Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking: 101 Entirely Plant-Based, Mostly Gluten-Free, Easy and Delicious Recipes: A Cookbook

by Minimalist Baker

 Husband-wife team Dana and John Shultz founded the Minimalist Baker blog in 2012 to share their passion for simple cooking and quickly gained a devoted following of millions worldwide. Now, in this long-awaited debut cookbook, Dana shares 101 vibrant, simple recipes that are entirely plant-based, mostly gluten-free, and 100% delicious. Each recipe requires 10 ingredients or fewer, can be made in one bowl, or requires 30 minutes or less to prepare. It's a totally no-fuss approach to cooking that is perfect for anyone who loves delicious food that happens to be healthy too.

     With recipes for hearty entrées, easy sides, nourishing breakfasts, and decadent desserts, Simply Vegan will help you get plant-based meals that everyone will enjoy on the table in a snap, and have fun doing it. With essential plant-based pantry and equipment tips, along with helpful nutrition information provided for each and every recipe, this cookbook takes the guesswork out of vegan cooking with recipes that work every time.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Vegan, Health, Food and Drink

292 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 26, 2016

Reviews

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've loved the recipes I've seen on the blog and so I was very interested to read this cookbook. I like that many of the recipes require 10 ingredients or less, one bowl or one pot, and 30 minutes or less to prepare. That's my kind of cooking! I think the blog recipes stick to those “rules” but not all the recipes in the book do, but enough do, and each recipe does show estimated prep/cook/total times. A few seem worth the extra time they take.

Gorgeous photos!

Contents:

Introduction

Resources

Methods

Breakfast

Appetizers + Sides

Main dishes

Desserts

Beverages

Minimalist kitchen

Appendix: nutrition information

Recipe index

Acknowledgments

About Us

The couple is adorable and the writing friendly/accessible.

There are too many recipes in here that I want to make to even start a list and this is one book I wish that I could own, but soon I'll be needing to give up books rather than accumulating books so I can't justify buying any cookbooks. Thank goodness for the library!

There are many great tips throughout.

I need to return the book in a couple of days but I will probably borrow it again. I haven't had time to make anything but there a few things I will probably make from it. Some of the recipes are healthy some much less so but these aren't the kinds of things I cook every day anyway so eating them every once in a while is fine and healthier than the convenience foods I sometimes eat.

Recipes such as: cauliflower rice, peanut sauce, rustic garlic + asparagus tofu quiche, The vegan breakfast burrito, pumpkin chocolate chip bread, banana chocolate pecan muffins, Orange Moroccan spiced nuts, Southwest sweet potato black bean dip, creamy broccoli + "cheddar" soup, garlic "cheddar" herb biscuits, garlic scalloped potatoes, parmesan garlic green beans, White bean posole Verde, super-thick three-bean chili, cornbread chili potpies, butterbut squash kale + quinoa bake, easy weeknight burrito bowls, cashew soba noodle salad, better-than-restaurant vegan nachos, spicy braised tofu tostadas, The best vegan enchiladas, smashed black beans green chili taquitos, Thai quinoa meatballs, hearty cocoa black bean burgers, Thai peanut burgers, pizza burgers, deep-dish pizza with tofu ricotta, butternut squash garlic mac 'n' cheese, peanut butter pad Thai, sweet potato sage raviolis, simple tomato + lentil ragu, classic vegan lasagna, 1-bowl jumbo chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-dunked peanut butter cookies, apricot hand pies, pumpkin apple upside-down cake, vegan vanilla cupcakes, strawberry swirl ice cream, peanut butter cup puffed rice bars, fresh-pressed apple cider, etc.

I appreciate that options for substitutions are given right within the recipes, and I like that it the end of the book estimated nutrition information is given for the recipes. With some of the recipes that interest me I think I would try for less sweeteners than is sometimes called for, maybe down to zero, but I tend not to like my savory foods to have a sweet taste, and even some sweet things I prefer less sweet. Not all! Give me my chocolate frosting & cake but when it comes to jam, for instance, I prefer the fruit only kinds. Buying apples, tomatoes, etc. that are naturally sweet is my preference. But I’d have to use some trial & error with these recipes.

I finished this late at night, well past the time I normally ever eat, and this book made me hungry. I should learn to read cookbooks only when I can eat, and preferably when I can actually make and eat one of the enticing recipes. Meaning having ingredients on hand, the time, etc.

[PorshaJo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. The author indicates that all the recipes either require 10 ingredients or less, 1 bowl or 1 pot, or 30 mins or less to prepare. Each recipe has a map in the upper corner indicating exactly that for the recipe. Many of the recipes can also be made gluten free which is also marked in the map. I'm OK with gluten, but have a friend who must eat gluten-free so nice to have more recipes to make now for him.

The book came about because of the blog, Minimalist Baker. I'm sure I've run across it in the past but it has just been recently where I actively check the blog and make items from it. One recipe for a spicy tofu made in a cast iron pan is now a house favorite which I make way too often. So when I found out about this book I could not wait to get it.

Every recipe has a gorgeous photo, a *huge* plus for me. And they are beautiful, focusing just on the food. There are lots of recipes for breakfast, apps and sides, main dishes, desserts, and drinks. Probably one of the huge perks in this book is the nutritional information appendix which contains the info on each recipe.

The recipes are very enticing, can be made quickly (30 mins or less), and use easily obtainable items. No fancy processed vegan products. I plan to use this book frequently in my house and plan to take tons of 'food porn' photos, though they would be nothing compared to those in this book.

[daemyra, the realm's delight · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to use this cookbook on a daily basis for cooking and baking. Versatile recipes inspired by different cuisines. Focus on plant-based and gluten-free ingredients. Some recipes come in ten ingredients or less. Easy to follow recipes and helpful notes on how to make vegan basics such as parmesan, as well as how to stock up your pantry.

I haven't used it so much this year. Some things to note - you do need to make your own adjustments in terms of seasoning but also liquidity. The sauces can be thick. The savory recipes also run sweet, with a hint of nectar.

[K.N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will preface this by stating that I LOVE the Minimalist Baker blog. I found it once when I was searching for a vegan recipe. Then it came up again when I searched for a different vegan recipe the next week... Pretty soon I recognized the name and would pick MB recipe links over the others. As soon as I saw that she had a book coming out, I pre-ordered it!

I love the concept and execution of the 10 ingredients or less, 1 bowl or 1 pot, and/or 30 minutes or less to prepare requirements, and that's followed in the cookbook.

The book is big and gorgeous, everything is in easy-to-read font with clear instructions and most have additional notes. Nearly every recipe has an accompanying, mouth-watering photo.

My one peeve is that while I am definitely excited for more than half the recipes in this book, there are others I'll probably never look at again; I already have recipes off the blog that I'll use as bookmarks in their place. Easy Vegan Ramen is one for sure! My favorite!

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This cookbook clearly works for a lot of people, but it's just one of those that's not my style. Very little looks appealing to me, and I'm not crazy about the layout--the Courier-like font really bugs me. Also, I get the idea that minimalist means 30 minutes or less, 10 ingredients or less, or 1 bowl or pot, and it's nice that which of these each recipe is can be found in the upper corner of that page. But some of them don't really make sense to me.

For instance, the Vegan Kale Caesar Salad recipe says it takes 60 minutes total to make (15 minutes prep time, 45 minutes cooking time), which seems like an awful lot of time for a salad! And when I actually read the recipe I can't figure out where on earth that time is coming from. You're supposed to quick-soak some cashews, but the recipe says to do that for a whole hour after boiling water to soak them in first, and then it also says to use roasted garlic, which is on another page and that recipe says it requires half an hour total cooking time, which I'm assuming you would do at the same time as you're soaking the cashews, but then once those things are done you still have to blend everything together and massage the kale, and put the rest of the salad together, which seems like it would add up to at least an hour and a half total. It makes extra dressing, apparently, that can be stored for up to 10 days, so the next time you made this it would take way less time, but the math just really confuses me.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of the recipes I've made so far have been excellent and as I paged through the book I found just about every recipe appealing. The one thing I have learned is that I prefer quite a bit more spice, so going forward will add at least 50% more to all recipes I make from the get go. I borrowed the book from my public library but have now purchased it - my only cookbook purchase of 2017 (so far)! This author (I love her website too) is now up there with Angela Liddon, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and Dreena Burton for me. I try to eat a mostly plant based diet and I prefer recipes that use reasonable amounts of oil like this author (as opposed to none!). I personally love gluten (!) so although the author offers ways to make certain recipes gluten free (and marks the ones that are at the top of the recipe, along with whether it is 1 bowl or pot, 10 ingredients or less, or 30 minutes or less), I just used regular oats, etc.

Although I've successfully made several dishes from her website, which brought me to this book, here's what I've made so far from this cookbook (it's been a bit too hot to cook so have been making a lot of smoothies and overnight oats lately):
- Ginger Colada Green Smoothie (I can't believe I've never added a piece of peeled ginger to a smoothie before - awesome! I did add the optional flax seeds and hemp hearts but sweetener wasn't needed. Great tip on keeping prewashed bags of spinach/kale in the freezer!)
- Mango Coconut Lassi (because I used frozen mango this was almost like soft serve - and a gorgeous yellow. I researched and found out you can freeze coconut milk in ice trays and then move the cubes to a freezer bag for a month because I really wanted to make this one but didn't have a plan on what to do with the rest of that can of coconut milk! The frozen cubes should be thawed and blended before using. (per America's Test Kitchen).
- Spiced Buckwheat Pancakes (Used buckwheat, spelt, and rolled oats. Excellent but will add more spices next time. Made exactly 8 pancakes like the recipe said it would. Good tip to freeze any extra pancakes.)
- Hearty Cocoa Black Bean Burgers (I used olive oil instead of the called for grape seed or avocado oil. The recipe makes 4 but those would have been too big so I made 8 and froze the extra per her instructions. I decided to follow her optional baking instructions after browning them "to dry/crisp them up a bit" - yum! Good easy sauce recommendation. Will add more spices next time - could hardly taste the chili powder.)
- Peanut Butter Pad Thai (This is the best Pad Thai I have ever made - because of her sauce. I didn't have "chili garlic sauce" so used Sriracha hot chili sauce instead and didn't change any of the other spices and it was absolutely delicious. I happened to have tamarind concentrate - Swad brand I found at a Tony's Finer Foods for another recipe that didn't make it into my regular dinner rotation- so was especially happy to find a new recipe that uses it that WILL make it into my regular dinner rotation!)

Absolutely gorgeous photographs accompany all of the recipes and the book is nicely bound with a hard cover. Truly a beautiful cookbook. Nutritional information is included in the back - a nice addition.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am trying to eat a whole foods plant based diet so am always looking for recipes I think I will enjoy. This cookbook is loaded with them. The only issue is that I also try not to add oil or refined sugars when I cook and most of these recipes have one or the other. That said many of these recipes would be easy to adapt and make without added oil or sugar. Lots of great recipe ideas for those looking for plant based ideas that don't contain too many crazy ingredients.

[Sarah Mackintosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like, with all the components of each meal, the recipes ceased to be "minimalist." There are some great ideas and options here there for those of us who need to avoid meat, eggs, and dairy!

[Yodamom · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Easy to make, nutritious recipes, vegan. The photos are beautiful, the ingredients are easy to purchase. I've been following their recipe blog for years and am totally enjoying this cookbook.

[William J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book from Goodreads First-reads and was very excited to receive this cookbook because we have Vegetarian/Vegan family members and dinner is always an event that we enjoy. This cookbook has many great recipes that I know you will want to try. These plant-based recipes have many options for breakfast, appetizers and sides, main dishes, desserts and beverages. There is a very helpful resource section that tells you how to made a flax egg, vegan parmesan, cauliflower rice, peanut sauce, an easy vegan bbq sauce, and more. The ingredients are simple, minimal, easy to prepare and delicious. There are very helpful pictures of what your final product should look like when you prepare the recipes. You will also find the nutrition information section and recipe index at the back of the cookbook helpful.
We have made several of the recipes and love our cookbook. We know that you will love it as much as we do if food is one of your passions. I highly recommend that you buy, gift, but most importantly make some recipes from this cookbook.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this from the library, made some great recipes from it, so I bought my own copy!

Great recipes without any hard-to-find ingredients. Most of them are simple enough to make on a weeknight (although not all--the ravioli is definitely a weekend project) and we haven't hit any clunkers yet. My favorites so far are the giant one bowl chocolate chip cookies, apricot hand pies, sweet potato spears with pomegranates, enchiladas, and the strawberry swirl ice cream. My husband also loved the garlic scalloped potatoes and he raved about the tiramisu (I liked both of them, too!). I need to practice the tiramisu again because it sort of fell apart and looked a mess. But it tasted great! Oh and the cashew soba noodle dish is another favorite of ours.

Instructions are easy to follow and there are plenty of photos which I appreciate. Some nice tips about vegan cooking and baking and pantry staples at the beginning. The end has a helpful index that is easy to use.

[Tisha (IG: Bluestocking629) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I oft ask Google or the Duck (Duck Duck Go) for help in the kitchen. Such as ~ a hunt for the perfect recipe or an ingredient substitution. The results often include a result from the Minimalist’s Baker’s blog. So when I saw there was a cookbook by the MB I new that was the droid I was looking for.

Some much anticipated recipes are:

Breakfast Burrito
Eggless Benedict
Orange Moroccan Spiced Nuts
Balsamic + Pomegranate Roasted Sweet Potato Spears (Holy Hannah! This sounds most interesting!!)
Thai Quinoa Meatballs
Pumpkin Chai Tea Lattes

I can’t wait to dig in! This book was fabulously written. Generous with the recipes’ directions. Beautiful photos. Details provided such as: time, nutrition info (back of book). What a joy to read!

[Nina Staum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so the first thing you need to decide is how literally you take words like "Minimalist" and "Everyday." My idea of minimalist cooking is scrambled eggs. Apparently some people's is faux meatballs made of toasted and mashed chickpeas (under 10 ingredients!) with minced whatever coated in crushed peanuts.

So as a minimalist book, this gets about one out of five stars." If it were called "Impress Your Friends with Vegetarian Cooking From The Internet," it's worth about four stars.

The recipes are pretty decent for taste, but the texture is quite tricky. I never seem to chop things fine enough and for whatever reason I always end up with about twice the sauce I actually need. So, a little uneven. But I can forgive a lot for the Greek Bruschetta.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have tried quite a few recipes from this book and her website. My husband and I love them all. He doesn’t even notice that they are vegetarian. They all have such good flavour. I even got my coworker to pick it up and encouraged a friend after bringing a meal to her house. Lots of Mexican and Thai recipes as well as American food.

[Tracy]

This cookbook is a bit of a conundrum to me: I flagged a lot of recipes that sounded good but there were also a lot that sounded terrible. I'm vegetarian, not vegan, and a lot of the recipes turned me off for trying to recreate dishes that traditionally use dairy, like quiche - that may be a plus for vegans though. Nutritional yeast doesn't sit well with me and there are many recipes that call for it.

I'll have to test some of the recipes to decide whether they make up for the ones I'm not interested in.

[BeckyisBookish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really good recipes but not enough of them to justify buying it. Library read.

[King Julien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Screaming Crying bc I have to go gluten free. I didn’t read this book I’m just upset🥹 #noslay

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this cookbook but I didn’t. It seems every recipe has cashews, almonds or dates in it. Not enough variety with veggies and fruits.

[Jessica Stolpp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great tasting and easy to follow recipes.

[Marathon County Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic treasure trove of vegan and mostly gluten-free recipes that are beautifully illustrated. I was thrilled to see Minimalist Baker publish a cookbook, as I've been following their vegan website for a while now. I can personally vouch for the one-bowl funfetti cupcakes, as well as many other recipes, so I'm very excited to start cooking many of the recipes that are featured in this gorgeous new, fully illustrated cookbook. I highly recommend this for anyone who is vegan, has food allergies, or is interested in clean-eating recipes. This is one cookbook I'd love to own my own copy of!

Sarah M. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

[Elske · Rating 4 out of 5]

In between 3 and 4 stars. I really like the blog Minimalist Baker and I have definitely turn to Dana Schultz again and again for delicious recipes. This book is no exception. Almost every recipe that I've tried, I've at least liked. So why not 4-5 stars? Because there is not much variety. Dana uses a lot of chickpeas, sweet potatoes, the same tahin dressing and the same dough (for pies, the pop tarts from her blog and so on which I find a bit bland). They're delicious recipes, but I miss the variety in this book and the inspiration from the blog. Some recipes are just slightly adapted from the blog, so you don't really need this book. If you, like me, prefer cooking from a cookbook, then yeah, get this. Otherwise, just use her blog. Its excellent.

That being said. I use this book a lot and people really like the results.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

We use this cookbook multiple times a week. All of the recipes are easy and relatively fast. The photography is amazing and the instructions are totally accessible. This is an excellent book for new and seasoned vegans alike! Dana Shultz is also very aware of gluten allergies and clearly marks which recipes are gluten free. I can imagine that would be pretty useful for a celiac vegan. I would say 90% of the recipes we've tried from this book turned out great. There were some duds, but that's true of any cookbook, you can't account for all tastes with each and every single recipe. I'm sure the ones I'm not crazy about are someone else's most bookmarked recipes. In short: I don't think you can go wrong with this book.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The recipes in this cookbook are the same style as their blog and I am going to enjoy making these recipes. I found that I cannot eat certain foods that are required to make some recipes (which stinks), so I'm not sure how I am going to adapt the recipes to fit my needs.

4/5stars

[Varied Books]

Skimmed thru 3M. I wasn't impressed w/ the layout. The recipes didn't grab me, maybe buy if the price comes way down.

Price dropped to $1.99 so I got it.

[mo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, so I've never actually written a review for a cookbook before, but who says that's gonna stop me. Life is short, and I love this cookbook, so ᕕ(ツ)ᕗ

First off, this is maybe the most accessible and easy-to-cook-with collection of vegan recipes I own. I'm not some mega-cook or anything, but I've been gifted a good number of vegan cookbooks over the years by vaguely-weirded-out-by-veg*nism-but-trying-to-be-kind southern relatives, so I've tried quite a few. And other than a couple of Isa Chandra Moscowitz's cookbooks, this is the one I turn to the most.

So what's it got going for it?

# EASE OF USE
I work a full time job and am about to start college again. My time is limited, especially since I haven't learned how to substitute absorbing the life force from my enemies for sleep (yet). So, though I enjoy baking, cooking is one of those things I kind of dread a little bit sometimes.

This cookbook makes approaching my tiny-ass kitchen to prepare myself some food a less dreadful prospect. In fact, I just have to remind myself that if I just start chopping the damn vegetables or marinating the forking tofu, I can have a good dinner that'll keep well as leftovers without a ridiculous amount of effort. Most recipes only require 1 bowl or pot to cook in, and everything is explained in clear and concise language. YAY.

# BUDGET-FRIENDLY
I can't exactly afford to buy xanthan gum, non-dairy substitutes for cream cheese, or like...goji berries or w/e, at least not if I also want to be able to buy anything else during a month. Luckily, this cookbook hardly ever requires super high-priced crunchy granola ingredients, and when it does, I can pretty easily sub in something more cost-effective.

The recipes also don't focus inordinately on things like seitan (which I love, but it's either expensive or preparation-intensive if you wanna make it yourself) or on meat substitutes. The recipes themselves contain enough nutritionally-balanced ingredients that - for most - would render the extra protein from stuff like that unnecessary.

# TASTY
I've tested out tons of these recipes on coworkers, family, and friends. Some favorites (from off the top of my head) include tiramisu cake, enchiladas (which my sister practically exclaimed over one time, lmao), the super-thick chili, banana-pecan-chocolate muffins, garlic scalloped potatoes, zucchini muffins, lasagna, jumbo chocolate chip cookies, and so on. These aren't supposed to be diet-focused recipes or anything, which I love. I didn't go vegan for dietary reasons. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I just want to make sure I'm getting myself fed and checking off basic nutritional guidelines, so this book suits me fine.

If I had to name a flaw with this cookbook, it'd be that there's a few too many drink recipes in here for my taste, especially in the breakfast food section. I don't mind having a smoothie every now and then for breakfast, but I don't usually need recipes for those. I'd rather have had another recipe or two on something savory or another baked good.

Anyway, for new vegans, the veg-curious, longtime vegans/vegetarians, and so on, this could be a good cookbook to give a try. It's got a good variety of flavors and a nice, accessible approach to cooking.

[Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

This cookbook is, without a doubt, the worst cookbook I have ever bought. I can excuse a certain defect in texture, as that is often easily fixed, but taste must always be on point. The recipes, by and large, range from uninspiring from mildly interesting. The flavor profiles fare even worse, ranging from tolerable to downright inedible.

My first foray into this cookbook was the hearty cocoa black bean burgers, a recipe so disastrously unappetizing I lacked the fortitude to try a second recipe for years afterwards. Perhaps some of the fault is on me—I suspected that 3 Tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder was a bit much and I followed the instructions anyways. The result was overpoweringly cocoa but the damage was done. I was barely able to stomach the taste only by dousing the bun in as much ketchup as burger. That was back in my college days when I was determined to eat everything I bought no matter how ill tasting; today the burgers would have a one way ticket to the trash. But it cannot be my fault for following the exact amount in the recipe, and lo and behold, looking back at this recipe years later, the note itself even states “The cocoa is not an intense flavor.” Not an intense flavor? I should as soon call ghost peppers sweet. The cocoa flavor was so overwhelmingly, intensely inedible I was left to wonder if Dana Shultz had ever even tried her own recipe.

I recently found myself in need of more bookshelf space, so it was time to pair down my collection. Minimalist Baker’s Everyday Cooking rose right to the top of the sell pile. But before I let it go, I (foolishly) decided to give it one more chance. After all, many of the recipes on Dana Shultz’s blog long ago worked their way into my rotation. Perhaps it was one bad recipe and the rest would live up to the quality I associated with the blog. No so. For my second shot, I tried the creamy tomato and herb bisque, accompanied by my own tried-and-true vegan grilled cheese. I was surprised to see a tomato bisque without any fresh onion, garlic, and carrot and seasoned only with dill, basil, salt, and pepper, but the recipe looked so simple I decided to try it anyways. Though the flavor was not offensive, the blandness was only a small improvement. I should have known better than to make a tomato soup without onion and garlic, but so should any cookbook writer, once again leaving me to wonder if Dana Shultz had ever even tasted the recipe.

In a more advanced cookbook, I allow for some expectation that home cooks deviate from strictly following the recipes to to account for personal preference. Indeed, when cooking from less beginner-friendly books, I do make those substitutions, additions, and subtractions necessary to garner my desired taste and texture, but for a cookbook such as this marketed for beginners as easy, any recipe should be able to be strictly followed with consistently good results. Two failures in a row was enough for me. Thankfully, I am no longer in college, and now have the means to pour the soup down the drain, eat my grilled cheese sans soup with a certain sense of lassitude, and pass this cookbook onto the next unsuspecting owner.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the minimalist baker blog; it's cute, well organized, full of drool worthy photos, and most importantly - filled with delicious and easy vegan recipes. It would be hard to top. Perhaps that's why the book didn't seem to live up to my expectations of it. Don't get me wrong, it's still a wonderful book and we use it frequently!

The photography in the book is just as inspired and attractive as it is on the site. I also love the font and format of the book. It has a clean layout that clearly communicates each recipe. It might not seem relevant, however, there are some cook books that are terribly cluttered and navigating through them can be a headache. I appreciate the simplicity of each page.

I don't know how these recipes would seem to a new vegan or to someone not entirely familiar with their kitchen or vegan ingredients, but none of these recipes felt intimidating to us. We spend a great deal of time in our kitchen though. I will admit I was disappointed by the lack of variety in the book. Some of the recipes seemed too similar and too familiar. I could pluck another vegan cook book off our shelf and it would probably feature many of the same recipes. I know that it's important to make vegan meals accessible to everyone, but I was hoping for fresh material - recipes that were unique and stood out. While I was impressed by other aspects of this book, I do wish that the recipes had been more exciting and varied.

The recipes we tried definitely delivered! My expectations were met with that aspect of the book. The instructions are easy to follow and none of the recipes were difficult to make. Some of our favorite recipes were the "cheddar" beer soup, smoky bbq veggie burgers, and the garlic "cheddar" biscuits. All of the veggie burgers from the book were fantastic. All of the desserts look and sound amazing, but we have yet to try any of them yet.

[Silvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I find it very rewarding to create recipes that taste just as good as the original, while remaining plant-based."

I was a little disappointed. I went in believing the title, which was promising easy everyday recipes. Well, I'm sorry but if the recipe is easy, then I need to be able to at least spell correctly all ingredients in it. If I need Google to look up half of the grocery list then it's not something I want to attempt after 14 hours of work in the middle of the week.
Maybe it's my definition of easy. Or maybe I'm just that bad in the kitchen, who knows.
Anyway, I did save some interesting recipes I'm definitely going to try, hence the three stars (and yes, I have all those ingredients in my pantry and I know what they are).

-

Sono un po' delusa. Più che altro perché ho letto questo libro credendo nel titolo che prometteva ricette facili per tutti i giorni.
Beh, se la ricetta è davvero facile dovrei almeno riuscire a pronunciare tutti gli ingredienti che ci sono dentro. Se devo usare Google per capire metà lista della spesa, allora non è una ricetta che posso provare velocemente dopo 14 ore di lavoro nel mezzo della settimana.
Forse è il mio concetto di facile che è sbagliato. O forse sono solo una pippa in cucina.
Ad ogni modo, ho salvato alcune ricette che proverò e che sono super interessanti (infatti alla fine ho dato 3 stelline come voto). E sì, di quelle conosco tutti gli ingredienti.

[m · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know how it is - it is the beginning of the year, you want to do better, you feel you should do better.

You read the Guardian (for those not in the UK this means nothing). The world is heading for a shit-storm and you are responsible for it. Climate change, plastics, excess, animal cruelty, cancer, etc. You name it.

So what do you do?

Well you take the path of least resistance and go on a semi-vegan diet.

I should caveat all of this by saying, I am under no illusion that when you are eating meat, however rarely, you are not a vegetarian/vegan/plant base/whatever the newest name is.

But it is a good start.

Honestly I feel the world of veganism has really moved on. Gone were the days when I was a kid and vegan food means really oily and salty food that mask whatever they are trying to get you to digest.

Yes it is all shinny and glossy now. But the popularity of it made cooking it that much easier. Whether it is buying the ingredient, or finding the recipes. So I vow to try again.

I like this book because of its minimalist message. However I still find some recipes too bothersome. I am lazy and I like streamlining. I aspire to have a clean, minimal, Kondo-esque food cupboard where everything sparks joy. This goes towards it but sometimes just takes too long to prep.

However, so far what I've tried, I like. So maybe the faff is worth it.

[Stacie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars!
The past week has been dedicated to testing out a handful of these recipes and they were all delicious!

I made the following:

Thai Peanut Burgers (p.176)- Flavor was on point but the texture needed help. I ended up adding some rolled oats and some breadcrumbs to the burger mixture to make it less wet.

Butternut squash & garlic mac & "cheese" (p.193)- Not a complete copy of mac & cheese, more like noodles with a garlicky sauce (still totally delicious, just in a different way)

Vegan Parmesan (p.7)- 10/10 would recommend. This is so easy and I want to put it on everything!

Pizza Burgers (p. 181)- Again, flavor was on point but the texture was rather mushy. Will add more breadcrumbs or vegan Parmesan next round.

Lasagna (p. 207)- I added some wilted spinach to this, super yummy.

Taking .5 stars off due to texture issues, but I was able to make my own adjustments for what I preferred. My husband and I loved the flavor of all of these recipes. Truth be told, we went through everything really quickly. With all of these recipes, we ate some fresh the day of and then the leftovers lasted at least one more sitting. So good!