Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck

by Thug Kitchen

Thug Kitchen started their wildly popular web site to inspire people to eat some Goddamn vegetables and adopt a healthier lifestyle. Beloved by Gwyneth Paltrow ("This might be my favorite thing ever") and named Saveur's Best New Food Blog of 2013 — with half a million Facebook fans and counting — Thug Kitchen wants to show everyone how to take charge of their plates and cook up some real f*cking food.


Yeah, plenty of blogs and cookbooks preach about how to eat more kale, why ginger fights inflammation, and how to cook with microgreens and nettles. But they are dull or pretentious as hell — and most people can’t afford the hype.


Thug Kitchen lives in the real world. In their first cookbook, they’re throwing down more than 100 recipes for their best-loved meals, snacks, and sides for beginning cooks to home chefs. (Roasted Beer and Lime Cauliflower Tacos? Pumpkin Chili? Grilled Peach Salsa? Believe that sh*t.) Plus they’re going to arm you with all the info and techniques you need to shop on a budget and go and kick a bunch of ass on your own.


This book is an invitation to everyone who wants to do better to elevate their kitchen game. No more ketchup and pizza counting as vegetables. No more drive-thru lines. No more avoiding the produce corner of the supermarket. Sh*t is about to get real.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Vegan, Reference, Health

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2014

About the author

Thug Kitchen is here to help your narrow dietary mind explore some goddamn options so that you can look and feel like a fucking champ. We hope readers reconsider what kind of behaviors they attribute to people who try to eat healthy. Everyone deserves to feel a part of our push toward a healthier diet, not just people with disposable incomes who speak a certain way. So we're here to help cut through the bullshit. Promoting accessibility and community are important as fuck here at Thug Kitchen. We've got a big table and everyone is welcome to it.

Source: Thug Kitchen FAQ.

Reviews

[Samantha]

All righty-roo, I honestly had no clue people commented on my post. I have been away for a while...long while, plus I never got any notifications. Had I known I would have updated things sooner. I mean I'm a nobody up here, so 18 comments is a lot. I doubt anyone will see or care about my changes but I FOR SURE need to change some things. First I removed my star rating on the book. Whilst I never really thought of the book in a racist manor, I see quite a few have. I will say I personally thought of the book in a way of mafia/gangs(no creeds) meets veganism. Well actually I can't fully say that. I imagined a sopranos-esic older Italian ex-mafia man writing the book. And while I thought that way doesn't mean others did as well. And dear god, I mean nothing towards Italians. My family was all about the sopranos at the time so my gang thoughts went to that series. But even with all that, my thoughts mean crap when the majority of people legitimately think African American when the word thug is thrown around. And I'm not just talking from here. Had the authors of this book really resonated with the comments and concerns of the community and made changes going further or used it to bring light to certain issues I might be a inclined to continue with this series but as of this moment I'm calling it quits. I have no problem admitting that my perception was off. But to the woman calling me a racist, I don't care what you think of me but please next time chat, ask questions, and make a fully rounded idea before throwing names around. I know its easy to type things angrily through your keyboard, but it doesn't mean it's right. People come from all walks of life, have different experiences, not to mention some are just ignorant on particular matters till they learn. Try talking to some one before immediately writing them off. And the last thing I'm going to say and contine to say about my felow human beings is that the word thug is not synomus with African American. And if you think that way you need to stop and educate yourself.

[Isa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thug Kitchen' Is the Latest Iteration of Digital Blackface

"Thug Kitchen—a brand that got popular by writing recipes in a tone reminiscent of African American Vernacular English—is run by two WASPy white people from California, Michelle Davis and Matt Holloway, whom Epicurious refers to as “masterminds.”"- Vice

"The Root refers to Thug Kitchen as “a recipe in blackface.” Belittling and commoditizing “ghetto” symbols and imagery for white gain is a form of racism and appropriation. It draws on a long history of white persons feeling entitled to control over non-white spaces. Whites draw on their immense social power to pick and choose from vulnerable communities from the safety and comfort of their spaces of privilege."- The Academic Abolitionist Vegan

DO NOT READ THIS RACIST POS!

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF SWEAR WORDS



Hey look, it’s a controversial book. Mitchell never decides we should read these, so let’s see what’s up ; )

Okay, there’s obviously a giant pink elephant in the room with respect to Thug Kitchen. I’m going to address it and move on. There are A LOT of social injustices in the world. Issues like racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, etc. still run rampant and that needs to change. Luckily one thing everyone is still allowed is the ability to speak freely. People are entitled to be offended by whatever the f*&^ they choose (especially when it comes to a social media site) and I’m not interested in arguing with others who don’t share my opinion about something as stupid as a cookbook. Don’t like this one? Then don’t buy it. Pretty simple. As for me? I think it classes up my kitchen counter ; )



I’m not offended by much, so I took Thug Kitchen at face value for what it is – a gimmick, plain and simple. There are eleventy billion foodie blogs started each year. In order to get people to look at one over all the others and maybe eventually even turn it into a book, it obviously has to toss something special on the table. In this case it’s a bunch of mother*&^%#s. Yep, if you don’t like swearing, you best just back away from the cookbook immediately.



See? Bad words. This book has them. However, if you can get past the cursing, you’ll find a solid cookbook. Not only does Thug Kitchen contain recipes regular humans who don’t work in Michelin starred restaurants in their spare time can create, it also has helpful hints on pantry staples as well as various utensils and gadgets you actually need in your kitchen when starting out on your own. And it has pretty pictures . . .



Seriously, a cookbook with shitty pictures is a total waste of money.

The only downside? The recipes are all vegetarian, so the über carnivore probably won’t be delighted . . . but you can just tell them to shut the f*&^ up and chug back a delicious beverage instead of bitching about the fact there is no carcass on their plate come dinnertime . . .



There’s even recipes in there for the kids . . .



I keed, I keed. Don’t let your children read this book. What the f*&^ kind of parents are you people?!?!?!

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yawn. Really, just yawn. Look, I don't care about people using curse words, but these folks don't even know how to use them. They're trying for some weird version of "street cred" and they come across as completely inept at it. It's as if they wrote the book in a final version with every i dotted and t crossed and all the grammar perfect, and then said, "hey, let's do a global search and replace on some words like 'things' to change it to 'shit', and everywhere we use the word 'delicious' let's add in the word 'fucking' in front of it". It comes across as completely formulaic and forced (as it does on their website), and it's no surprise that they were recently "outed" as a couple of whitebread yuppies just trying to make a name for themselves. It's a shame, too, because they actually have some decent recipes on the site and in the book, but the quality of those, and the underlying message for healthy eating, just get lost in a big motherfucking pile of word shit. (See, annoying. It doesn't work when I do it either.)

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could rate this zero stars, I would. The last thing I need is two WASPy white people telling me how to cook like a "thug". They're soooo counter-culture, using recipes with swear words in it. It's cultural appropriation, racist, and akin to digital blackface.

Wonder why they kept the fact they were white hidden for so long? Just enough time to capitalize on a book deal...

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This didn't have near as many recipes for me as the Thug Kitchen 101 (could just be personal preference). I think I got about 30 to try recipes out of that one, and this one had maybe 10 that didn't seem crazy time consuming and I thought I would try.

FYI: All recipes are Vegan. And there are tons of fucks used ;)

[Charles van Buren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Appears to have been written by a couple of thug wannabes. Or maybe by some people just looking for a quick buck or two by using shock to sell a cookbook. I doubt that many, if any, real thugs have ever heard of most of these recipes.

Anyway, a fine book for people who want their recipes with heaping sides of profanity, vulgarity and crudity. Read the book description. Others will probably want to pass this up. The market is full of much better and better written cookbooks.

This thing was recommended to me by someone whom I will not embarrass by naming.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

BEST. COOKBOOK. EVER.

Forget about the pretentious bullshit and calorie counting and expensive ass ingredients you sometimes can't even find at Whole Foods. This mutherfucker is approachable, full of amazing tips and tricks, and stands as the only cookbook to ever make me laugh so hard I had to pause in reading the recipe because I couldn't see the words through tears. Going to cook my way through this ASAP.

[Morgan Woll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seriously one of the best vegan cookbooks I've come across. I generally only want to make about half the recipes in any given cookbook, but there were only maybe 2 or 3 I didn't see myself using in this book. Plus it's hysterical. READ IT.

[Nat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Racist, super stupid trash. Don't spend a cent supporting these horrible people who think they're entertaining

[Miranda Webb · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book incredibly distasteful.
I don't think its appropriate for two of the whitest white-bread people ever to appropriate AAVE just for the purpose of selling a few books.

Everybody knows the associations with the word "thug" - the fact that they try to pretend they don't is absurd. And rude.

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this one was different. There is extreme profanity throughout; it’s part of the book’s concept, weaving its way through the entire text. It’s going to fill a niche market, I suppose, reaching people who might not otherwise reach for a vegan cookbook, or certain vegans who think the presentation is the best thing ever. Unfortunately, it’s going to completely turn off some cookbook readers/users, and that’s a shame because the recipes are really good and worth reading, making and eating. I knew what to expect and I was amused, and I found it somewhat entertaining for while but then, for me, all the swearing got tiresome and I was just trying to read the recipes and the extra helpful information that’s included. I was expecting many obscenities but I guess I wasn’t truly prepared for their volume. However, the recipes are excellent, and I welcome many kinds of vegan cookbooks so as to appeal to the widest range of cookbook readers who are vegan or vegan interested or simply looking for some good recipes.

There are many recipes that appealed to me. I really appreciate that most recipes seem easy to make, that many times whole grains are used, and I also loved the pages with ideas for putting together dishes such as how to build a salad and how to build a bowl and how to roast garlic, etc. There are some good photos of the food (though not for every recipe) and other photos too.

From the breakfast section I’m especially interested in: quinoa oatmeal; mixed veggie and tofu chilaquiles; basic maple granola with add in ideas; tofu scramble tacos; brown rice bowl with edamame and tamari scallion sauce; whole wheat banana pancakes; oat flour griddle cakes with blueberry sauce; baked okra and potato hash.

From the salads, sammies, and mini meals section these looked particularly good: roasted broccoli and millet pilaf; braised winter cabbage and potatoes; sweet corn and green chilis baked flautas; smoky black-eyed peas with roasted sweet potatoes and collards; baked Spanish rice; and some of the baked tofu marinades.

From the soups and stews section, these recipes: vegetable noodle soup with ginger miso broth; pozole rojo; corn and basil chowder; potato leek soup; pumpkin chili (Yes!, #1 on my list! Though perhaps I could say the same about a dozen other recipes in this book. There are so many appealing ones!); tortilla soup; chickpeas and dumplings; wedding soup with white bean balls and kale.

From the salsas, sips, and the snack life section: cumin-spiked pinto bean dip; creamy black bean and cilantro dip; mid-summer salsa; salsa verde; and peach-mint sun tea.

From the burritos, bowls, and other bomb-ass meals, these looked best to me: (these first two vying for recipe #1 with the soup recipe in that section!!): creamy ravioli with house marinara; mixed mushroom and spinach lasagna; and also sweet potat0, squash, and black bean enchiladas; cauliflower cream pasta with fresh herbs; roasted chickpea and broccoli burritos; white bean and red lentil burgers; and root veggie fries.

And from the baked goods and mother fucking desserts section: chocolate fudge pops; crispy millet and peanut butter buckeyes; maple-oat banana bread; carrot cake cookies; and chocolate chip and almond butter cookies all looked delicious.

The above recipes don’t necessarily represent the scope of all the recipe variety in the book; they’re simply the ones that personally most appealed to me.

I recommend the book going in knowing what to expect, for the excellent mostly healthy, reasonably easy to make, and delicious looking recipes.

[Amanda Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Motherfucking hilarious.

[SUSAN *Nevertheless,she persisted* · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is chock full of great,healthy recipes that are rich in flavor.
I have been trying to live a healthier lifestyle,so cookbooks such as these,provide clever ways to retrain my eating habits.
As for the language in this book,if you are easily offended,you may want to look elsewhere. It simply made me chuckle.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great recipes, all veggie based. Hilarious but you gotta love or not be offended by foul language. Recipes don't seem too hard or have too many crazy ingredients I will never buy.

[Melanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's a cookbook in black face. I would much rather support vegans of color instead.

Check out Sistah Vegan or Decolonize Your Diet and anything by Bryant Terry.

I also love Angela Liddon who is healthy and positive and authentic.

Screw this book.

[Julie H. Ernstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't let the title of the book throw you. If you love tasty food, have an irreverent approach to those who wish to dictate to you what to buy, where to buy it, reject overpriced kitchen gadgets that stand in for a little string and a healthy dose of common sense, and otherwise are skeptical of whatever the food fad du jour is, then this may well be the next cookbook you need to buy! But don't trust me, go to the food blog at www.thugkitchen.com, enter the recipes area, look for, prepare and consume the spinach burgers and then we'll talk. I've prepped a good many things from that blog without even noticing that all the recipes are meat free. Why? Because all we noticed was that they are helpful, step by step guides to things that taste really good.

That said, I was thrilled when my copy of Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give a F*ck arrived in the mail. (No, they're not gonna stock this sucker at Williams-Sonoma as it's precisely not their image.) I've read all the chapter intros and dutifully tabbed all the priority pages I'll be prepping in the days and weeks to come.

If you love food and want to be more mindful about what you put in your body, heck even if all you want to do is prepare food that tastes good, you could do a whole lot worse than this food blog and cookbook. Check it out! You'll thank me. (But don't, thank the folks at Thug Kitchen.)

[Halley Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not realize this was only a vegan cookbook but wow, all the recipes sound tasty. Gonna make the chickpea dumplings and chickpea and broccoli burritos this week. The recipes don't seem complicated and the authors drop helpful hints all throughout. very entertaining cookbook.

[Jess Faraday · Rating 4 out of 5]

AMAZING recipes--amazingly delicious, amazingly healthy, and amazingly cheap and easy to make. On top of that, the hardcover is GORGEOUS---and, interestingly, cheaper than the ebook right now at B&N.

It's a shame the authors felt the need to put on a masquerade that they had to have known would be hurtful to some. The recipes are excellent, and they could have done just as well selling them on their own merits.

[Slightly Devious · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top 5 cookbooks ever. EVER. I want to make EVERY G.D. RECIPE.

[Chana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best cookbook that I own. Every recipe I've tried is really quick to make and super scrumptious delicious and it is all healthy food. The language is terrible and I love it. Maybe it reminds me of growing up in the San Fernando Valley. This is the first cookbook that inspired me to eat breakfast, a meal I have been avoiding for over 40 years as I prefer coffee and some sort of sugar filled breakfast bar. Here is what Thug Kitchen says about breakfast,

"Seriously you need to eat breakfast. You've heard the same shit a million times, but it's true: breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Consider the fact that when you wake up, you haven't eaten anything for six to eight hours - sometimes longer, depending on whatever the fuck you justified as last night's dinner. So you really think it's OK to coast on fumes until lunch? Skipping breakfast is not only lazy but that shit is detrimental to your health."

The language makes me laugh and the food is excellent and did I mention how fast it is to make?
I made a double batch of quinoa oatmeal and ate it with strawberries and maple syrup. I'm feeling so righteous. My favorite cookbook ever. Thanks Thug Life!

In retrospect; I found the book much less appealing when I discovered it was written by two white people. Does that make me a bigot or non-bigot or just confused? I have no idea. I just liked the idea of THUGS in the kitchen. These people are just white vegans who talk like thugs. Hmmm, I think I am really twisted in my thinking here, but that is what I am thinking. I still like the cookbook, food is still good. But book rating is going to a 4 star.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know what? I'm a carnivore, but these make some damn delicious side dishes. Not to mention, you should be putting some nature into your mouth when you eat. Eat like you give a fuck. Make good choices. NOM out on some fruits and veggies, and do your body good. There are some great pictures and I enjoy the information and mic drop at the beginning. I also recommend following the website.

I always tweak recipes to suit me. I've tweaked his too. But they provide a delicious base and you can spruce things up the way you like. ENJOY!

[Debbie "DJ" · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely hilarious cookbook with some great recipes. I like reading it more than cooking though!

[PorshaJo · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, there are two camps for this book: those that love it and those that hate it. I'm in the love camp. Many people are turned off by the excessive swearing in the book. Its a gimmick. It sold their web site to people and got them a book deal. Many people bought the book. If you don't like the swearing, don't read it. I don't really care about that. I got it for the recipes. Many books talk about veganism and why you should be a vegan and give recipes. A lot of people don't believe in veganism and lash out at those that do. This book is a different take on getting those folks attention. Perhaps some people exploring veganism picked this book up as it was so incredibly different. And for that, this book is a winner. I don't care who the authors are, what they look like, or any of that stuff. I'm rating the book on the recipes and information. After all, thats what this book is right, a cookbook.

[Madam Book Worm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this cookbook because I was familiar with almost all the ingredients. I love how the author makes cooking from scratch appear effortless while making a variety of things. If it’s not clear, this is a vegan cookbook. Also, if the ingredient was not well known, the author described the area in the grocery store the item could be picked up. I also appreciated the “Dropping Knowledge” segments sprinkled throughout the book. The Dropping Knowledge segments gave helpful information to explain things such as tofu vs. tempeh, the types of beans, the types of herbs, cutting techniques, etc. I also appreciated the author's occasional recommendations on what the dishes would pair well with it. There are some funny things in this book. If you do not mind cursing, I’d recommend this book. I will try several of the recipes out of this book this year.

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best cookbook I've ever read by miles! I read it online but I am ordering myself a copy ASAP from Amazon. It's vegetarian, HEALTHY, but full of flavor! and also SIMPLE! I cannot wait to try out most of these recipes and I will be laughing the whole time while I make it!

[Carla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am now an official old fart. Couldn't get past all the f*&^ing.

[Leah Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

*jake peralta voice* Oh damn! Maybe I should eat healthy this junk looks delicious

[carla · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sophomoric at best, racist at worst.

Also, adding swear words doesn't make you clever, nor adding cutesy names like "nooch" for nutritional yeast.

I read a lot of vegetarian/vegan cookbooks and this was sort of a yawn, if you could get past the ridiculous self-promotional language.

If you were actually trying to cook something out of this cookbook, it would be a waste. They spend so much time being "funny" in their descriptions they often left out steps. I had to laugh reading some recipes thinking how hard they would be to make despite all the supposed insight these folks were adding.

[Melissa Gans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never mind the swearing, the poor writing style or the supposedly non-intended racism, this cookbook is just not very good. Yes, two pretty white bread hipsters from LA decided to spice it up with some f-bombs and call it thug, but I spent more time trying to figure who the intended audience was, if not hipsters or other easily influenced people. Let's swear at the readers profusely and they'll just become vegan and like it, just like magic. Yep! Oh wait... I love vegetables and fruit, and try to eat 8-10 servings of them a day, but when you remove all nuts/tofu/soy/beans/grains from the recipes, there's not too much left here. I'd rather eat eggs, dairy, fish and meat. It's simply NOT the same, and all the nutritional yeast in the world won't change that.