Joy of Cooking: All About Vegetarian

After more than 60 years, we've learned to trust America's favorite cookbook to provide clear, well-written recipes that always work for dishes as diverse as falafel, spanakopita, and succotash. Perusing its pages, however, used to be a very plain experience. Now it's just plain mouthwatering! The full-page photograph of the Grilled Eggplant and Roasted Red Pepper Panini dish--focaccia with tapenade and fresh mozzarella--is a showstopper and leaves nothing to the imagination. The big earthenware bowl of Winter Vegetable Couscous redefines comfort food. And the golden, crispy crust on the Persian Rice, made with basmati rice, saffron, onions, and dried apricots, will leave you breathless and starving. Somehow, we never noticed these gems buried deep in the big Joy. Mixed together in the vegetables section, we didn't realize until now how many of them are dishes that can stand alone as entrées.

Joy has always been a good bet for kitchen novices, but these volumes go the extra step by illustrating the finished dish (always reassuring for a beginner) and suggesting many useful techniques, such as how to separate eggs, press tofu, and prepare artichokes. For those of us who already own a copy (or two) of the original tome, this adaptation is simply inspirational and a great addition to anyone's cookbook library. The presentation is so beautiful and stimulating, you'll hardly recognize that the recipes are the good old reliables, all dressed up and ready to go. --Leora Y. Bloom