The Budget-Friendly Vegan Cookbook

by Ally Lazare

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Budget-Friendly Vegan Cookbook is a recipe collection and cookbook for whole food plant based meals by Ally Lazare. Released 2nd June 2020 by Callisto on their Rockridge Press imprint, it's 242 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

The recipes are arranged thematically, an introduction with general directions for prep-work and pantry ingredients is followed by chapters for partial ingredients and staples, tofu tempeh and soy recipes, beans legumes and seeds, fruits vegetables mushrooms, grains, snacks and sides, and desserts. Each of the recipes includes an introductory description, ingredients listed in a bullet point sidebar (US measurements only, no metric equivalents), and step by step instructions. Recipes have special category notes in a header (nut free, gluten free, etc). Nutritional info includes calories, fat, carbs, fiber, protein, sodium and other micronutrients. Variations and alternatives are provided at the end of the recipes. There is a resource list, bibliography and related reading links, as well as a metric convesion table at the back of the book.

Most of the ingredients should be available at any well stocked grocery store although some might need to be sourced at specialist (vegan) grocers.

My main quibble with the book is that the recipes are mostly not photographed. There are some photos, and they're clear and attractive, but they only represent about 5% of the recipes included in the book. It is, however, a very well written book full of family friendly plant based foods many of which will also appeal to non-vegans.

Four and a half stars. I've rounded up for the quality of the writing and the distinctly high quality of the recipes themselves (tasty!) and the mission of the book: high quality food with a budget friendly price tag. Good food shouldn't be ruinously expensive.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.