Book Review: Alan Roettinger's Speed Vegan. Quick, Easy Recipes With a Gourmet Twist

In this post I review
Alan Roettinger's Speed Vegan. Quick, Easy Recipes With a Gourmet Twist

Speed Vegan by Alan Roettinger
Quick Easy Recipes With a Gourmet Twist


Alan Roettinger has been a private chef for prestige clients from entertainers to presidents. He has absorbed techniques and flavors from many cuisines through his extensive world travel. His first book, Omega-3 cuisine, showcased his ability to bring taste and health together. In this book he shows that anyone can cook fresh, delicious and visually pleasing vegan gourmet food, prepared from healthy, minimally processed ingredients, even if they have very little time.


In his introduction, Alan explains that the while the main function of his book would be to showcase quick, easy recipes for people who are pressed for time, writing the book was a bit of a challenge for him. His personal philosophy is to plan well and start early! He tries to show you how to prepare food "the right way" while insisting there is no "right way" other than using the best ingredients, techniques and flavors and refusing to cut corners or try to save money on inferior ingredients, habits which devalue your final product.
Alan started out to write a vegan cookbook even though he wasn't a vegan. He states that he still considers himself an omnivore but has taken on a strict vegan diet. Alan, how is that going for you? We'd love an update!

Alan encourages us not to be intimidated by cooking. "If ...people could do it with stone knives and clay pots, surelyyou will be able to do it with todays refined tools". Inspiring!

The minimalist Essential Kitchen Equipment chapter is broken down into three sections: Must Haves, Hard Time Working Without and Makes Work More Fun. It's a bare-bones list; I actually have everything on the lists except a microplaner. I think most people who do any cooking at all will have almost every thing on these lists, too. If not, there isn't anything exotic or hard to find and there is a list of online resources in the back of the book.

Stocking the Vegan Pantry is where the going might get a little tough. There are staple ingredients listed which are, while not exactly exotic, may have to be ordered if you live in a small town like we do. Anyone who lives in a city where there are specialty grocery stores or markets shouldn't have any problem. The list is broken down into levels of stability, from items with very long shelf life, like dried mushrooms right down to things that need to be kept frozen.The descriptions are fun to read and thorough, I've learned a lot from this book, and, of course, there is a list of online resources in the back of the book.

Jump Starts is my favorite chapter because time-conscious meal planning, unless you BUY pre-made ingredients, takes a little behind the scenes preparation. In spare time (like at 3am when you can't sleep because you're worried about what you will take to the omnivore picnic) you make basic ingredents to have on hand so later you can put them together with fresh vegetables, pasta or grains to make fantastic meals. Some stand out recipes are Garlic Oil, Roasted Garlic Puree, Hot Red Pepper Sauce, Sun-Dried Tomato Paste and Balsamic Vinagrette.

Snacks. This section contains dips, spreads, chutney and other things you might put on crackers, bread or papadums. It also has a recipe for Tempeh Sticks that are deep fried in coconut oil and served with a coconut-peanut sauce that I'm sure even the most hardcore tempeh disliker would enjoy.

Soups. I love soup. Autumn is upon us and a warm soup is great when weather is in transition. This section contains classics you love (or will love) like Leek and Parsnip, Navy Bean and Swiss Chard and exciting combinations like Tuscan Kale and Coconut soup with Tofu.

The hefty Salad chapter is the biggest in the book, weighing in at 34 pages! There are leafy salads, slaws, fruit salads, pasta, bean and grain salads, salads from many nations, mushroom, warm and cold salads, wild greens and sprouts salads. Main dish, side or dessert, no aspect of salad is left untouched. A great meal planning companion just for the endless salad ideas. A quote "Fennel is an appetite enhancer, a digestive aid, and a palalte clenser, but most importantly, it's freaking delicious." I couldn't have said it better myself, Alan!

Next is Pasta and Grains. Using a wide variety of pastas and grains paired with vegetables you might not eat every day, this section is bound to widen the repertoire of dishes you bring to potlucks! Seriously, though, simple recipes with easy to follow instructions are the order of the day for this chapter with dishes like Orecchiette With Herb Sauce (Orecchiette is a kind of home-made pasta typical of Puglia, Apulia, a region of Southern Italy. See, you're learning stuff already!) and a simple Linguine With Sundried Tomato Sauce
to a very hearty Brown Rice and Carrots with Natto Miso. Flavorful ingredients and bold textures combine seamlessly. If you make it through this section and the salad section (that's more recipes than I care to count) we'll get started on:

Vegetables and Legumes . Asparagus with Canneli Beans, Mashed Aloo Gobi, two kinds of Mashed Potatoes. This chapter could take you from main dish to side dish easily enough on it's own. Black Beans, Mushrooms and  Bok Choy, where have you been all my life! There are some great dishes here that could be incorporated into vegan holiday meals. I don't know about you but I always bring my own food and most of these would travel quite well and be good warm or room temp.

The Sweets section is impressive. Fancy desserts you could serve at an small dinner party and really see everyone's reaction. Little pieces of art like Nutty Chocolate Balls, Spiced Pears in Wine and two vegan sorbet recipes, Spiced Pear Sorbet and Coconut-Banana Sorbet. I really like the Aztec Hot Chocolate Spicy! I want some now.

There are a lot of health-mined original recipes in this book and better than that, there are ideas in this book. Speed Vegan will kick-start your boring vegan rut and make you learn more about some foods you might not have tried otherwise.

"You take from a recipe, but you GIVE to a dish" ~Alan Roettinger

Vegan Cookbook Review & Giveaway: More Great Good Dairy-free Desserts Naturally

(If you just came for the VEGAN DESSERT COOKBOOK giveaway click here) 

For the rest of you, On With the Reviewing! (fanfare)

The book: More Great Good Dairy-free Desserts Naturally offers a complete course in vegan, dairy-free, eggless baking, and also serves as a quick reference for when you need a fancy dessert to impress your friends and family. 

The author Fran Costigan, a graduate of the New York Restaurant School and the Natural Gourmet Institute, is a nationally recognized culinary instructor, author, consultant, recipe developer and innovative pastry chef.

Even if you don't want or need a complete course in vegan, eggless, dairy-free baking and just want a sumptuous, gourmet treat made with all natural, minimally processed ingredients, this book is a great reference and kitchen companion.

Recipe sections are:

• Gels, Creams, Puddings and Sauces
• Cookies, Bars, and Little Bites
• Cobblers, Crisps, Biscuits, Muffins, and More
• Cakes, Fillings, Frostings, and Glazes
• Pies and Tarts
• Fruit, Beverages, Frozen Desserts, and Confections

Reference sections include a list of essential ingredients and tools you will need for the recipes in this book (a huge help for making recipe shopping lists!)

There is a detailed glossary of ingredients, explaining many different types of natural sweeteners, leavening agents and vegan gelling agents. Techniques for using tofu in desserts and how different kinds of tofu are used in different recipes is addressed. A very helpful section about pan sizes and how they affect baking times and products is included. 

The section of "Tips and Techniques for Making and Baking Desserts" is full of valuable hints for beginners. Any beginning baker or even experienced baker baking vegan for the first time could learn a lot from this book.

In the back of the book the fairly detailed list of "Resources for Ingredients and Equipment", is a treasure trove of suppliers of vegan products and professional cookware, bakeware, knives and resources for information on vegan and vegetarian nutrition.

The recipes are intermediate to expert level but if you read the book you will learn a lot and probably be able to master any of the techniques presented in this book.

This review copy was graciously provided by Book Publishing Company who is hosting "Luscious Vegan Desserts"  promotion now through the end of October.

You may click here to register for a chance at winning a free vegan dessert cookbook.

"The 4 Ingredient Vegan" By Maribeth Abrams with Anne Dinshah

The 4 Ingredient Vegan By Maribeth Abrams with Anne Dinshah  

Are you on the go, in a hurry but need hearty vegan meals for your family? A new vegan who needs some simple recipes to impress your family and friends? A beginner cook who needs some clever dishes to make you look like a better cook than you are? An obsessive/compulsuve who can only eat meals with 4 ingredients?
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions then The 4 Ingredient Vegan is the must-have book for you.

The 4 Ingredient Vegan was written by Maribeth Abrams with Anne Dinshah.
From the back of the book:
"Mary Beth Abrams, MS, is a certifeid nutritional consultant, vegan culinary educator and the author of the cookbook Tofu 1-2-3."
"Anne Dinshah is a lifetime vegan and the author of Healthy Hearty Helpings, a vegan cookbook for busy people who like to eat."

My hat is off to you ladies. As an adult and especially as a vegan, being able to prepare my own meals has been key to my dietary sucess. The 4 Ingredient Vegan will instill some basic cooking skills that you can build on. Sure, you can count on restaurants and having other people cook for you for a while but sooner or later you will be stuck, on your own with nothing but a supermarket and a (perhaps not-well stocked) kitchen. Having some basic cooking skills will save your vegan ass, believe me!

The difference between The 4 Ingredient Vegan and some other cookbooks with more complicated recipes is like the difference between the Ramones and Fleetwood Mac. The 4 Ingredient Vegan's recipes are a whole lot of short songs with a satisfying result, Some other cookbook's recipes are more like trying to see how many notes one could jam into each bar of a 12 minute song whilst having a secret affair with one's lead vocalist.

The 4 Ingredient Vegan is a great cookbook for a beginner or an expert cook. Filled with clever ingredients like purple sweet potatoes and vegan marshmallow creme and crammed with clever things to do with ordinary ingredients that you will have around if you've been a cook-at-home vegan for any amount of time and that you should be able to find easily at your local supermarket, Asian grocery or Natural Foods store.
The preface, "Why Vegan" goes over some very compelling reasons why one would become a vegan:
"Adopting a vegan diet can be a giant step toward improving your health and well-being. It can also be divinely satisfying in terms of the wonderful tastes and textures that plant foods provide. Meat is rarely prepared without ingredients from the plant kingdom to improve its flavor, such as garlic, onions, herbs, and a wide array of vegetable-based sauces. These same delicious flavorings can be used with plant foods to create endlessly exciting yet familiar flavors."


Chapter 1 "Getting Started" has a great section on stocking your kitchen. Each item listed is defined and they give you a clue as to where you might buy some. You might need to get to a supermarket and buy some vegan sour cream, vegan mayonnaise. Or you might click on those links and learn to make your own. It doesn't take as long as you might think. I don't believe vegan marshmallow creme exists. Someone prove me wrong and send me a jar so I can make this Vegan Fudge recipe they include!

Chapter 2 covers Morning Meals, with breakfast and brunch tempters like Cashew French Toast and the Morning Muffin Sandwich.
Chapter 3 is all about Beverages, with a variety of smoothie and cold drink recipes,
Chapter 4 is Soups including a red cabbage soup made with ginger ale!
Chapter 5 is Salads. This section includes some yummy sandwich spreads. I want to try the Tempeh Chicken salad and the Chickpea-of-the-Sea sandwich fillers.
Chapter 6, Dips, Spreads, Savory sauces includes, pasta sauces, spreads for bread and pates for dipping.
Chapter 7, is all Main dishes which look like quick and easy comfort food plus some new dishes to challenge your pallette. I can't wait to try the Roasted Eggplant and Pesto Roulade!
Chapter 8 covers Side Dishes, many of which could double as main dishes. Purple Sweet Potato Pie is going to get made in my kitchen, I swear it to the skies! I might have to use yams, though.
Chapter 9, Desserts, treats, and sweet toppings covers all things decadence and dessert; Baked Pears, Chocolate covered Strawberries, Tahini Chews (which I think I might make tonight)
At the end of it all there is an Index for easy peasy reference.

I've already made the Cashew French Toast and it was FANTASTIC! It's not only a well put together vegan french toast recipe but it gives you some great tips on making perfect french toast.

As much as I love this book I want to complain about one recipe. Pickled Beets.
I quote 

"Plan ahead for this recipe, since you have to consume the entire contents of a jar of pickles before you can make it."

The book then goes on to instruct us to process the beets and put them in the jar of pickle juice. 

Ok. I have done this. I did it when I was a kid, with carrots. I still do it with the leftover pickle juice from pickles I make from scratch. My complaint is that this could have been a very good recipe with still only 4 ingredients and no directives to consume entire jars of pickles.
Four ingredient pickle recipe I just made up this second

water (doesn't count as ingredient)
vinegar
sugar (optional)
salt (doesn't count)
Spice of some sort, I don't know. Dill?
Cooked or raw veg, cut in pickle sizes go in a jar with the vinegar, water, salt, sugar, spice.
Eat a whole jar of pickles, indeed. (frowny face)

I would definitely recommend The 4 Ingredient Vegan to anyone, vegan or not, who wants to eat good food but doesn't want to spend all day with recipes that have a million ingredients and two million steps. If you don't mind canned and "store-bought" ingredients you can really pad your "Go-To" recipe file with quick, easy and impressive-looking breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert ideas from The 4 Ingredient Vegan.

This book was graciously donated to me by Book Publishing Company for review purposes. I receive no monetary compensation. The opinion given here is my own and is not coerced or paid for in any way.

Book Review: Becoming Raw

The book is called Becoming Raw: The Essential Guide to Raw Vegan Diets

It is co-authored by:

• Brenda Davis a Registered Dietitian and Nutritionist and author of Becoming Vegan and has been a featured speaker at nutrition, dietetic, medical and health conferences throughout the world.
• Vesanto Melina a Registered Dietitian, specializing in vegan and raw nutrition and healthful eating.
  
• Rynn Berry a lecturer and author and the historical advisor to the North American Vegetarian Society.

You can find it and purchase it on Amazon.com












 When Rick Diamond contacted me and asked me if I wanted a review copy of Becoming Raw I jumped at the chance. So what if I've never reviewed a book before? How hard can it be? I can read. I have and can form new opinions about stuff. I have the internet to give me guidelines, don't I? I have a blog with at least 7 regular readers, right? What can't I do?


Two books for the price of one! The first 249 pages of this 375 page book cover the history of the raw food movement in the United States, the benefits of raw food and very easy to understand and absorb information about nutrition, carbs, fats, vitamins, minerals, acid-base balance and enzymes. There are sections about the many theories and myths associated with nutrition and factually deals with concerns about the safety of such raw foods as buckwheat greens, sprouted legumes and alfalfa, mushrooms and sea vegetables. I would be lying if I didn't say I learned a LOT from this book and want to read it again! They don't rely on anecdotal information. I like that a lot about a book.


The second part of this book is a stand alone cookbook. With staples like smoothies and nut butters; energizing breakfasts like raw granola; snacks foods including crackers, nut pates, raw cheese and dips: delicious lunch ideas like soups, salads and amazing looking dressings; hearty entrees like raw pizza, pasta and Thai spring rolls; scrumptious raw desserts like coconut macaroons and raw vegan tutti frutti ice cream, there are enough easy to follow recipes for any aspiring raw chef to get started with. Blender, dehydrator and food processor are required for some recipes but not all.

I love this book! Not only is the cover just beautiful and the whole book is printed on paper with post consumer recycled content, processed without chlorine, which saved
140 trees
5952 lbs of solid waste
51040 gall of wastewater
11,283 lbs of greenhouse gases
98 million BTW of total energy,

but it's exhaustive, comprehensive and the layout is easy to read and understand.
I have learned so much reading this and I definitely suggest it to any one considering a raw vegan lifestyle.
They give you the facts about raw and cooked food, good or bad, then allow you to come to your own conclusion about whether you want to adopt a raw food diet and to what degree and then give you some simple recipes to get you started.

I'd have to give it 5 hearts ♥♥♥♥♥ I love it that much! Thanks, Rick for turning me on to this book :)