American Vegan Kitchen: Delicious Comfort Food from Blue Plate Specials to Homestyle Favorites

by Tamasin Noyes

The comfort food of America's diners, cafes, and bistros brought home to the vegan table! Do you ever crave the delicious comfort foods served at your local diner, deli, or neighborhood cafe? This cookbook shows you how to make vegan versions of your favorite dishes in your own home kitchen. These 200+ recipes will satisfy vegans and non-vegans alike with deli sandwiches, burgers and fries, mac and cheese, pasta, pizza, omelets, pancakes, tasty soups and salads, casseroles, and desserts. Put together your own Blue Plate Specials from the roadside eateries of Route 66. Sample favorites from the cafes of San Francisco to the bistros of New York. Enjoy truly great American flavors from tempting ethnic dishes to the homestyle comfort foods of the heartland. Recipes Around-the-Clock Coffee Cake, Beer-Battered Onion Rings, Darngood Donut Bites, Cajun Pot Pie, Fork-and-Knife Reubens, Midtown Greek Salad, Spicy Balsamic Maple Wingz, Yankee Cornbread, Southern Fried Seitan, Mom's Apple Pie, and many more. From coast-to-coast and cover-to-cover, American Vegan Kitchen helps you serve up great homestyle vegan recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and desserts. The book contains 30 full-color photos and helpful icons to bring American comfort food home to your table. More praise for American Vegan Kitchen : Tami Noyes has a special gift for creating luscious comfort food recipes. Whether you're a dedicated herbivore or an omnivore dipping your toes into vegan waters, American Vegan Kitchen offers a plethora of down-home recipes to please every palate. You'll find yourself making Tami's easy, satisfying dishes over and over again. Dynise Balcavage, author of The Urban Vegan After years of whetting our vegan appetites online, Tami has written a wonderful cookbook filled with the kind of irresistible recipes she's known for, making it even easier for us to enjoy her marvelous dishes. American Vegan Kitchen is sure to become an indispensable addition to bookshelves everywhere. Celine Steen, author of 500 Vegan Recipes

Genres: Cookbooks, Vegan, Nonfiction, Reference, Cooking

209 pages, Paperback

First published February 11, 2010

Reviews

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scrapped my earlier review because it wasn't effusive enough. Noyes has enormous talent in making hearty meals reminiscent of American Classics, or Blue Plate Specials. In fact, she chooses to even use those names which give us a hint of the originals, e.g., "Salisbury-style Seitan" and "Southern Fried Seitan." These come close to the flavor and texture of those old-fashioned dishes, and I now constantly underestimate the efficacy of having such dishes in one's repertoire if one is serving non-vegans. People are willing to try/eat vegan, particularly if the food is delicious, and some are more willing if the food is familiar. It is hard to believe some people are still eating "southern fried" anything, but there you go...a little treat for those unreformed but without as many calories or cholesterol. I tried it, and it is delicious.

Noyes' recipe for Tempeh Stroganoff (with no vegan sour cream) is terrific and I will use it again and again. I had it on mashed potatoes, but it would be good in any combination with any grain. It is simple, since it is basically oven-baking tempeh in a marinade--no need to steam the tempeh first.

The Fettuccine Alfredo looked gorgeous, and tasted great. I had trouble keeping it hot enough, but that is always my particular problem with pasta dishes.

I tried the All-American Incrediburgers and they live up their name. When the burgers are hot, they even leak a little, like fatty beef (hope that doesn't put you off). Grilled, these would be pretty spectacular, but they were excellent pan-fried in the dead of winter. Non-vegans were amazed. Best of all, perhaps, was the recipe for Burger Buns, which held together under slatherings of sauce and juicy burger. This was the MOST successful recipe I have (found and) tried for these, and bread is my specialty. I'm sure the Tempeh Burgers will taste exceptionally good as well, for they use the same ingredients as that indomitable team, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Romero in Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook.

Tried the Blueberry-Oat Short Stack one morning for breakfast & unfortunately couldn't eat them hot because the baking powder made them horrible. I wonder still if that 2 Tblsp of Baking Powder is a typo. I would use yeast instead, but if you must, use only 2 tsp Baking Powder if you try these. The overnight soak is the theory behind museli as well (softening the oatmeal). Anyway, I left the oatcakes stacked on the table, and late in the afternoon, when they were cold, I did not taste the baking powder so much, so they weren't as bad then.

The Corn and Bean Chowder was pretty spectacular, and the Mushroom Barley Stew really had a deep mushroom flavor, especially since I used half an ounce of dried Chanterelles with the fresh mushrooms.

In many recipes, Noyes asks for a spice mix she created: All American Spice Mix. It is very good and useful. For a week or more, when I had run out of Chili Powder and kept forgetting to buy some, I used this spice mix interchangeably in recipes calling for Chili Powder. It is flavorful and has the kick of cayenne.

All in all, Tami Noyes is something of a diva, and going to her house for dinner must be something akin to entering those pearly gates.

[mad mags · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three Words: Vegan Comfort Food!

I was lucky enough to win a copy of American Vegan Kitchen through a giveaway hosted by author Tami Noyes on her blog, Vegan Appetite. I can’t even tell you how glad I am that I did, since I probably wouldn’t have given it a try otherwise. Not because the recipes aren’t enticing (they are! some epically so!); rather, I own way too many cookbooks as it is, many of which go largely unused. I’m happy to report that this hasn’t been the case with AVK.

With chapters devoted to breakfast foods, starters, soups, salads, sandwiches, main dishes, sides, and desserts, it was difficult to know where to start. (The Dessert Case. Always start with dessert!) Cue: the old adage about one’s eyes being bigger than one’s stomach.

So far I’ve made about two dozen recipes - some of them multiple times! - including the following:

Mediterranean Scramble (page 23)
Noodle Omelet (page 25)
Summer Waffles with Lemon Sauce (page 36)
Cinnamon Flapjacks (page 37)
Vegan Sausage Links (page 41)
Mighty Miso Soup (page 73)
Loaded Baked Potato Soup (page 74)
‘Big Soup’ Minestrone (page 77)
Seitan and Herb Dumplings (page 134)
Italian Big Bowl (page 137)
Italian-Style Seitan with Linguine (page 138)
Fettuccine Alfredo (page 140)
Spaghetti Pie with Arrabbiata Sauce (page 141)
Brewpub Tater Tot Pie (page 152)
Margherita Pizza with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce (page 157)
Cheesy Mac and Greens (page 164)
Stovetop Mac and Cheeze (page 165)
Taters and Strings (page 165)
Homestyle Gravy (page 167)
Mom's Apple Pie (page 178)
Apple Butterscotch Pie (page 180)
Peachy Keen Cobbler (page 184)
Vanilla Espresso Shake (page 198)

I blogged each of these as I went, so I won’t rehash each and every dish here. (But you can click through the recipe titles to read more.) Instead: a highlights reel!

With the exception of the Peachy Keen Cobbler – the only dish I didn’t love, though that’s probably owing more to the fact that I’m not much of a cobbler girl than any deficiency in the recipe – I’ll likely make all of these dishes again. The Homestyle Gravy has become a staple in our kitchen (put gravy on ALL the things!), and Noyes’s Minestrone is by far the best version I’ve tasted. The Brewpub Tater Tot Pie and Loaded Baked Potato Soup are nothing short of inspired. (But be careful of the potato chunks in the latter – those suckers can get HOT! Best to cut them a little smaller than recommended.)

AVK features not one but two apple pie recipes, both of which are scrumptious. The crust is a bit on the delicate side, and thus hard to work with, but then again I’ve yet to find a pie crust recipe that I truly love.

Likewise, each of the two macaroni and cheese recipes are good, and healthy too – one even includes spinach! (Heads up, parents of veggie-averse kids.)

While we’re on pasta, the Italian Big Bowl and Italian-Style Seitan with Linguine are both winners, but they pale in comparison to the awesomeness that is the Spaghetti Pie with Arrabbiata Sauce. Talk about love at first bite – right away I knew I’d found my new favorite recipe! A four-layer masterpiece consisting of pasta, a blended tofu concoction reminiscent of ricotta cheese, red sauce chunky with tvp, and vegan mozzarella cheese, this casserole is totally worth the hour plus assembly time. If you’re strapped for time, you can prepare it in advance and refrigerate until meal time. The Spaghetti Pie has already replaced lasagna as my go-to Christmas recipe! (Make dinner the day before and spend the holiday relaxing, is my motto.)

As for difficulty, I’d say that American Vegan Kitchen is appropriate for advanced beginner to intermediate cooks. Some of the recipes are more complicated, require a wider variety of ingredients, and take more time to prepare than others, with waffles and pancakes falling on the “easy” end of the spectrum and a few of the pasta dishes demanding more planning and patience. The Spaghetti Pie is an excellent example: though no one step is particularly difficult, add them all up and you might spend several hours in the kitchen, start to finish. That said, the more you practice, the more efficient you’ll become. I’m fairly confident that I can shave fifteen minutes off the Spaghetti Pie the next time around.

While it’s true that some of the recipes requite a good number of ingredients (Noyes is generous with the spices, which I appreciate), few of them are what I’d call hard to find. (In fact, the only ingredient I’ve run into trouble with is vegan butterscotch chips – they appear to be an online-only item.) Noyes makes moderate use of vegan meats, cheeses, and other “substitutes,” so some of these recipes might require a trip to a specialty health foods store.

But – and here’s the kicker – when possible, she also offers recipes for making these things yourself! In AVK you’ll find do-it-yourself instructions for making your own sausage links, seitan, and bacon. (A steamer is required.) Additionally, many of the cheesy sauces are homemade, with liberal use of tofu and nutritional yeast. Since I live an hour’s drive from the nearest vegan-friendly grocery, these recipes are quite useful for those weeks when we’re in between shopping trips and running low on expensive indulgences. They’re also helpful for those on a budget – buy a 25-pound sack of wheat gluten and make all the sausage you can eat!

As for nutrition, American Vegan Kitchen strikes a pleasant balance between taste and healthfulness. Many of these dishes aren’t exactly what you’d call “health food” – but, as far as comfort food goes, they aren’t all that bad. Take for example the Fettuccine Alfredo: while it isn’t the most decadent I’ve ever had – that distinction goes to the Linguine Alfredo in Lane Gold’s Vegan Junk Food – it’s still quite good and, since it’s a cashew-based cream sauce, relatively healthy to boot. (The one in VJF contains cream cheese and soy creamer. Deliciously fatty - and a rare treat.)

For those who enjoy their cookbooks peppered with food photography, AVK includes an eight-page insert of glossy, full-color photos. I don’t personally find photos necessary – that’s what the internet is for – but the insert strategy is a nice compromise between cost and aesthetics, helping to keep prices down while still prettying things up a bit.

American Vegan Kitchen is a huge win in my book. If you *heart* comfort food, want to try slightly more healthy and/or vegan versions of the diner foods you enjoyed as a kid, or just plain find vegan food sketchy – nothing but lettuce and bird seed! - then you should definitely give AVK a try.

(Pssst! Start with Mom’s Apple Pie. You can never go wrong with pie!)

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[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has some great recipes and others like the veggie burgs are not as good as expected.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing in here really appealed to me to make me want to cook. But, that's probably just me. :)

[Kip · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest vegan cookbooks there is, by one of the most talented vegan authors. A must have.