Just looking through the chapters I was in awe at the far reaching extent of Vegan Fire & Spice ... Close to Callalou, Nigerian Peanut Soup, Majorcan Baked Vegetables, Turkish Eggplant, Moroccan Spiced Carrots, Vegetable Samosas, Vindaloo Vegetables, Fusian Asian Noodles, Hunan Fried Rice, Indonesian Coconut Rice ... I could easily go on as this cookbook has around 200 savory recipes. Yes, savory. I have to admit, as much as I love dessert, I find the baked goods and sweets recipes often overwhelm vegan cookbooks. Robin gets right to the point, offering tons of recipes for everyday meals. And I do mean everyday. While the flavors may be exotic, the ingredients are surprisingly accessible. Most of the recipes can be whipped up using ingredients I readily stock in my pantry. Somehow Robin has fused dozens of international flavors with American staples, no easy task I am sure!

As for the layout, the cookbook is divided by region, The Americas, Mediterranean Europe, The Middle East & Africa, India, and Asia, with a recipe guide at the beginning of each regional section. The recipes are listed as appetizers, soups and stews, salads and sides, main courses, or dressings, sauces, and condiments. With a well-stocked spice rack and pantry (rice, lentils, canned tomatoes, canned beans, peanut butter, etc.), and a week's worth of basic perishables (bell peppers, potatoes, eggplant, onions, carrots, etc.), most of the recipes are just minutes away. Some of the recipes do call for tofu, tempeh, or seitan, which are pretty easy to find, even at traditional grocers, and common staples in many vegetarian diets. Since I don't typically purchase these ingredients, I opted to stick with the all-vegetable recipes (of which there were many), but you can also substitute another protein (I know, it's a vegan cookbook, but it's still versatile!).

In our earlier years my husband and I loved to challenge one another with douses of hot sauce, but these days we prefer our meals filled with flavor, not heat. Luckily, it really was easy to adjust the heat in these recipes, using just a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes when a ½ teaspoon was called for, for example. Also, Robin uses little chili peppers at the top of each recipe to denote the natural heat (when unadjusted) of each recipe, ranging from one to three chili peppers.

This book has become on of my favorites in my collection of about 30 vegan cookbooks. (My husband can't believe there are that many vegan cookbooks in print!) We love spicy food around here and let's face it, many vegan recipes could use a little more spice. There are several things I like about this cookbook. One is that it's divided up into sections: American, Mediterranean & Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia and India, so wherever you're taste buds are taking you that day, there's a section that will probably suit your fancy.

The recipes I've tried so far (a lot!) have all been good and are pretty easy to make. You can also vary the heat by ramping up or cutting down on the spice amounts. The author is somewhat conservation by my tastes on the amount of spiciness overall. Most are even better after a day or two in the frig so I usually double or triple the recipes. So far my family has liked everything I've made from this book and I've even served a couple of the dishes to guests who were mainly meat and potatoes people and have gotten rave reviews.

If you want to add a little spice to your life and want something a little different than your average vegan cookbook, I highly recommend this one. Two thumbs up!

After a three week culinary trip around the world I still can`t wait to sample another of these tasty dishes. So far, none has proven disappointing.
Some are pretty close to recipes in "Vegan Planet", the other cookbook written by Robin Robertson I own, but, as I love hot and spicy food, those additonal recipes make it worthwhile buying this collection.By the way, the vegetable broth in "Vegan Fire and Spice" is much better than the one in the above mentioned book.
Cook with this book and you won`t miss animal products at all.

I always know that if Ms. Robertson is the author, the recipes will be wonderful. Vegan Planet is my most used cookbook but Fire and Spice is certainly competing for number one. All of the recipes I have made to date are easy and taste delicious. The quinoa stuffed avocados is a perfect recipe to serve to guests. it is both easy and colorful. I just made the Garlic Soup yesterday and it is absolutely delicious!

Thanks so much, Ms. Roberston; keep them coming!

I bought this book a few weeks ago for my vegetarian daughter. She has cooked many different recipes from it and they are all great. I think that we'll throw out all our other cookbooks. This is the only one that we now use. My husband and I have stopped eating meat since my daughter's cooking is so good. The meals are rich and hearty, and they don't need meat to make them great. Robin may be a couple of new vegetarian converts soon!

I've hesitated to review cookbooks because I'm never sure when I've tried enough of one to warrant a review. After all, I can only comment on the bits and pieces with which I have experience. Still, the good cookbooks are worth mentioning, and this is one of the good ones.

As I flip through Vegan Fire & Spice, I'm finding that just about every recipe screams "Try me!" The recipes are organized broadly into large swaths of the globe (The Americas, Mediterranean Europe, The Middle East and Africa, India and Asia), and each section is further broken down into more specific regions. The recipes are -- you guessed it -- spicy, though of course this is adjustable to taste by varying the amount of spice or the quantity of chilis.

Anshu's Red Lentil Sambar sounded immensely appealing, although it required a trip to the local Indian grocery to purchase Garam Masala and a Sambar spice mixture. This is a good weekend recipe, as preparation and cooking takes some time. And there's a small criticism: I wish this cookbook included estimated prep times, because although some steps in this recipe gave approximate times, others did not and so it was hard in advance to get a sense of how long I'd be in the kitchen. I started making this at 6:45 and the meal wasn't ready until 9:00. Now that I understand the recipe, I'm sure that I could cut that time way down -- but it was worth even the long prep time.

The sambar is a delicious, hearty dish, full of chunks of vegetables and rich simmered lentils. It is more like a stew than the thin sambar soup you normally get in restaurants. Spiced to perfection -- and even better when I brought some with me for lunch the next day.

On a side note: I purchased this and another vegetarian cookbook from Amazon, and in a lovely gesture, they tucked in a coupon for a McDonald's chicken sandwich with my order. How thoughtful. At least I got a laugh in about it!

It's a keeper! As I flip through, I'm finding that just about every recipe screams "Try me!" And yes, I've tried one already -- Anshu's Red Lentil Sambar. This is a good weekend recipe, as preparation and cooking takes some time. I started at 6:45 one evening and the meal wasn't ready until 9:00. If I were a more experienced cook, I probably could have cut quite a bit off the prep time -- but it was still worth it. The sambar is a delicious, hearty dish that is more like a stew than the thin soup you get in restaurants. Spiced to perfection -- and even better when I brought some with me for lunch the next day.
On a side note: I purchased this and another vegetarian cookbook, and in a lovely gesture, Amazon tucked in a coupon for a McDonald's chicken sandwich with my order.

Often when someone learns I eat a Vegan diet they will say "you don't eat meat and milk and eggs, what do you eat." And I'll respond "everything else." I'm posting this one comment in the review section for seven Vegan cookbooks because these seven cover a lot of "everything else." For several weeks I have been rotating these cookbooks-cooking a new recipe from that day's cookbook each time. And my biggest difficulty in doing this is that I now have favorites from each book that I must bypass, for now, to try a new recipe. If you think about what you eat you may find, like me, that you repeat the same dozen or so meals each week. This method of cookbook/recipe rotation has helped me break out of my menu rut. I've had a few meals flop, but the good to excellent meals have far exceeded the flops. Here's the list-all purchased from Amazon.

Vegan Success-Daffron & Byrd
Quick-fix Vegeatrian (actually vegan) Robertson
Vegan Fire & Spice-Robertson
Vega Vittles-Stepaniak
The everyday Vega-Burton
Veganomicon-Moskowitz & Romero
Vegan with a Vengeance-Moskowwitz

Robin Robertson has done it again. Vegan Fire and Spice is one more gastronomic masterpiece to add to her impressive repertoire of cookbooks. This collection of recipes is as exotic and flavorful as it gets, from Vegetable Tagine with Seitan and Apricots to her recipe for Arugula Potato Salad, a unique twist on ordinary potato salad, laced with cayenne and speckles of capers. Robertson inspires the reader with every turn of the page. From the heat of the Mediterranean to the "Fiery Bliss of India," I was transported on a tantalizing journey around the world via these extraordinary recipes. For anyone who likes it hot, this book is for you!

Whenever I'm looking for a tasty change-of-pace recipe to make for dinner, I turn to a Robin Robertson book, whether Quick-Fix Vegetarian, Vegan Planet, and her latest, Vegan Fire and Spice. Robin's recipes are hearty, straightforward, and they always work. Her passion for great food, healthfully prepared always shines through, and her knowledge of international cuisines is impressive. I'm a bit timid when it comes to spices, so this book has helped me appreciate bolder flavors.