Vegan Cooking for One: Over 150 Simple and Appetizing Meals

"This is the first vegan book I've purchased. I'm a vegetarian at the moment, but was hoping that this book would prove insightful and helpful in figuring out what i could eat, as I'm the pickiest eater in the world.

Well, the book arrived, nice cover that's about it. There are no pictures at all in the book, so it's just dull. Most of the recipes are very basic, and over half i wouldn't eat anyway. Why can't someone create a low carb, low calorie Vegan book. I don't eat rice, pasta, mushrooms (related to mould, ewwww), and dont want to get fat so out go all the cake/pudding recipes as well. That leaves me with some of the salads, but guess what, don't like salads either. The recipes included seem to me to be created by some basic cook rather than a skilled chef.

The positive things in this book are that you get UK and USA measurements against all the ingredients and that you get a shopping list at the front of the book, great for a regimented diet, but who what's a Set meal each day? are we still in school?

I was looking for some healthy bean/vegetable recipes which would be suitable for a low calorie diet, but this wasn't the book for me. I guess I'll just have to continue throwing things into the pan and seeing what happens as per usual.

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~ Written on 2007-11-03

"This is the main book I use in my kitchen. I find it very practical, without pictures to distract from cooking. After all, I'm there to prepare a nourishing meal, not to look at pretty photos, and this book does exactly that: easy recipes that taste great.
I would recommend it to any vegan who's just starting and also to anyone who's experienced, as it provides ideas to be adapted to the fantasy of the cook.
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~ Written on 2007-10-08

"I recently went vegan for health reasons. I live with my partner, who is a full-blooded omnivore who doesn't understand how a meal devoid of meat can possibly satisfy or provide the nutrients one needs, so my decision meant I would have to start shopping and cooking exclusively for myself. After a lot of careful deliberation before actually going vegan, I bought this book and one other for guidance.

Since the day I went vegan, I have used the recipes in this book every day, and at the end of each day I continue to find myself looking forward to trying the next day's recipe.

I have found this book extremely helpful because it is not simply a collection of recipes - it begins with a concise introduction explaining how to use the book with advice on the ingredients used in the recipes and what basic staple ingredients to keep a stock of in your pantry and thereafter is divided into two sections: Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter. Each section contains 9 week-by-week meal plans, each of which begins with a shopping list followed by a recipe for Sunday lunch, dinner and dessert, supper recipes for Monday-Friday and a lunch recipe for Saturday. The book excludes breakfast because of the wide variety of vegan friendly cereals available and assumes that lunch on weekdays and supper on Saturdays will be eaten out.

I have found all of the recipes in this book to be easy and quick to make and delicious, in spite of the fact that some of them contain vegetables I previously found distasteful.

In addition, the foods included in the shopping lists are, for the most part, items that are readily available from supermarkets and the few ingredients that you might have trouble finding at Tesco's or Sainsbury's are easily obtainable from health food stores and/or vegetarian shops. Once you have your food cupboard stocked up with all the staple ingredients, you'll find your weekly shopping to be very cheap - I managed to do mine for £6.01 this week!


This is not a glamorous cookbook. There are no glossy pages with colour photographs of how the meals should turn out - in fact, there are no photos in it at all, but trust me on this, the instructions are so clear and easy to follow that you won't need a pictoral example of what your meal should look like when it's done, and so tasty that by the time it's on your plate you won't care anyway. In any case, having used the book I actually prefer it without photographs because that way I am never disappointed when I serve up my meals that they don't look as pretty as the examples in the pictures.

Furthermore my partner is always saying how nice the meals look and smell (but is sadly too proud to ask to try some - never mind though, more for me!)"
~ Written on 2007-09-14

"Examined this book in a bookshop but did not buy it because it was just such an ugly book. My main gripe is the lack of photographs - appetite begins with the eyes and browsing a cook book should be a sensual pleasure. Reading this is just a chore. Flipped through a few pages and was bored by the obsessive structure. Got the impression that the author really has no respect for her readers. I mean does she think we are stupid or something that we need "set menus"? If we are that thick, how come there wasn't a section telling everyone to remember to breathe out as well as in? How many of her readers have died as a result of her careless oversight?

Taking vegan cookery books as a whole, characterised by amateurism, dullness and poverty of ideas, the only comparable cookery books I have ever seen were books produced during WWII when there was rationing and the Ministry of Food issued orders about how to make a tin of spam feed a family of ten for a week and an "apple" crumble out of six beetroots and a potato. Vegan cookery is still in the Blackout. Wake up boys and girls, rationing is over. Life can go on.

Having looked through a few vegan cookery books lately I realise that none of the people writing vegan cookery books has any talent for cookery. How did they get published and why did they bother? People we all deserve better! Use your consumer power and refuse to buy crap like this! It is the only way to get the message across that we consumers want quality! Say after me: "Vegan, yes! Frugal, no!"
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~ Written on 2007-09-13

"Yes, been lied to by countless reviewers singing this books praises. A terrible book- unimaginative throughout and (horror of all horrors) no pretty pictures...

It may be juvenile, but where is the fun in browsing through countless generic and unappealing recipes without an inspirational picture or two?"
~ Written on 2007-09-08