Vedge: 100 Plates Large and Small That Redefine Vegetable Cooking by Kate Jacoby

Vedge: 100 Plates Large and Small That Redefine Vegetable Cooking Reviews

• 
  Lisa Vegan

  I’ve wanted to go to the Vedge restaurant since it opened and I still do.
  
  One negative here for me re the dishes is how many use ingredients I (a picky eater) don’t like: vinegar, capers, mustard, cooking and drinking alcohol, vegan sour cream, vegan cream cheese, vegan mayo, and coconut.
  
  On a positive note, I’d find it easy to leave out a lot of the above, and most of the recipes look remarkably easy and relatively quick to make given that they come from a gourmet vegan restaurant. Also, I really appreciate that vegetables take center stage here, and ironically that’s relatively rare in many vegan recipes.
  
  This is a beautiful book, and it has a lovely back story. And, yes, I can see why the restaurant has received so many accolades.
  
  The stocks look really delicious and the spice blends look really interesting.
  
  There are many, many more recipes I’d like to try, with some tweaking.
  
  As is, I didn’t find anything in the small bites and small plates section that interested me personally, but I expect most eaters and cooks would disagree with me.
  
  In the soups and stews section I’d like to try these: saffron cauliflower soup with persillade; peas and carrots with Jamaican curry; posole with chayote and poblano peppers; lentil mulligatawny with cilantro-onion salad; Peruvian squash and giant lima bean stew.
  
  In the dirt list section these appealed to me the most: nebrodini mushrooms as fazoletti; roasted kabocha squash with black trumpet mushrooms and Madeira; baby scarlet turnips and their greens with garlic jus; grilled broccolini with pistachio, cured olive, and preserved lemon.
  
  In the plates (aka mains) section these looked particularly delicious: zucchini, tomato, and olive tart; Thanksgiving root stew; roasted baby turnips with maitake “Champignons au Vin”; fazzoletti with peas and morels; winter vegetable cassoulet.
  
  In the desserts and baked goods section these stood out for me: chocolate stuffed beignets; cranberry jelly doughnuts with hot cider; nine-seed rye bread; pumpernickel bread; warthog bread.
  
  All the drinks in the cocktails section were based on various alcoholic beverages so did not appeal to me but they did look creative and intriguing.
• 
  Denise

  We almost went to this restaurant while we were in Philly! Bullet dodged, judging from this cookbook. My husband proclaimed this "hairshirt vegetarianism." Punishing, weird recipes, roasted vegetables with herbs, in a million different combinations of veggie and herb with not much else. A sweet potato + kraut dish presented as dessert. Just miserable. If I'd seen this when I was young and impressionable I think I'd have fallen off the bandwagon.
  
  As always,
  Veganomicon is the king of veg*an cookbooks. Everyone else is just trying to touch it.
• 
  SheReaders Book Club

  Vedge: Great title and also one of my favorite activities.
  
  Stunning produce photos and inspiring plant-forward recipes fill these pages. New spice mix ideas got me thinking and I liked their fresh renditions of old favorite combos like citrus and fennel. We could all use some novel flavors in our kitchens these days so this was a nice dose of different.
  
  Mostly, it got me starting to plan my post-covid Phili food tour... I'm coming for you, Vedge.
  
  
• 
  Sharon

  Beautiful recipes that demonstrate how magnificent vegetables are and how rich a plant-based diet can be.
• 
  Michelle

  It's probably presumptuous for the cover to say this book will "redefine" cooking, but it's definitely made the last few weeks a little classier and vegetable-intensive at my house.
  
  Pros: Beautiful photography, intriguing combinations. The recipes I tried were quite good.
  
  Cons: Many, but not all of the recipes feature fussy (hard-to-find) ingredients and complicated recipes. You might need to make special trips for supplies and/or ingredients unless you happen to own a fancy vegan restaurant and live in a large city.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Maya

  I've recently started reading restaurant cookbooks for the chef's history and philosophy of food. Vedge is a good one. I have not made any of the recipes yet, but I've drooled over them and marked the ones to try first (Roasted Cauliflower with Black Vinegar and Kimchi Cream, Celery Root Fritters, and Seared French Beans with Caper Bagna Causa).
• 
  Rachel

  I had never heard of the vegetable restaurant Vedge in Philadelphia, but I had heard good things about the cookbook from some of the vegetarian and vegan blogs I frequent, so I decided to give it a try. I will say that I am impressed at not only the selection of vegetables used in the cookbook (and therefore in the restaurant), but also the many different and ingenious ways to cook them, especially as the recipes are entirely vegan. I honestly didn’t think it was possible to create such simple and yet sophisticated dishes, especially ones that also look very appetizing. I will say that this book, like the cookbook for Plum, mostly feature recipes I’d rather try in person rather than create at home. Though in the case of this cookbook, it’s because of the ingredient list instead of the complicated nature of the recipes. I know I could sub ingredients, but the originals just sound so intriguing, I’d rather try them instead. I'd love to try the Shiitake Dashi, Saffron Cauliflower Soup with Persillade, Hedgehog Mushroom, Turnip and Barley Stew, Figgy Toffee Pudding with Madeira-Quince Ice Cream, Sweet Potato Turnovers with Sweet Kraut, the Sherry Temple and the Kyoto Sour. 4 stars.
• 
  Natasha

  I am in love with this cookbook. The recipes are easy to make and delicious. This is a vegan book that tells you how to cook vegetables, not how to try and make vegetables imitate a dish that is made with meat or dairy. I am actually not vegan or vegetarian, but that doesn't stop me from loving this book.
  Some ingredients may be a little obscure, but that's not something google can't fix. The author's also give recommendations of what to use if a certain ingredient can't be found. My experience with this book is that it has been highly accessible, educational, and most importantly yummy.
• 
  Misty Murphy

  Was this a bad book? No. Then why did I give it 2 stars? It just isn't for me. This is a book for foodies--those who have the time and resources for specialty ingredients in narrow seasonal windows. I'm just a mom with a vegan teen trying to put food on the table that will keep us all rolling. I was really hoping to find a cookbook that puts vegetables at the head of the table (instead of all the fake meat products other vegan cookbooks showcase). This book put them there alright, but then made them unreachable for regular people. My quest for a good, vegetable-centric book continues...
• 
  Sps

  Mmmmm king trumpet mushroom cioppino! And the portobello (portabello? portobella? portabella? Is there a standard spelling?) mushroom shepherd's pie is going on the Thanksgiving table this year.
  
  The coconut panna cotta was very good too, with handsome flecks of vanilla bean, and the figgy toffee sauce was luscious.
• 
  Cat

  This is fancy shit that I'm not capable or really interested in making on a nightly basis. I would love to go to Vedge but this feels like a chef's cookbook, not a cookbook for us regular joes. Totally fine! If I was fancier or a more capable cook, I'd probably really dig it. Just not a whole lot I can do with it as my skills currently stand.
• 
  Elena

  This contains some interesting flavor combinations, but not interesting enough to inspire me to follow the complicated recipes at home. However, I wouldn't refuse an invitation to this restaurant.
• 
  Sarah

  This isn't at all practical. Most recipes have an ingredients list that runs the length of the page; plenty of ingredients aren't found at my local grocery or are too specialized to keep on-hand: thumbelina carrots, porcini powder (I had to google that), two kinds of sesame seeds for one dish, sea beans, and lupini beans. Many of the recipes don't have pictures. Since so many of the recipes use ingredients I might not even recognize, more photos seem necessary. This doesn't seem at all useful for average people. I didn't write down any recipes at all.
• 
  Mariah

  This has been one of the most pretentious cookbooks I have ever read. So many of the ingredients are niche and hard to find, many I’ve never heard of. You can tell this came from a high end restaurant just by the names of the dishes, which isn’t itself bad but by the end of the book my mind whirled a bit because there were so many similar yet very different dishes with similar sounding names. This book just was not for me. Or most home cooks I believe either.
• 
  Ericka

  Vegan Delights
  
  I'm a definite omnivore but this book makes veggies I would normally never touch sound good. I specifically bought it for a Broccoli Rabe recipe but I found quite a few I'm going to try.
• 
  Lindsey

  Only inspired me to try one recipe although I learned a ton about spices and broths. I loved the Introductions to each chapter. I do want to eat at the vedge restaurant now but I'm not motivated to attempt their recipes.
• 
  David

  I've already made 3 dishes from this book and they were delicious.
• 
  Eric Sbar

  I read this book to get some vegetarian recipes. Many are complicated and require odd ingredients
• 
  Nicole

  I'm from Philly, I love Vedge, this book reminds me of home, though some ingredients are tricky to locate in stores
• 
  Amy

  Much of this book is beyond your standard -- carrots, celery, broccoli, etc. The recipes are for broccoli rabe or dandelion greens or "roasted asparagus with hazelnut picada", etc. And the ingredients -- more (number) and more (advanced) than I would want to deal with, but this book looks at vegetables from a vegetarian or vegan perspective, so these might be treated as a main dish as opposed to a side dish.
  
  At the beginning of the book is a small section called "Pantry Essentials." After reading about Tofu, I have to [still] say -- "No way in hell," but for your information, there are flavors in the weird world of tofu. Ugh!
• 
  Katherine

  I usually find myself a little disappointed by vegetarian cookbooks. But I wanna try out every recipe in here! It utilizes the elements of veggie cooking that makes them delicious! Roasting, incorporating beans and pulses.... the flavours sound incredible! I have at least 10 different recipes flagged in this book, including:
  - Roasted Cauliflower with Black Vinegar and Kimchi Cream
  - Whole Roasted Carrots with Black Lentils and Green Harissa
  - Lentil Haggis with Neeps and Tatties
  - Squash Empanadas with Green Romesco
  - Grilled Zucchini with Green Olives, Cilantro, and Tomato
  - BBQ Cherries with Jalapeno Cornbread
  - Sweet Potato Turnovers with Sweet Kraut
  
• 
  Samantha

  This was a very interesting cook book. The recipes from inside range from simple to super complicated. Not to mention some of the ingredients are near impossible to find in some areas. But they do provide optional ingredients to swap in case of such instance. This isn't one of those vegan cook books that tries to sway you to the plant side. It's only purpose is to celebrate fruits and vegetable and all they have to offer. I totally recommend this book to vegan and non-vegan alike.
• 
  Liz

  My all time favorite cookbook!
  
  No matter what veggie you have in your fridge you just pull it out and see what Vedge has to offer. I love the restaurant when I go and my attempts to duplicate some of my favorites at home always add to a healthier dinner.
  
  A must have for any vegetarian or vegan, and those of us who eat meat!
• 
  Lila

  If you have the small kitchen appliances needed to make these recipes then this book is for you. I do not own a food, processor, blender and or mandoline slicer. If I did I could make a bunch of these recipes. I have enjoyed all my visits eating at the restaurant Vedge. Perhaps I will come up with some variations that do not use what I do not have.
• 
  Jesse Fickes

  Great book, good recipes and photos. A bit pompous? And with ingredients that are hard to source. If the goal is to make vegetarianism credible, why include recipes that only alienate those who are exploring this lifestyle, especially over the acclaim this restaurant had brought to a cuisine that sadly, to many, is still mired in the realm of hippies and quacks?
• 
  Lara

  So, I haven't actually cooked anything from this yet, but I actually want to try just about everything in here, which is extremely rare for me. Beautiful presentation and photography, and lots of creative vegan recipes without reliance on fake meat--huzzah!