Cooking from this cookbook has been a delight. My girlfriend and I have cooked perhaps ten recipes from the pages of this Vegan gem. I can say comfortably that none of the recipes we've cooked are anything less than extremely tasty.

Ingredients can tend towards being expensive; the stroganoff we cooked last night, for instance, would have called for $24 worth of dried porcini mushrooms if we'd followed the recipe exactly. Recipes are not necessarily written for the beginning cook, but are not horribly complicated and have all yielded good results without much deviation from the original recipe.

This is a cookbook that I have recommended to non-Vegans as a way to demonstrate that Vegan food is no less delicious than any other.

A couple of years ago my grandmother took me to lunch at Candle 79 and we loved it so much she bought me the cookbook. It is hands down the best cookbook I have ever had! I have made over half the recipes in it and they all come out incredible! I am a vegetarian and my husband is not-- the recipes are very adaptable to making things non-vegan or even non-vegetarian if you like. (I prefer to keep them vegan though). Unlike other vegan cookbooks, most of the recipes are quite easy to make and you don't have to go on a treasure hunt to find most of the ingredients. I strongly recommend it and hope they come out with another one! Definitely try the ginger-miso stir fry, the lentil chowder, and the summer minestrone soup.

The only concern some might have with it is some of the measurements are off, for example the mushroom barely soup calls for 1 and a half tablespoons of salt, when it clearly should be teaspoons. This is not a detraction for me, when something does not make sense, I alter it, and I also tend to like things rather spicy so I double the spices a lot. This cookbook is probably best for people comfortable with vegetarian cooking and those who don't mine making modifications.

So far all of the recipes I have tried have been great. The eggplant dish from the Indian Plate is delicious. I have seen some negative reviews on the chocolate macadamian nut cookies but I think people forgot the 2 tablespoons of egg replacer needs to be added to 4 tablespoons of warm water prior to adding it. I made the cookies the weekend and they were great. Hope this helps, you should give th ecookies a second chance. I am giving this book 4 stars because I agree the directions could be a little more clear.

Something is very wrong with the Chocolate Macademia Nut Cookie recipe on p. 191. There is not enough liquid in the recipe and the cookie dough looks like sand. I added soy milk (~1/2-3/4 cup) till it resembled cookie dough, but the cookies came out a bit cakey. From reading others' reviews, I guess there are other errors as well. I'm sure the restaurant is great but the cookbook is disappointing because you don't know which recipes will turn out right.

Some recipes are great, but some are so awful, it seems they were never tested. I really think they failed to edit the book properly. The chocolate macadamia nut cookies, for example, simply don't work. There's not enough liquid, as though an ingredient were missing. At the restaurant, I asked a chef, who said, "just use a food processor to mix it." Obviously, that didn't solve the problem. And recipes repeatedly say to whisk margarine, which is nearly impossible, even if it's at room temperature. Just use an electric mixer! Also, calling for 1/4 tablespoon is absurd--they should know measuring spoons don't come like that--just say 3/4 teaspoon! Stupid errors like this shouldn't be present in a cookbook from such nice restaurant. Still, some recipes, like the cobb salad, are delicious, which is why I give it 3 stars.

I've been a vegetarian my whole life, and I own a lot of the old veggie/vegan standbys (Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Moosewood, etc.). The Candle Cafe Cookbook is my favorite by far. It's the book I reach for when I feel like making a new dish for a party and I really want a foolproof, guaranteed-to-be-good recipe.

I've never been disappointed with a single dish, and each one has a certain impressive, gourmet flair. (Lots of compliments when I invite people to dig in.) No recipe is particularly hard to make. And there's a strong emphasis on simple, hearty food with legumes, root vegetables, inspired seasoning, and whole grains.

The dishes I make over and over: the lentil chowder, spicy soba noodle stirfry, stuffed winter squash, and stirfried mixed greens.

Props to the folks at Candle Cafe -- you've made a really excellent cookbook that has brought me a lot of pleasure (both in the cooking and the eating).

This is one of my favorite cookbooks that I own. There are a few pages that my fingers have been all over and you can tell how "used" the book is! I think the cornmeal custed tempeh is my favorite recipe in this book, and by the way THAT PAGE looks anyone would agree. I often change it up a bit and make it with Seitan instead of Tempeh for a change. This book was well worth the buy and I use it often!

I love Candle Cafe and visit the restaurant at least once a week. This cookbook is hands down the best vegan cookbook I have ever owned. The thing about candle is that not only is it organic & vegan, but the ingredients are all natural & simple. Lots of vegan cookbooks require all sorts of bad, processed ingredients that I try to avoid. The ingredients are also easy to find and I generally have them on hand. Some reviewers have had experiences with measurements in this book being inaccurate, I have not experienced this though. Only one recipe I had tried was a flop and that was the 'Creamy Broccoli Soup'. The Phyllo Triangles are amazing and I make them all the time--non-vegans don't even know the difference. I have made the Seitan Chimchurri with homemade seitan and that came out fantastic. I have also tried the Paradise Casserole which was fine with the brown mushroom gravy (that gravy is outstanding!). I have also made the granola recipe in the book very often and LOVE it as well as the sweet potato homefries. This book has introduced me to so many great recipes that I will be making for years to come. Every vegan should own this book--I can't rave about it enough.

If you have not been to Candle 79 you MUST go! this restaurant is fabulous and the cookbook is just as good. the cuisine at the restaurant is exquisite. I am not sure if i'll be able to cook this food the same way. the recipes are complex but easy to understand. i'm looking forward to trying them.

The "Diner-Style Pancakes" recipe on page 201 is the single best reason to buy this cookbook. The pancakes turn out light, fluffy, and delicious every time. My child is allergic to eggs so we use this recipe for everyone, including any guests, because no one can tell that these pancakes are egg-free.

"Jorge's Oatmeal Currant Cookies" and "Mini Potato Latkes" also tasted great and were popular with the kids. The "Vanilla-Cinnamon French Toast" tasted good, but the texture was odd and it just didn't look right.

In a future edition, the editor should make a note that when a recipe calls for 1 teaspoon egg replacer, it means 1 teaspoon of the powdered kind (such as EnerG) and not that we need to mix up liquid egg replacer (such as water, oil, baking powder) to use a teaspoon of that.

I bought this book almost a year ago after reading so many good reviews of it. I usually cook my favorite meals vegan by using alternative ingredients but wanted to expand my tastebuds and broaden my cooking. I have been more dissapointed than delighted with the results.

Here are the recipes I have tried and their results:

AZTEC SALAD: this should be a simple meal, marinated tempeh over quinoa and veggies. However it took me over an hour to make. The recipe says it serves 4 yet it made enough salad to feed 8 hungry adults. The recipe for the chipotle barbeque sauce is for 5 CUPS, yet you only use it to baste the tempeh while cooking. The result....nearly tasteless. And while the chipotle barbeque sauce was good, I didnt have a need for 4 1/2 cups in my fridge.

SOUTHWESTERN STYLE CHILE RUBBED SEITAN SANDWICHES: It was good but the season "paste" recipe was off and was too wet to work properly.

FRENCH DIP SANDWICHES: This was the only recipe that tasted good. But you do end up with too much dipping sauce.

VEGETABLE LASAGNA: The marinade for the grilled veggies in this was good as was the herbed tofu ricotta. However the overall taste was the most bland lasagna Ive ever had.

In all, the recipes are not written correctly. This book needs some serious editing. I dont buy cookbooks so I can pick over the recipes making sure they will work. I also dont want a cookbook that takes me over an hour to make a meal.

For the price of this book you would expect better results from the get-go. I would not reccomend this book and suggest you buy another one.

I made 3 recipes from this book and then gave up. All of them were mediocre to poor. I cook all the time but I usually sub vegan ingredients for butter, eggs, etc. and everything comes out amazing. This cookbook is also unclear about the instructions. I recommend the Joy of Cooking - always the best recipes and everything can pretty much be made vegan. They even have the most delicious recipe for vegan cakes.

This cookbook seems like it was thrown together to make some money. The cupcakes tasted like healthy bran muffins with tofu on top. Don't waste your money.

After reading all of the reviews on Amazon for this book, I decided to give it a try. So far, I have made several recipes, all of which did not disappoint. However, be warned: this book is not the best for a beginner or novice cook. As other reviews mentioned, some of the recipes are not accurate in their measurements, but if you have the knowledge and familiarity to recognize when a recipe doesn't sound quite right, you can fix the situation before it becomes a problem. An example--the Savory Pot Pie is DELICIOUS but the crust recipe calls for 1 cup of oil! I have NEVER seen a pie crust recipe call for so much oil. I cut the measurement down to 3-4 Tablespoons oil and kept all the other measurements the same and ended up with an easy to work, smooth and delicious dough (roll it out on wax paper to make it easier). I would recommend using this book after you've developed some confidence in the kitchen because you just never know when you'll run across a recipe with mistakes in it. Once you can navigate the book with confidence, you should not be disappointed. Delicious!

I am astounded by the positive reviews this cookbook has received. I have tried five recipes from this book, and all but one were absolute flops. And that one was nothing to write home about.

First up was the hummus. I already had a pretty good hummus recipe from "The Chicago Diner Cookbook," but I wanted to see if this one was better. Not only was it not better, it was without a doubt the worst hummus I've tasted in my life. Even when spread thinly inside a pita filled with many other ingredients, this hummus was still unredeemably bad. It had to be thrown away.

The recipe for Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies was hands-down the worst recipe I've used in all my life. These cookies were just disgusting, and on more than one level. First of all, there was no liquid in this cookie except for 1/2 cup of margarine and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. The ingredients barely cohered into any kind of dough, and extra vegetable oil had to be added. Still, it was not enough to salvage this recipe, and the cookies were too crumbly to hold together whatsoever. Secondly, an even worse result from the insufficient liquid was that the cup of unrefined sugar had nothing to dissolve in, so it remained in its crystal formation and gave the cookie a revoltingly gritty texture. I am glad I used walnuts in lieu of the more expensive macadamia nuts, because then I would have been even more depressed about throwing these away.

Most perplexing was the Sweet Potato Smash. First of all, the recipe calls for sweet potatoes, but in the photographs yams are clearly pictured. I might be willing to believe that two mere teaspoons of maple syrup are enough to sweeten five yams, but that's definitely not enough to sweeten five sweet potatoes. I probably ended up dumping about 3-4 Tablespoons of syrup into the mixture, not to mention a lot more than the 1 teaspoon of cinnamon called for. Even more problematic is that the recipe says to cook the sweet potatoes for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. That is not nearly enough time to properly cook a sweet potato or yam. According to the Joy of Cooking, sweet potatoes and yams need to be baked at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

Chana Masala Indian Chickpea Stew smelled absolutely heavenly when it was on the stove, the air permeated with the scents of all those wonderful spices. So imagine my dismay when I ate my first mouthful and discovered that it was completely tasteless. The only way I could salvage it was by sprinkling it liberally with salt, which made it taste halfway decent. Still, I missed the flavors of the garlic, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon.

The only recipe that wasn't bland (at best) or inedible (at worst) was Cornmeal-Crusted Tempeh. It was easy to put together, the recipe seemed to be accurate, and it tasted rather pleasant. However, it wasn't impressive enough for me to want to make it again, unless I have some tempeh to use up and no other ideas for it.

I was disappointed that the tempting Lemon-Tofu Cheesecake with Blood Orange Glaze called for store-bought imitation cream cheese instead of a mixture that could be prepared from scratch. Additionally, it called for an extravagant two-and-a-quarter cups of agave nectar -- an item that is too expensive for me to risk on a recipe from a cookbook of such dubious quality as this. In fact, most recipes in here are tempting, but after these five flops I'll have to put this cookbook out to pasture.

Delicious! I've had this cookbook for about a year and while I don't have time to cook every night due to the job I really enjoy pulling this one out to make a weekend dinner or have friends over for lunch or casual dinner. There are some wonderful salads and dips in here which I especially like. Nutritional yeast is used in a bunch of the recipes which I really love. Dressings like the chipotle ranch dressing and citrus dressing are excellent and not difficult to make. In fact pretty much all the recipes are easy, they just may take a trip to the super market to get some special items that you might not keep in the refrig like watercress or shallots but nothing you can't find nowadays. The squash dishes are especially excellent. I highly recommend this cookbook to anyone, vegan or not. As long as you like fresh, clean cuisine this will satisfy.

This is an excellent vegan cookbook, with down to earth recipes that you can make for anyone, not just vegans. The ingredients are easy to find, and there are lots of recipes in each category, including appetizers which are sometimes in short supply in vegan cookbooks. Everything I've made has turned out very well, and are quick enough for everyday. Don't miss this one!