Declaring herself to be "a part-time vegetarian," Robbins (Biscotti and Other Low Fat Cookies) draws from diverse cuisines‘traditional American, Latin, Asian and Mediterranean‘for these 100 meatless dishes that can be cooked in a single pot or pan. Home cooks pressed for time will appreciate these quick-assembly (and easy clean-up) recipes. Salads are hearty (Wild Rice Waldorf Salad; Brown Rice and Lentil Salad). Full-meal soups include Barley Vegetable Soup and Very Hearty Corn Chowder. Pasta and rice dishes figure heavily into Robbins's one-pot scheme: Spaghetti with Roasted Fennel and Tomatoes; Penne with Broccoli, Red Pepper and Garlic; Risotto with Butternut Squash and Sage; Buckwheat Pasta with Cabbage and Sage. Adventurous palates may appreciate the likes of Tofu in Red Chili Sauce with pumpkin seeds and Caribbean Vegetable Stew, starring tomatoes, white cabbage, okra, sweet potatoes, lime juice and peanuts; and Six Vegetable Curry (yellow peas, eggplant, potatoes, yams, tomatoes and string beans), flavored with chilies, ginger, cumin and tamarind. Such basics as Light Vegetable Stock and Vegetable Broth are also included. Nutritional analyses of the recipes are not provided, but there is a short list of mail-order sources. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Casseroles and vegetarianism often seem mutually exclusive. One does not find "tofu helper" in many supermarkets. But it is possible, as Robbins points out, to produce one-dish meals without any meats or fish. Her one-dish meals rely on pastas, beans, and grains, but she shows how, by using a vegetable broth in place of the usual chicken broth, the home cook can produce elegant, flavorful risotto. This includes both a classic Venetian-inspired rice-and-peas version and a trendy squash-and-sage risotto sure to be a dinner-party hit. Robbins even comes up with a way to take the classic Spanish paella, with its wealth of meats and seafoods, and to turn it into a vegetarian treat by adding reconstituted dried chestnuts for texture. Other recipes use brown rice mixed with cut-up vegetables for more traditional vegetarian fare. --Mark Knoblauch