With its heavy reliance on natural foods specialty items, such as shoyu, mi so and hijiki, Chelf's collection seems a throwback to vegetarian cookbooks of the early '70s. She herself appears to have an inkling of this; when ch ecking her notes for this volume, she realized that "there were practically no 'normal' recipes in the book. . . ." Only a very starry-eyed vegetarian will believe that vegetable broth, tamari and miso constitute a convincing substitute for beef stock in French onion soup. Pasta, with its numerous m eatless possibilities, merits just a few entries. There is an interesting f ettucini with spinach and ricotta, but the sole lasagna recipe is prepared with mashed tofu and textured vegetable protein. The author even introduces her sandwich of tofu, tahini and miso with the plaintive comment that "thi s sandwich tastes better than it sounds"--cold comfort to a hungry reader. One plus: the glossary of ingredients provided by Chelf, a cooking instruct or and natural foods store operator, offers an intriguing, succinct introdu ction to uncommon items.