I didn’t really think I’d be a huge fan of this cookbook because I prefer naturally vegan foods, especially when it comes to savory dishes. I’ve enjoyed most of the vegan cookbooks by this author though so I wanted to check it out. I’m glad that I did but it definitely wasn’t a favorite. So many “current vegan fad” ingredients were included, even for sweet dishes. Coconut, vinegar, many ingredients that I don’t enjoy. It is a well organized cookbook and has some helpful sections before the recipes sections, including on nutrition, pantry basics and other ingredients, and on hidden animal ingredients. I appreciate the short section on “What’s in a name?” (page 21-22) because I know there is controversy over using animal names for animal derived ingredients free dishes. I don’t remember reading a book before now where this issue was addressed.

The book is relatively comprehensive when it comes to types of dishes/substitutions.

Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1: Vegan Basics
Chapter 2: DIY Dairy-Free and Egg-Free Too
Chapter 3: Plant-Based Meats
Chapter 4: Vegan Charcuterie
Chapter 5: Instead of Seafood
Chapter 6: Vegetable Steak-Out
Chapter 7; Global Condiments, Sauces, and Dressings
Chapter 8: Sweets from Scratch
Acknowledgements
Index

I had to read the start of chapter 4 to see what charcuterie means: from the French for “cooked flesh” – ugh!

Even though this book was not my cup of tea I did find a relatively few recipes that looked worth trying. (I’m wondering if some appeared in her previous books because some looked familiar to me.)

They are: from chapter 2: chickpea flour omelets and vive la French toast; from chapter 3: marinated baked tofu, best bean burgers, mama’s meatballs; from chapter 5: no-meat loaf; from chapter 6: baked eggplant Italian style; from chapter 7: avocado crema, great brown gravy, basil pesto, over-roasted tomato sauce; from chapter 8: homemade pasta, cheesy crackers, scratch biscuits, pizza dough, loaded polenta pizza, cranberry-walnut scones; from chapter 9: date-caramel sauce, ganache, veganized marshmallow fluff, lemon meringue pie, strawberry shortcake, chocolate-chocolate chip brownies.

I’ve been reading this cookbook for weeks. It just wasn’t the right one for me. I’ll still look forward to future books by this author. She’s written many.

For people who can’t or don’t want to eat flesh, eggs, dairy, etc. animal dervived foods but enjoy them, and have fewer foods they dislike than I do, the recipes contained here might be ones they enjoy, and for some people this might be a must have book.

For me it was just okay. There are literally hundreds of vegan cookbooks I like better. ( )