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Vegan Cookook Review
500 Vegan Recipes
by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman

Subtitled An amazing variety of delicious recipes, from chilis and casseroles to crumbles, crisps, and cookies, 500 Vegan Recipes lives up to its name. The introduction offers some information for new vegans, and the first chapter talks about potentially unfamiliar ingredients as well as the symbols used throughout the book which denote which recipes take 30 minutes or less, or which are low fat, gluten free, or soy free. And then there are 19 chapters with a staggering variety of recipes:

1. Breakfast
2. Sweet and savory muffins
3. Dips and spreads
4. Snacks, appetizers, and finger foods
5. Salads and salad dressings
6. Soups, chilis, and stews
7. Pasta, grains, and potatoes
8. Casseroles and savory pies and tarts
9. Faux meats
10. Main dishes
11. Side dishes
12. Sauces and condiments
13. Sweet and savory quick breads
14. Sweet and savory yeast breads
15. Cookies and biscuits
16. Pies, tarts, crumbles, crisps, and crusts
17. Cakes and cupcakes
18. Candies and bars
19. Puddings, mousses, ice creams, and libations

Every time I pick up a new cookbook, I spend some time looking through all of the recipes, making a list of the ones that I plan to try. During the "interesting recipe finding" stage of this review, I realized it probably would have been easier to write down the recipes that didn't appeal to me. There were just so many things that I wanted to try right away; here are a few recipes that jumped out at me: Chocolate Orange Marmelade Muffins, Curried Butternut Squash Hummus, Fig Lentil Soup, Whole Wheat Pumpkin Gnocchi, Curried Carrot Coconut Soup, Seitan Bacon Crumbles, Creamy Boiled Leeks, Apple Sage Quick Bread, Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies, and Baked Chocolate Almond Pudding.

I also have nothing but good things to say about the index. Cookbooks usually only include a recipe in the index if the word you looked up is in the title of the recipe, but 500 Vegan Recipes has a much better system. If you look up "pecans," for example, you find not only Pecan Date Cake, Pecan Raisin Quick Bread, Pecan Shortbread Cookies, and Pecan Turtles, but also page numbers leading to another 10 or so recipes with pecans, including Energy Bars and Roasted Caramel Tartlets. Since I often start cooking based on the ingredients I have (as opposed to choosing a recipe and then going shopping), this kind of index is invaluable.

Bottom line: this is a terrific cookbook for both new and tried-and-true vegans. There are recipes to match every mood and every cooking style, and there are ideas here to keep you inspired for years to come.

Buy 500 Vegan Recipes, by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman:
Buy it: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Authors' website: 500 Vegan Recipes

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