This is the book you need to get started creating vegan staples. If I could choose only one book out of all of the books I purchased last year, this would be the book I would keep.



Miyoko's recipes are simple, require mostly standard ingredients, and create some of the most fantastic vegan food I have eaten to date. There is a reason that Miyoko's recipes for vegan cheese come out so good - she actually sells her vegan cheese online. With this book you can make your own ketchup, butter, unribs, unsteak, unchicken, vegan fish sauce, and teriyaki sauce! You can make vegan mozzarella that bakes, browns, and crisps up on a pizza. You can make vegan ice cream and vegan yogurt. You can make a roll of vegan chocolate chip cookie batter you can cut off pieces of and use as needed.



I am sharing pictures of a pizza I made with the vegan mozzarella cheese from this book, a pork chop I made using the Unpork recipe, and tofu red curry I made where the essential ingredient was Miyoko's vegan fish sauce.



There are specialty ingredients that certain recipes require and I would make sure to purchase the recommended ingredients and not attempt to substitute other ingredients that may seem similar. For instance, the liquid soy lecithin is essential to the Glorious Butterless Butter recipe. When tapioca is mentioned for the cheese recipes, you will need to use tapioca flour. For the fermented tofu liquid for the vegan fish sauce, purchase a bottle of fermented tofu from an Asian grocery store that appears clear - if the fermented tofu is darker or reddish, that means it has chilies in it, and you will not want to use that kind of fermented tofu for this recipe. I contacted Miyoko through her website and she was very helpful in clarifying what specific items were required and where to purchase them. She is incredibly kind and responsive.



When you are culturing your vegan cheese, I found it worked better when I waited the full two days for the cheese's ingredients to culture. If you want to start with a recipe that is a surefire hit, I would highly suggest the Unsteak recipe.



If you don't drink alcohol, for recipes that have mirin and wine incorporated, you can find mirin and non-alcoholic wines that have the majority of the alcohol removed. I used Honteri Mirin from the local Asian grocery store and Fre Alcohol Removed Merlot. While the book suggests to use mirin that only incorporates rice and koji (and this is the perfect choice if you do not have an alcohol free household), I found that the flavors were still there with the Honteri Mirin while the alcohol was not.



While you are using this book, you will notice that a number of recipes incorporate multiple variations. The cashew cream recipe page alone has additional recipes for bechamel, alfredo, and mushroom sauce. The Glorious Butterless Butter recipe has four variations you can try after trying the main recipe. I love how comprehensive this book is. After the recipe for flax seed egg whites, Miyoko includes recipes for flax seed omelets, frittata, and quiche. You can make ice cream or gelato or sorbet, homemade jam, mustard, and mayonnaise, bread, crackers and cakes - the list of different recipes this book incorporates can really stock your entire vegan pantry. There is even a recipe for cinnamon rolls. I made the ketchup recipe in about 5 minutes with ingredients I already had in my fridge and pantry. It was worlds better than the corn syrup based ketchup you can typically find at the store.



If you are a fan of seafood but are vegan and haven't found good recipes that incorporate the flavors you have been missing, Miyoko has a whole section of this book dedicated to vegan seafood. You can make vegan fish, crab cakes, chowder - even vegan fish sauce! The vegan fish sauce has to be my favorite addition to Thai dishes. It brings back all of the subtleties of flavor I missed in the dishes I used to love before I was vegan. It's so good that I will probably use it the next time I order Thai food takeout - there is nothing like having the essential flavors and nuances of Thai food on my palate again.



This book is absolutely the most comprehensive and detailed recipe guide I have found to vegan cooking. Miyoko knows vegan cooking and everything I have made using this book has been absolutely delectable. It would be the first book I would recommend to a friend who was newly vegan.