The Rancho Gordo Vegetarian Kitchen

If you love to eat beans, you will enjoy this book. If you buy your dried beans from Rancho Gordo, (and if you don't, well, you are definitely missing a great experience), you will be interested in this cook book. It is loaded with good information and interesting tidbits. If you are looking to ease yourself and/or your family into bean-eating, bean-love, this is a great place to start!I especially appreciate Steve Sando's "Quick Ideas", which have provided inspiration and a lot of creativity for simple lunches at our house. Sando has a philosophy in which simple foods, built simply, create a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction that is hard to beat. It is hard to disagree with that, considering that the heirloom beans he sells at Rancho Gordo are unique and individual--each differing in taste, character and looks. Consider: A single, simply cooked bean, unadorned, on your tongue. It is of a variety unlike any other bean variety. It has an outer texture, an inner creaminess, and a distinct flavor that you can really taste--individual and different. Not how you usually think of beans, is it?What I'm saying here: Try these recipes and these ideas, with heirloom dried beans or fresh-dried beans right from your farmer and you will no longer consider "beans" as a general taste, look or dish. Okay, so, I'm talkin' beans as individual entities, individual morsels of flavor, that have individual characteristics, that a cook can call out to make a dish unique. Not exactly "secret" ingredients, because of course you can see them in there, but definitely "surprising" ingredients!Enough waxing poetic about beans. Here's what you need to know before buying this book:--There is one standard way of cooking beans in this book. It calls for cooking a pound of beans at a time. Most recipes then, will have you scooping out a cup or two of beans from their broth and using them as an ingredient in salads, soups, and a few casseroles. (Sometimes you will use the bean broth, some recipes don't call for it. But never dump it down the drain!)--One total disappointment: No mixed bean recipes. I like to mix beans. And while I can surely mix them on my own, it would have been great to see a few outstanding recipes where different beans were combined--just to give me a few ideas. It would have been helpful to see a chart that combined beans according to comparable and contrasting flavors and colors. And what beans can be cooked together.--The book is heavy on salads and room temperature dishes, or sides. (Keep in mind what this author loves best: Simple beans, in a bowl, touched with an olive oil, aromatics, a little herb or spice, and maybe a basic veggie or two--or maybe totally unadorned.)--This book is truly vegetarian. If you need that ham bone, smoked turkey wing or leg, or smoked pork jowl in the pot, and a slow, low heat, long cook, you will have to improvise and build that into the recipe on your own. (I do that with these recipes.)--About cook times: The bean cooking recipe has you soaking your beans, then a hard boil for 10-15 minutes. Using fresh, dried beans, they will be done in a surprising short amount of time......This threw me for a loop, because I like to put a good amount of onion, garlic and herbs in my cooking water and love to let the beans absorb it over several hours time. With the technique in this book, the beans will be done before they have much chance to absorb anything. I've adapted the main cooking recipe and eliminated soaking and only boil for a few minutes. (I have a neighbor who is very, very exact in following directions. She cannot deal with fresh, dried heirloom beans and the fact that they cook up quicker than mass produced store shelf beans. Nor can she adapt to these recipes. So, if that person sounds familiar, better think twice here.....)--This book is not filled with international flavors. These are American flavors, with a leaning towards California.--Instructions are easy to follow. Page layout is easy on the eyes. There's plenty of beautiful and luscious full-color photos.This is a super book to gift and a great book to get. Definitely check out the Rancho Gordo website, too. It is a very interesting read and full of good stuff to peruse! I was slow to find it, and did so about a year ago, when I was busy working my way through two large bags of Anasazi and Bolito beans from Colorado's Dove Creek, Adobe Milling). I surely won't be giving up on Dove Creek, but now I've broadened my horizons--and we are eating more beans than ever, and loving it. (And I won't be giving up on our favorites from Camellia either.)

I found a place locally that sells their beans but not their cookbooks, so bought two books, this one and the pozole cookbook. I gave the pozole book to a friend and DEFINITELY need to get another for me. My favorite recipe thus far is the rice, black bean, sweet potato recipe. The first time I made it, I ate it three days in a row. Then I made another batch and ate it, too, though I did give a little away to a neighbor. These recipes are VERY satisfying at the soul level.

My comment on this book is strictly aesthetic. It's in no way a comment on the validity or quality of the recipes because I haven't tried any! Not yet. And here is where one talks about the special nature of cookbooks. We often decide to buy them because they are beautiful to look through. Perhaps more than any other book, we are attracted to the cover, the layout, and most important: how the food is photographed. In this case, I find the size of the book - its dimensions and the amount of content - quite perfect. The recipes seem straight forward with just the right amount of intro to encourage you to try them. If you have already had the privilege of trying out some of Rancho Gordo beautiful and delicious beans, this cookbook seems to be just the right companion.However, and very sadly and impossible to understand, it has a curious flaw no cookbook should ever have. Nearly all the photographs are just the slightest bit out of focus. After the second or third, they become so commonplace that you begin to wonder how the photos were accepted.The creation of a cookbook takes forever and involves a large cast of eyes, hands, designers, and even cooks. The recipes are not all cooked at once so one photograph, of one dish, being slightly out of focus could have been explained. But most of them? Unless no one viewed the photos until everything had been cooked and the book was ready to be laid out and by then, going through the entire process over again was impossible. Ah, what a shame.

Beautiful cookbook with tons of simple, delicious recipes. I read it from cover to cover and found it riviting (my cookbook enthusiast friends will understand). Each recipe has been a winner. Highly recommend.

Easy and inspiring recipes that make the most of beans. Perfect for the beginner cook too. I have tried several recipes so far, and have loved every single one. This book is very useful to anyone looking to prepare meat free meals, not just for vegetarians. While it is not necessary to use Rancho Gordo beans, I highly recommend you do. Nothing beats beans cooked within months of harvest. Most beans on the market are shockingly years old and you can taste a huge difference. I will never buy beans at the grocery store again!

Person who received gift was happy with book. Book in great shape. Shipped very quickly

Love this book, so many great recipes for Rancho Gordo and other beans.