Real Food, Really Fast: Delicious Plant-Based Recipes Ready in 10 Minutes or Less

by Hannah Kaminsky

The promise of a hot, satisfying meal in ten minutes or less is no longer the exclusive calling card of cheap pizza delivery. Everything from dinners on the run to crave-worthy snacks for a crowd can be yours in less time than it takes to hunt down those crusty take-out menus. While most "quick-fix" recipes call for chemically enhanced mixes or unsavory prepared foods, Real Food, Really Fast cuts no corners when it comes to quality. Inexpensive staples are reimagined with innovative flavor pairings, clever cooking techniques, and fun presentations, yielding all new delights such as Exploded Wonton Soup, Chile Relleno Rolls, and Everything Bagel Salad.

Simplified classics like Stovetop Granola and Cauliflower Risotto alla Milanese, will put old staples back on the table without all the typical prep work.

Don't forget to leave room for dessert, even if you don't leave much time. Luscious options, including White Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge and Mango Creme Brulee, will satisfy your sweet tooth in an instant.

Helpful tips for speeding through recipes even faster, plus additional suggestions for flavor variations make this book an indispensable guide for hungry cooks of all stripes. You'll never need to compromise on flavor, nutrition, or expense, even with the most demanding deadline.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Vegan, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

Published January 16, 2018

About the author

Hannah Kaminsky's love of desserts compelled her to start experimenting in the kitchen at a young age to create incredible, cruelty-free treats. Her blog, BitterSweetBlog.com, features creative crafts, delicious treats, and mouth-watering photography. She is currently working towards her BFA in photography.

Reviews

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though many recipes in here are not to my taste, I am really impressed with this cookbook. It does deliver on the promise of its title, using real foods to create dishes really fast.

I’ve read it over several weeks because I’ve borrowed it from the library three times now. If I was buying any books, I’d probably purchase it; it would be a great one to have on hand. While there are many more recipes than the following I’d like to try, some with some tweaks, I will probably borrow this again to make or try to make (I don’t have all the equipment for all of them at home) pretty much as is of the following: from Breakfasts: Hash Brown Waffles and Tofu Shakshuka; from Snacks and Apps: Summer Con Queso; from Salads: Falafel Fattoush and Guavacado Chopped Salad; from Soups: Garlic Bread Soup, Manhattan Mushroom Chowder, Pozole Verde, and Three Pea Soup; from Sides: Blistered Citrus Snap Peas, Cauliflower Risotto all Milanese, Couscous-a-Roni, and Sweet Potato Cacio e Pepe; from Entrées: Cashew Scampi, Mofongo Bowls, Pizza Waffles, and Tamale Pot Pies; and from Desserts and Sweets: Black Forest Skillet Crisp, S’mores Baked Alaska, White Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge, and Whole Fruit Whip.

I like the structure of the Contents Pages. Within each food category the recipes are listed in alphabetical order making them easy for me to find, as long as I remember their names at least. The Contents are: Introduction, Warp-Speed Secrets and Fast Fundamentals, Essential Equipment, Ingredient Glossary, Conversions and Equivalents, and Breakfast, Snacks and Apps, Salads, Soups, Sides, Entrées, Desserts and Sweets, and an Index.

It’s a gorgeous book with beautiful glossy color food photos for every recipe, which I greatly appreciated. It’s well written and interesting to read. The instructions seem clear, though I haven’t made anything, yet.

I can recommend this to most people who enjoy vegan food, particularly those who do not want to spend too, too much time in the kitchen just so they can eat homemade food.

For me, even if I had the money, I don’t have the room for a food processor or even blender, or a waffle iron, etc. etc. so some of the recipes are probably not for me, though I’ll bet most people won’t find the suggested equipment a problem. Also, while all the recipes do not contain these ingredients, as with all cookbooks, I’d have to make substitutions for some recipes or skip them because there are so many foods I don’t like. Some of the (all vegan) foods included in just some of the recipes here that I don’t like are: coconut (all forms), vinegar, mustard, yogurt, cream cheese, sour cream, sea vegetables, sun dried tomatoes, seitan, tempeh, jackfruit, wheat gluten, horseradish, and capers. Only when reading cookbooks and sometimes when eating with others do I remember what a picky eater I am because I do like a huge variety of (all vegan) foods and have much more variety in my diet the last 30 years than I ever did as a lacto-ovo vegetarian (for the 11 years prior to that) or as an omnivore. For most people, I highly recommend this cookbook and, as I said, I’ll probably borrow it again and try out some of the recipes. And I’m still wanting to try black salt in some vegan egg dishes!

[Rowan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A couple of intriguing recipes that I hope to test, mostly starters and salads, but not a single main course that I feel inspired to make. Overall this book relies waaaaaay too heavily on trying to fake the experience of meat. There are so many great inherently vegan foods - why are you focusing on less-good version of meat-based meals? Slices of daikon just won't taste like scallops, cashew nuts aren't shrimp, and walnuts don't replicate ground beef, even if they look very similar in the photos. People who have been vegan for decades are not, in my experience, good judges of what will taste "just like the real thing," and it seldom makes for recipes that are satisfying either to cook or consume.

[Chris]

Disappointed

I really hate giving reviews for fellow vegans who work hard on producing a cookbook but I was very disappointed by this one.

I expected to find easy and fast recipes but this book delivered on neither. I don’t see how quickly you can peel, pit, and quarter a dozen lychees, let alone remove and dice the meat from a young Thai coconut.

Many of the ingredients would be very hard to find which also doesn’t make any of the recipes quick to make.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is good, I love that it is all plant based! Then 10 minute meal thing is promising, however, that is just cook time. Not prep time. Most meals cooked from this book took at least 15 minutes, or a more common half hour to prepare.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always love cookbooks by Hannah Kaminsky, and I love a cookbook that has a great photo of each and every dish (taken by Hannah). Visuals are so necessary--for my incentive to cook a dish and my knowledge for what it SHOULD look like when I'm done! Almost all of these recipes appeal to me--I'm a gluten-free (long-time) vegan so I know when I can substitute for something I might not like or avoid eating. I don't always have all these items on hand, but that's the thing--if I'm in a food rut, it usually means I need to start buying some different things, and a new recipe is a great place to start.

The beginning of the book has a great annotated list of items that may or may not be familiar to you, depending on where you live or how long you've been a vegan or vegetarian, so it's quite handy to read if you are just starting out on the plant-based or vegan way of eating. ("Plant-based" has become a very confusing term lately. For a while it seemed to mean "vegan" or no animal products, but I've found other cooks who seem to think differently and include eggs or cheese. Here, it does mean vegan in the strictest sense.) I think some publishers think "vegan" scares people off and "plant-based" is more user-friendly.

I can't wait to cook from this book and add some new staples to my diet and recipe collection. The only thing I'd change is the addition of nutritional info on each recipe. Sometimes I'm restricting calories or carbs (or cooking for someone else) or want to have a certain amount of protein in a meal, and that's an easy way to decide of that's the recipe for me for that day.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book. I loved the idea of a book filled with satisfying quick plant based meals. Instead I found something filled with fake meat products, and meat substitutes. While the pictures made my mouth water, the description of how to make them did not. I do plan to try a few recipes still, but I am probably going to give this book away to someone who will enjoy more than I will. Maybe they will have a different opinion. I am not vegan, I just prefer to eat without dairy/meat products a few times a week, so I'm not typically attempting to recreate the illusion of meat in those meals.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are many substitutes for typically meaty dishes, like jackfruit sloppy joes or seitan (fish) sticks, however, there are lots of harder to find ingredients like harissa, apple guavas, fresh daikon, kelp powder, medjool dates, raw cashew butter. I was looking through this book for a difficult pot luck choice, where we have gluten free, vegan, diverticulitis (no seeds, nuts) and two people who can't stomach garlic. These recipes did not fit the bill, (garlic or nuts in most recipes) however, maybe I'll try one of the yummy looking salads some day for my family.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great cookbook with beautiful photographs of each recipe. Even my meat eating family will enjoy these recipes. The only reason this is not a 5 star review is because there are many specialty ingredients to complete the recipes properly. If you are not vegan you may have to build this pantry over time. This will make our meatless meals much easier.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

These recipes rely heavily on soy, nuts, and other legumes. We have anaphylactic allergies to these and more. We cook from scratch due to food allergies, I only found 3 safe recipes. I was hoping for more simple farm to table type recipes.

[Bernadette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hannah does it again, presenting tasty, mostly easily prepared recipes from ingredients found in almost any grocery store. Preplanning is what makes recipes ready in such a short amount of time. Meal prep instructions/suggestions included.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick and delicious recipes for the vegan gourmet. Some reliance on processed products which I wouldn't use myself but overall really useful especially for the lists of pantry basics.

[Kristen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This just wasn't for me

[Auntie Raye-Raye · Rating 1 out of 5]

Who the hell taught the author how to write recipes?

It's ingredients first, then the cooking instructions below.

The incorrect-ness took away from the recipes.

[Lesli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of interesting recipes. Lots of photos that don't look the same! Nothing that calls to me, though.

[Virginia B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was mislead on this one. Thought it was supposed to use mostly on-hand ingredients. Also thought the recipes were vegetarian, but they’re vegan.