As a 32 year vegetarian for ethical reasons, I have so many vegetarian cookbooks, most of which I wouldn't recommend and sorry that I
wasted my money on them.
My favorite, though not a vegetarian cookbook, but it has lots of recipes that I simply prepare it, adding meat to my husband's plate and
a soy protein to mine - is Cooking with All Things Trader Joe's (Deana Gunn and Wona Miniati). It has Persian Green Bean Rice,
Eggplant Parmesan Pasta and the delicious one that I made today for lunch, Tortellini & Chicken Sausage. Again, I used a vegetarian
sausage for my soup and a regular sausage for my husband and our friends. Every single dish that I've prepared using this book has
been an "ah" moment. Their pasta recipes are out of this world. I would be remiss if I didn't mention their Peanutty Sesame Noodle recipe. Wow - it's so good. I'm a 'hard core' Trader Joe's shopper and interestingly enough, TJ's never endorsed that book or had it for sale in their stores. Then a couple of years later, they came out with one that I bought - and never used - nothing in it tripped my trigger. (I Love Trader Joe's cookbook). I see that you're in Australia and TJ's isn't there but all of their recipes can be substituted by other brands.
I bought Crescent Dragonwagon's Passionate Vegetarian book after reading that the Clintons used to dine there and most people had no idea that her restaurant was all vegetarian cooking. I've owned the book since 2002 and never made a thing from it. I find the directions extremely difficult to follow, the variations confusing and "too chatty". I just want the facts and pictures. This one has neither. To be fair, 68 amazon.com customers rated it a 5 star, out of 80 customer reviews - so perhaps its me.
Ditto with Cafe Flora Cookbook, Catherine Geier, has more than 250 vegetarian and vegan recipes from the renowned Seattle Restaurant, their words, not mine. 16 out of 17 people at amazon.com gave it 5 stars and I couldn't find anything I wanted to make.
Moosewood Restaurant, "Simple Suppers" is very popular though I've only made one recipe from it and noted on the tortilla melt recipe,
"delicious, 12/5/05". Haven't made anything from it since.
The Big Book of Vegetarian is rated 5 stars out of 8 people and I found it unimaginative and see that in January 2006, I made their crispy sesame tofu cutlets and made a notation "yummy, had for brunch." That was all I made from that book.
The Spirited Vegetarian by Paulette Mitchell I bought in 2007 and have never made anything using that book. Though 4 out of 6 people at
amazon.com gave it a 5 star rating.
The 15-minute Gourmet Vegetarian by Paulette Mitchell is one that I only made one recipe from: pasta al pesto. Never touched the book
since and that was in 2007. Again, 9 reviewers at amazon.com out of 11 rated it 5 stars.
I think cookbooks are like movie ratings, subjective. Before buying a vegetarian cookbook, go to a bookstore and take a look at what's
on their shelves and see what looks good to you. I agree with KYHeirloomer's comment - "don't limit yourself" - there are lots of recipes that you can modify to fit your particular diet/lifestyle.