cover image Vegetarian Pleasures

Vegetarian Pleasures

Jeanne Lemlin. Alfred A. Knopf, $22.95 (301pp) ISBN 978-0-394-54117-4

You don't have to be a vegetarian to be tempted by these 74 menus, comprising 250 recipes for quick, informal and elegant meals, summer fare, breakfasts and brunches. A cooking instructor at Manhattan's New School for Social Research, Lemlin presents nutritionally and esthetically balanced menus from a variety of culinary traditions. She specializes in creative mixed marriages, such as tofu francese with artichoke hearts, whereincombining Italian and Chinese styleschunks of tofu are dipped in an egg batter and sauteed, then cooked in a lemon, butter and white-wine sauce with artichokes. This excellent resource will help readers appreciate vegetarian cooking for the adventurous and satisfying cuisine it can be, offering such possibilities as iced plum soup, black bean and cream cheese enchiladas, and baked macaroni and cheese with cauliflower and jalapeno peppers. Recipes for basics (perfect brown rice, pesto) and the glossary will be particularly useful to the uninitiated. Illustrations not seen by PW. BOMC/Cooking & Crafts Club and Better Homes & Gardens Cook Book Club alternates. (May 14)