This book is the enormous latest offering by prolific cookbook author Robin Robertson, and I think it could be my favourite so far. As you might guess, it contains 1,000 recipes! Unfortunately there aren’t any photos, but I don’t think there’s much space for them – it’s already taking up half a shelf on my bookcase!
This is a great book for both new and old vegans as it contains some quite basic recipes alongside some new ideas and more complex dishes. Even my husband, who’s not very experienced at vegan cooking, can flick through this and find things he could cook. In fact he’s made 2 very successful dishes already. But that’s not to say it’s a basic book – with 1,000 recipes it contains something for everyone.
It’s sensibly divided into 12 chapters and at the beginning of each chapter there’s a handy list of recipe titles for that chapter. No matter what ingredients you can get easily, there’s something in this book for you. The pasta chapter alone is split into sections – how to make your own pasta, pasta with tomatoes, pasta with pesto, pasta with vegetables, lasagnas, baked pastas, stuffed pastas and Asian noodles. So much choice!
I’ve made a few things from this book already. I’ve always found with Robin’s recipes that they can get need an extra wham of spice, but as long as you expect it, you’re good to go.
Things I’ve made so far:
Drunken spaghetti with tofu – I’ll make this again but use a more traditional noodle next time
Yellow dal with spinach – I’d want more spice but I loved the earthy split peas in this
Soytan dream cutlets – very chick and tasty
Baked pasta shells and broccoli – my husband made this and it was really tasty
And naturally, I’ve got a long list of things I want to make, too. My good friend Tami was lucky enough to recipe test for this book, and has done a great round up here and I’ve also been following this blog which is great fun.
If you’re looking for a Christmas present for a new or aspiring vegan, or even an experienced vegan, you could do far worse than this book, that’s for sure.
Cooking the Vegan Books 
Sounds great! I am expecting this book to arrive any day in the mail now.