I really liked the way this book was laid out with the different ingredients, I tried the tomato pasta bake and it was delicious and so easy to make.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love a good cookbook with beautiful pictures - and this book certainly delivered on that end!
I will surely buy the printed edition because I just love looking through my cookbook and choosing what to cook from the beautiful pictures I see.
I love the taste "umami" - when I heard first of this concept I was completely convinced this was speaking to me. I do not have a sweet tooth or crave sour things - my achilles heel is umami. I just love anything umami and cannot walk past some good, hearty meal. Since I also really njoy vegetarian and vegan cooking, I was completely intrigued by this book combining both.
I was not disappointed. The recipes are easy enough to cook and mostly uses simple every-day-in-my-supermarket ingredients. It has a handful of special products that might not be found in every kitchen (yet), but seem like a staple in vegan kitchens already. I do not have to spend a lot of money to stock my kitchen with equipment and exotic things to cook most of the recipes in this book. And yet this book is filled with interesting and new twists to well known recipes, new ideas and well - a full chapter on mushrooms and miso!
My only complaint is, that I want more. It could easily be twice the size to compare to my favorite cookbooks!

Umami is all the rage now and this is a solid entry on the topic. The layout is easy to navigate and the pictures are absolutely drool-worthy. Food porn, anyone?

4 1/2 stars

Never before have I salivated while reading a cookbook, but I did with Raquel Pelzel’s Umami Bomb. A cookbook devoted to adding umami to vegetarian dishes? Why, yes, please!

Umami was first described by a Japanese chemist and food lover, Kikunae Ikeda, at the turn of last century. Translated from Japanese umami means “pleasant, savory taste.”

Pelzel divides her Umami Bomb into eight sections each devoted to one umami ingredient: aged cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, soy sauce, miso, caramelized onions, smoke, and nutritional yeast. After going through these recipes, I realized that my taste buds love the umami flavors. Add caramelized onions to a grilled cheese sandwich? Yum!

If you’re thinking that the recipes are only for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, think again. She puts soy sauce into her chocolate recipes stating that it makes the taste “brighter.” There’s even a banana split recipe!

The author is a pescatarian so there is a bonus chapter with several fish recipes, but the other chapters are all vegetarian with some vegan or suggestions for turning a recipe vegan. Having become a huge fan of caramelized onions in the past couple of years, I know just how significantly a umami flavor can impact a dish.

The dishes that I’m eager to try include: eggs in puttanesca purgatory, which looks a lot like shakshuka, the Israeli egg dish but with the added spark of olives and caper (big yum); roasted tomato tart with pesto and goat’s milk cheese; mushroom lardons with black-eyed peas and greens; probably every single caramelized onion recipe; and there are others, but my mouth’s watering so we’ll stop there.

I highly recommend Umami Bomb.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Umami Bomb by Raquel Pelzel
75 (Mostly) Vegetarian Recipes that Explode with Flavor

As I move more and more toward vegan eating I am always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to make meals interesting and perhaps to change things up a bit. This book has some intriguing ways to add flavor intensity that I may and may not have explored before.

The Introduction explains Umami as “the fifth taste” and mentions that is provides “meaty or savory” to the dish. It then lists eight items to use to create umami with each one having a chapter of its own and recipes that include the item the chapter is named for. The ninth chapter deals with fish...not vegetarian at all.

So...here are the eight umami items mentioned in the book.
* parmesan and aged cheeses
* soy sauce
* tomatoes
* mushrooms
* carmelized onions
* miso
* smoke
* nutritional yeast

As I looked through the recipes again I realized that I use most of these items to provide flavor without realizing that I was adding umami. I didn’t really see anything new I would want to try...soy sauce in chocolate cake? Tomato with olives and hot peppers in a paste? Cheese waffles? Just not sure many really caught my fancy. That said, I do think using caramelized onions with beets on toast with a smear of labne or cheese or bean paste and something green might be tasty and using mushrooms more in cooking is something I look forward to doing. Some of the recipes sound like something I might be willing to try while others sound rather bizarre. The chapters that intrigued me the most were the ones on mushrooms, caramelized onions and smoke. I just received my first gift of nutritional yeast and do look forward to trying it at some point in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Workman Publishing for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars

Such a fun cookbook! Vegetarian recipes that focus on adding umami flavor through eight umami-rich ingredients. The recipes are not overly complicated and the ingredients used are readily available. The photographs were beautiful! I can't wait to try some of these recipes!

Thank you, Workman Publishing Company and NetGalley!

Workman Publishing Company and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Umami Bomb: 75 Vegetarian Recipes That Explode with Flavor. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

This cookbook is designed with the vegetarian in mind, although there is a bonus section with fish recipes. Umami is a taste sensation, a breakdown of protein which results in a heightened sense of taste. The book is uniquely sectioned into categories titled by the main ingredient, like Parm & Other Aged Cheeses, Soy Sauce, Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Caramelized Onions, Miso, Smoke, and Nutritional Yeast.

Umami Bomb is filled with interesting ideas, like Parm-Bone Broth, made from the rind of a parmesan cheese wedge. In the Parm & Other Aged Cheese section, I would most like to try Crispy Cheddar Cheese waffles, with its combination of sweet/savory, as well as crispy/tender. The Soy section has eye-catching recipes like Soba Salad with a soy-red wine reduction, tofu, and a plethora of vegetables. There are unexpected recipes like Soy Marinara, which gets its sodium from the soy sauce. I would most like to try Sheet Pan Chile-Soy Glazed Brussels Sprouts, roasted to perfection with a flavorful glaze. The chapter is the most varied, with offerings from the expected savory and delicious Fried Rice, to sweet dishes like Toasted Sesame Granola with Coconut, Orange, and Warm Spices. The recipes in the Tomatoes section range from the easy Roasted Tomato Salsa, to the quick Tomato-Cucumber Sandwich with Roasted Tomato Mayo, and finally to main dish entrees like Tomato Pasta Bake with Swiss Chard and Ricotta. Mushroom dishes include a richly flavored Mushroom Dashi, Mushroom Salad Tart, Grilled Pizza with Sausage-spiced Mushrooms, Peppers, and Onions. The Caramelized Onion section has a variety of recipes from appetizers (Caramelized Onions and Spinach Dip), to main dishes like Caramelized Shallot Raita with Curried Rice. Miso recipes include Grilled Asparagus with Miso Butter, Miso Broccoli with Orecchiette and Pan-seared Lemons. Smoke has dishes like Grilled Romaine with Caesar-ish Vinaigrette and Grilled Black Bean Veggie Burgers. The final Vegetarian section is Nutritional Yeast, which is an ingredient that may be unfamiliar to some readers. It is a complete protein and a good source of B vitamins, making it an ideal ingredient for healthy eating. With recipes such as Better Than Movie Popcorn and Kale Pesto Pasta, readers will enjoy the depth of flavor that this ingredient can give a finished dish.

The cookbook itself is brightly colored and eye-catching, but does not have enough pictures of the finished dishes. Umami Bomb is a bit short with only 75 recipes, but there were many dishes that I would make time and time again. Readers who are looking for a vegetarian cookbook with lots of flavor may like Umami Bomb.

Oh my god! amazing. The first chapter is on cheese. A whole section on lovely cheesy goodness. I want to eat everything in this book.

I never really thought that much about umami, I've heard of it but didn't think it was that important., until I read this book. Now I realise that it's what I like, i really, really like umami.

The recipes are uncomplicated and easy to follow. They don't use weird ingredients that you can only buy online and in my case they are all things that I would eat anyway.

Many thanks to the publisher for a downloadable review copy. I'm off to preorder the book in a hard copy version so I can flick through and drool over the pictures while I decide what to make.

I received a copy of this cookbook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Umami Bomb is a bright, bold cookbook with recipes for the curious palate. This vegetarian cookbook includes recipes with foods that capture the specific smoky-fatty-creamy-meaty-salty-earthiness that is “umami.” The book keeps it real: aged cheese, soy sauce, tomatoes, mushrooms, caramelized onions, miso, smoke and nutritional yeast chapters have exactly what you came for. The beautiful food photography kept me flipping pages and the recipes with surprise ingredients kept me intrigued: Breakfast pasta with aged cheese? Yes, please! Chocolate frosting with a hint of soy sauce? Tell me more! I’d also be interested to try the caramelized onion grilled cheese with miso butter and roasted chile-soy glazed Brussels sprouts, but really every recipe caught my attention. I could have used a few more photographs of some of the more unusual recipes. I think this could be a book for meat-eaters considering vegetarianism, or who just want a meatless Monday idea. For vegetarians, it’ll be a book they’ll want to cook straight through.

A good vegetarian cook book with interesting ideas on how to make meat free meals more interesting and tasty. Recipes are not ground breaking but do seem easy enough to prepare.

A fun read focusing on the fifth taste of umami.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy of this title in exchange for an unbiased review.

Even though I love meat, I appreciate a solid vegetarian cookbook. If someone has ideas to get me to eat a meatless meal without feeling like something is missing, I'm all about it! With this cookbook, Raquel Pelzel set out to create truly crave-worthy vegetarian meals, relying on her knowledge of umami, that mysterious fifth taste that adds savoriness and depth to normal foods, and how to incorporate it in everyday foods to make them addictive. She breaks the cookbook down into chapters based on key ingredients that are renowned for their umami content, such as cheese, soy, tomato, mushrooms, caramelized onions, miso, nutritional yeast, and smoked ingredients. Some of these recipes include multiple of these "umami bombs", and she helpfully depicts this with a umami bomb key next to each recipe.

The recipes are mostly spins on classics, so they aren't ground-breaking but are tasty comfort food recipes with a small twist to bring out their umami potential. Recipes that stood out as unique included Gouda-Apple-Thyme Galettes, Crispy Cheddar Cheese Waffles, No Reason Chocolate Cake (the frosting includes soy sauce!), Everything Bagel Caramelized Onion Focaccia, Miso Cacio e Pepe, and Molten Chocolate Truffle Bomb Cookies with Smoked Salt (try reading that description without drooling!). Then there are recipes like a tomato soup composed of blended roasted tomatoes and miso that are simpler but no less complex in their flavors.

It's a fun concept, and Pelzel leans into it with bright pop-style fonts and exciting pictures. I really like the whole design of the book. It really makes you excited to cook from it. While it's not the biggest cookbook, I have my eye on a number of recipes to try in the future, and will update when that happens. None of them made me want to get up and cook them immediately, but I'm intrigued by the idea of soy sauce in a chocolate frosting and miso in my butterscotch sauce.

It's not a cookbook that's essential for your cookbook shelf, but it's a fun read nonetheless and will give you some new cooking ideas if you like to try new things in the kitchen.

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

It’s very unfortunate that books that are only available in PDF expire. Although I downloaded it, I can no longer access this title and can’t download again now although it hasn’t expired. May I respectfully request that you make your titles available for a Kindle download so they don’t expire? Thank you.

Confession time: I have not tried any of these recipes yet, but several of them look really interesting and I definitely will give some of them a try once my life quiets down a bit! The layout of this book is very appealing, the photography is very attractive and the organization of the recipes by major flavor characteristic seems to work well.

This cookbook was a really fun read! Umami is something that I have not done a lot of research on and so I was super excited to get some new ideas.

There are a lot of really colorful , really well taken pictures in this book, which is one of my favorite things about cookbooks. And I was able to get some cool ideas from this book. I loved the idea of adding Parmesan rinds to veggie broth, and will be implementing that in the near future. There was also an interesting idea to put a small amount of soy sauce in chocolate cake! I’m still not sure if I will try this idea, but its worth thinking about. I also loved her handy chart for imitating bacon flavor when you don’t want/don’t have bacon.

Though this book is intended for the vegetarian cook, it did have some fish recipes.

In general my attitude towards this cookbook was that it might have a little too much going on, but it was still a fun read. For example some of the desserts sounded too weird. And other people might enjoy it more than me. In the end I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

I loved the attention to bringing flavour to vegetarian dishes, whether you're always veggie or just visiting plant-land. I knew I liked parmesan, miso, soy, roast tomatoes, caramelised onions, mushrooms & nooch, but I hadn't linked them as all being in the umami family before.
The recipes are unfussy & portion sizes are for real people. I haven't taken the advice to add soy to chocolate sauce yet, (!) but I will have to try that soon. And if I like it I'll try the chocolate cake with soy in the frosting! That's the kind of book this is - you read some and think 'yup, that sounds so tasty' and others make you think wow, really? I will have to try that out for myself!
Some lovely recipes with an umami twist, one for anyone who needs some new veggie recipes or twists to prove to the nay-sayers that veggie cooking can't stand up against the umaminess of meat dishes.

Great book for anyone who wants to create great tasting vegetarian meals. Great pictures. Tried some of the recipes and they turned out great. Recommend this book.

I'm not vegetarian, but I'm all for trying to make veggies taste better (if only so I can sneak them into dishes with no one being the wiser). This book has plenty of easy to follow recipes and the photos are so yummy looking.

While Umami Bomb is a great concept using normal ingredients such as aged- cheese and smoke, The recipes are great as a substitute for a flavourful meal, but that's just about it. It is hard to justify buying a recipe book that teaches more about swapping umami foods when there're more out in the market that combines umami with other ideas.

Umami Bomb is a colourful collection of recipes that involve ingredients that are known for their flavourful umami properties. From more commonly-known ingredients like tomatoes, mushrooms, and caramelized onions, to more uncommon (to some) ingredients such as soy sauce, miso, and nutritional yeast, Umami Bomb presents how to use them in accessible recipes.

THIS IS THE BEST COOKBOOK EVER!

Firstly - the author is really funny, not that she talks too much, but in the few paragraphs that are not about the recipes, she is extremely funny!

And secondly (most importantly) is that the recipes are really simple, but the most important thing is TASTE! I want to cook them all!

I am actually buying this book because it's the perfect cookbook for me!

(I received a digital copy for free. Opinions are entirely my own.)