This is SUCH a great cookbook! I have had a few dishes that didn’t turn out well from it, but all in all, most of these recipes are wonderful.
The interesting thing about this cookbook is that it really celebrates vegan cooking. None of the recipes are trying to fool meat/dairy/egg eaters. None of these recipes will appeal to people who want fried chicken. None of these recipes are “substituted” recipes by any means. There is no soy, no tofu, no egg replacers, no faux-butter, no nothing (not that those are bad — sometimes you really crave some faux-fried chicken!). Every recipe in here is an actual traditional recipe from France, Italy, Spain, or Greece that has been cooked for centuries in those countries, and has NEVER involved animal products.
Apparently Mediterranean cooking lends itself very well to vegan cooking. Ms. Klein states that for centuries, the Mediterranean was too hot a climate for many dairy products to keep, and dairy products were also fairly expensive in those regions, and vegetables and grains were abundant, so people made many dishes with relatively small portions of animal products, and relatively large portions of vegetables, fruits, and grains. One of the recipes in the book is called a “poor man’s pesto” — it involves just 2 ingredients — pine nuts and basil, instead of 3 ingredients — pine nuts, basil, and cheese. Because cheese was so expensive, some Mediterranean cuisines just used pine nuts instead. (It’s a great pesto, by the way. It doesn’t taste like a cheese-based pesto, but it has no faux-cheese ingredients, and it isn’t supposed to.)
If you’re looking for something to mimic American cooking, you won’t find it here. There are some French recipes, but very few, and they are very Provencal-oriented — lots of roasted or baked tomatoes and other vegetables in lemon and olive oil with garlic/thyme/rosemary sauces. No rich sauces. There are some Italian recipes — lots of pasta with roasted tomatoes, etc. But mostly there are a lot of Greek/Middle Eastern recipes. I had NO IDEA Greek food was so vegan-friendly, but now I do! (I’ve also been very lucky to find this out because it expands my dining options — now if I’m going out to eat I try to go to Greek places — if you ask for things without yogurt, feta, or meat, most Greek food is vegan. Felafel, Greek salads, vegetarian dolma, vegetable briami, that garlicky-potato dipping sauce — those are all (usually) vegan, and the flavors balance each other well even without the yogurt, meat, or feta, which a lot of cuisines, that just doesn’t hold for. Luckily I’ve always really liked Greek food, so I’ve been enjoying this a lot.
I haven’t tried any of the desserts, but they all look really good to me. They all appear to be kind of baklava-like, to my eye — lots of phyllo dough, but they all look kind of simple and delicious, which is what I look for in recipes. Unfortunately no chocolate cake recipes or anything like that, but that would definitely not be in the spirit of the book.
This book has really helped me with my quest to incorporate more vegan meals into my diet over the past year as I was trying to move away from dairy/egg intensive dishes. I don’t cook often but when I do, I like to go all out and cook amazing dishes that have simple but good flavor combinations, and take about an hour or two to make. I highly recommend this book if you’re a decent cook who appreciates interesting flavors and wants to incorporate more vegan meals into your diet. 
