Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian

Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian: More Than 650 Meatless Recipes from Around the Globe By Madhur Jaffrey, Clarkson Potter; 1999. Paperback. $28; 758 pages

If you like cookbooks to take a big overview, this one is for you, a thunker, a global recipe survey, with advice on how to shop for, store, and prep for roughly 200 vegetable recipes. Beyond veggies, Jaffrey exhausts beans, peas, lentils, nuts, dairy, and grains. Travel memories place recipes in context, and most of them detail country of origin. Jaffrey offers American points of reference, making dishes feel familiar and exotic at once: Red Pepper Paste is likened to tomato paste in texture and use; it adds savory depth to comforting Bulgur Wheat with Red Pepper Paste. Her Moroccan harissa is garlicky, fiery nirvana—a sauce you'll look for excuses to use often.

GIVE THIS TO: Lovers of big, complete cookbooks. —Julianna Grimes