Vegan cooking. I know, if you’re not familiar with it, you may expect bark and berries. I have found vegetarian/vegan cooking to be very freeing. (I use both terms because I have not been able to give up cheese. Well, okay, I haven’t really tried.) When I was consuming animal protein, each meal planning was kind of the same: Take a protein, add a starch and a veg, maybe a sauce, blah, blah, blah. Veganarian cooking has forced me to be more creative and more seasonal, which has resulted in also more flavorful dishes.
I am not the only cook in my household: my partner is fantastic and she has embraced vegan cooking, even more so than I. One book in particular, “The Wicked Healthy Cookbook” by Chad Sarno, Derek Sarno, and David Joachim has been her go-to these past few months. I have also used this book for numerous recipes, so this seems like a good one to share. We’ve used their plant-based cheese sauce for nachos. I don’t think it worked well for nachos, though if the sauce were more a part of something, it may be fine. I feel like the texture was a bit off, but the flavor was good. We’ve also used the cauliflower Mornay sauce (very good) and the red sauce, among others. However, like most things these days, I can’t help but deviate from the instructions. One recipe I tried and was a fantastic success was the Sloppy BBQ Jackfruit Sliders. I loved this dish, so, so much. If I got nothing else from this book, the introduction to jackfruit would have been worth the time. Generally, I am not looking to create meat facsimiles, I want fruits and vegetables to be themselves. I do want to mention, that this is not a vegan cookbook, butter is used. Besides, their quip, “…shoot for 80% healthy and 20% wicked, you’ll be 100% sexy. That’s the Wicked Healthy way” contains enough cheese to knock it out of the vegan classification.
More than “just” a cookbook, The Wicked Healthy Cookbook also gives common sense advice for an overall healthier lifestyle: eat more fruits and vegetables, less sodium, fats, and sugars and exercise a bit more. In their view, the true benefit of eating veganarian is controlling what you put into your body. The book isn’t totally a “lifestyle guide,” much necessary information for changing poor eating/cooking habits is given, though it does feel a bit preachy at times. I tend to be cynical of authors professing some new way of eating, and though the authors had some “raw food” phases in their professional careers, the recipes given are much more balanced. They have run stand-alone restaurants and have worked for chain stores like Whole Foods and Tescos.
I will admit, the introduction is torturous, repetitious and a bit self-inflating. Not every recipe has a photo, but the food photos included are very good. (I am not a fan of the photos intended to show the “personality” of the writers, especially if they’re not professional kitchen photos, it just looks like they’re trying too hard.) Speaking of photos, I do have some questions for the authors about the spread on pages 10-11, specifically, the jar simply labeled “herb.” This may explain why Woody Harrelson wrote the introduction. (Okay, the real reason is one of the authors has been Mr. Harrelson’s personal on-set chef.) Some ingredients are a bit obscure and therefore not so easily found, but there is a nice section explaining what should be kept on hand and examples of equipment that will make your cooking life easier. Recipes and their instructions are clearly written with good additional instruction. The layout is nice, and very readable. If some of the “fluff” was cut, I would have loved this book. As it is, I just have to skip portions to get to the “meat of the book”*. The “Get Organized” section is well done (I especially appreciated the “Read the Recipe All the Way Through” suggestion). Great charts listing options to avoid adding salt or sugar, and avoiding extracted fats (like olive oil). The salt, sugar and fat flavors are necessary, but finding creative ways to bring them out in your dishes is key to healthier cooking. The authors spend a good bit of space espousing the “layers of flavor” mantra. There are even a couple of pages highlighting compound butter! (I have previously expressed my love for this under-used item.)
The authors have a website Wicked Healthy Food, but it doesn’t appear to be very up-to-date. I signed up for their newsletter, let’s see what happens. Update: I immediately received an email and it seems the site is different if you follow the links in your newsletter, for what it’s worth.
Overall, I really do like this book, it has given me many ideas and inspirations for making my creations. This seems like a great Saturday afternoon guide for after a Farmer’s Market trip. The book has flaws and is not technique-heavy, so we’re not talking about a Thomas Keller “The French Laundry”-level cookbook, but certainly worth the time to grab some recipes and eat a bit healthier.
*Get it?
