Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers: Fresh Ideas for the Weeknight Table by Moosewood Collective

Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers: Fresh Ideas for the Weeknight Table Reviews

• 
  Nadine in NY Jones

  This is a great cookbook with some real winners, but also some so-so recipes, and a few ridiculous recipes, like "corn on the cob" or "fresh tomato salad," which is chopped tomatoes with basil and fresh mozzarella tossed with olive oil. I make that all the time in the summer and never considered it a "recipe." I guess they aren't kidding when they titled this "simple"!
  
  Recipes we tried:
  Broccoli and Tomato Salad
  My daughter made this for her school lunch, and raved about it. I neither made it nor ate it! It's basically steamed broccoli and fresh tomatoes tossed with a simple balsamic & olive oil dressing. Sounds like this is a "make again" recipe.
  
  Sour cream lemon dressing
  Lily made this for her lunch and said it was too sour, she added extra plain yogurt to improve it.
  
  Pasta with Greens & Ricotta
  This was my Mother's Day dinner and it was fantastic! Lily said it was very simple to make too, the 25 minutes time seems accurate. Says serves 4-6 and we got 5 servings. We will definitely make this again. For dessert, we had Chocolate Ricotta Pudding (we were unintentionally All About Ricotta.)
  
  Chocolate Ricotta Pudding
  This was amazing, and (once we got the blender to spin against the cooling, gardening chocolate) very easy. We will definitely make this again.
  
  Sesame Tofu with Spinach
  I thought this was fantastic!!! I will definitely make this again ... on a night when I'm only cooking for myself because I was the only one who liked it. (Recipe says this "will please even the tofu-phobic" and that turns out to be false. Daughter #2 wouldn't even try it. Her loss, my gain, more leftovers for me!!!) Recipe calls for 10oz of baby spinach but Wegmans sells 8 oz bags, so I threw in a few chopped baby bok choy, this was excellent.
  
  Creamy lemon pasta
  This was good, but too oily - next time make with half and half instead of heavy cream. We added half a bag of baby spinach and a bag of baby arugula. It needed the greens.
  
  Bean and cheese quesadillas
  Extremely simple and not impressive. I've never baked quesadillas before, and I won't do it again. We used black beans instead of refrigerator beans, because refried beans are gross. I wasn't crazy about the salsa cooked IN the quesadilla either.
  
  Pasta with Olives Piquant
  I thought this was fantastic!!. My kids weren't so crazy about it. I used basil instead of parsley because Lily doesn't like parsley, and topped with plenty of Parmesan. It would be even better with some pine nuts.
  
  Whole Grain Pasta with Greens and Tomatoes
  Boring name but a good meal! I was the only one who really liked it, though. We used endive; I would make this again, and it might be interesting to try with different greens.
  
  Shrimp Curry with Snow Peas
  This was fantastic! I am learning that I really like recipes with coconut milk (which is a surprise, because I don't like coconut). I also realize now that I forgot to add the basil - oops!! It was a little watery, not sure how to fix that (maybe use less coconut milk?). Served over rice, we got four servings, just like the book says. We will definitely make this again, we all loved it.
  
  Poached Huevos Rancheros
  Meh. It was okay. It was really simple, though! The two of us ate it all, so "2 servings" is accurate. We weren't quite sure HOW to eat it though ... roll it up like a burrito? cut it in pieces and eat with a fork? I ended up folding it in thirds like an enchilada and slicing it up.
  
  Lemony Green Beans
  Extremely simple. Basically just toss cooked green beans with lemon juice and olive oil. (And it was too much lemon juice.) This would be a nice way to prepare vegetables if you like your vegetables with lemon. Which I do not. We served this with Sesame Broccoli and (gasp!) grilled sausage. The confirmed vegetarian in our family had a (homemade) veggie burger.
  
  Sesame Broccoli
  Extremely simple. Basically just toss cooked broccoli with dark sesame oil, salt, and red pepper flakes. I added some sesame seeds, too. I'll probably make this again (I mean, it's so simple, why wouldn't I??)
  
  Chipotle Potato Salad
  Basically, potato salad made with the chipotle mayo recipe in this book, which is mayo + canned chipotles in adobo sauce + lemon juice (and it was kind of annoying that these recipes were not on the same page). This was very good, and pretty easy, a nice twist on the classic potato salad. I even liked the chopped red bell pepper in it, and I don't usually like peppers. It would be good with some corn added, too. We will probably make this again.
  
  Green Fried Rice
  When I looked at this recipe, it did NOT look very good! I mean, fried rice with eggs, soy sauce, and chili paste, sure! But with bok choy and spinach and corn??? I was skeptical. Those things didn't belong in my fried rice. But my daughter (who doesn't like eggs) chose this recipe, and she made it for us, she said it was pretty easy, and all three of us loved it! We will definitely make this again. It says serves 4 and that's how many servings we got.
  
  Lemony Couscous with Chickpeas
  This (like the green fried rice) is featured in the "main dish grains" section, but I think this recipe would be better as a side dish, maybe at a potluck. Or it needs to be revamped, add some zucchini and grape tomatoes, perhaps. Something. It was good, but I didn't want a whole plate full of just this.
  
  Asian Braised Fish with Greens
  This was good but not amazing. We had this on udon noodles. Next time I make it I'll cut the amount of fish in half, because I don't like fish leftovers, and we can't eat 1.5 lbs of fish in one setting!! I should have thought of that before.
  
  Saucy Hungarian Eggplant with Bulghur
  Wow this was so good!! And surprisingly fast to make! I will definitely make this again. In fact, I think this recipe sold me on buying the book. Dear Library, I can return your copy!
  
  
• 
  Ivonne Rovira

  The title pretty much says it all. If you’re a fan of the Moosewood Restaurant’s vegetarian cookbooks, here you’ve got a chance to deploy some of their vegetarian main dishes. For those carnivores out there, you’ll still like a lot of the recipes, although some of them will probably turn up as side dishes rather than entrees on the dining room table of meat eaters.
• 
  Julie

  I found out about the Moosewood Cookbooks in my book-a-day calendar. I am not a vegetarian, but the recipes sounded simply mouthwatering. So...we checked it out of the library (I didn't want to spend hard earned money unless it was good). My husband and I tried 6 recipes and LOVED every single one. Now we have bought our own cookbook. My favorite (so far): Tomato Tortilla Soup paired with bean and cheese quesadillas. Everything is so easy to make and fresh tasting. Tonight we had the Indian Potatoes with Cilantro Omelette. AMAZING!! What I like about this book is that it also gives me some new skills i.e.--infusing oil with cumin seeds, curry powder, salt, and cayenne pepper. What a great idea!! Then to top it off an omelette with nothing but cilantro in it?!! But, this dish was amazing. I feel so content and not overly full. In fact I never feel horrible after any of the Moosewood meals. WOnderful!!!
• 
  Emmkay

  Fun to browse, and the recipes I've tried so far have done what they've said on the tin - flexible, tasty, and not too time-consuming. A keeper!
• 
  Cassandra

  This is very usable book. I have worked my way through almost 70 of the recipes and all have been fairly easy to prepare and satisfying to my family. Our favorites include Creamy Lemon Pasta, Jop Chai, Caesar Salad with Tofu Croutons, Spinach-Cheese Burritos, and the super-delicious Cilantro Lime Dressing.
• 
  Penelope

  This book is ok. I appreciate that the recipes are simple and usually result in a minimal amount of clean-up afterward, however I think that in some cases adding another pot or pan to the clean-up could have resulted in a better recipe.
  
  A few of the recipes I made were awesome; I made them multiple times and they were great every single time. A few recipes were abject failures, either by my own fault or because the recipe was just a flop.
  
  The Good:
  
  Asparagus avgolemono (pg 130)
  This soup is so good! Especially served with toasted rye or pumpernickel bread. Mmm. The lemon juice adds a nice tang to it. I found it to be a bit much when the soup was served fresh but thought that it became milder after a few days. It's good either way, though, and this is a simple recipe that just "works". It has a complex combination of flavors, but uses only a few ingredients and is very simple to prepare. I used dried dill instead of fresh, and I think it came out wonderfully.
  
  Broccolini cheddar melt (pg 138)
  I misread the name as "Broccoli" originally and so bought broccoli to make these sandwiches. Broccoli works fine but I guess if you can find this "Broccolini" creation in your supermarket, go for it. These sandwiches are really simple, filling, and tasty. I made this recipe a few times and it's a keeper. Really simple but delicious and hearty.
  
  Vegetarian reuben (pg 143)
  This probably sounds like a complete abomination, but let me tell you...it's good. And really simple. It's essentially coleslaw, tomato, and swiss cheese on toasted rye or pumpernickel bread. I hate coleslaw, but loved these sandwiches. I made up a full batch of the cabbage/dressing recipe and kept it in the fridge to make sandwiches over the course of 3 or 4 days. It kept pretty well and made for easy prep. I think it's the sloppiness of these sandwiches that's so reminiscent of a "real" reuben, not necessarily the flavor...but regardless...it's really good.
  
  The Bad:
  
  Pasta with artichoke hearts and feta (pg 29)
  This recipe sounded absolutely delicious and I couldn't wait to make it. Now I have a giant bowl of leftover pasta in my fridge and I have a sinking feeling that most of it is going to end up in the trash. There are a few reasons for this. One pound of pasta is just way too much in comparison to the amounts of the other ingredients. The pasta to other-stuff ratio is just...off. Second of all, the recipe instructs you to add a cup of hot pasta-water to the feta and whisk until smooth. I found that achieving a smooth consistency was quite simply impossible. I'd much rather have made an extra dish to clean by using a small sauce pan over low heat on the stove instead of mixing it in a bowl--it probably would have worked better. Third, there just seems to be something missing. Some other vegetable or spice or...something. It's just a whole lot of pasta (too much pasta), artichoke hearts, and some cheese basically. It needed something else.
  
  Green and white bean gratin (pg 57)
  This recipe was probably a failure because of my own errors, not necessarily by any failure of the recipe itself. It came out pretty horribly, and again, I have a feeling the leftovers are not going to be eaten by anyone. First of all...am I the only one who has no idea what the heck "white beans" are? I stupidly bought a few cans of beans that were literally white, but upon further research on the internet later discovered that white beans are not necessarily WHITE beans. So there was my first problem. I'd have appreciated a note somewhere in the recipe listing the types of beans that would be suitable. Second of all, I don't own a blender so that part of the instructions kind of got thrown out the window and I mashed the beans with a fork instead. It worked alright but after baking, the results were just not good (although it smelled great, which gave me hope...false hope).
  
  Red bean, potato and arugula soup (pg 124)
  This soup was easy to prepare and serving it over arugula was kind of novel and made me feel fancy and sophisticated. This was another recipe that I felt was just too simple, however. The actual soup is basically composed of 2 main ingredients, red beans and potatoes. It gets old after about 4 bites. The lemon juice also adds a tangy-ness that I didn't think was great for this particular soup, especially if served with parmesan or romano cheese as recommended--it's just a little too much considering the very subtle earthy flavors of the beans and potatoes. Not that great, but at least the scant leftovers will likely be consumed rather than trashed.
  
  Overall, I think this book has some good recipes to offer, and most of them are simple to prepare and require minimal clean-up. Sometimes I just think that "simplicity" came at the expense of flavor.
• 
  Kimberly

  There were a few recipes in here I will actually try. There's lots and lots of vegetarian/vegan options for those who need them. My husband and I are pretty plain eaters; besides his affection for all things Mexican food, we have a pretty basic palette. That being said, quite a few of these "simple" recipes had ingredients we would never purchase (what the heck is a Keiffer lime leaf?) so this book wasn't ideal for us. However, for those who eat more broadly across international cuisines, this book would be a great tool for exploration.
• 
  Erika

  I am not a vegetarian. That is probably why I can't rate this book any higher. It tried to use corn on the cob as a recipe which I think is ridiculous. And - vegetarian reuben?????
• 
  Juliet

  Had this from the library and really wanted to keep it. Got actual ideas for weeknight meals, and everything I've tried has been good and family-friendly.
• 
  Sam

  This book is out of print and it makes me sad. I rented this from the library and LOVE it. I'm debating on whether or not I want to buy a used one as I already have a Moosewood cookbook that I cook from all the time and love. I think there are some repeats in this book of recipes that are in the other book. Favorite recipe: Cauliflower Curry Soup with Cranberry Chutney I also like, but haven't tried yet, the very simple but essential recipes such as how to roast garlic (yes, please). Other recipes I tried and liked: mushroom ragout, cilantro omelet with indian potatoes.
• 
  BookBec

  A lot of these dishes include dairy in a significant way, which ruled out many recipes for me. But those that I made were pretty tasty, though sometimes on the "light" side -- not always a full meal.
• 
  Alisa Wilhelm

  I've checked out a few different Moosewood cookbooks before and didn't like them. This one is more contemporary and international, but still keeps to the principles of fresh, unprocessed ingredients. It's all vegetarian except for a chapter on seafood.
  
  This book is good to have on hand when you need to figure out tonight's dinner and don't have a lot of energy to be creative, which is most nights' reality for me. It has a good mix of cuisines so there is surely something to pique your interest. I like it!
• 
  Katie

  My current favorite cookbook. I wasn't going to mark this as read until we'd done the whole book, but since we're being more seasonal with our produce these days AND there's a whole seafood chapter, that's never going to happen. I've done about 15-20 of the recipes, and all have been excellent. And easy. And filling. And they make a point of using some of the same ingredients a number of times, to go along with their suggestions for a "well-stocked pantry." Possibly this would be boring for an experienced cook who's fairly creative in the kitchen, but for someone like me who sits there going, "oh, crap, what are we going to have for dinner *this* week," it's fabulous. I especially appreciate that the vast majority of the recipes are main dishes. There are some sides and desserts, but they're a minority.
  Favorites (so far):
  Savory bread & cheese bake
  Pasta with caramelized onions & blue cheese
  Spinach artichoke risotto
  
• 
  Katie

  I cannot reccomend this book enough!!
  
  I cook a lot and I'm vegetarian. Also, like most of the world, I'm pretty freakin' busy, but I don't think that is an excuse to not eat home-cooked meals. Enter this cookbook. Not only are the recipes pretty great, but they have also given me all sorts of ideas on how to make other things faster. If you aren't vegetarian, don't worry. There is a whole chapter on fish and most of the recipes could have chicken or some other meat added in. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to serve home-cooked meals, beginning cook or seasoned veteran. It has really changed our dinner!
• 
  Stacey

  At what point can I say that I've read a cookbook? I've looked through all of the recipes and think they look delicious and manageable with the ingredients I usually have in the house. Tonight I made my first recipe out of it and we decided it was a keeper. It was a fancy take on grilled cheese sandwiches. This one was cauliflower cooked up with three cloves of garlic (yes, I can still taste it). Spread a bit of dijon mustard on bread (homemade from this morning), pile on the cauliflower, put cheddar on top and broil it. The recipe called for broccoli, but I wanted cauliflower. It turned out sooo good. Then we had apple pear crisp for dessert. Linus has no clue how good he has it.
• 
  Heidi Pepin

  Not my favorite of the Moosewood cookbooks. I bookmarked several recipes to try, like the Asparagus Avgolemono soup or the Green and White Bean Gratin. Some of the recipes do call for unusual ingredients but they were few and far between. My biggest pet peeve was the recipe for Broccoli Slaw. Doesn't quite seem like a recipe to me to take pre-packaged broccoli slaw and add oil and lemon juice.
  
  But at least a handful of recipes caught my eye. However, I'll probably stick with some of the other cookbooks by Moosewood for the most part.
• 
  Paul

  I saw this book at a greatly reduced price, and I had to have it! I've lived by Moosewood cookbooks for the majority of the past 30 years. The recipes in the two other cookbooks I have are often long, involved, even complicated. What was so exciting about this was the focus on recipes that are adaptable, quick, pantry-based, and of course delectable--all explained in the engaging introduction. These are the dishes the Moosewood staff cook when they come home. It's certain to claim a prominent place in my recipes bookshelf.
• 
  Deb

  I am a big Moosewood fan and finally got around to cooking from Simple Suppers. A great source of relatively easy and quick recipes that are great for weeknights. Most are healthy, many vegan. The homey Italian Bread & Cheese Soup (I used pumpernickel), had great flavor. Here's a link to the recipe and photos on my blog:
  http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...
• 
  Ann

  If you like to go meatless regularly, this is an excellent book. Both for simple, flexible recipes and for endless ideas. We've had it for a few years, have made most of the stuff in it, and we still go back to it and make something from it at least once a week. This week we finally made the Spinach Cheese Burritos. Simple, fantastic, and soon to be a staple.
• 
  Scottsdale Public Library

  The soups in this book are AMAZING!! They have it all: easy to do, low calorie, kid friendly, low cost, and so good even die-hard carnivores don’t care they are vegetarian. I use the coconut rice recipe all the time as well. Definitely worth checking out to see what gems you can add to your repertoire of simple suppers. –Alexis S.-
• 
  Kyle

  I've used this book for every recipe I made this summer. It's that versatile. All the tastiness of a Moosewood cookbook, but the ingredient list doesn't read like a witch's potion. You can actually find the ingredients in a regular supermarket, and they're not too expensive.
• 
  Lucinda

  Stay away from some of the simpler suppers and all of the stir-frys. For example, what were they thinking including a dish with equal parts tofu and garbanzo beans. For that matter, what possessed me to cook it? Also--bottled hoisin sauce? Sort of tastes like vomit.
• 
  Amy

  Easy to use dinnertime cookcook. Of those I have tried, most of the dishes easy to cook, and they have all tasted good. This cookbook focuses on the healthful, but it takes a moderate stance on what that means. And all but one chapter "Fish" is vegetarian.