Vegan with a Vengeance : Over 150 Delicious, Cheap, Animal-Free Recipes That Rock

Comment: I am taking a moment out of making Jerk Seitan to write this review. This is one of the best cookbooks ever. Every recipe I have made has been incredible. My mother loves the Mango Tofu, my daughter the stroganoff (in fact everyone loves this, I gave the leftovers to my friend, she said she licked the bowl). This book convinced my family to go vegan. If you get no other Vegan cookbook get this one!! It has great recipes and it is fun to read. Back to my delicious dinner.

Comment: I strongly suggest this cookbook for any vegan cook. While I love Veganomicon, this book is a little less daunting, the price tag is smaller, and the recipes are delicious. Many of these recipes I make over and over again.

Something that is nice about this book is that the recipes are not too complicated. An especially surpringly simple meal to prepare is the cold udon noodles with peanut sauce and seitan. This dish is delicious and looks/tastes like it would be more difficult to prepare. Another dish that is deceptively easy to make and super yummy,is the jerk seitan over coconut rice.

Other dishes that have become favorite of mine are the mango/ginger tofu, the brooklyn pad thai,and sweet potato fries. I have not prepared as many of the desserts, but the strawberry shortcakes with macadamia nut cream and the coconut heaven cupcakes were amazingly good. The sparkled ginger cookies and the chocolate chip cookies were also pretty good.

A couple of dishes that were not as good as I expected, but were still okay, were the moroccan tagine with spring vegetables, and the chili sin carne al mole.

There are still plenty more recipes I really want to try and many that I haven't mentioned here that were excellent.

Happy cooking!

Comment: For the most part, this book is a good walk out to the end of the diving board...a good canvas in order to create BETTER recipes. Isa is lacking in the baking department, uses far too much oil and sugar in her cupcake recipes as well as others that are baking kinds of recipes. This was enough to put me off of this particular book.
I have several of her other books and find them all to be hit and miss. I like to use her recipes as a starting point for my own ideas.
The Kind Diet by Alicia silverstone is a million times a better book.

Comment: I have many vegan/vegetarian cookbooks, and the recipes are mostly hit or miss. I love EVERYTHING in this cookbook! It's all pretty easy and uses a lot of the same ingredients, so you're not buying things for just one recipe.

Comment: I started out looking for creative ways to eat more plant foods, less processed meals and "boxed food", and get out of my Midwestern Upbringing Food Rut (spaghetti with meat sauce. baked chicken. meatloaf. chicken casserole. tuna noodle hot dish... rinse, repeat until in coma of boredom).

Vegetarian cookbooks I'd tried were extremely heavy on eggs and cheese which I was not too excited about.

This was my first vegan cookbook, and gave me everything I was looking for, and more!

- - I got dozens of great, creative ideas for plant based main meals, healthier "comfort food" than what I grew up with, and lots more vegetables going into my belly.

- - I was inspired to try foods I'd never tried before (tempeh, quinoa, beets, fennel... the list goes on!)

- - AND I learned the joy of being able to make cookies, pancakes, muffins, etc., whenever I'd like! I never did eat eggs much, so if I wanted to bake I'd always have to run out and get some. Never again!


I bought this book to get me out of a rut, thinking I'd just add a few new dishes to the rotation. I ended up in a whole new world of food.

It's not great food for vegans, it's great food for ***everyone***.

There are a ton of great recipes in here - other reviewers have covered their lists, so I'll just give you my all time favorite: Chickpea Broccoli Casserole! So good, healthy, and really satisfies that midwestern craving for hotdish. Well done, Isa!