Thursday, April 8, 2021

Cookbook Review: The Big Book of Vegan Cooking

I've been blogging since 2007, and along the way, I've made a bunch of awesome vegan internet friends, mostly other bloggers and cookbook authors. Dianne Wenz of Dianne's Vegan Kitchen is one of those! I've internet-known Dianne for a long time, and I was very excited when I heard she had a new cookbook out! The Big Book of Vegan Cooking is, indeed, a very big book of vegan cooking. It's nearly 300 pages, and it's a pretty large-sized book in both width and length. Inside, you'll find 175 healthy vegan recipes.

Dianne covers all the bases here with breakfasts, snacks, salads, sandwiches, bowls, vegetable mains, bean/grain mains, pasta dishes, desserts, and sauces. The recipes are simple and call for mostly whole foods. When the recipes refer to other recipes in the book, such as a sauce or homemade plant meat, there's always the option to include a storebought version of that thing (i.e. Dianne's Chic'un Patties or storebought vegan chicken patties). I love recipes like that, because sometimes, I want to be lazy, and sometimes, I want to go all out and make all the things.

I made two recipes from the book. First, the Tofu Rancheros. This savory breakfast dish features a tomato-heavy tofu scramble that's seasoned with chili powder and nooch and served with warm corn tortillas. Perfect for a fancy week day breakfast or a lazy Sunday brunch.

Last week, I tried the White Bean Shakshuka. This was in the Spill the Beans chapter on bean and grain mains, but it doubles as a breakfast option since it's based on the traditional North African shakshuka breakfast.

Pan-fried tofu stands in for the eggs that are traditionally included in this dish. They're served over a bowl of white beans with tomatoes, bell pepper, spinach, and lots of spices. I love a whole foods-based dish like this! So satisfying!

Other recipes I want to make from this book include Mac & Cheese Soup (!!!!), Taco Casserole, Mushroom Wellington, Broccoli Bac'un Pizza, and Spaghetti Pie. Also, the Lemon Tahini Cookies look DOPE!

3 comments:

Susan said...

Oh yum, this does sound lovely. I've been a big fan of her blog for a long time. I have slowed down on my cookbook purchasing by a lot of late, but I will need to add this to my list.

Hillary said...

Everything you made looks incredible!
I've been wanting to try shakshuka for awhile now!!

Dianne Wenz said...

Thanks so much, Bianca! I'm so glad you're enjoying the book!