The One-Dish Vegetarian: 100 Recipes for Quick and Easy Vegetarian Meals

Robbins's 14th effort (after Biscotti and Other Low-Fat Cookies) performs a valuable service by collecting familiar one-dish meatless meals in a single volume. While she doesn't break new ground, her recipes are solid. Main-dish salads include Potato Salad with Green Beans and Tomatoes, Black Bean Confetti Salad and Wild Rice and Corn Salad. Soups such as White Bean and Roasted Vegetable Soup and Black Bean Soup show hints of innovation (roasting the vegetables in the first and serving salsa alongside in the second) but on the whole are widely known. Additional chapters on pasta (Spaghetti with Caramelized Onions and Spaghetti with Roasted Fennel and Tomatoes) and rice (Vegetarian Paella and Thai Fried Rice with Pineapple) offer a few surprises along with familiar fare (Wagon Wheels with Zucchini, Beans, and Tomatoes and Risotto with Zucchini, Corn, and Red Pepper). Disappointingly, all six of the chili recipes offered in the chapter on stews appeared previously in the author's Chili!. Robbins scatters interesting quotes throughout, and she has a cheery, informal writing style well suited to this material. A chapter on basics and a list of mail-order sources are useful perks. (Feb.)