookmarks or keyword searches. It would have been lovely to see all the recipes in a list.
-----
ADVANTAGES OF THE BOOK:
- truly easy-to-find ingredients (and all condiments get used repeatedly, making them worth the investment)
- flavorful recipes
- vegetarian recipes are easily made vegan
- no meat or seafood required
- no fancy kitchen equipment is required
- very few wasted vegetable pieces
DISADVANTAGES OF THE BOOK:
- no real table of contents (there's an "alternative" table of contents that does not list all the recipes)
- chopping the vegetables into small pieces can be time consuming
- does not specify the type of salt, so you need to use "chef's intuition"
- the recipes calling for Sichuan pepper are gritty. I recommend using a fine grind instead of a coarse one
FAVORITE RECIPES:
- overnight soy eggs
- Thai salad with grapefruit and cashews
- silken tofu with pine nuts and pickled chiles (I omitted the pine nuts)
- carrot achar
- salted miso brownies (I recommend using a neutral oil instead of coconut oil, but this is personal preference)
claireak95's review
4.0
This cookbook is fun! The author has expanded outside of Indian inspired recipes to recipes inspired by all of Asia. Looks like this has fun variations on dishes from all over. Oh, and it's vegetarian! Which I kind of forgot.
jlevans's review
4.0
Don't get me wrong, this book has so many great looking recipes I really want to try. However, I don't "read" cookbooks just for the recipes, I read them for the voice of the cook and their stories. Whilst Sodha is a very competent writer, I did find she lacked a "voice" that I crave when reading. It was like I could have been reading anyone, and after I finished the book, I felt I came out not knowing much about the writer, except she ate in some fancy London restaurants and had travelled the world. You may not see this as a criticism; cookbooks are, as in the name, designed and written for you to cook from, so who cares what else is in there? Especially now, when you can google any recipe and find it, what makes printing and publishing an entire book of them worthwhile? The voice! The writing. The passion. The tips and tricks and stories. But, to me anyway, the best cookbooks are always about more than food.
dray's review
5.0
An exceptional book of delicious vegan and vegetarian recipes. Covering a wide geographical area and many cultural food traditions, the recipes are authentic, relatively easy and unique. I have found few cookbooks offering mo-mos, this one does, and much more. Highly recommended.
juliejorja's review
5.0
This is the best cookbook I've come across in a long time. With most cookbooks, I find a handful of recipes that appeal to me. In [b:East: 120 Vegan and Vegetarian recipes from Bangalore to Beijing|44147081|East 120 Vegan and Vegetarian recipes from Bangalore to Beijing|Meera Sodha|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1559522706l/44147081._SX50_.jpg|68656650], every single recipe appeals to me! I want to make and eat them all! It reads as if [a:Meera Sodha|7962370|Meera Sodha|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] did a lot of work to ensure that all the recipes are rich in flavor, texture, and variety. This week, I made the first recipe in the book: Mushroom Bao. The baos were delicious filled with mushrooms in a tasty sauce and flash cucumber pickles. It's the very first time I made steamed buns in my life, and I'm beyond pleased that they turned out so yummy! This is recipe creates handheld, delicious comfort food. I'm so excited to make the next recipe. The book itself is gorgeous too with a great cover design and good food photos throughout.
dmsleeve's review
3.0
This is a 2.5 that I'm rounding up. The physical book is beautiful. There are pictures of almost every recipe and the recipes are easy to make. But then it goes downhill. We tried:
Food Court Singapore Noodles
Sri Lankan Beet Curry
New Potato and Green Bean Istoo
Summer Pilau
There are separate sections for tofu and legumes but I found it a little strange that so few of the recipes outside of those sections (such as curries and noodles) had protein. I know vegetables have protein but I'm not used to recipes made up of mostly just vegetables. The recipes all tasted ok, nothing amazing but ok. However, I feel like they all needed some tweaking. The seasonings seemed to be off in all of them. I don't know if this was an issue created when the recipes were translated from British measurements to American or if the flavors were supposed to be very subtle but I wanted more kick in all of them.
I did get some ideas out of this book but I don't expect to make very many recipes as written.
Food Court Singapore Noodles
Sri Lankan Beet Curry
New Potato and Green Bean Istoo
Summer Pilau
There are separate sections for tofu and legumes but I found it a little strange that so few of the recipes outside of those sections (such as curries and noodles) had protein. I know vegetables have protein but I'm not used to recipes made up of mostly just vegetables. The recipes all tasted ok, nothing amazing but ok. However, I feel like they all needed some tweaking. The seasonings seemed to be off in all of them. I don't know if this was an issue created when the recipes were translated from British measurements to American or if the flavors were supposed to be very subtle but I wanted more kick in all of them.
I did get some ideas out of this book but I don't expect to make very many recipes as written.