Vegetable Desserts

This partly silly, partly clever cookbook aims to help readers incorporate vegetables into desserts in order to creep closer to the FDA-recommended five daily servings of fruits and vegetables. Despite the subtitle, the vegetables that work best here are those that are traditionally used in desserts. Pumpkin Nut Cookies with maple icing, Upside-Down Carrot Cake with pineapple, Cocoa Zucchini Cake and Glorious Rhubarb Meringue Pie are familiar but solid. Beans and tofu are also put to clever use in Big Bite Bars with peanut butter frosting and Chocolate Swirl Pie. Less appealing are Kraut Crisps, made with a can of sauerkraut, and Curious Lemon Cake, which is made with spinach. Each chapter focuses on a particular vegetable and includes an introduction that combines folklore, nutritional information and shopping and storage tips. One problem is consistency. For those increasing their veggie intake for nutritional reasons, there doesn't seem to be much reason to bother with desserts like Zip Chip Bars, fairly standard bar cookies with one cup of grated cucumber incorporated, even though the authors admit that ""[t]here aren't big doses of vitamins and minerals in a cucumber."" (Feb.)