Cookbook Review - Veganomicon The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook Authors: Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero Review By: Julia Adrock
We moved out of the big city right after our daughter was born, and starved for activity and adult conservation I joined a cookbook club at the local library. We meet once a month to discuss and review cookbooks instead of novels. I was excited to get to the month where we all tried vegetarian and vegan titles, and snatched up the Vegonimican from the pile on offer. I had purchased it for a vegan friend of ours earlier and was really looking forward to trying it out. Having a vegetarian couple and a vegan as close friends I am always looking for new recipes for movie nights, dinner parties and special occasions.
What it then turned into was me trying recipe after recipe and really loving them! Quite a few of them have moved into regular rotation when making my weekly meal plan. The Marinara sauce is now our staple sauce and I no longer have to buy pre made! The Pineapple Cashew Stir Fry is fantastically fresh and different and so easy to make. The entire Indian inspired meal of Samosa Stuffed Baked Potatoes, 5 min Mango Chutney and Sauteed Tomato and Spinach was...well it was fantastic, and I have made the entire meal multiple times since. All the flavor of a samosa without the pastry, stuffed neatly in a potato skin! Not pictured is the Caramelized Onion-Butternut Roast with Chestnuts (pg. 152) which I made to bring to Christmas at a friends house in support of another vegan guest. They were up to their eyeballs in multiple planed courses, all not vegan friendly, and I was actually really pleased to both help them out, and try another recipe from the book!. Too bad I didn't get a photo of it before it was all eaten!
Some surprises were found in the Almesan, an almond based replacement for parmesan cheese, that was a great accompaniment to the spaghetti and bean balls. The Baked Potato and Greens Soup with Potato Wedge Croutons delighted my husband. His love for potatoes and greens runs deep, and now they are together in a hot bowl packed with savory goodness.
I learned some new ways to prepare tofu and I can recommend broiling with a braising liquid for something different. The Sweet Potato Pear Tzmmies with pecans and raisins are a welcome addition to any special occasions table and if you wanted to eat them out of the dish with a fork by yourself in the kitchen....I can attest that it is also wonderful..
The book also goes through kitchen equipment, stocking your pantry and even breaks down the steps to cooking a grain, a vegetable and a bean. The recipes themselves are organized within courses in the table of contents and then in the back of the book broken down into sample menus, and then again into categories like soy free, gluten free, low fat, recipes under 45mins and supermarket friendly all with corresponding page numbers. Its organization upon organization and it appeals to my brain so much, it make the voices quiet for once!!
So I said without this book, Bad Hunter wouldn't exist. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. But I know where the beginning was, and it was within the pages of the Veganomicon. I am forever grateful for the right book at the right time and I highly encourage anyone to pick it up, vegan or not. Its a cookbook so good that I decided to change my life. Its going to be a long trip, but I have begun and am so excited to continue.
Be seeing you,
Julia
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