So am I applauding this book for enabling me to live a more ethical life? No way. I'm saying that by offering numerous really tasty, really simple vegetarian recipes that follow on relatively easily from most people's omnivore diets, it has given me exactly what I needed. Everything is nicely presented, its a good size to use and the pictures feel good. All superficial you say? On the contrary, the "pleasure of use" (a term used in the cosmetic industry!) is one of the big determinants of how often you take a book down off a shelf. And how often you take a book down off a shelf is a big determinant (in my book) of how highly I rate a cookery manual.

I don't use the book for grand meals or entertaining. I would look elsewhere for that. I use it for family meals that are straightforward, appealing and as tasty (or nearly) as trad. meat meals like spag-bol or chicken curry. If you are well in to your vegetarian food and have been cooking it for years then this is not the book for you either. I doubt it will add anything new. But I'm guessing there are others like me out there. We think 'lots of veg and pulses - very good for you' and 'lots of spices, garlic and soy sauce - adds lots of flavour' - but a few solid, tried and tested ideas for how to cook these all up into something that feels really satisfying? Answer: The New Cranks Recipe Book.

Their roast root vegetables, chickpea salad, cruciferous salad are weekly events in this house. Non of it is fussy or so finely balanced that you can't play around with the ingredients and substitute where you want to. It is true that there are some ingredients that are hard to find (eg tamari)and this is a weakness of the book, but we use soy sauce instead, or sometimes just leave the item out altoghether and things still turn and tasty and brightly coloured!

Its not long on brown rice or brown flour, but there's nothing stopping you adding these if you want to. We eat the chickpea salad with quinoa (a high protein gluten free grain from South America) - mega brownie points! - but I have been known to have it with oven chips too!


An Absolute vegetarian taste sensation   January 23, 2001
 15 out of 15 found this review helpful

This Recipe book is really delicious, it is full of easy to make recipes that are packed full with goodness and wonderful colours, which to me, really makes a prime feast. I think what I like most about this book , was the ingredients, they weren't all exotic things that you can only find in the most far east of countries but nice day to day things you can find in your local supermarket. I would of liked to seen more pictures, to really send my taste buds wild, but I mustn't be too picky now.

Really for all you vegetarians it will broaden your cooking ideas and you will be able to make the most wonderful , tastest, Caribbean pepperpot soup ever!!!!!


A traitor to the Cranks ideal, for the sake of trendiness   May 19, 1999
 26 out of 33 found this review helpful

The Cranks restaurants and cookbooks were not just eating places and books; there was a whole philosophy behind them. The idea was not only to be vegetarian but earth-friendly,and the food had to be healthy too. At that time, they were pioneers. It seems that the trends have changed, and after the death of the chief initiators, the restaurants were ready to close for lack of customers. I don' t know why. But surely the answer was not replacing earthenware pots or brown rice and brown flour. Nadine Abensur in her introduction looks down on "brown" features regarding them as dull , bad looking, boring, old fashioned (smelling of the Seventies) and what not. Subsequently she snugly reveals that the new Cranks will be...just like any other vegetarian restaurant, and her book just like any other of the dozens, hundreds of vegetarian recipe books. No brown things, please! She just kept the free-range eggs, maybe because the English public still has a tender spot for them. Actually, I happen to find white rice and white flour bread very boring and tasteless, apart from any health considerations. The recipes themselves, therefore, have little creativeness, being a collection of classics from around the world, such as ratatouille. Please note that many of them feature numerous additions of very special ingredients(found only in health shops)and, on the other hand, tinned goods (such as tinned tomatoes) and plenty of sugar,exhorting us not to feel guilty about it! I' m not saying it is a bad book, but it is sad that the author is permitted to tamper with the Cranks name and history.