My New Favorite Cookbook

I don’t buy cookbooks anymore because Pinterest has so many recipes and you can look up any kind of diet restriction there. However, when I got this book out of the library I knew that I had to own it. It’s called But I Could Never Go Vegan.

This is a great cookbook for people like me who have a moral desire to eat vegetarian or vegan but who are used to and still crave classic American food. That may not be you but it is definitely me. I’m ashamed to say that I love meatball subs.

I have made four recipes from this book so far and I have many more bookmarked. I pretty much want to make all of them!

I started with meatball subs where the meatballs are made of a combination of eggplant and quinoa (substituted for amaranth, which I couldn’t find). They turned out amazing. My husband I both loved the subs and it satisfied that craving I get for a meatball sub.

Next I tried to crab cakes. We live in Maryland and crab cakes are a classic food here. I’ve never liked them much but my husband loves them. These crab cakes were made with canned artichoke hearts instead of crab. Same flaky moist texture! I fried them with corn and roasted red pepper and it was so good that I can’t wait to make them again. Even writing about them I’m remembering the amazing taste in my mouth.

Today I made mini cheesecakes (cashew instead of cheese) and sweet and sour cauliflower to go with my spaghetti squash chow mein.

The next thing I have my eye on is tuna fish salad sandwich (a dish my husband used to make me all the time before I went vegan) and this one is made with jackfruit.

One warning: these are not beginner recipes. They aren’t hard but you do have to know a little bit about cooking and some of the ingredients can be challenging to find.

Something I think was really clever is that the book is divided up into a bunch of sections and each section covers a potential objection to a vegan diet.

I just had to share this with you and I think I might very well cook my way through the entire book!