The New Vegan by Janet Hudson

[Jamie]

I bought this but am quite dissapointed with it - I haven't made ANYTHING out of it! In fact if anyone wants to buy it off me please PM me

It's all very fancy stuff and there is hardly anything that you can make out of normal storecupboard ingredients, or even anything you can find in a local store! Except maybe those who live near fantastic gastronomic emporiums...! It all looks very complicated too.

Maybe it all tastes nice if you make it, I don't know, as I said I've not been able to make anything out of it. There's loads of ingedients which I don't know what they are: wax beans, veggie crumbles, 'stewed' tomatoes, hickory shagbark syrup, radicchio, bolillo, mirin, kielbasa, boiling onions... yes I could look them up online but that is a pain to do so often.

And almost every single recipe calls for a faux meat or cheese of ENDLESS variety... every variety of cheese in a vegan form (I can just about get cheddar or mozzarella and to be honest there's barely a difference between them, and parmesan, this wants provolone, swiss, caraway, feta...), and every sort of fake meat going, from vegan salmon (!!), to scallops (I thought that was deep fried potato slices?), to pork. I can't get any sort of fake meat normally besides chicken/ham/turkey/bacon rashers, sausage or burger, or homemade seitan. It also uses vegan sour cream in loads of recipes - I had to order the tofutti in specially to try it out and I didn't think much of it so would probably avoid a lot of the recipes wanting this.

Looking at this book again to add it to this list on here, has made me want to try my hardest to find something to make, even if I have to adjust it a bit... they do look like they'd be the sort of thing I'd never normally eat and quite nice some of them.

So I wouldn't reccomend it to most, but I would reccomend it to experienced vegan cooks who have access to a lot of the specialist ingredients and fancy a nice challenge. Or maybe those who cater/run restaurants etc might manage because they can order things in and use on a larger scale.

And it is a thick book for the money - 426 pages total, a little bigger than A6 size.

[Catie]

I hate it. I admit I haven't made anything out of it but to me it just seems like she went through an omni cookbook and put "vegan" infront of anything that wasn't vegan. I have NEVER seen vegan scallops, and I really doubt they even exist. And I'd much rather cook something using fresh vegetables and lentils and grains and pulse etc, than have every meal based around fake meat.

[Jamie]

it just seems like she went through an omni cookbook and put "vegan" infront of anything that wasn't vegan.

LOL, that is SO true!!!

I'm glad I'm not the only one to have bought it and never made anything out of it. EDITED: Actually I shouldn't be glad should I - other people have wasted money too

[Gorilla]

I have NEVER seen vegan scallops, and I really doubt they even exist. And I'd much rather cook something using fresh vegetables and lentils and grains and pulse etc, than have every meal based around fake meat.

i think vegan scallops can be found in Chinese supermarkets. but i agree, i rarely make meals using fake meats and definitely prefer more 'natural' recipes.

[rantipole]

I hate it. I admit I haven't made anything out of it but to me it just seems like she went through an omni cookbook and put "vegan" infront of anything that wasn't vegan. I have NEVER seen vegan scallops, and I really doubt they even exist. And I'd much rather cook something using fresh vegetables and lentils and grains and pulse etc, than have every meal based around fake meat.

Vegan scallops do exist. You can buy them at well-stocked Asian markets. They are made of yam flour, tofu, soy sauce, and seaweed. They are by far my favorite vegan meat.

That said, this cookbook doees sound bad for the average person.

Cheers,
rant

[twinkle]

Yeah, I got it out of the library and I was tempted to "lose" it and pay a fine rather than having other people think this is what vegan food is supposed to be like. Awful.

[Jamie]

LOL twinkle!!!!

[Catie]

Well, I stand corrected on the scallop thing, hmm, interesting- I'd quite like to get mine hands on some now and see what they're like.

[Hemlock]

It reminds me of a book on witchcraft I once bought where a very self important author was holding forth on love spells and all the ingredients that go into one, numerous expensive and rare items, totally unecessary. She also swans about her home town wearing black robes and wonders why folk think shes a weirdo. We snorted at it and threw it in the bin.
This cookbook sounds much the same - personally I couldn't be bothered.

[veganesquire]

Vegan Scallops can be found in cans at "alternative" grocery markets. They are made by Worthington. I had never had real scallops before so I didn't really have anything to compare it to, but I must say they were not at all tasty and I won't buy them again.

[Jamie]

It sounds like you have more luck finding these sort of ingredients in some US cities than we do in the UK

I don't like the sound of most of the mock meat dishes in there though. I wish I'd looked at it better before buying it! At least if I'd gotten it from Amazon or something I would have seen it's crap reviews on there.

[Gorilla]

i've seen tinned vegan scallops and all kinds of odd fake meats in a Chinese supermarket in Brighton. they all taste a bit weird to me, i wouldn't use them myself.

[twinkle]

The only place I've had things like that was at Veggie World in Bletchley. They were great there, but I wouldn't cook them at home.

[Gorilla]

the vegan Chinese buffet restaurants in London often have fake meats. my favourite is fake prawns which are amazing but haven't seen in the shops. i don't know how they do it! i wouldn't cook these things at home either.

[rantipole]

The vegan scallops I buy are shrink-wrapped and frozen. They are easy to cook. I thaw them and stir-fry them with soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic and ginger. The vegan prawns I buy come the same way. I bought some frozen vegan salmon, but I haven't tried it yet.

As a vegan, I miss seafood a lot, so these products make me very happy.

They also have vegan intestines, but I haven't been brave enough to buy them.

Cheers,
rant

[Jamie]

vegan intestines!!! if people want this stuff that bad....

[Risker]

Yeah, I got it out of the library and I was tempted to "lose" it and pay a fine rather than having other people think this is what vegan food is supposed to be like. Awful.

Hehe, we've had this book for ages and never make anything from it, I'd really like to get rid of it but think throwing it away would be wasteful and like twinkle, don't want to give it to charity because I don't want anyone else to read it.

Just had a quick flick through and the ingredients are funny.

Veggie lobster
Veggie shrimp
Veggie swiss cheese
Veggie romano cheese
Purified water (WTF?!)

Awful awful book.