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Pour the coconut milk into a bowl and gently whisk until smooth and creamy. Set aside four tablespoons – you’ll use this when serving – then tip the remaining coconut milk into the soup pot. Bring the mixture up to a boil, turn down the heat to medium and leave to simmer gently for 25 minutes, until the lentils are soft but still hold their shape. Yotam Ottolenghi’s sweet potato and puy lentil croquettes. Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay

You might be tempted to think the obvious – that only veggies would. But Ottolenghi has the palate of a discerning omnivore and embraces so many flavours that it’s entirely possible everyone will...With his fabulous restaurants and bestselling Ottolenghi Cookbook, Yotam Ottolenghi has established himself as one of the most exciting talents in the world of cookery and food writing. This exclusive collection of vegetarian recipes is drawn from his column 'The New Vegetarian' for the Guardian's Weekend magazine, and features both brand-new recipes and dishes first devised for that column. These recipes are based on meatless dishes and reflect eclectic influences including the Middle East, South East Asia and Latin America. The book is full of delicious, mouth-watering recipes. Lentils with Celeriac and Hazelnuts and Mint: weeeeeell, a little mint goes a long long way. But lovely variety of textures and the mint softened a bit as you went along. Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil, then add the lentils, onion, garlic, bay leaves and thyme. Turn down the heat to medium and simmer for 30 minutes, until the lentils are cooked and starting to fall apart. Drain, discard the bay leaves, then tip the lentils, onion and garlic into the sweet potato mash. Add the cinnamon, paprika, parsley, mint, a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper, mix well, then gently stir in the feta so it’s incorporated but remains in chunks. Another true revelation: the roast parsnip and sweet potatoes with cherry tomatoes and a caper vinaigrette, five stars for that one. And also the lentils with Gorgonzola and semi-dried tomatoes, that could turn into my new version of soul food.

Incipient vegetarians will also love this cookbook. Every single recipe is vegetarian, and many are vegan. Too many are billed as appetizers (“starters” in Brit-speak), but most of those could be stretched into a nice dinner. The variety of vegetable-based dishes will astound the reader, many with a Middle Eastern flair. Everything just looks so good! I will say I didn't like the Roasted Parsnips and Sweet Potatoes with Caper Vinagrette as much as I anticipated, mostly because it was a little sweet for me. We had two roasted already sweet vegetables, which has the effect of concentrating the sweetness. Ottolenghi then adds some sweetner in the vinagrette, which I thought unnecessary. Also, much as I love the idea of capers with this meal, it seemed like gilding the lily. It's hard to make the argument for further dressing roasted vegetables, already so easy and so good. Small quibble. It was great cold, maybe even better. This is the vegetarian recipe collection from Israeli Yotam Ottolenghi who is the owner of Ottolenghi restaurant in London, UK. I am flawed by this book. Rarely do I arrange more than one week of my dinners by the recipes in one book. I have been doing just that with this book for the last 3 weeks. The recipes are divided by: A note for American readers: the ingredients are listed in grams and millilitres rather than cups and ounces.

He has a rap song named after him

A new wave of Ottolenghi fever (and fervor) is about to hit and, thank goodness, there’s no cure. I suggest you simply give in to it, replenish your spice pantry, gather your vegetables, grains and legumes, and celebrate big-time.”

Thing is, this book doesn't exactly spell out accessibility where ingredients were concerned. I really knew I was in the weeds when a recipe for potato salad called for 10-15 quail eggs. Additionally, the average ingredients list length is about thirteen items long, which I would say is a tad excessive for ANY recipe, whether meat is involved or not.

He worked at the Intelligence Headquarters of the Israeli Defence Force

Ottolenghi is a genius with vegetables—it’s possible that no other chef has devised so many clever ways to cook them.” Heat the oil in a medium saucepan on a medium-high flame, then fry the onion for eight minutes, stirring often, until soft and caramelised. Add the curry powder, chilli flakes, garlic and ginger, and fry for two minutes more, stirring continuously. Add the lentils, stir through for a minute, then add the tomatoes, coriander stalks, 600ml cold water, a teaspoon of salt and a very generous grind of pepper, and leave to heat through. Roasted parsnips and sweet potatoes with caper vinaigrette - fabulous! Anyone who says they don't like vegetables hasn't tried this recipe!! I was looking forward to this book and really wanted to love it, but I often find myself just avoiding it and selecting something with a better result to effort ratio instead. It is 3.5-star cookbook for me. While foodies and vegetarians may love this book, Midwestern soccer moms — short on time and access to exotic ingredients — not so much.