Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Anyone else pick up this book yet? I had pre-ordered it on Amazon and it arrived today.

I have yet to make any recipes from it - so keep in mind I have no first-hand experience - but I would highly recommend someone look through the book themselves instead of blind-buying the book. It uses a large amount of prepared vegan substitutes (which is a huge pet-peeve of mine). The book opens by listing some recipes for gluten or fruit flavored as meat substitutes and then goes on to cheese substitutes. Some of the cheese subs themselves call for pre-packaged vegan sour cream or pre-packaged vegan cream cheese. The vegan goat cheese calls for sour cream, cream cheese, and soy feta.

A good number of the other recipes have similar issues. Some of them call for multiple types of Teese or Cheezely (neither of which have I ever seen). Overall this is probably the most disappointed I have been in a vegan cookbook in a long time. Maybe I will find some recipes to try that will impress me and my tune will change but I wanted to give a heads up to folks on here that they may want to inspect the book themselves before blind buying.

What is in the vegan Doritos recipe? That is what really piqued my interest.

That was one of the reasons I ordered the book. The recipe however requires: spices (mustard powder, salt, onion, garlic, paprika), a bag of tortilla chips, and then a block of vegan cheddar cheese.

Things like that really frustrate me. Not as bad though as the ranch dressing that calls for prepared vegan: sour cream, veganaise, cream cheese, soy milk, soy creamer... and then the spices.

Sad face.

dang, that's the most expensive ranch dressing ever. thanks for the warning!

Thanks for the warning, I like books that use clean whole foods. I don't really care to use commercial vegan cheeses, meats, etc. I like the recipes that use whole ingredients like nuts, tofu, etc. to make your own versions of these.

I'm the same way. Sometimes I use commercial substitutes as a lazy step but it really bothers me when a recipe calls for it. My thought is that if I am simply subbing in pre-packaged items for everything non-vegan then why do I even need a new recipe - the old traditional one would be fine with the same substitutions.

I also have no access to many of the subs. In my area we just got Follow Your Heart cheese and it is only stocked in Nacho flavor. We also just got Tofurkey deli slices. The other cheese substitutes (Daiya, Teese, Cheezely, etc.) aren't available at anywhere near me. The closest Whole Foods is two hours away and they don't even carry all those cheese substitutes.

Either way, I have the book now and probably won't sell or trade it for a tiny bit. My collector's mentality is fighting with my being unhappy with the book. So if anyone else has any questions about it let me know. It is sitting right beside my computer for easy reference for discussion.

for real. if i was going to make a sub filled ranch dressing i'd just use the recipe on the back of one of those seasoning packets. i wouldn't pay someone to reprint it for me.

I dunno, I just bought received this book, and I like what I see so far! I did find it kind of obnoxious on her blog when she was always calling for mimicreme, but she does provide alternatives in the book (for the cream, most often than not coconut milk). I haven't tried anything yet, and there are definitely some expensive-looking recipes, but I like how inventive the recipes are and they seem fun for fancier dinners.

The typesetting and photography could be a lot better, but I'm stoked for some of the recipes! The editing is kind of awful though...I wish publishers would always provide a big enough budget to produce a quality cookbook!

yeah, I flipped through this at Borders and had the same reaction. the quattro formaggio mac & cheese sounded really good so I flipped through the whole book trying to find it, only to find out that, surprise surprise, it called for 4 vegan cheeses. four! including dr. cow...like, who has access to and can afford that? it's hard enough for most people to find one kind of vegan cheese, let alone four. sadly, this seems to be another one of those vegan cookbooks that, unless you're like the author and live in L.A. with tons of money, you won't be able to make most of the recipes.

And the ingredients aren't even the worst part about the Doritos! I looked over this in the bookstore and was amazed. You take all of that and cook it or grind it or something, then massage it onto each and every tortilla chip with the powder. Even the directions say something along the lines of it being the "crazy part." I've gone out of my way to make some things, but spending what has to be an hour or two to make a few servings of Doritos is even beyond me...and I don't consider tamales much of an endeavor!

Well I left this same review on Amazon and you would have thought I took a poop in her living room.

aw, bummer. sorry to hear that! but now you know it cant get any worse if you want to just take a poop in her living room!

dr cow cheese? really? i've never had it, but if I did there's no way I would melt it into something mixed with three other fake cheeses!

You just completely cheered me up! I never thought of how freeing it is now to know that I am completely free to poop in one living room because the reaction can't get worse.

Thanks x10!

what?! That sucks! Sorry.

It's actually not that terrible. I just had people commenting and disagreeing with me as well as presumably marking my review not helpful so it won't show up as the top two (where Amazon recommends a low and a high).

It's cool though - just wanted to share my impressions with other vegans who might also be turned off by the fact it consists of a good deal of "cooking out of boxes."

I found your review very helpful! Last week I went to B&N and sat down to flip through all of the unfamiliar books to see which ones I wanted to order, and I thought this book was cute and put it as a 'maybe'. But I don't have a lot of money to spend on pre-made vegan foods, and don't want a bunch of recipes that call for them anyway.

the 4 cheese recipe with four vegan cheeses reminds me of the skinny bisque recipe

yeah, I noticed that also, she must have unlimited amounts of free time in addition to the money.

I checked this out and was immediately turned off by all the use of substitutions. I have access to a good chunk of them but it's way out of my budget and time (I'd have to drive around picking everything up). I'm glad I didn't actually buy it.

i've only seen the recipes shown in amazon's look inside feature, which were mostly for vegan "meats" if i remember correctly. the writing style put me off somewhat, but i was intrigued by all the different ways to flavor seitan/tempeh/tofu. i might try out one of the seafood recipes before making a purchase.

I think recipes in the book are in the spirit of the blog recipes. Check the blog out before buying. I like the recipes, but they often take a lot of time and use ingredients that are more expensive and/or hard to find.

If this was (is?) being marketed as a cookbook for quick simple food I'd be more inclined to be critical. I do think the cover/design are off and do not reflect the recipes accurately. (I would not have been interested in this book based on the cover had I not been familiar with the blog. I don't like anything about the cover, the colors even bother me.) Perhaps I've spent too much time with the recipes on the blog, but the book is pretty much what I expected it to be once I got past the cover.

wish I had seen this thread before buying the book.
I am going to try the scallops as my first dish and see how it goes. but I am not hopeful

What is the 'this' in 'veganize this'? Is it a colloquial reference to genitals? Because I think those have already been veganized, and I'm honestly not sure why you'd want to veganize yourself out of sexual eligibility, unless you are maybe not interested in sex or very sleepy.