Vegan Cooking for Carnivores: Over 125 Recipes So Tasty You Won't Miss the Meat

The purpose of this book, as the title suggests, is vegan cooking FOR CARNIVORES. If you have been vegan for quite some time; if you already have a substantial collection of vegan cookbooks; or, if you do not want recipes that mimic meat dishes, this book may or may not be what you're looking for. But it is a delightful collection of recipes, especially for those wanting to ease the transition from a carnivorous to a vegan diet, or those who are feeding both vegans and carnivores in one household.I loved Portia de Rossi's forward. It exemplifies the reason many of us embrace a vegan lifestyle. After reading it, you'll want to delve further into the book.I've read many vegan cookbooks and I found this one to be unique in that, as author Roberto Martin says, it focuses on adapting favorite dishes that use animal products into vegan dishes. Lots of great techniques for adapting favorite comfort foods here. The book is beautifully produced -- gorgeous color photos, nice design. I would feel quite comfortable giving this as a gift to someone who is interested in going vegan. The red beans and rice recipe and incredible sauce and dessert recipes alone are worth the price of the book. I don't miss meat at all, but I do miss dairy infused, creamy sauces and desserts. This book has shown me how I can enjoy what I've been missing without giving into using dairy products.I tend to limit my use of soy. Many of the recipes do include soy-based meat subs, but I can either make easy changes, or use the recipes on the occasions when I do want to use a substitute for meat. I use whole grains whenever possible. It's easy enough to make flour substitutions.I've heard comments criticizing the suggestion to use Pillsbury pie crust because it contains lard. Pillsbury does make one pie crust that is vegan: Pillsbury Frozen Pet Ritz Pie Shell Deep Dish Vegetable 12 oz. You just have to be careful in your choices. Always read labels.I'm glad I have Vegan Cooking for Carnivores. I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to those who want to limit or eliminate animal products from their diets, but who are afraid they'll be giving up traditional foods they love.

I am a darn good cook, in fact, I'm the best cook I know. Which isn't being boastful, because there are better chefs than me clearly. But I am in demand in my community for a variety of dishes.. mostly meat intensive. Fat juicy steaks, whole pig BBQ, brunswick stew.. if it is full of meat, I've made a trademark version that people love. Recently my wife and I have decided that vegetarianism, and potentially veganism, is an important next step for us on our spiritual path. But what to cook? So I got this book, and although I made a few tweaks to the seasoning, I pretty much followed the fried chicken recipe step by step. The result was better than any fried chicken I have ever made before, and better than any I have even tasted before. The 'skin' came out perfectly and I doubt the casual diner would realize at first it wasn't real chicken skin. The Gardein chicken substitute was pretty darn close to a boneless skinless chicken breast. This isn't the first vegan meal I have made, but it was the best so far. For this one recipe alone, the book was worth the price. (I suggest exchanging the premix blackening spice for a a quarter teaspoon each of black pepper, smoked paprika, and dark chili powder). I have to say too that I am a big eater, and I was only able to get down about 1 and a half patties with some veggies on the side and I was so full I was miserable (happily so!) Next week, I'll be making a recipe from the book every day. But I can tell already that this is going to be a fine way to cook and eat. I was so worried I would have to suffer through sprout casserole and wheat grass soup for the rest of my life to make this change.. I'm ecstatic that isn't the case.

This is my new favorite vegan cookbook. I have yet to try a recipe out of here that I haven't liked and this cookbook has turned my cheese-loving lacto-vegetarian husband into a vegan believer.It's true that Roberto Martin uses a lot of processed vegan food items in his recipes, but I personally do not have a problem with this. It's not like I cook out of this cookbook every single night of the week (although I want to!). Actually for a really long time I've been very reluctant to try fake cheese and meats, but this cookbook has shown me they can actually be amazing when they're used the right way. And no offense to other vegan cookbooks, but (true to it's title) this is the first one that I've found with recipes that not only satisfy, but even fool non-vegans. My parents still don't believe that the mac n' cheese is completely dairy free and my co-workers swear that's real sausage in the red beans and rice.The other things about these recipes is that they're very easy and very versatile. You could easily use many of these recipes to experiment with and make into your own creations. But for those of us that are less creative, Martin gives variations for several recipes. For example, not only does his recipe for plain cheesecake rock, but he also tells you how to make pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate cheesecake, berry cheesecake, and Kahlua cheesecake!There are all types of vegans out there, but I think this cookbook would be really useful to someone who needs to cook for non-vegans, someone who really misses dishes that traditionally use meat or dairy, or someone who is new to the vegan diet.

Heavily reliant on brand-name American prepared goods, like Gardein chicken (which I don't think exists here) and packaged vegan cheeses. I was hoping for more mockmeats and things, to be honest, which I thought the name implied.Nothing in here looks bad per se, but some of the recipes are pointless and basic (there's one of for a sandwich, complete with full-page photo in case you don't know what a sandwich looks like) and there's a section on drinks which is a bit out of place (do carnivores love hibiscus tea?). There are lots and lots of salads, and we all know that if there's one thing a carnivore loves, it's salad! And potatoes. There are lots of potatoes.Rather than "Vegan Cooking for Carnivores", think of it as "Things Ellen DeGeneres likes to eat" as her name is slapped all over it and she wrote the foreword.

Love love LOVE this book! Great quality book with glossy pages of delicious recipes. It's one book you won't leave gathering dust on the kitchen shelf; it's great even for meat eaters who can include meat as alternatives to the Vegan options. Can't live without this book and is perfect for newly converted Vegans as well as the carnivore chef!

The recipes look amazing and I'm sure they taste delicious but I live in Spain (where they think vegetarian means you don't eat beef) and it's hard enough to get tofu or Quorn or Linda McCartney products let alone vegan mayonaisse or vegan cheese. Many of the ingredients in the recipes are frankly unrealistic unless you live in North America and probably in a big city at that.

I like the book a lot, having been vegetarian/vegan for 10 years you start to see the same recipes in vego cookbooks over and over again.living in Belgium, a problem that I often have with vegetarian/vegan cookbooks is that they require obscure ingredients that even your local healthfood store hasn't heard of.This book provides some good new ideas with relatively easy to get ingredients or at least easy to replace with local stuff.The recipes are tasty and easy to achieve, I would recommend this book to a friend

This book is great for new vegans who are missing eating their normal and much loved meat meals. It's very colourful and simple to follow. I believe this book would benefit from having even more photos to show off the yummy recipe ideas. Personally I'm not into the fake meat and cheese options and much prefer a plant-based diet centred around seasonal vegetables. However that does not mean to say I don't get the odd craving for my favourite non-vegan meals which I can now enjoy with peace of mind.