“The Vegan Meat Cookbook”

Miyoko Schinner

This worked surprisingly well as a counterpoint to The Vegetarian Flavor Bible. Where that one went all-in on “there’s so many interesting fruits/vegetables/etc. that you won’t even miss meat,” this is a lot more “so: you miss eating meat, but want to stick with not eating meat.” It’s an interesting approach! It felt weird to be reading through the steps and see “add the chicken” or whatever, and need to look over at the ingredients list and see that it was specifying a couple of different vegetarian “chicken” options.

The introduction covered a long list of meat-imitation products, many of which I hadn’t heard of, and I found it to be a useful resource; I’ve got some notes for next time I’m at the grocery store, to see what’s available. It also had some instructions on making your own meat replacements, which I… don’t think I’ll actually be following. I can’t be bothered to make my own bread, so a vegan ‘chicken’ recipe that seems to be making bread with twice the steps and triple the work isn’t an easy sell for me. Still, it’s useful that it’s there, and I’ll happily keep this on the shelf as reference in case the inspiration ever strikes.

Overall, a neat little cookbook; I took some notes, and bookmarked some recipes, and I think it’ll be a good addition to my little collection. Check it out.1