Over 120 sumptuous recipes full of sensational flavors, colors, and textures that will stop you in your tracks. With chapters divided into Stylish Starters, Sensational Mains, Sofa Suppers, Sassy Sides, Simple Staples and Stunningly Sweet, this is truly a vegetarian adventure. "Maria Elia's Modern Vegetarian is exploding with color and flavor in every recipe. Her lush cuisine tantalizes the palate and conjures up a world of exotic influences. This truly inspired and mature cookbook is a must-have for chefs and cooks of any diet!" --Neal Harden, Executive Chef Pure Food & Wine, New York City The Modern Vegetarian, from BBC chef Maria Elia, shows us just how far we've come since the Big Bang of Western-style vegetarianism in the 1970s. You won't find the words "mock," "faux,"or "almost" in any of these dishes; this book loves its grains and vegetables for their own sake, not for their ability to masquerade as meat or camouflage its absence. And there's something sweetly avant-garde about the recipes, which tweak familiar dishes in unexpected directions, whether its Ginger Beer-Battered Stuffed Tofu with Asian Mushy Peas, Lemongrass and Sweet Corn Soup with Creme Fraiche, or Watermelon Panzanella. For vegetarians who have long since succumbed to the steamed-tempeh blues, this smart and startling book could be a surefire cure. --NPR's Top 10 Summer Cookbooks, May 31, 2009 "Chef Maria Elia's The Modern Vegetarian is the book for home cooks who remain unmoved by cauliflower soup and lentil loaf. Lush photography in saturated hues -- jewel-like tomatoes in gold, green and red; a nearly emerald watermelon set against aquamarine -- offers a vision of vegetarian cooking that is rich, silky and deeply textured. And the recipes deliver. Indian, Asian and Middle Eastern flavors inspire many of the guide's more than 120 recipes, but each is distinct and highly original." --Michele Kayal for The Associated Press, June 30, 2009 This debut book from Anglo-Greek chef Maria Elia finally gives vegetarian food the treatment it deserves. Gone are the uninspiring dishes served up time and again, these new dishes are full of sensational flavors, colors, and textures that showcase the astounding versatility of vegetables. Vegetables are the heroes of THE MODERN VEGETARIAN, from Chilli-roasted Feta and Watermelon to Artichoke and Goat Cheese Ravioli (using wanton wrappers), Maria's recipes combine her grasp of world flavors with her ingenuity in the kitchen. The seasonality of ingredients is key to her dishes, making them not only taste better but cheaper to make and more nutritious. If a fruit or vegetable is out of season she shows how easy it is to adapt and improvise. Dishes such as Roquefort and Fig Crème Brulee can just as easily be made with grapes or sautéed leeks, while Mushroom, Beet, Mozzarella with a Lentil Cartouch also works well with asparagus or as a salad. With stunning photography from Jonathan Gregson, THE MODERN VEGETARIAN is the perfect contemporary cookbook that will appeal to vegetarians, carnivores, and pescetarians alike. "A recipe is so much more than a list of ingredients, it's about bringing those ingredients together in harmony and letting them come alive to reveal their diverse flavors and textures, in all their glorious simplicity or complexity. For example, the 'textures of' peas, beets, and coffee sections that appear [in this book] are a collection of recipes that really take that ingredient out of the box and show it in its many different guises."--from the Introduction MARIA ELIA was born into the restaurant business, growing up in the kitchen of her Greek Cypriot father's restaurant in Richmond, London, where even at a really young age she knew she wanted to be a chef herself. After an apprenticeship at Café Royal's Grill Room, Maria's love of cooking has taken her around the world. She has worked in Italy, America, and Australia, spent time cooking at El Bulli and Arzak restaurants in Spain and at The Oriental Cooking School in Bangkok. The regional flavors of all these far-flung places feature in Maria's recipes with standout originality and earned her many fans during her 10-year tenure as head chef at the Delfina Studio Café. Now a regular on BBC's Ready Steady Cook, Maria Elia was voted one of the Top 10 Female Chefs to watch by the Independent and was just profiled in Time Out's London's Rising Talent issue. Maria Elia has worked in Italy, America, Australia, and Spain, and these international influences are reflected in her cooking style, which she demonstrated to great acclaim when head chef at Delfina's in London. Maria was voted one of the Top 10 Female Chefs by The Independent (UK) and is the chef at Whitechapel Gallery, a vegetarian restaurant in London. She has appeared on several UK food shows and has written for many UK food publications. Lemongrass and Sweet Corn Soup with Creme Fraiche 3 ears of corn, husked 1 1/2 tablespoons butter 1 small white onion, finely choppe