DK’s The Vegetarian Cookbook came out right before New Year’s Eve in 2019. It’s designed for older kids and teens. I’m a lifelong vegetarian, and I wish I’d had a nicely photographed book like this back in the dawn of time when I was young and learning to cook for myself!
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Like most cookbooks written for kids, this one starts off with the requisite “Kitchen rules” section, and predictably includes explanations of kitchen equipment. There’s a section on healthy eating, with info on fruits, vegetables, starchy carbs, dairy, proteins and fiber.
Now let’s explore the chapters:
- Brilliant Breakfasts
- Super Snacks
- Lovely Lunches
- Delicious Drinks
- Moreish Main Meals
- Sweet Stuff
The recipes are super simple and easy – perhaps a bit insultingly so to older preteens. Avocado mash toast doesn’t really involve any cooking; nor does making hot chocolate, shakes and fizzy fruit drinks.
There are some challenging and valuable recipes here though: Poached eggs with Hollandaise sauce, chickpea and sweet potato curry, cauliflower steaks, sweet potato lasagna, and a veggie goulash with dumplings.
Recipes tend towards the healthy: muesli, veggie gyoza, lentils, bulgur salad, falafel balls, and lots of sweet potatoes.
I’m not sure any kid is going to make beetroot brownies, but they might try making avocado and banana ice cream just for the oddness and novelty of it. Thankfully the book includes more standard dessert recipes, such as orange and chocolate cookies and a lime pie.
There’s a definite ethnic bent to this cookbook (I like that!) shown in recipes for lentil dhal and paratha bread; mango lassi; curry; gyoza; and halloumi.
I wanted to mention that the page layouts are very colorful, the food photography nice and pretty, and the recipes laid out in an easy to follow manner. Each recipe has pictures of the ingredients needed, a photo of the finished product, a note about how many people it serves and how long it will take to make, a list of ingredients and a brief set of instructions.
The more complicated recipes use multiple pages showing mini pics of each step taken – I find that very helpful in my adult cookbooks, and appreciate seeing it here too.
Many of the recipes include things you can add in, or omit, to customize the recipe to your liking. I really appreciate that, as I often omit spicy things, peppers and onions (probably because I’m getting old and wimpy!)
Overall, this is a colorful, cheerful book that definitely makes cooking and making things in the kitchen look fun and easy. I’d recommend it if you know the kiddo you’re buying for this well – are the difficult recipes going to be too hard for them, or the easy ones talking down to them? Is the kid you are thinking of buying this cookbook for willing to try lots of new flavors and textures?
I likely won’t add this to my own cookbook shelf as I don’t have kids in the house anymore, but I have a pre-teen vegetarian niece in mind who probably will be thrilled to get this as a birthday gift this spring!
-Carrie
