Mostly Plants is book by the Pollan family, as in mom and sisters of Michael (Pollan). The forward, byt the food writer himself, explains the general philosophy (which you already know if you’ve read any of his other work) and introduces the family. Sort of. He includes the history of the sisters going veggie, but never directly explains that they’re his sisters. Unless I just missed that bit, but if I did, he could have been clearer. He also claims that most of the meat recipes can be made vegetarian/vegan. Problem is, over half of them do not have suggestions for how to do that. For example, how does one veggify salmon piccata? Or chicken seafood paella? Its kind of obvious you can’t do a swap with the spatchcocked chicken, but what about the cakes? There are ways to veganize cake, but none are noted here.
I also think there are some missed opportunities, like with the bulgogi beef salad. The header says you can swap for grilled salmon or tofu, or leave off the protein entirely. For me, considering the marinade and the rest of the salad, it seem like this would be a great spot for a marinated mushroom swap. Similarly, with the tri-green spanakopita, there’s no mention of the option to swap the eggs in the casserole for tofu, which is a known way to veganize recipes like that. It feels almost like the book expects you to know those things on your own, and go for it if you so choose.
It’s definitely a pretty book, with professional chef-y-looking pictures, while at the same time not relying on too many unusual ingredients or technique most average home cooks wouldn’t know well. Quite a few of the recipes look pretty good too, like the tacos with a quinoa and veggie filling, or the pear carpaccio salad. Sounds and looks fancy, but still pretty manageable. Recipes also come with ingredient shopping lists, but I don’t quite see the point there, when it also includes the ingredient list you’d normally expect a cookbook to have. I’m fine with the flexitarian approach (although that’s a dumb word), I just think it could have been pulled off better.