5 comments about Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco.

1. I never use this book because it contains unnecessarily complicated recipes. I am not looking for recipes adapted to mainstream American tastes and am happy to seek out and use exotic ingredients, but these recipes are just not remotely practical and I wind up searching for tagine recipes elsewhere. Maybe an update would be in order, especially as the author seems to have the resources for a broad scope of Moroccan recipes. However, there do seem to be multiple other cookbooks on the subject that are simpler to use.



2. I grew up reading Paula's books which filled my parents kitchen shelves. Paula's stories of Morocco (and other areas such as the south of France) between the tasty recipes captured my imagination, and when an opportunity arose, I snatched it to experience Morocco myself (where I am writing this review from at the moment). Her writing and the road map she created in writing this book for making incredible food is the primary factor of my decision to come here.
   
   The recipes are magical (though I heard a rumor once that William and Sonoma were going to create a Paula Wolfert package with an assortment of spices typically not as available in the states). We, my family, however, never had trouble finding what was needed to make the delicious dishes, and having just had home made couscous in a traditional house in the town of Fes, the dishes you can make with her recipes are as good as traditional Moroccan cooking (which is amazing, by the way)!
   
   If you love moroccan food, you must do two things. First, buy this book. Then, come to Morocco.
   
   The only disappointment is that no one gets rid of her books, and so I can never find a copy in used book stores.



3. This is THE cookbook to have on Moroccan food. If you have space for only one, this is it. The recipes are well written and well researched. They are very accessible to the home cook. I have been using this book for about 20 years. I just finished catering a Moroccan event for over 100 people using Paula Wolfert's book as a guide (expanding the quantities, of course). There were several Moroccans in the crowd who LOVED the food. I served the HARIRA (lentil soup, traditionally served at Ramadan, the Muslim time of fasting between sunrise and sunset) to friend who is Moroccan and ran a Moroccan restaurant. It was during Ramadan. At his first taste, he literally swooned, his eyes rolled back in pleasure and he murmured something in Arabic that sounded like a prayer. As a result of the successes I've experienced with this book, I have purchased all the other Paula Wolfert cookbooks. She is my hero!



4. It's time to update this book with pictures and recipes that call for less than 4 chickens. Really!! Many recipes are designed to feed a crowd. It would be a lot easier to scale up a recipe (X2, or X4) than to scale down a recipe.
   If I were doing it again, I'd get a different book.
   Ooops! I guess you're not supposed to criticize Wolfert. I say, "The book is living on reputation." It's time to update it.



5. I just got back from Morocco and thought the recipes in the cookbook were quite authentic.

5 comments about Exotic Ethiopian Cooking : Sociey, Culture, Hospitality, and Traditions. Revised Extended Edition. 178 Tested Recipes. With Food Composition Tables..

1. Having lived in DC and now Seattle, Ethiopian restaurants are cheap, plentiful and delicious. I've had this book for a number of years without having cooked from it, but finally decided to give it a try.
   
   The results were good in some places, not-so-good in others. I made Tibs Wet (spicy fried beef), Zigni Wet (spicy ground beef stew), Gomen Besiga (collard greens), and Nitir Qibe, the spiced butter that is the foundation of this cuisine. Injera made with teff was bought from the store, as was berbere (pepper-based spice mix).
   
   The Tibs were excellent, just like I get in so many restaurants. But only because I was able to adjust from mistakes made following the Zigni (ground beef) Wet recipe. The ground beef recipe overstated the amount of berbere by about 15-20%, the butter at least 50-100% or more. The Gomen was pretty bad - even though I had cut the butter (from previous recipes) the recipe called for way too much red onion, which overpowered the collards and ruined the taste. If it weren't for all my experience eating Ethiopian and cooking Punjabi Indian cuisine (similar spices and methods), this meal would have been a lost cause.
   
   I am grateful there is at least one Ethiopian cookbook out there, even if the recipes need some serious tweaking to be usable. There is considerable info on Ethiopian culture - both well researched and enjoyable to read. If you're going to cook from these recipes, add your berbere sparingly at first (50-60%) and adjust to taste. Use perhaps 20-25% of the spiced butter to start and work your way up if needed.
   
   As for the lack of cooking instructions - if you've ever eaten in an Ethiopian restaurant you will understand this is a cook-by-feel cuisine, with little actual measuring, largely taught by domestic cooks (mostly women) to their children. Yes, this is hard to work with if you're used to recipes, but I think it proves the book's authenticity. It's hard enough to find the ingredients for this cuisine, let alone cookbooks. If the author would test the recipes more thoroughly, we could have real winner.



2. This cookbook is good as it is the only Ethiopian cookbook out there. However, the "tested" recipes are NOT tested. For example, the recipe for gomen calls for 1 pound of collard greens and 1 pound of butter. Some recipes call for 1 cup of berbere, which is about 90% cayenne pepper! Use these recipes as a starting point, but think about every measurement before you add the ingrediends or else you'll find the food too greasy or too spicy.



3. I grew up in several places in Ethiopia and missed this marvelous food when my family returned to the States. This book has been very helpful to me in recreating the dishes I loved as a child.
   
   As to the actual recipes ... Ethiopian cooks generally cook by feel and sight. There are no cups and teaspoons in their huts, so following the recipes to the teaspoon in this book is not recommended. If you are trying to cook for only one, many of these recipes are for six or eight or even more. Cut down on the Spiced butter and the onions if you don't like that many; add more black cumin (which is actually nigella seed used in Indian cooking and can be bought cheaply at Ishopindian.com), cardamon, fenugreek or anything else you might like. The recipes are really guidelines as Ethiopians use what they have at any given time.
   
   Over the years I have tested and tasted my recipes, using this book as a starting point. Strangely, the only thing I haven't been able to get to work for me is the Injera recipe. Since I live near Seattle, I can buy very good injera, so that's okay.
   
   I highly recommend this book for everyone. I need another one. My first one is falling apart!



4. As the only most complete Ethiopian cookbook, I commend the author for bringing his book to the people. Some of the history and notes are interesting read and the general effort is commendable, even admirable.
   
   However, I don't believe the author actually tried to cook using his own recipes out of that book. It seems to me he merely asked "authorities" (Also Known As Ethiopian mothers) who mainly cook by taste and vision and wrote down their best guesses.
   
   The indexing is more like the Table of Contents with extremely limited value. As a person of Ethiopian decent I tried many times to use this book, but, alas, perhaps because I'm just too used to the Sunset Magazine's way of writing recipes, I was never able to actually make anything following Exotic Ethiopian Cooking cookbook. One really needs to be knowledgeable about Ethiopian cooking already and simply get ideas from it in stead of following it to the tee.



5. I like this cookbook alot because it gives you in-depth receipes from how to prepare spices from scratch to making authentic flavored food. Somethings are a little americanize by adding the wines but everything else is pretty authentic. I made the Doro wat and it was awesome- Great book!!

5 comments about The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa.

1. I am obsessed with this cookbook, especially now that I have had a chance to make some of the recipes. If you are looking for new flavors and interesting and challenging new foods to cook then I highly recommend you buy this book. Unlike some other reviewers, I did not buy this book for the travelogue aspect. I wasn't looking for an in depth encyclopedic knowledge of any specific country's cuisine. I was just looking for something new and different and delicious. I'm a cook and a foodie and I love ethnic cooking. This book is a great introduction to the trendiest new food in the US. My favorite so far has been the Crab Burgers, which feature easy black bean crab burgers topped with pickled cabbage and chili mayonnaise. I can still taste how unique and delicious they were. Everyone who tried them was blown away by their flavor, which can't really be imagined before you take a bite. While making all the components was a bit time consuming (but really not that bad) none of the recipes were terribly difficult. But I would say this book is geared more to more experienced home cooks and adventuresome eaters. Those with mundane palates probably should stay away.
   
   In response to an earlier critique, I think that reviewer missed the gist of the book. The idea was to take the cuisine of various African countries and get the basic idea of it but then to expand that idea to something bigger. So the recipes keep a common ingredient but fix it in a unique way or use a technique with a unique combination of ingredients. I love this about the book. Samuelsson keeps techniques, such using a morter and pestle, that can't be matched with modern methods but uses modern technology, such as the mandoline, when it performs the needed task more easily, and in this case if your knife skills are lacking, with better results. I do agree, however, that the photographs that go with the recipes can be misleading. I'm still not sure what the Stir Fry Beef Stew is supposed to look like. The pictures on the pages with the recipe are vastly different and not labeled but both could be the stew in question.
   
   All in all, I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves cooking and ethnic foods. The flavors are out of this world and the recipes are highly inspiring.



2. I really had high hopes for this book, and there is little else out there dealing with this region. It is a nice introduction to the ingredients but the recipes are lacking in detail, I am able to fill in the blanks but without a solid knowledge of cooking most recipes would be difficult to complete with complete success. And do not be fooled by its size, most of the pages are half full and although the book is well designed there are a lot of pictures - which means less talk of food and recipes. So think of it as training wheels, but it is not the bible of African cooking



3. Great presentation of the diversity of African cuisine. Flavors differ from north to south and within ethnic groups. Great book for both recipes and history/derivation of spices and cooking techniques. Highly recommend it for the culinary adventurer.



4. Having traveled fairly extensively in parts of Africa, I can't say that this cookbook features a lot of authentic African recipes from the areas I visited, but as the title says--it is a discovery of the foods and flavors of Africa.
   
   If you enjoy exploring various cuisines, it furnishes delicious twists through the use of flavorings and herbs of some traditional American dishes such as roast lamb or a beef stew as well as some dishes that normally don't grace our tables like a tomato-roasted shark! I love avocados and made the Avocado Fool featured in the dessert section. Can't say it was a resounding hit, but it was interesting!
   
   If you are into ethnic cuisine, this is a good addition to your library. The cookbook combines the best of American and African flavors!



5. You don't have to cook to enjoy this beautiful book. My husband is from Senegal, West Africa and the photos, stories and ingredients in this book bring us home to the coast of the Atlantic and the wonderful seafood prepared dishes. We currently live in a small farm community in Eastern Wa so many of the ingredients are not available to us until we get to markets in Seattle to stock up..So glad we have added this to our collection!!

5 comments about Finding Martha's Place: My Journey Through Sin, Salvation, and Lots of Soul Food.

1. I found Martha's story interesting, and at times very sad. Thank goodness we know right at the start that the story has a happy ending, because it starts out grimly, as Martha is receiving electroshock therapy in a psychiatric hospital, then skips back to her desperately poor childhood as one of (I lost count) a very, very large family, and her own pregnancy at age 15.
   
   She has a great heart! The prose is almost poetic at times, paragraphs of nearly a page in places, and she and her co-writer wrote in a very conversational tone, much like I'm writing here, with natural speaking pauses in sentences, but not necessarily a lot of punctuation. Natural, not forced.
   
   The recipes at the end are nice but almost an afterthought. This is not a cookbook, but an intensely personal life story of a lovely woman.



2. I know the saying goes, "Do judge a book by it's cover" but that's exactly what I did when I saw Martha's book. There was something so cheerful about the cover of this book it made me just want to pick this book up and read it. What a pleasant surprise when I discovered the book was really good! I felt like I was really hearing Martha's voice as I read and her genuineness just shines through the pages. Her life and her experiences are such a testimony to the human spirit. Thank you for sharing your story with us, Martha!



3. 'Finding Martha's Place' isn't your average autobiographical book by a restaurant owner, regional or national celebrity cook, and it's unlike anything you might expect. I just finished reading this twice in one weekend. Yes, I did say twice. Do you know how Thanksgiving dinner is so completely, absurdly delicious, and you linger at the table savoring every bite until you think you might burst, but then a handful of hours later you just have to make yourself a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce? That's what Martha Hawkin's book is like. Written in a conversational style, by the end of the first chapter or two you'll almost feel she's sitting with a glass of sweet tea on your front porch telling you the tale of her life, taking her time and holding nothing back.
   
   The author is a devout Christian woman, her faith a huge part of who she is and of her story, yet she's careful not to sound preachy. In fact, throughout the book she writes very simply and plainly that this is her faith, her beliefs, and it may not be the reader's, but it's her story so she's telling it honestly and openly. It took many years and a lot of struggles (even a few tragedies) before the doors opened at Martha's Place; a lifelong dream that took decades to reach. Martha Hawkins is brutally honest about her mistakes, her emotions, her breakdown, and difficult decisions she made which probably raised many eyebrows at the time. It's a beautifully written book which feels as though she's taking the reader into great confidence in the retelling of her experiences. It's as though she connects with her unknown readers. In fact, on the last page, she asks the reader to pray with her, and my guess is whatever faith you might be, or even if you've never set foot in a church, you'll find yourself praying right along with her as you read those words on the page. It's follwed by a solid "Amen!" and an invitation to stop by and have a hearty, soulful meal at Martha's Place.
   
   I'd give it six stars if I could, and must add this is very giftable book.



4. You may not always agree with Ms. Hawkins' take on life, but it is one filled with hope and her story is one that is worth reading. When I began reading this book, I was taken by surprise to hear her tell the story of how it felt to be in the psych ward of a hospital. She describes it with such vivid details that you can understand how she felt and what it was like to be so depressed and beside herself. Then, she backed up and began to tell the story of her life. She has gone through so much in her life. But, even from the beginning there was a sense of hope in her story. She tells the reader early on that there were hard things in her life yet to come and I didn't want to read about them. But, I'm glad I did. We read autobiographies and nonfiction books to understand the lives of others, to have compassion for others, and to be motivated to affect the world we live in--whether simply by voting, or by loving our families and friends, or by ministering to the needs of our communities. Ms. Hawkins' book will put a smile on your face and fill you with hope that indeed this world can be a better place!



5. Finding Martha's Place completely caught me off guard in a good way. While I was expecting to read a story about a woman overcoming adversity to open a restaurant, I was surprised to find that the book was more about a woman overcoming adversity to find something more important: God's purpose for her in life. Martha Hawkins is an *amazing* woman. She's made a lot of mistakes in her life, suffered a lot of hardships, and suffered depression - and yet she overcome all these trials with spirit and determination. While most people would sit around blaming others, life, and God for the hardships in their lives, Martha simply accepts that things are the way they are, and "rolls with the punches", so to speak. This book was an inspiration to read - I would highly recommend it to anyone.
   
   An added bonus: Martha includes a few recipes at the end of the book for everyone to enjoy: I've yet to try them out for myself, but am looking forward to giving them a go one of these nights.

5 comments about The New Soul Food Cookbook for People With Diabetes.

1. This book is very helpful, because it teaches a person to cook with flavor. Most times the foods that we (diabetics) eat are so bland. This is a well written book. The exchanges are a plus.



2. I love to cook and eat. It's wonderful that I can now prepare healthy and traditional fare for my family without worry over fat and salt. Thanks ladies!



3. "Authors Gaines and Weaver show the reader how much of the hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes plaguing the African-American population can be avoided by making easy changes to traditional soul food recipes without losing too much of the flavor. The basics of healthy food preparation and menu planning are incorporated with suggestions for cooking with traditional herbs and spices, along with advice for reducing fat, calories and sodium. Portion sizes are given to aid in blood sugar control and weight loss, as well as complete nutritional information and official ADA exchanges.
   Now you can experience palate-pleasing soul food recipes such as Barbecue Pulled Pork, Hoppin' John, Hoe Cake, Soul Slaw, Collards with Smoked Turkey, Chicken and Dumplings, Key Lime Pie, Rice Pudding, Sweet Potato Pound Cake and more in The New Soul Food Cookbook." (review from the National Federation of the Blind website, Marilyn Helton reviewer)



4. I have tried several recipes from this book and was pleasantly surprised that the dishes were delicious.



5. The recipes in this book are a help to me in trying to maintain a healthier eating lifestyle even though I am not a diabetic. The tips and stories were interesting and very informative.

5 comments about Flavors of Morocco: Delicious Recipes from North Africa.

1. I've searched for quite a while for a really great Moroccan cookbook, and this is the best one I've found yet. There is a good variety here of courses as well as meats/fish used, and a good number of tagines. The recipes are not overly complicated, and do not feature a lot of hard-to-find ingredients. The pictures are beautiful and browsing through the book is a pleasure as well as cooking from it. If you are looking for a Moroccan cookbook look no further.



2. Excellent introduction to Moroccan Cooking including tidbits on the culture and customs. Photographs, easy instructions and enticing recipes make this cookbook a winner!



3. Beautiful pictures, beautiful food, wonderful recipes. If you've been to Morocco It'll bring back culinary memories, If you're going it will prepare your palate. There are many Moroccan sites on line to purchase the ingredients and Tagines. A few are listed on page 157 at the end of the book. I love this book.



4. I own three Moroccan cookbooks. They're all good, but this is the one I find myself using the most often. The book is great, the food is wonderful.



5. Ghillie Basan does it again! As I have said before "you can't go wrong with her books". If you are a beginner, she is where you start. If you are an experenced cook she is where you end. She always encludes history and backround in her books. I'm a senior citizen who lives to cook and has over 50 cookbooks and will never buy another unless it is a Ghillie Basan book. Besides being a great cookbook it is a plain old "good read".

5 comments about Sweets: Soul Food Desserts and Memories.

1. Thanks to Patty Pinner everyone can now enjoy authentic and delicious family favorites! I have tried several of the recipes, from cakes to cookies, and my family has enjoyed them thoroughly. The strawberry cake, coconut cake, brown sugar pound cake, 7up cake, dr pepper cake and oatmeal cookies have delighted everyone at our family gatherings. I will definitely keep these recipes in our family and have enjoyed reading tales of Pinner's family. This cookbook is a feast for the eyes, the palate and the soul! Thank you Patty Pinner!!



2. I originally ordered this cookbook myself, then after seeing it, ordered nearly 10 copies as gifts for friends and colleagues here in Munich - several of them homesick Southerners. This cookbook is really a delight to read and the recipes bring back alot of memories.



3. Brought this book for a gift based on reviews and I am very happy that I did. My sister loves it.



4. I'd been making the peach cobbler recipe from this book for years without paying attention to where it came from. The recipe appeared in a magazine a few years ago and I've been making it every since. For some reason I decided to see where the original recipe came from and that brought me here to buy the book. I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised. This isn't just a cook book, but almost like part family history as well. I'm very eager to try the recipe's in the book...especially the Dr. Pepper cake (I've never heard of) and of course the sweet potato pie (I've always bought frozen and passed it off as my own). There's other recipes that I've heard of, but never knew what they were (egg pie). This book is a good addition to your library. While I haven't made all of the recipes in the book, I can attest that the peach cobbler recipe is perfect. Some recipes require you to add a little extra sugar, butter, etc. This recipe is perfect as it is. The only thing I did differently was buy refrigerated pie crust instead of making it from scratch...delicious!



5. This book is great. It reminds me of so many of the things I ate as a child in my grandmother's kitchen

5 comments about Cookin' with Coolio: 5 Star Meals at a 1 Star Price.

1. This book caught my eye as I passed by the table of various cookbooks at the local bookstore. My first thought was `cooking with Coolio' - WTH? Coolio was a lackluster rapper back in the day, what could he teach me about cooking. As I thumbed through the book, the spices used along with food combinations really captured my attention. I read the book on the drive home from out of town and my husband had a stop twice as I was laughing so hard I almost wet my pants. The terms he uses and references are over the top but funny as he!!. Actually the thought of Coolio cooking is hilarious but what I didn't know was that he has a highly rated internet cooking show...who knew?
   
   Many may find the some of the examples and wording offensive while several of the recipes wouldn't go over well for my family - crybaby chicken (too many hot peppers);drunk-ass chicken (way too much liquor) and hot fruit sandwich (fruit stacked on bread - no way)...but if you get over that the laughs alone will keep you entertained. Discover the Ghetto Gourmet, how to become a kitchen pimp, and how to make sinful steaks. You will learn how to make "pasta like a rasta", "sweet treats for that sweet a$$" and seafood in the chapter titled "it's hard out here for a shrimp". Change your measurements from - pinch to a peench; tablespoon to a dime bag; and combine to coagulate. Reading through the "ten cool-mandments" and the quotes from Jarez Sez will surely make you change the way you look at the kitchen. After trying a few recipes, the combinations were brilliant (chili mac pimpi; popcorn steak; high-flyin', stir-fryin' vegan vegetables; and Jarez make-it-rain peanut butter cookies. Rachael Ray, Martha Stewart and Bobby Flay should watch their backs cause the Ghetto Gourmet is on the attack...
   
   DELTAREVIEWER
   REVIEWING FOR REAL PAGE TURNERS



2. Well I have to say this cookbook took me a little by surprise. I received it through the Amazon Vine program and I can't say I had any real expectations. When I began to flip through it I was a little startled though amused at the some of the language and euphamisims but simultanesouly impressed by the recipes themselves.
   Mostly comfort food recipes with some more gourmet fare sprinkled throughout. The instructions are clear and concise, and the descriptions are funny and colorful. I wouldn't give this to my mother but my sister would definetly enjoy it!



3. Oh, Coolio, you took us on a Fantastic Voyage to the Gangsta's Paradise. And know you have Sumpin' New, a cook book. Yes, as the back cover says, "There's only one thing that Coolio's been doing longer than rapping: cooking." Cookin' with Coolio promises "5 star meals at a 1 star price." The cook book is really for novices that have never bought one before but what something easy that is you can get a chuckle while cooking (Coolio instruct you to do such things like "2 eggs, beaten like a red-headed stepchild" for his Kompton Fried Chicken). All you cooking needs are here including appetizers, salads, poultry, streak, (It's Hard Out Here for a) shrimp, pasta, dessert, and even meals for Vegetarians. A perfect gift for any bachelor in his twenties or thirties who thinks cooking is opening up a can of SpaghettiO's to get them to learn how to cook real meals from a blast from the past.



4. All the recipes are fairly simple once you understand the lingo i.e. "dime bag, nickle bag", etc... I think these are great for those who don't like a lot of fuss and still have something pretty good to eat. Though "Coolio" said he's only using ingredients that most people already have in their kitchen, and he gave a list of items for your "pimptry" I still had to go and buy a few extra items called for in the recipes but that was no big deal.
   
   Some of his terminology might be a little offensive to women, but he is who he is and says it the way he wants to say it. There's a ton of sexual metaphors but as long as the recipes are good I really couldn't care less and I'm a woman. I showed this book to my redneck friends and they loved it. I was surprised by that because I expected them to reject it instantly but was nicely surprised that one of them (the biggest, reddest of all rednecks) asked it he could have it. I was glad I could use the excuse that since it was a Vine item that I couldn't give it away cause I didn't want too. I like it too much.
   
   The pictures are great, Coolio is especially lovely looking and his recipes, at least the ones I've tried turned out well. Kung Fu Chicken was good, Night-Night Chicken was especially good (both from "Pimpin' the Poultry" chapter) and the fried catfish was good, however I didn't really need a recipe to fry the catfish like he tells you too. It's pretty basic stuff - just right for a guy since it's not overly-involved and he can enjoy the trash talk while he's cooking.
   
   He even has a section for vegetarians (Chapter 10) but I haven't tried any of those recipes yet but they look like they'd be good.



5. I didn't expect to really like this, but I was pleasantly surprised! Yes, the language can be a little coarse, but I expected that. What I didn't expect was to get so many yummy, easy recipes out of this. I enjoyed the informal tone of the book and it made just reading the cookbook a lot of fun. The recipes are made up of commonly found ingredients that work incredibly well together. I definitely recommend this cookbook...especially if you have a teenaged or young adult male who is interested in learning how to cook.

5 comments about Tagine: Spicy Stews from Morocco.

1. I stumbled onto this book and the cuisine. The recipes looked so healthy and delicious that I even ordered the tagine, pickled lemons, and spices. Tagine gives you a delicious stew of "protein," vegetables and fruit, mildly spiced, that is also healthy. It is perfect when serving guests something unusual but not "foreign." The recipes in this book are easy to cook.



2. What an awesome little book!I use my Tunisian LeSouk Tagine more than ever now and it's a great gift for friends who are new to slow or mediterranian cooking. For a relatively small book, I find its format as savory as the dishes within its cover!



3. I've tried two of the tagines so far and they both tasted quite refined. It's a small, square-formatted book which makes it pleasant to handle and drool over the photographs. The book is clearly and easily organised with a recipe on one side and a corresponding photograph on the other. I also purchased, by the same author, Ghillie Basan, "Flavors of Morocco"; also a beautiful book to own.



4. The recipes in this book are soooo good. The pictures so enticing that they make you want to eat the pages. When I introduced my older sister to Moroccan cusine I gifted her a tangine, a marjam and two Ghillie Basan cookbooks. I told her this is all you will ever need to cook Moroccan. "Tangine: Spicy Foods from Moeocco" was one of the books. This one is short on history and tradition but oh so long on taste. This is a thin book. However because of the recipes and quality of photos it is my favorite. If you want to do tagines this is the way to go.



5. Several reviewers have complained about the length of this book -- and it's not a long treatise on Tagines, with hundreds of recipes. But, chances are you are getting this after recently getting a tagine, or having some delicious Moroccan dish. In that case, it is a perfect introduction. I have made about a dozen of the recipes in the book -- they are well presented, beautifully photographed and easy to follow.
   
   The lamb tagines are a real favorite here -- in particular the less sweet ones. Kefta are surprisingly easy and incredibly good -- both of the kefta tagines are now regulars. It's nice that you can even order Mustapha's Moroccan Ras el Hanout right here on Amazon. This is a great spice blend well worth adding to your cooking repertoire.
   
   Don't skip the salads in the back -- the melon and mint is really good. And, the citrus, onion and olive salad is a keeper. This is one of those combinations that I wouldn't have thought would work -- but it is terrific. The sweet/tart orange is a perfect foil for the red onion and the oil really blends it together. I first encountered this salad in a Claudia Rhoden book (see below)-- this is basically the same recipe.
   
   Also, baked couscous is definitely the way to go. For a long time I just did the "add boiling water and soak" method. Not even close. Use this recipe or similar.
   
   If you want more recipes, and more writing, I would recommend buying Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon -- which has food from a broader region, but includes some great tagines, and is the place where I first encountered the citrus/onion salad that is also in this book. It's probably my favorite cookbook of the last few years. However, don't let that stop you from buying the small gem as well.

5 comments about Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine.

1. I purchased this book for my vegetarian daughter wnd she is very pleased with it.



2. I received my products in a timely fashion and in excellent condition...I would certainly recommend this seller to others...Thank you and may God bless and prosper you.



3. The recipes are clear and easy to follow. You can make super vegan food without spending tons of time in the kitchen and the ingredients are easy to find (even if, like me, you don't live in a big city). The writing style is engaging and the sidebar notes add to the fun. I highly recommend this book.



4. I am a Southerner and usually eat vegan at home so this cookbook has turned into one of my favorites. The collard greens are the tastiest I've ever had and can please even a picky eater of greens. The author lists his top ten favorite recipes from the book up front and those are the ones I've started with (grits with tempeh, arugala with roasted beets). They have all been wonderful and not too difficult to prepare.
   
   Another unique aspect of this cookbook is that each recipe comes with a intro, a recommended soundtrack, and sometimes a movie. (How to Eat Watermelon in Front of White People and Enjoy It is on my Netflix queue right now!) What a fun read. I purchased two more of these cookbooks for friends who are trying some vegan out at home but love their Southern favorites.



5. Bryant Terry is a social-justice pioneer who uses food as one of many tools in his activist arsenal. In addition to being a Natural Gourmet grad, he is the acclaimed co-author of Grub (with Anna Lappé), a regular columnist on [...], a community organizer (The Food and Society Policy Fellows Program; b-healthy!), and a much sought-after speaker. With this recipe, success is inevitable. Vegan Soul Food is more manifesto than recipe book. He pairs each recipe with a suggested soundtrack, "to be enjoyed while cooking and eating." Try to resist Cajun-Creole-Spiced Tempeh Pieces with Creamy Grits, matched with John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme." VSF focuses on local, sustainable, organic, real food, and Terry encourages you to be "freestyle and be creative. Explore the food, word, images, and music." With 150 recipes, this can't miss classic will have you kissing your Collard Confetti without missing a beat.