Cookbook Review: 'Delia's Vegetarian Collection'.

Today I'm doing a quick book review on Delia's Vegetarian Collection, which is proving to be an absolute inspiration and motivation. We have a joke in our house about vegetarian food, and it comes from trying to eat less meat for years. We go through the vegetarian recipe books, magazines and invariably ask, "Nice but where's the lamb chop?"

So many vegetarian recipes are what we think of as side-dishes and seem to sit on the plate missing something, a bit like a room without the focal point of a fire. 

A lot of vegetarian recipes also rely on the whole one pot / mixed pot kind of meal, which is okay, but I have always preferred my foods separated out on the plate, so that I can blend and mix my own combinations. It's a reason I have never gone too potty over pasta dishes or risottos; after a couple of mouthfuls, all mouthfuls are the same - sometimes, like with rice pudding, that's the beauty of it, but a lot of the time, it's just disappointing. 

NOT THIS BOOK: Thank the heavens for Delia, a long term heroine of mine. Delia and Floyd are my first memories of the whole cooking thing. It's thanks to them that I fell in love with food and cooking. Now, Floyd was not the man to turn to in a meat-free crisis, but Delia has proven her goddess reputation with her book 'Delia's Vegetarian Collection'. 

When you flick through it, you see recipe after recipe that is proper, wholesome, home cooked, comfort food that has a main focal point to the meal. She  has managed to collect many recipes in this book whereby you don't even think about 'where's the lamb chop'. 

The only criticism I would have of this book is that her methodology is sometimes over complicated for the same end result. I used her Chickpea cake recipe last night as a starting point for the recipe I posted earlier today - but being an intuitive home cook, who REALLY struggles with following instructions, the very lengthy method was a little confusing. I read it over a couple of times and then streamlined it in my head, missing out or combining several stages so that it became a lot less overwhelming. 

But other than that, this is definitely a book that is worth investing in if you are determined to make the switch from total carnivore to more meat-free days. It won't leave you disappointed. 

4.5 STARS and highly recommended. 

IT's currently on Amazon for around £6.50 in the hardback. Here's the link  But it's also worth checking out your local charity shop, too. That's where I got mine from a year or so ago.