Review: Food52 Vegan

For a long time, vegan cooking tended to fall to one of two extremes: bland dishes filled with unusual grains and hard-to-find vegetables, or recipes that used copious amounts of faux meats and "cheeze" in an attempt to recreate non-vegan favorites.

Thankfully, those days are long past. Modern vegan cookbooks are full of vibrant flavors and bright colors, shining the spotlight on a wide variety of vegetables and utilizing minimally-processed alternative protein sources. These kinds of cookbooks help us vegans remember why we went that route in the first place: because food doesn't need animal products in order to be delicious and diverse. Indeed, vegans today have a wide array of amazing cookbooks at their disposal, each filled with recipes more tempting than the last.

And while there are plenty of good cookbooks out there already, there are always room for more. Thus, vegans everywhere will surely revel in the pages of Food52 Vegan, which are filled with plenty of new recipes to fuel meal plans for weeks to come. Gena Hamshaw has been writing a column on veganism for foodie website Food52 for years, and this cookbook offers a lovely selection of favorites from the column plus plenty of brand new ideas.

Food52 Vegan contains the usual spread of recipe categories: Breakfast, Soups, Main Dishes, and so forth. Each chapter is packed with delicious-sounding recipes. Enjoy Tempeh and Sweet Potato Hash for breakfast (or dinner, for that matter), have a bowl of Smoky Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili for lunch, and snack on Parsnip Fries with Spicy Harissa Mayonnaise in the afternoon. Dine on Kabocha Squash and Tofu Curry for dessert, and finish off your day with a few pieces of Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti and a cup of coffee.

Each recipe comes a headnote that will make you hungry, and the recipe directions are clear and easy to follow. Gorgeous photographs are sprinkled throughout the text; most of the recipes are accompanied by a picture. Not only do these recipes sound amazing, but readers will be pleased to see that most can easily be made using ingredients available at the local grocery store; once your pantry is stocked with the essentials, only the occasional trip to the nearest Whole Foods or other health food store will be necessary.

Above all, pick up Food52 Vegan with plans of getting hungry and finding something yummy to eat. You will not be disappointed.

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I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own!