Delia's Vegetarian Collection (Hardcover)

Firstly a lot of the recipes are quite involved. This is not a book for knocking things up in a few minutes or using the few meagre items left in your fridge. Having said that, the swiss baked eggs are a marvellous piece of naughtiness-laden comfort food. Delia's instructions are fairly explicit though, so if you are a beginner cooking to impress then you shouldn't have _too_ many problems, although she's not quite as down-to-earth and full of handy tips as Nigella Lawson or Nigel Slater in this respect.

Secondly, although the book looks divine, with photos filling every other page and some double pages, most of it is totally unnecessary filler fluff - more than half the pictures are of raw ingredients. I already know what a basketfull of apples looks like, thanks Delia, and while I've never seen whitecurrants before, a knowledge of their black and red cousins, combined with a good imagination, should be enough to stand me in good stead. I would much rather have seen more of the recipes photographed. What a waste of space - looks great on the coffee table but next time please can I have either a more useful or a cheaper book.

Finally, not really a big issue but of minor annoyance (to me at least), her insistence on using imperial measures and farenheit temperatures (albeit with metric equivalents in brackets) seems about 20 years out of date, and smacks somewhat of the little-England mentality which I guess Delia represents to some degree. To a generation raised with things that can be divided by 10, it's confusing as hell.

If, like me, you cherish vegetarian recipes wherever you can find them, this is definitely an important book for the collection. But if you are looking for a first book then, as a vast sourcebook of easy-to-cook recipes, I cannot recommend Madhur Jaffrey's "World Vegetarian" too highly. If it's more something to impress friends that you're looking for, while this book ranks highly I would first try to get hold of a copy of Marlena Spieler's sadly out-of-print "Vegetarian Bistro" with its wonderful French-inspired high-butter-high-cream-high-mmmmmmm dishes.

I appreciate this book because I am the sort of person who cooks a lot of vegetarian meals, who likes spending time in the kitchen, who enjoys the difference that using varied and often quite expensive ingredients can make, I like to cook for friends, and even don't mind spending half the evening making an elaborate dish just for me. And in true Delia style these recipes work, they are straightforward, and they really are very tasty.

However this is probably not the book for you if you only want an occasional vegetarian meal, or if you want a range of simple everyday recipes - most of the simplest dishes are only accompaniments and almost all the main courses are worthy of a dinner party - and it's certainly a bad buy if you are on a budget. I tried the spinach and ricotta lasagne with pine nuts, and very tasty it was too, but it took ages to make, and I reckon it cost me £14 not including store cupboard ingredients such as flour and herbs! Why specify tinned or frozen spinach when the fresh baby-leaf version is so much more profitable for Sainsbury's et al?!! No wonder Delia's beloved Norwich City can't afford a decent goalscorer...

So, to sum up, it's a wonderful book for the hobbyist cook or veggie who likes to entertain, but not an everyday cookbook. If you want something simpler, just as effective and definitely cheaper then I recommend something by Rose Elliott instead.

The foreword by Victoria Wood is very funny, but don't buy it just for that!

It has a wealth of recipes and is well illustrated with colour photographs - secretly one of my favourite things in a cookbook, because when you're flipping through it can surprise you with things that look delicious.

There is a wide range of recipes, from salads and soups to puddings and elaborate main courses. The publisher hasn't skimped on recipes, and there are no blank spaces - often there are multiple recipes on one page, which is nice. That said, it isn't too crowded and is fairly easy on the eyes.

Delia provides the only rösti recipe that I've ever made which has actually stuck together. Usually, no matter what amount of egg I put in, the whole thing falls apart in a mess of grated potato. Delia's rösti are baked, have some chopped greens and cheese in with the grated potato, are absolutely delicious - and they don't fall apart! I think that this speaks well for the quality of the whole cookbook...

The only problem that I have with the recipes in this book is that they are almost all slightly too fatty. Although as a vegetarian it is good to see recipes include a source of protein, I'm slightly disturbed about the huge amounts of dairy products - especially cheese and butter - which Delia uses in lavish quantities.

I do like this book very much, but I find that I need to adjust the quantity of butter or cheese used in the recipes. Usually I use about 3/4 of what Delia recommends, and so far it has worked fine. My feeling is that this is a slight flaw in an otherwise excellent and accessible vegetarian book, which offers many absolutely delicious recipes that I use regularly.