VeganMoFo Day 4
Easy Vegan Cooking by Leah Leneman
Easy Vegan Cooking is possibly the only British vegan cookbook we own. And it’s a little odd.
I don’t know if the author genuinely feels that an American audience would be unable to handle a British cookbook without extra explanations or if she’s going for a certain feel to the book.
In recipes, soy milk is referred to as “soya (soy) milk” and beans come in “tins (cans)”. The ever present extra words in ( ) keep throwing me off when reading ingredients. A tad unnecessary, I feel.
Although I was amused by the chapter heading “American Breakfast and British Afternoon Tea” which allows for the fact that many American breakfast foods such as sweet pancakes and muffins don’t appear on the British table until a much more civilised hour in the afternoon!
Anyway, once you get past these quirks, it’s a nice little book. One of our all-time favourite party dishes lives in these pages, Smoked tofu & mashed potato cake, yum! We’re also a bit fond of the Lebanese style green bean stew and the basic but good grilled garlic mushrooms. And there is a very delicious Aubergine & Chickpea “ragout” hiding within its pages too!
There’s a section filled with tofu recipes & another dedicated to the wonderful world of sea-vegetables (they’re not weeds!)
The measurements are all non-cups too, which is a pleasant change, it’s nice to see milliliters are still in use! Although I’ve gotten so used to cups from all my American cookbooks and our time in New Zealand that using them is almost automatic now.
All in all though, while we do occasionally dip into this book, it’s not a regularly used book in the HPP household. It could be down to us judging it by its cover, it looks like a dessert book, so it wouldn’t be the first book you’d reach for when planning dinner, unless of course you were having chocolate cake for dinner, which sounds like a great idea 
Do any of you own Easy Vegan Cooking? What do you think of it?
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I was just looking at this book on Amazon last night!!
*Cue music to Twilight Zone*
I already added it to mah wish list
I own this book! I like it quite a lot too.
It’s funny you mentioned that people might see the cover and think desserts because I make desserts from this book quite often … most notably the cloutie dumpling and the baked raisin pudding. I have eyed the jellied pudding many times but I haven’t made it yet. I really should!
For savoury dishes, I love the potato and nutmeat casserole [I sub veggie 'beef' crumbles mixed with a bit of tomato for the nutmeat], the pecan roast, and the savoury oatmeal pudding [a staple recipe]. The potato and carrot soup is a staple too.
I’m making myself hungry!
It does look like a dessert book judging from the cover. Chocolate cake for dinner? Count me in!
I have this book too, but in his old version and with a different name : 365 plus one vegan recipes. This summer I visited London(I’m from Belgium) and was chasing for some new vegan cookbooks, when I found this new version. Luckely I looked inside a little bit and noticed it was exactly the same book but with another cover and name.
Long time ago I used this book a lot, but now I prefare the American vegan cookbooks more.
I also own this cookbook and really have to remind myself to use it. There is something unappealing about the way that the recipes are written out and the titles that they have been given – at least to me. That said, most of the recipes that I have forced myself to try have been quite nice.
I wouldn’t rave about it though…