Testimonials

In 1974, I left home at the age of 16, moved to Vancouver BC, where I went to a local health food store in search of the best value (most recipes for the lowest price) possible in a vegetarian cookbook. I was finally free to be a vegetarian without family pressure! One cookbook won out over all the others, it was the Ten Talents cookbook which I immediately purchased. I lived out of the Ten Talents cookbook for many years preparing awesome vegetarian meals for myself and all my other high school friends who would supply ingredients and I would cook up the meals. We all helped each other to get through high school that way since none of us lived at home with our parents.

Believe it or not, I still have my original copy, covered in food samples! :- I have since purchased the revised edition and it is better than the original in that the recipes have been made even healthier and the improved eye candy (beautiful photos) are just awesome! You will discover more than life giving healthy recipes in this book. I cannot recommend the book highly enough!

My wife, Linda Carney MD, also recommends and sells this cookbook to her patients in the office and through our web site for AllMedPhysicians, pLLC located in Buda, Texas. However, Dr. Carney does recommend that her patients modify the recipes by eliminating the added oils. The damaging effects of vegetable oils to our delicate Endothelial Cells is something that was not understood at the time this book was written. We have suggested, and do hope Rosalie Hurd will create, a low-fat no added oils version in the future. That is on the top of our wishlist!

I have been a vegetarian for over 30 years and have enjoyed recipes from a 1968 edition. I bought the current edition for my vegan grandaughter and her family, and, now that I have seen its improvements, including an index, I will shortly purchase one myself.

I love this cookbook. It is a major upgrade from the last version. It is colorful and full of pictures! It has lots of pages too and makes vegetarianism very attractive and doable. I find myself using this cookbook over and over while my other cookbooks remain on the shelf. Get it, you will not regret it! This is a good gift too!

I’ve purchased countless books on Amazon, hundreds in fact. Yet, the Ten Talents Cookbook (2012 ed) is one of the most useful products I’ve EVER purchased here. Ten Talents Cookbook is quite simply in a class of its own. It is the most comprehensive, PLANT BASED, NUTRITION-BASED cookbook that includes FOOD COMBINING and pretty much all you need to know about EATING FOR HEALTH (Conscious Eating is the only book I can think of that comes close to this, and yet it doesn’t at all in my opinion).

While Ten Talents reads like an Illustrated Joy of Nutritious Vegan, Vegetarian and Raw Cooking for the seriously health-conscious, they don’t promote it as a ‘bible’, ‘encyclopedia’, ‘definitive resource’,’ultimate guide’, ‘complete book’ or a ‘all-you-need-to-know’ on vegetarianism, raw food or veganism. If you’ve met gaunt raw vegans or obese vegans and vegetarians they’re likely not doing something well, and probably haven’t consider much of what this cookbook promotes. It does have some soy and breads that I’m not keen on, but the amount of useful information outweigh those details.

To be sure, this book is old school, so you won’t marvel at the trendy kitchens, sexy chefs, avant garde gourmet displays or feats in graphic design. Nor will you care. You’ll get an attractive, exceptionally organized, well-planned, comprehensive cookbook. There are color photos on each page! I marvel at the authors ability to meticulously illustrate the book WITHOUT compromising content!

Another gem of Ten Talents is the infusion of it’s lifestyle values and principles: family/community-oriented; cultivating a relationship with one’s Creator/High Power; thankfulness; consciousness; cleanliness; caring and personal responsibility, just to name a few.

The only con of the book is its plastic binding! It’s peculiar that such a book has plastic binding from the 60s. I would have, and I believes others would also, paid twice as much for a hardback version.

(UPDATE June 2014***) While Initially I was concerned about the the plastic comb binding, it holds up very well and is quite sturdy. It does lay perfectly flat while following recipes, that very useful and doesn’t require a fancy stand or weights. (End of Update)

You don’t have to be a vegan or vegetarian to gain from what this book has to offer. It really isn’t “just a cookbook,” it’s an owner’s manual for your body. Take from it what you desire, whether going “whole hog” or taking bits here and there…it’s all good, and all healthy!

Want to know about a “healthy” ingredient which may be new to you, or how to use it? Consult this book. Food combining, menu planning…consult the book.

I made one of the ice cream recipes last summer…no one realized that there was no cow’s cream nor white sugar in the stuff and it got rave reviews from everyone.

I’ve got the older style book, have used it for many years now–I’m an on again/off again vegetarian–but the book is kept right over the kitchen sink where I can easily get my hands on it because I refer to it all the time.

If you could only have just one cookbook, this would be the most useful, the most healthful, and the most informative. It stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Excellent resource for healthy cooking. This revised edition of the original cookbook of the 60’s is even better! Updated recipes utilizing up to date ingredients found in most health food stores. The colorful photos of the dishes are mouth watering! I recommend it to anyone wanting great ideas for a vegetarian lifestyle!

I just received this cookbook the other day. I was surprised this book was given a 2 star rating from another reviewer because it didnt include “dairy products and cheese” when this book clearly states it is free of “animal products”.
We have been striving to eat whole foods for several years now, and more recently, completely animal-product free. I was thrilled to find this cookbook because I thought I owned every vegan cookbook there ever was, and honestly, never came across this one.
This book is amazing to say the least. It is much more then I expected, almost a “textbook” on eating a plant based diet.
One of the most amazing sections of the book to me was the dairy free/animal free CHEESE recipes. American cheese, Mozzorella, Farmer cheese and several other cheese replacement recipes, all of which are SOY free, YAHOOOO!
I have been eating NON DAIRY for many years now due to a severe intolorance to dairy, and yet, not a day would go by when I didnt miss eating pizza, or some other food that “required” cheese to add that irreplaceable final touch to make it delicious and satisfying. I do not buy the vegetarian processed cheese replacements, because they usually have about a hundred unrecognizable ingredients.
One of my goals is to make the Mozz cheese, and to make veggie pizzas this weekend.
Anyway, to the 2 star reviewer. Take the plunge, you CAN live without dairy in your diet. Little do you realize that the very book you gave a negative rating to, could be the very book to “deliver” you from your hard core dairy product addiction.
This book was NEVER supposed to include dairy products, so to give it a 2 star review for its lack of dairy products would be like giving Chipotles Mexican Grill a negative review for not serving Big Mac’s.

I have the original 1968 version, which is great, however, this new updated, expanded version is absolutely wonderful and well worth the money! It is like a totally different cookbook with all the brillantly coloured pictures.

Back to the basics with this varied, well-organized and informative vegetarian cookbook. Due to many food allergies including wheat and gluten, I really appreciate the recipes using alternative ingredients such as quinoa, millet, and amaranth.

My wife is vegan and has many, many recipe books, but this one is now one of her very favorites. There are about 25 paper clips on pages of recipes that she says she wants to make and believes will taste great. The book is laid out with excellent pictures, beautifully formatted, and the color coded tabs are very helpful. A gem of a book!