The Greens Cookbook
by Deborah Madison, Edward Espe Brown, Marion Cunningham, David Bullen (Designer)
The Greens Cookbook is that rarity, a book that truly represents a revolution in cooking. Here are the recipes that helped to create the boldly original and highly successful Greens Restaurant on San Francisco Bay. Not only for vegetarians, this book caters to everyone who seeks delight in cooking and eating. Using an extraordinary range of fresh ingredients in imaginative and delicious ways, it shows how to present a feast for the eyes as well as for the palate.

Fields of Greens: New Vegetarian Recipes from the Celebrated Greens Restaurant
by Annie Somerville
The opening of Greens Restaurant on San Francisco Bay in 1979 changed forever the image of vegetarian cooking in America. From the restaurant's imaginative mix of casual elegance, exciting tastes, and a subtle message of health and harmony, a distinctive cuisine was born that has continued to bring joy to many thousands of diners every year as well as to the hundreds of thousands of readers who delight in The Greens Cookbook. In its latest incarnation, the restaurant has evolved toward a lighter, leaner, simpler cuisine, one that keeps all the spirit and refinement of the original menu but depends more on the excitement of sparkling fresh produce and its integral relationship to the dishes it inspires.

In close to 300 original recipes, the new Greens style includes exuberant salads, soups, the legendary crusty Greens pizzas, curries and hearty stews, grilled vegetables, and intriguing turnovers made with filo pastry, tortillas, and savory doughs. And of course there are heavenly breads and the famous desserts, like ginger pound cake with poached apricots and cherries. This cornucopia of brilliant dishes focuses on tantalizing tastes, with a new simplicity, clarity, and liveliness as its hallmark.

Annie Somerville, the executive chef at Greens, goes right to the heart of the matter: extraordinary produce that's bursting with flavor, color, and texture. Some of her favorites--like crinkly Bloomsdale spinach, candy-striped Chioggia beets, succulent Rosefir potatoes--are highlighted in the text for gardeners and farmers' market aficionados. But the Greens style is above all accessible; ordinary red beets will be just fine if more exotic varieties are unavailable. To help with availability, there's information on locating farmers' markets throughout the country as well as sources for plants, seeds, and local resources.

Because the garden is at the center of this book, readers are encouraged to try their hand, in tiny backyards and windowsill boxes if necessary. Invaluable growing tips are offered from Green Gulch Farm, the source of much of the stunning produce served at the restaurant. Other special features include a section on low-fat cooking and another on pairing wine with vegetarian food.

All of the abundance and exuberance that the title Fields of Greens implies is here, for the novice as well as the expert, for simple last-minute meals as well as extravagant occasions. For truly inspired contemporary vegetarian cooking, Fields of Greens is the essential sourcebook.
Annie Somerville trained under Deborah Madison, the founding chef at Greens Restaurant. Under Somerville's guidance as executive chef, Greens has become a culinary landmark. Her work has been featured in Gourmet, Food & Wine, Ladies' Home Journal, SF, and California magazine. She also contributed to The Open Hand Cookbook and Women Chefs cookbook.

The Millennium Cookbook: Extraordinary Vegetarian Cuisine
by Eric Tucker, John Westerdahl, Sascha Weiss
Millennium, arguably the best vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco, finally shares its secrets. If you've never been to Millennium, forget the stereotype of a vegetarian restaurant serving bean sprouts, brown rice, and seaweed. Millennium, a true gourmet restaurant, presents elegant, innovative, inspired cuisine that happens to be as healthy as it is delicious. This book entices the accomplished cook to explore exquisite dishes that will surprise and delight any dinner party--even if your guests are not vegetarians. Try appetizers like Cabbage and Shiitake-Filled Spring Rolls with Plum Sauce, or Grilled Portobellos with Herb-Tofu Aioli and Red Onion Marmalade. Experience the Indian-inspired Baked Madras-Glazed Tofu with Saffron Basmati Pilaf and Peach-Lime Chutney, or the Curry-Crusted Tempeh with Pomegranate Sauce. You won't want to skip dessert: Chocolate-Almond Midnight will indulge even the most finicky chocoholic.

Some of the dishes are simple to prepare, but most are intricate and time consuming and include subrecipes, making this book best for artistic cooks who revel in new, inventive recipes. For example, the recipe for luscious Moroccan Filo Crescents with Curried Golden Tomato Sauce (only 21 percent fat, despite the filo) takes more than a page, and references three other recipes. All recipes are vegan--no meat, eggs, or dairy--and most are very low in fat. Nutritional breakdown is provided for each recipe, and the food photos are gorgeous. The Millennium Cookbook is an impeccable gift for the inspired cook in your life. --Joan Price

The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest
by Mollie Katzen
250 recipes. Handlettered. Indexed. Illustrated throughout.

Vegetables
by James Peterson, Justin Schwartz (Editor)
James Peterson's Vegetables is an encyclopedic yet easy-to-read guide to preparing everything from artichokes and beet greens to plantains and watercress. It contains more than 300 enticing recipes, many which use just three or four ingredients.

This is a book about vegetables, but not a vegetarian cook book. To deliver appealingly intense flavors, Peterson uses chicken broth, anchovies, prosciutto, or bacon. He also does not skimp on cream or butter when he feels it is right for a dish.

Peterson starts with information on buying, storing, and using 64 vegetables. Photos illustrate how to trim fennel, clean and julienne leeks and perform other commonly used techniques. He also provides helpful information along with the recipes, like suggesting that you buy roasted, not raw cashews because they are less likely to be rancid. The recipes range from Mediterranean-style Creamy Zucchini Gratin to Mexican Avocado and Chile "Gazpacho," and Japanese Cucumber Salad, as well as expected classics like mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and creamed spinach. When you need a gift, think of this book. -- Dana Jacobi

The follow-up to his James Beard award-winning Fish & Shellfish, James Peterson's newest book, Vegetables, will be the most authoritative book on the topic. In addition to the more than 300 wonderful recipes, Peterson includes an encyclopedic introduction covering topics such as vegetable varieties, uses, buying, preparation, storage, and more -- basically everything you'll ever need to know.

Raw: The Uncook Book: New Vegetarian Food for Life
by Juliano, Erika Lenkert (Contributor), Juliano Brotman
"Gourmet raw cuisine"--if that sounds like an oxymoron, you'll be amazed by the creativity of the recipes in this book. Every food is "live" (uncooked) in these vegetarian recipes from Juliano, the raw-food guru of Los Angeles. Juliano believes that fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, beans, and seeds in their rawest and purest form are the most nourishing foods. If your imagination stops at alfalfa sprouts and grated carrots, hold onto your cutting board. Juliano's recipes include Butternut Squash Soup, New Moon Fruit Stew, Thai Green Papaya Salad, Living Buckwheat Pizza Crust, Mango Essene Bread, Mock Salmon Sushi, Raw Spring Rolls, seven varieties of burritos, nine varieties of pizza, and nine unusual smoothies. Desserts? Try EZ Pudding (made with maple syrup, avocados, and carob powder) or Cashew Gelato (cashew butter, maple syrup, and almonds, served frozen). There are also condiments, dressings, and sauces, and plenty of information about preparing raw foods, including how to soak and sprout beans, grains, seeds, and nuts.

It may seem like cheating, but a food dehydrator is permitted to "bake" pizza, cookies, and breads. It blows hot air, but never heats foods hotter than 120°F, which, claims Juliano, "allows all the delicate nutrients that are usually burned out of cooked foods to remain intact." Raw is filled with gorgeous color photos of the foods in all their vibrant colors and a number of photos of the vibrant Juliano (not in the raw). "Before you know it," says Juliano, "you'll be Raw and loving it." -- Joan Price

The Savory Way
by Deborah Madison
A personal collection of more than 300 elegant recipes, The Savory Way presents Deborah Madison's innovative style of vegetarian cooking. The recipes are flexible and forgiving and fit into her philosophy of cooking. Some are quick fixes, designed to quell an urgent appetite; others are more leisurely affairs. Some are low-fat; others, more decadent. All allow for substitutions. Using fresh fuits and vegetables, spices, flavored vinegars and oils, edible flowers, salsas and cheeses, she creates a vegetarian palate that is sophisticated and healthful. From soups to salads, sandwiches to crepes, breads to sweetmeats, The Savory Way reflects Deborah Madison's personal brand of contemporary vegetarianism.

Victory Garden Cookbook
by Marion Morash, Marian Morash
Even if you're not a gardener, The Victory Garden Cookbook is a great book to have; if you are a gardener, it's a treasure. The book grew out of a public television series called The Victory Garden, which was essentially a how-to program aimed at home gardeners, with a recipe segment thrown in. As the show's popularity grew, so did viewer demand for more recipes; eventually, Victory Garden cook Marian Morash decided that a cookbook was in order, resulting in The Victory Garden Cookbook. The book is a wonderful hybrid encyclopedia of information for both gardeners who cook and cooks who like to garden; Morash's first goal was to so entice readers with the pleasures of eating home-grown vegetables that they, too, would take up gardening--or at least shop for the freshest ingredients instead of settling for canned or frozen goods. The book, first published in 1982, has been a huge success ever since.

Organized alphabetically, The Victory Garden Cookbook includes all the vegetables Morash grows in her own garden; in addition to information about planting, growing, and harvesting the fruits of your labor, Morash gives advice about storing vegetables, converts yields into measurements (i.e., a half-pound of small Brussels sprouts equals 28-30 sprouts, while a half-pound of medium sprouts equals 12-14) and offers tips to gardenless cooks for finding the best produce. Whether you're an avid gardener, a gardener wannabe, or simply a person who loves a good vegetable dish, The Victory Garden Cookbook is guaranteed to become one of your best-loved and most-used cookbooks.