This is a thing I didn’t know I had been waiting for: a vegan cookbook that has no shame in noting that one of the authors and apparently main recipe developer is not vegan! According to the intro, which also does the standard how to stock a vegan pantry to use this book thing, both Mo Wyse and Shannon Martinez (who is the still not vegan- you are my peoples!- but likes the food and the challenge of adapting) were feeling limited by their single location restaurant (I think the basis of their first cookbook), and thus they expanded to a deli, an enterprise from which many of the following recipes spring. I would dearly love to visit this place, except it’s in Melbourne, Australia. Bucket list expanded.
Why does this possibly matter? Firstly, I am not fully vegan. Never have been, never will be, if for no other reason than I am very much a cat person and I refuse to either give up my cat or force her to eat a diet which is unnatural to her, and probably unsafe. I do love the food though, and lean in that general direction in terms of taste preferences- I never felt a strong attachment to meat. Secondly, it gives you an idea of the kind of food the recipes cover: deli type take out things. My favorite section of the book so far is the ‘casseroles that double as savory pie fillings’ (my paraphrase which I feel is more descriptive than “Moreish Pie Fillings”). The pie dough worked out my very first try, and the broccoli cheese filling made lunches for a week awesome. Another reason I love the lack of vegan purism here is that I don’t feel too bad if I need to substitute in a non-vegan ingredient. This book relies heavily on things like vegan meat and cheese substitutes (also vegan fish sauce, which I did not realize was a real thing). In my part of the US at least, a good tasting facsimile that acts like cheese (melts etc) does not exist; I used real cheese, both out of preference and necessity. Even the recipes themselves say thing like “125 grams (1 ¾ oz/ 1 cup) grated cheese (your choice)” which makes the book user friendly in terms of figuring amounts but also suggests permission to use any kind of cheese, dairy or vegan, if needs must. This is also the case for meat and eggs.
I do have two smallish complaints: one, too much reliance on dried mushrooms, and two, too much fake meat. Dried mushrooms are expensive, and in things like the pickled mushroom recipe (which tastes amazing by the way) can result in textures I personally don’t like. I personally do not feel deprived giving up meat, but when recipes call for things like “mutton chunks” and belcan (non-animal-based shrimp) I have two problems. First, these are not things readily available to me except via the internet and I refuse to get Amazon Prime. I’m also not about to buy something like that if I’ve only got one or two recipes for it. Second, in my experience, substitutes that try to pretend they are something they are not aren’t nearly as good as substitutes that own what they are, be it bean, grain, or something else.
I plan to cook my way through the whole book over the next few months, and then back up to the first cookbook. It’s not technically Veganuary for much longer, but if anyone wants to start something like that, this is a great place to start. Who want to join me? You should especially if you’ve ever been curious about vegan cooking.