mmcphee's Full Review: Beverly Lynn Bennett and Ray Sammartano - The Comp...
We have embarked on a strict plant-based diet; essentially an oil-free vegan diet. We are following the program outlined by Dr. Esselstyn in Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. While it contains some good recipes to start out with, I knew we would need more variety. I headed to the library and chose several vegetarian and vegan cookbooks. First up was The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Cooking by Beverly Lynn Bennett and Ray Sammartano.
What is a Vegan Diet? There are several recognized types of vegetarian diets. Some include dairy, some include eggs, some even include poultry and fish. A vegan diet is typically the most restrictive, eating only fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds. The eating program we are following is similar to a vegan diet, but for health reasons excludes nuts and seeds as well due to high fat content.
Inside the Book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Cooking is divided into six parts: cooking basics, breakfasts, appetizers and sauces, lunches, dinners and desserts. Each part consists of several chapters. Let's Do Lunch includes chapters for soup, chili and stew, dressings, salads and sandwiches. Each chapter has 7 -12 different recipes. Each of the more than 240 recipes includes ingredient lists, instructions with variations, the prep time, cook time and serving size. No nutritional information is provided.
Chapters 1 and 2 are introduction to vegan eating. They include an explanation of what constitutes a vegan diet, its benefits and nutritional basics. There are also suggestions for vegan substitutions for common non-vegan food, like milk, butter, meat and eggs. The remaining chapters are the recipes.
My Experience I was as little disappointed with the recipes in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Cooking. I suppose it depends on your reasons for choosing a vegan diet. Some choose a vegan diet for animal rights; they don't want consume anything from animals, including honey off the backs of those hard working bees. Others decide on a vegan diet for health reasons, wanting to eliminate cholesterol and unnecessary fats from their diets while consuming lots of whole foods. My family falls into the later category while The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Cooking seems aimed at the former.
Many of the recipes in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Cooking use highly processed meat and cheese substitutes. While vegan by being free of animal products, to me the food is engineered and is something we are trying to stay away from. It feels like the vegetarian who gives up the cheeseburger only to double up on the French fries. If you are trying to replicate a typical Western diet but without the meat, than this book will help you.
Not all of the recipes are bad. I had no trouble substituting vegetable broth for the cooking oil in most recipes. There are some recipes where the nuts and seeds could be removed without significantly changing the dish. Unfortunately that didn't leave too many recipes for us to try. The ones that we did try ranged from "yuck" to a couple of new family favorites: Vegetarian Baked Beans and Might Minestrone.
Final Thoughts The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Cooking isn't the right book for us. Although I was able to get a couple of good recipes, this won't be a book that I will be buying. It may be good for those who like to use meat substitutes, but I am looking for recipes that rely mainly on whole foods rather than processed substitutes.
Delicious recipes for the growing vegan lifestyle. There are so many reasons to go veganahealth and nutrition, weight loss, green and sustainable livi...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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