by George Erdosh
City Book Review
June 14, 2012
This is a simple, basic, yet excellent vegan cookbook without unnecessary fluff and filling, not even illustrations. Though the book production is almost austere, author Tienzo draws from a wide-ranging international repertoire, providing reasonably simple recipes using available ingredients. The beginner vegan cook should have no difficulty with most of the recipes.
“This book is about creating global dishes while eating locally.”
The twelve-page introduction provides everything a vegan cook needs to know: ingredients, equipment, terminology. Tienzo labels the recipes with several or all of six symbols, whichever apply: raw, low fat, soy-free, wheat-free, tasty for all, and quick-fix. Head notes are brief and informative; sidebars are equally good. Several tables provide information such as spice rubs, infusing oils, or a guide to grains. One table gives extensive menu lists for all occasions (e.g., kid-friendly dinner, poker night, vegan wedding fare). Book organization is very good with color tabs separating chapters to help the cook find them quickly. Layout of recipes is excellent, all on single pages to be cook-friendly. To give the pages some color, the black text is interspersed with purple text. The dessert section is extensive (“This is the largest section of the book, and that’s no accident”). The well cross-referenced index is also excellent.
