Vegan with a vengeance

Author: Isa Chandra Moskowitz

Publisher: Marlowe and Company 2005 Reprinted since

ISBN: 1-56924-358-1

Reviewer: Lynda - Veggie Places

The book contains 150 creative vegan recipes using inexpensive ingredients and is the creation of Isa Chandra Moskowitz, co-host of the hugely successful TV vegan cookery show in the US called "The Post Punk Kitchen". It is a book full of no-fuss recipes providing ideas for everyday occasions from someone who has been there!

 

The author lives and works in New York and is Jewish, so the book is obviously based on American style of cooking which means much of the book contains recipes for what I would call snack food: muffins, waffles and biscuits. She has prefaced each recipe with an anecdote. If you can cope with American English (zucchini and scallion for courgette and onion) and the sprinkling of Yiddish, then like me you will find it pleasure to read. Even in her preamble for Tempeh Reuben, where she says how much she likes her reuben filled with sauerkraut and I have no idea what a reuben is other than a type of cheese sandwich, it is sufficient for me to understand the gist of the tale.

 

This book is written for the person who is interested in vegan cooking, rather than someone who is thinking about the advantages of becoming vegan. So you will not find a chapter devoted to the nutritional composition of the various ingredients in a vegan’s diet. However, there is a short section covering the tools you will need and a basic store cupboard. Then she launches straight into the recipes, starting with that all-American invention ‘brunch’.

 

Isa believes in making meals from scratch using fresh ingredients. Interestingly she has not included any recipes for salads in the book. For me this is a plus as I could do with some help with ideas of how to use tofu, seitan and tempeh.

Many of the recipes are fairly simple and once you get going, take no time to prepare. This is one of her aims, to show that fresh wholesome meals can be prepared quite easily from scratch using basic ingredients.

 

As someone who has cooked for many years, I might have found these recipes simplistic – and perhaps they are but I found in it a wealth of ideas for looking at the same basic ingredients in a different way. For example, I have never roasted brussel sprouts - they are either boiled or steamed.

 

I also liked the thread running through the book that these recipes are not set in stone. Isa has developed them over the years and probably is still making changes and she encourages her reader to do the same.

 

Highly recommended.

Vegan with a Vengeance

Isa Chandra Moskowitz

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