WHOLESOME HARVEST

Gelles's meatless cookbook comes with a foreword by the president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which last year proposed a four-food-group diet based on grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables. That recent proposal notwithstanding, to anyone familiar with vegetarian cookbooks, there's nothing ``new'' about the ``new food groups'' or about Gelles's mix of recipes. Along with the familiar natural-foodists' mix of ethnic (minestrone, hummus) and whole-grain standards (granola, whole-wheat muffins) and simple curries made with various ground spices, she adds some odd caprices such as ``red red chile'' using cranberry juice, ``Mexican pizza'' topped with bean puree and bottled salsa, and a soup that has approximately equal amounts of cooked lentils, sweet potatoes, brown sugar, and orange juice. Her introductory pages on nutrition also cover familiar ground without much style. For all that, the collection—with its nutrient breakdowns and its markers for easy (``E''), quick (``Q''), and vegan (``V'') recipes—might have a future among some mainstream, health- conscious consumers of unsophisticated palates.