This is much more than a cookbook. It is cooking primer. Instead of presenting recipe after recipe followed by complicated directions, the Haspels explain the fundamentals of healthy cooking in simple terms. It is the only cookbook I've ever read cover-to-cover.

While the book does have 100 recipes in it, they are almost irrelevant. The goal of the book is to liberate cooks -- it is about "taking back your kitchen from the guys in white, whether they're wearing chefs' toques or lab coats" (p. 14).

How do they accomplish this? The Haspels discuss the elements of various kinds of food. For example, instead of simply telling you how they make a sauce, they outline what a sauce is, the kinds of things you can put in it, and the basic techniques for making one. Then they present a couple of recipes (the basic mushroom sauce on page 136 is yummy), with notes about how to adjust them to your own tastes. The effect is empowering. After I read this section, I started making sauces that were better suited to my own tastes. It was easier to make simple, healthy dishes that I actually wanted to eat. Knowing more about cooking techniques also helped me adjust other recipes.

The book covers all the basics: stock, grains, legumes, sauces, soups, vegetables and some meat dishes. Of twelve chapters, nine are strictly vegetarian (although the Haspels do cook with chicken stock, it would be simple enough to substitute vegetable stock -- and they have guides to making both). They even include a chapter on desserts.

It is written more like a book than a cookbook, and the style is engaging and funny. My only complaint is that the Haspels talk too much about New York City. They discuss the stores they shop in and restaurants they like. This bugged me since I live clear across the country.

This book changed the way I cook and eat for the better. I bought other vegetarian cookbooks before this one, but this is the only one that helped me to reduce the amount of meat in my diet.