Customer Rating:  
Summary: disappointing
Comment: I'm not that familiar with Rachael Ray, so maybe it was my mistake, but I found the cookbook to be really disappointing. It's mostly pasta, soups, and salads. Very few recipes just of vegetables. None with tofu. Many of them require cheese. I can believe that the dishes only take 30 minutes to make and that they're all vegetarian, but they're not necessarily very healthy and the book lacks variety.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Vegging Out with Rachael Ray
Comment: "Veggie Meals" is Food Network personality Rachael Ray's attempt at crossover... to the vegetarian (but not vegan) crowd. Since it is one of her earlier cookbooks, it is more accessible, and Ray relies on old standbys like gazpacho and tabbouleh. Her vegetarian sandwiches are "pair something with a portobello mushroom." Oddly, her Asian stir fries omit tofu, tempeh or seitan.
"Veggie Meals" has some strengths- the 3 Bean Soup, mashed potato soup, and pumpkin and black bean are easy and delicious. The pumpkin/black bean pairing isn't all that odd;it's great for chilly autumn evenings. The salads are foolproof.
"Veggie Meals" also has its drawbacks. Ray assumes that if there's plenty of EVOO and whole wheat pasta,it's automatically healthy, even if it's drowned in sour cream and oil. Many recipes have TONS of ingredients. The pumpkin polenta looks... gross. It might work in a Halloween haunted house. The chickpea patties pale beside felafels; stick to Gardenburgers instead. The Quick Red Cabbage soup has liquid smoke(??)--sort of like how Ray is now putting Montreal grill seasoning in ANYTHING. The chili for "veg-heads" is an unholy mix of beans, Tabasco sauce,and refried beans.
It's clear that Ray hasn't had much experience with vegetarian,let alone vegan,cooking. Go for the latest recipes in Vegetarian Times, Cooking Light, VegNews,or Troth Wells' "The World in Your Kitchen" or the late Linda McCartney's "World Tour." Try those and you'll go....YUM-O!!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Yum-O
Comment: I just bought this book and I highly recommend it. The pumpkin soup with black beans is amazing!! Try it!! I am always looking for new ways to incorporate veggies in my diet and this book hits the spot.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another great additions to her many books!
Comment: This is a great escape from her other decadent cook books and ideas. For vegans it is good and she has ideas well known and others with many twists. I just like her simple ways and her fun personality and she loves what she does.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Slim and expensive, but some wonderfully easy Mediterranean dishes
Comment: Rachael Ray Veggie Meals: Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals is actually one of her oldest books, from 2001. At $14.95 (list price) for a book that only clocks in at 127 pages, it leans toward the more expensive side compared with her more recent 30-minute meal paperbacks that are much larger for the same price. This would be a great first book for a transitioning vegetarian (especially for students going off to college), but there are better, more comprehensive vegetarian cookbooks such as Mediterranean Harvest: Vegetarian Recipes from the World's Healthiest Cuisine, Diane Kochilas' The Greek Vegetarian: More Than 100 Recipes Inspired by the Traditional Dishes and Flavors of Greece and Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World that do greater justice to the myriad of Mediterranean flavors and cuisines.
The book is divided into suggested menus, soups, salads, risotto, pasta, and Italian vegetable entrees, Make Your Own Asian Take-Out (Chinese and Thai-style veggie dinners), and Snack Suppers (stuffed potatoes, sandwiches, dips, and spreads).
The "menu" suggestions are quite sparse due to the small number of recipes available; many times, the "menu" consists of a salad and side, albeit themed (Italian, Middle Eastern, Southwestern/ Mexican).
Soups opens with the prerequisite Chili for Veg-Heads, with three kinds of beans (black, kidney, and spicy vegetarian refried), Tabasco and chili powder, and crushed tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, garlic, and beer (!). Red Beans and Rice Soup was a nice nod to Cajun cuisine and a pleasant alternative to Caribbean-style rice and beans. Three Bean Soup is more of a minestrone, as it contains red-skinned potatoes, carrots, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, tomatoes, and fresh green beans (no pasta, though). There are several variations on minestrone, including Chick Pea and Cannellini Minestrone. Gazpacho with Gusto is the perfect starter for hot summer evenings. Ray's Pumpkin and Black Bean soup is a wondrous update on classic black bean paired with pumpkin puree, butter, oil, heavy cream, and curry (NOT for those on a low-fat veggie diet!). Quick Red Cabbage Soup was a fascinating alternative to German red cabbage, and similarly contains apples, pickling spice, veggie broth and optional liquid smoke flavoring. Mashed Potato Soup is the ultimate comfort food: potatoes, milk, sour cream, heavy cream, and sharp cheddar.
The Salads include Greek-style grilled vegetable platters, a super-easy (and yummo) White Bean Salad, Middle Eastern flair with Lentil Salad and Tabouleh Salad, Italian faves such as Panzanellas and Caprese, elegant spinach salads (one with pears and walnuts, the other with blue cheese and scallion).
If you're looking for easy entree ideas, look no further than Rachael's risottos (porcini, artichoke, asparagus, and zucchini), pestos, pastas, green gnocchi, eggplant parmigiano, Vegetable Barley, and Polentas.
The brief Asian section includes stir-fries, Cashew Vegetables, spicy veggies (curries, ginger, pepper). Finally, the recipes are rounded out by Snack Suppers, including baked potatoes, pita pizzas, melts (Eggplant and Mozzarella, Open-Faced Eggplant and Tomato), Portobello Pizza Burgers, Spinach Calzones, burritos and quesadillas, and luxurious spreads (bruschetta, tapenade, spinach artichoke dip, white bean dip, tomato spread, hummus). Many are kid-friendly and make perfect munchies for sports nights.
Although short and on the pricey side, Ray's choices take classic Mediterranean dishes and make them accessible to harried cooks who need to get dinner on the table in a hurry. Chopping up the fresh herbs and veggies is the most time-consuming step, since the recipes generally come together beautifully once your ingredients are prepped and assembled. Many recipes make use of shortcuts such as canned beans and canned vegetables. There are no nutritional analyses, but many recipes use 2 or less tablespoons of oil (usually olive), and many that call for dairy mention low-fat options. If you want to cut more fat, use nonstick cooking spray to coat your pan before searing or sauteeing veggies instead of oil.
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