Mark Bittman writes The Minimalist column for the Wednesday food pages of The New York Times, suggesting recipes that use few ingredients and simple cooking techniques. He doesn't venture far from his comfort zone in this book, which is the latest in his How to Cook Everything series (which includes The Basics and Weekend Cooking). The title seems ambitious but his scope is wide.

Some of the more extreme interpretations of vegetarianism (such as veganism and raw-foodism) are overly ascetic; Bittman's approach is more liberal (although not to the extent that he uses fish). Many of his recipes use eggs and dairy products, including cheese (oddly for such a detailed book, he doesn't address the fact cheese is frequently made from rennet derived from the stomach lining of calves).

Bittman covers many cuisines (including Japanese, Thai, Indian and Chinese) and uses non-standard ingredients such as Jerusalem artichokes and quinoa. He's good at cross referencing - giving a recipe in one part of the book and suggesting alternative uses for it elsewhere.

The book is unlikely to convert anybody to the vegetarian cause but it's good for omnivores striving to eat less meat.