Veganize It!: Easy DIY Recipes for a Plant-Based Kitchen – The Essential Dairy-Free Cookbook with Homemade Pantry Staples

While I am not a vegan, I eat a lot of vegan food. I don't particularly like meat for multiple reasons, and this book provides a lot of tasty meat substitutes. I've made quite a few "faux" meats, and these are the simplest recipes I've found so far. The Hamish recipe is awesome, though it tastes maybe a bit more like bologna than ham. It still makes a great sandwich with some mustard. The sausage recipes are all wonderful and I highly recommend them. One criticism I will pass along is that the method for baking meats is a bit convoluted. The author has you pack your faux meat in aluminum foil and then place it in a waterbath covered with foil. This effectively steams the food. My criticism is that vital wheat gluten gets a bready texture when you put it in the oven, so your hamish loaf comes out a bit like a loaf of bread. To avoid this, I suggest packaging up the meats as explained, but then placing them in a steamer for the amount of time the author recommends baking them. I've made a couple of hamishes, and the ones I steamed had a much better texture than the baked ones. I think the method in the recipes is there to avoid frightening off people who don't own steamers. If you're going to make a lot of faux meats, you really should invest in one, however. You'll be a lot happier with the end results. This book is chock full of substitute meats, so if you're a vegan who is offended by such things, avoid this book. There are plenty of other books that don't contain mock meat recipes. Also if you're avoiding wheat gluten, this book might not be for you. Maybe there is something else you can substitute, but vital wheat gluten is pretty important to many of the recipes. Some of the meat recipes look daunting because of the lengthy list of ingredients, but most simply require several different spices. I can measure out 10 different spices in a couple of minutes, so that doesn't particularly concern me. Most of the fake meat recipes require that you spend around 15 minutes dumping a lot of different things into a food processor, whirring it around for a bit, and then baking (or steaming) the result. Many of the recipes start with a basic faux meat and then create a different recipe by building on the original. It's the perfect book if you want to add the idea of pepperoni to a pizza or have sausage patties for breakfast without adding the fat and grease of animal parts. I adore Robin Robertson and I'm on a quest to own all of her books. She's totally changed the way I cook! She understands that food should be tasty and attractive as well as healthy. I'm hooked!

I am so excited about this book! I have several other books by Robin Robertson, all of which are great, but this is definitely my new favorite. It is full of delicious comfort foods, from pizza to strawberry shortcake, chili to mac n cheese, quiche to fish and chips- all incredibly delicious and with flavors that are amazingly reminiscent of the original pre-veganized versions. I have already made dozens of recipes from this book (photographs below of clam-free chowder, cheesy sausage biscuits, spinach and mushroom-bacon quiche, strawberry shortcake, jackfruit chili, fish-free fillets, summer rolls with fish-free sauce, feta tofu, fettucini bolognese, jambalaya, chickpea and artichoke tuna salad, and country-style pate - not a dud among them!) The chowder, quiche, and chili have become favorites that I have made again for company and everyone has loved them.I love that all of the recipes in the book are so approachable - they have easy to follow instructions, do not take too long to make, and consist of ingredients that are easy to find. Many of the recipes have several "sub-recipes" that can be made as part of the process, such as the strawberry shortcake which suggests that you make Robin's Cashew Chantilly Cream, and her Scratch Cake as part of the recipe (which I did, and all were delicious!) But depending on how much time you want to devote to cooking on any given day, you can always use store-bought products for some of the parts (for instance So Delicious Coconut Whip) rather than making all the parts from scratch.The layout of the chapters is untraditional in a good way - instead of the usual "breakfasts, salads, soups, mains, desserts", Robin divides her chapters into groups of things to be veganized - a chapter on veganized dairy and eggs, a chapter on plant based meats, and another on plant based seafood, for example. But not every recipe is about replicating animal products with similar veganized versions - one of the most exciting chapters to me is called "Vegetable Steak-Out", and consists of main dishes based around a vegetable such as Cauliflower Steaks, and Stuffed Portobellos. I can't wait to try all of these recipes!This book promises to be one of my most cherished and used vegan cookbooks (and I own dozens) - I do not hesitate to recommend it!

I've been vegetarian now for well over 30 years, but not vegan.(I'm a Wisconsinite, born & bred, will be till I die. There is no life for us in this family without CHEESE! Those plastic cheeses are pretty awful, we think...ugh). So, being vegan ain't gonna happen here.Still, several of these recipes are truly yummy, & we intend to try many more. (Only with real Wisconsin cheese brought down here by family, before the virus).So, on with the kitchen fun now...Cheers to Robin Robertson. We have a couple more of her cookbooks, because she is a good writer/cook, with a great imagination, & she's practical, to boot, which is apparently rare for chefs.

I have made many of the inventive recipes....and it's great it's not full of repetitive recipes. How many recipes for oatmeal and hummus do we really need? You won't be disappointed in this one!

I usually love Robins books - but The first thing I made didnt add up:/ For example: the vegan cream cheese is inebile. The salt/cashew ratio is way off and it didnt even come close to a cup worth. Little things like this aggravate me- but I will move on from it;) Seems trivial but.....Why!!?????? It's vegan cream cheese- hard to ruin, I will go back to google searches.

Had book from library and really liked it so decided to purchase it. Condition as advertised was "Condition: Used - Good - Minimal signs of wear." It had a few hand written notes. What was unusual was that so many pages (30-40 or so) had their corners turned down or "dog eared", This was not mentioned in the description. I straightened them all out to avoid further damage, and otherwise book is clean and in very readable condition. I like the recipes and especially all the suggestions as to how to convert common recipes to vegan ones. Arrived on time too!

Great fun! A practical help to never miss out on any of your fav foods and it aids in making all food more compassionate & cruelty free.

For seasoned vegans and anyone transitioning to a vegan diet, this book is a must-have. Robin Robertson's veganized recipes are easy to make, delicious, and (for the most part) call for standard pantry ingredients. Rest assured that any new-to-you ingredient that you purchase will make its appearance in many other recipes in this book, so you won't be out $$ for some never-again-used pantry item. The No-Meat Loaf is delicious (and its cold leftovers make incredible sandwiches), as is the Red Wine Sauce with Mushrooms and the Great Brown Gravy (both of which I could drink straight). The only problem I have with this book is that there are so many enticing recipes it's hard to decide which to make next!

I am new to a vegan diet and this book had so many interesting and easy recipes. I am very happy with this book.

Interesting approach and great recipes

Very helpful