• Eat Your Books

  1991 International Association of Culinary Professionals Award Winner

• mooo42 on March 19, 2022

  Love this book. The recipe index here is missing pages 8-20 :)

• jaelsne on September 30, 2010

  The recipes in this book can be somewhat time-consuming, but it is very reliable and the dishes I have made have turned out very well.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Chick-pea spread (hummus)

  • emiliang on January 13, 2014

    Keep forgetting how simple, fast, and delicious hummus is. The ratios in this version are just a tad bit off, though. Use half the lemon and half the garlic and go from there.

  • MsMonsoon on December 15, 2020

    Delicious! I actually used a lot of garlic —three very large cloves — but that’s just my weird personal preference. One benefit to being in lockdown is I won’t be too close to others to offend!

• Stuffed pan breads

  • mooo42 on March 19, 2022

    Made this with pistachio butter filling. Messy, I had a hard time enclosing filling in dough, but tasty. Will try again with more care.

• Cooked greens and herbs with garlic and oil

  • MsMonsoon on March 29, 2017

    Quite tasty, with a strong raw garlic flavor, which may not be everyone's cup of tea. I used the pre-washed SuperGreens from Organic Girl, which are perhaps intended more for salads. It included spinach, tat soi, and swiss chard. Including stronger, tougher ones like kale and collard greens (as Madison suggests) would help the steamed greens stand up to the herbs, spices and garlic.

• Celery-apple salad with currants and walnuts

  • amoule on December 11, 2015

    This salad is the perfect foil to a rich, heavy meal. I've served it with Thanksgiving dinner, with quiche, and with other heavy main courses. It's light and refreshing. You can skip the walnuts to make it still lighter. Not only can it be made a day in advance without the walnuts, in my opinion, but it improves if you do so. Just be sure to use a stainless steel or ceramic knife to cut the apples so that they don't discolor.

• Wild rice and asparagus salad

  • THIRKEJ on May 23, 2021

    Always make this with watercress - much more interesting than napa caabbage!

• Quinoa salad with dried fruits and pine nuts

  • oddkitchen on December 30, 2012

    Easy to prepare and a great blend of flavors! This also keeps well for several days' worth of meals.

• Chick-peas and peppers with pine nut dressing

  • MsMonsoon on August 01, 2021

    I liked this. Made it twice. Kind of southwestern in flavor with cumin and green pepper. The pine nuts make a delicious vegan dressing. The first time I slightly overcooked the peppers and onions; you really want them to retain some crunch. My first dish seemed a little watery — from the sautéed vegetables, and then the dressing was quite thin too. Second time less so. This would be good with some crusty French bread.

• Sorrel-lentil soup

  • emiliang on September 04, 2017

    A simple, delicious, well-balanced (tangy sorrel, earthy lentils, sweet cream) recipe!

• Summer vegetable stew

  • emiliang on August 21, 2013

    This cookbook consistently rewards you with dishes that are full of flavor. This one was no different. So good! Used dried mushrooms instead of fresh, omitted the green beans, and used 50% more tomatoes. Added a few splashes of soy sauce and a cup of Israeli couscous for a complete meal in one pot.

• Squash, pepper, and hominy stew

  • oddkitchen on January 10, 2013

    Fast, flavorful, awesome -- I served this with teff polenta and it was a big hit.

• Tomato, fennel, and potato stew with saffron

  • PinchOfSalt on October 02, 2017

    Spectacular! Used a big chunk of the week's abundant CSA share to make this. The recipe is very easy and forgiving. Instead of making the rouille from scratch, I cheated by using the equivalent amounts of store-bought mayonnaise instead of the oil and egg yolk, and added enough sweet Hungarian paprika to turn the mixture a reddish rust color. Do not omit the rouille - it makes this dish shine.

  • emiliang on November 10, 2013

    Add some fish and fish stock and you've got a great bouillabaisse. Highly aromatic and comes together in an hour or less. No need to preboil the potatoes. Good ratio is one fennel bulb to about 4 potatoes and 1 lb of fish (can be any white fleshed fish -- farmed catfish, for example).

• Eggplant and potato stewed with cumin seeds and fresh ginger

  • jaelsne on September 30, 2010

    Not a pretty dish, but absolutely delicious.

• Winter vegetable stew baked in a clay pot

  • emiliang on February 06, 2013

    This version of a root vegetable stew easily tops all others I've tried. Replace the turnips and/or rutabagas with 8-16 oz of seitan for a complete veggie meal in one pot. Just add a simple salad and some crusty bread and you've got a meal fit for company. FYI, I didn't have a clay pot but used a covered casserole dish with excellent results.

• Spaghetti with broccoli and tomato

  • Queezle_Sister on February 06, 2013

    The long spaghetti is difficult to toss with the other ingredients . It might work better with a shorter pasta, or break your spaghetti before cooking. Also I used some home-canned whole tomatoes for this dish and it worked great! Quick, too - I had it on the table in 30 minutes.

• Spaghetti with cauliflower and sun-dried tomato sauce

  • Suzanneserat on January 15, 2012

    She recommends spaghetti, but we liked a pasta more the size of the cauliflower pieces (like penne or rotini). Also very good with a little truffle oil added at the end

• Pasta with cranberry beans and greens

  • emiliang on February 18, 2013

    The mustard greens overpowered all of the other ingredients. I did like the earthy flavors of the dish, though, so I might try it again -- maybe with chard instead. Also, I felt that the recipe needed a little zip. Have a lemon on hand.

• Cold noodles with peanut sauce

  • jenmacgregor18 on June 19, 2018

    Not overly complicated and fairly quick to put together. I added a bit of shredded carrot & red bell pepper. I had to sub parsley for the cilantro-hater in the group; but it was still very good. I think this is going in the rotation.

  • Gio on March 05, 2014

    This makes the best peanut sauce I've ever tasted.

  • Gio on October 05, 2014

    On-line recipe for the noodles and peanut sauce: http://beetsandbiscuits.blogspot.com/2009/06/cold-noodles-with-peanut-sauce.html

  • MsMonsoon on May 11, 2021

    Delicious, vegan, and crowd-pleasing. I am used to peanut sauces being brown so it was surprising to see a green sauce emerge when whizzed up in the food processor. Also surprising is her note that it keeps for a month in the fridge! Definitely thin the sauce with hot water so it will toss easily and coat the noodles. One thing I found unclear was how much of peanut sauce to use on the noodles. The whole 2-cup batch, or just a part of it? I ended up using perhaps 1/2 of the sauce on the noodles and am already looking forward to using the rest on a new batch of noodles and will perhaps add veggies. Edited to add: Made this again. Used whole wheat spaghetti, mint, matchstick carrots, lots of scallions, and black sesame seeds. Next time will use the additional soy sauce in the recipe because my final dish needed more saltiness.

• Sugar snap peas with sesame oil

  • Jardimc on July 07, 2022

    P. 181

• Green beans stewed with onions, tomatoes, and dill

  • emiliang on May 25, 2013

    A great side dish, with a lot of flavor.

• Shredded zucchini with yogurt sauce

  • StaceyR on August 22, 2014

    I really like the flavor of this. If you shred the zucchini coarsely and combine it with the sauce, it makes a delicious filling for omelets and crepes.

  • Emily Hope on May 29, 2013

    I like this quite a bit--it's a quick and tasty way to use up some zucchini, and the herbs and yogurt really play well off the zucchini. It's a bit on the tender/mushy side--fine by me, but C is not a fan, and thinks it might be better served as a dip than a side dish.

• Winter greens and potatoes (vegetable hash)

  • Emily Hope on December 03, 2010

    A simple dish for a vegetarian weeknight supper--as she says, it isn't pretty, but it's tasty.

  • Nancith on November 15, 2017

    So easy, but so very flavorful! It's amazing how the flavors meld together so well. The recipe doesn't specify chopping the garlic, but I did that for the final saute. Worked great as a main for me, & a side with meat for hubby.

  • emiliang on October 08, 2020

    Browned some sausage before frying the potatoes, and used cherry tomatoes (cut in half) instead of regular tomatoes for more flavor. Delicious dish!

• Summer squash and spinach gratin with ricotta custard

  • MsMonsoon on July 05, 2021

    This was a little bland, and I had even increased the garlic by 2 or 3 times. The ricotta custard part of the recipe sounded rich, but it wasn’t very. I opted for milk instead of cream, so maybe that’s why. I also had doubled the mushrooms, but Deborah Madison says the veggie amounts are not absolute. Maybe because I didn’t have a gratin dish and used a 9x11 glass pan, mine came out a bit watery.

• Potato and kale gratin

  • MsMonsoon on February 12, 2023

    Very easy and simple but a bit plain. I added nutmeg and salt to it afterward, on bowls of leftovers, and it was a nice improvement.

• Baked winter squash with spicy Moroccan butter

  • Queezle_Sister on October 11, 2011

    page 227

• Yellow squash and rice tian

  • vickster on January 25, 2015

    Delicious with short-grain brown rice. Would add another 1/2 squash next time so it isn't so heavy on the rice.

• Potatoes baked in clay with garlic and herbs

  • Emily Hope on December 03, 2010

    Love this recipe--with high-quality fingerlings and good garlic, it's really amazing, and the potatoes really do seem to pick up the fragrance of the clay (but it could be my imagination...) I like to mash the garlic into some mayo for an impromptu aioli to go with. Also invaluable as a dinner recipe, because it can be thrown in the oven and forgotten about for an hour, it will cook at a variety of temps if there are other things cooking in the oven, and it holds well if kept warm. Unfortunately, leftovers are never as good as the freshly-made dish.

• Flageolet bean and artichoke gratin

  • Avocet on December 15, 2021

    We found this a bit bland.

  • amoule on April 11, 2016

    This is absolutely fantastic; this was my go-to recipe in the nineties. Trimming the artichokes is a chore but the recipe comes together easily otherwise. A very special and elegant recipe for vegetarians or for days when you just don't want to deal with handling raw meat.

• Stewed lentils with celery root and walnut oil

  • Avocet on July 06, 2017

    Green lentils are very good. Use more onion and carrots. Can substitute more celery for celery root. p. 264

• Anasazi beans with juniper

  • Avocet on December 19, 2020

    Really good. I increase the seasonings a bit. I like to serve it with a rice pilaf of my own devising of sauteed onions, basmati rice, chicken stock and pine nuts.

  • bching on January 24, 2020

    refreshing flavor profile for dried beans.

  • jenburkholder on February 10, 2021

    I quite like this flavoring mix - juniper goes surprisingly well with the earthy profile of beans. I've made it a few times, with either pinto or peregion beans, and while this isn't my absolute favorite pot bean ever, it's always tasty. Yesterday I had it with tortillas, pine nut crema, and garlicky chard for an understated, but quite tasty supper.

• Red bean and rice "soup"

  • oddkitchen on February 06, 2013

    Converted the recipe for pressure cooking with long grain brown rice: combine all ingredients, bring to high pressure and sustain 20 mins., natural release. Can be dressed up in all sorts of ways (Italian! Mexican!) depending on toppings and condiments at hand.

• Chick-pea and tomato pilaf

  • Avocet on July 06, 2017

    This is a longstanding favorite. I've tweaked it to our tastes by: not soaking the rice, by sauteing a chopped onion with garlic in olive oil, not butter, adding 1 ts. paprika, adding the tomatoes, then chickpeas (2 cans) and cooking it down, then adding the rice, cooking til translucent, then adding chicken stock. Since I don't soak the rice, it takes about 15- 20 min to cook after the rice is added, but the flavor and texture is better, and it doesn't have to stand for 30 min before serving. Dinner on the table in under an hour. p. 272

• Pear coffee cake

  • jennicrain on October 31, 2020

    p. 301 This recipe is listed in the index under "Pear" but not under "Coffee cake."

• Pickled red onion rings

  • chriscooks on July 01, 2012

    These are easy, tasty, and look appealing.

• Baked apricots with buttered bread crumbs

  • jdub1371 on May 16, 2021

    This is a very nice, light, simple dessert, even lighter than a crumble. A generous drizzle of heavy cream keeps it from being too spartan. My apricots were rather tart and needed a little more vanilla sugar. which I always keep around so this went together very quickly. Maybe not exactly a low-carb dessert, but it's about as low as you can get (without artificial sweeteners) and still call it dessert.

• Doree's extravagant almond cake

  • Thredbende on July 31, 2011

    This is the most useful cake recipe I have. It can be made in every shape from miniature cupcakes to large tub cakes, freezes well, is easy to eat without crumbling, is a terrific substrate for strawberry/blueberry shortcake, and is utterly delicious. The use of almond paste elevates this pound cake to 5 star status. I recommend the almond paste recipe in the New Joy of Cooking. Make this cake, and consider using plain yogurt for the sour cream it makes no difference.

  • hirsheys on July 01, 2018

    Lizzy says she thinks she left out the baking soda for years, and may have liked it better that way… Should try it both ways at some point to check. Yummy with or without the extra chunks of paste, though it really makes a difference – truly decadent.

• Persimmon bars with lemon glaze

  • vickster on March 22, 2013

    These are delicious, and a great way to use persimmons. (They are out of season now, but I have some pulp in my freezer).

  • MsMonsoon on April 05, 2021

    Fragrant, delicious and very easy. Had put persimmons through a food mill and froze the purée and this worked beautifully once defrosted. I also made this with purée that included the persimmon skin and it worked just as well. When I made a 1.5x batch of this recipe and used the same pan, it also worked, just making thicker bars. I love the lemon glaze; it gives a wonderful sharpness and freshness. Come autumn, I will make sure to freeze as much purée as I can!

• Prunes stuffed with walnuts, chocolate, and orange peel

  • barbarajane on August 20, 2014

    these are wonderful!

  • jdub1371 on April 12, 2016

    Easy, elegant, delicious, and wholesome too. What more could you ask for? Keep in mind though, the digestive effects of prunes-- a gentle reminder might be wise when serving in quantity.