Dreena's Kind Kitchen: 100 Whole-Foods Vegan Recipes to Enjoy Every Day by Dreena Burton
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Web ID: 14789475Vegan cooking How-to and recipes
This is more than a regular vegan cookbook, Dreena Burton spend a lot of time early on explaining the background to vegan living--ingredients, how to prepare them, how to chop and store, from the store to your own kitchen counter. There is a helpful FAQ as well, before you get into the recipes themselves. There were a number of recipes I would like to try, but some that didn't appeal as much. However, if you're vegan or wanting to go vegan for the kindness to animals or for the health, this is a nice introductory book to help you get there.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
A good start for new vegans
For over two decades, Dreena Burton has been creating and sharing her vegan recipes with the world. Once a strange fad, veganism and vegetarianism has become more mainstream, meaning that more people are choosing to adopt the lifestyle, or at least dabble in it. Unfortunately, as veganism has grown in popularity, so has the prominence of highly-processed vegan foods in the supermarket. Kind of defeats the purpose of veganism and vegetarianism a bit, don't you think? Her most recent book, Dreena's Kind Kitchen: 100 Whole-Foods Vegan Recipes to Enjoy Every Day is a welcome contrast to the highly-processed vegan/vegetarian foods that have become so ubiquitous on the stock market and in supermarkets over the last few years. In the early pages of the book, Dreena focuses on explaining how to source, clean, prepare, and store her whole-food ingredients, as well as explaining why a laundry list of substitutions may or may not work. Much of this information may be redundant for people who have long prepared meals that are veggie- or whole-food centric, but it's a great guide for those who are transitioning to a more veggie- or whole-food centric diet or those who are just starting to become responsible for their own meals. The handful of recipes that I've tried have been very easy to follow along with and the photographs of the recipes are quite enticing. In addition to the substitution information in the front of the book, Dreena offers plenty of substitution options in the recipes, when appropriate. And although I'm sure some people may have trouble sourcing some of the ingredients, I have had no trouble finding them in the suburbs of a mid-size east coast American city. My only (teeny, tiny) gripe is that some of the names of the recipes are a bit contrived and saccharine. But if that's the only thing I have to complain about, I'd say it's still a darn good book! Prior to the pandemic I maintained a fairly healthy, omnivorous diet, but since 2020 my food choices have definitely fallen down a slippery slope. I have made a concerted effort over the last few weeks to start placing veggies, grains, legumes, nuts, and other whole-foods in a more prominent role in my diet again, so this book came along at just the right time for me. I can definitely see myself incorporating several of Dreena's Kind Kitchen's recipes into my regular rotation.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Eh
This one just really wasn't for me. The recipes were very blah, and honestly I could find most of these recipes, but possibly better on vegan blogs. Thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
My favorite vegan cook - get all the books
The combinations for sauces and grains are always excellent, and often unique. Most of my cooking is from her books. She adds notes about substitutes that are also very helpful.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
I love the healthy choices
This is a beautiful book with many recipes I expect to become family favorites. I liked the book so much that I ordered a hard copy for my cookbook library after reviewing and electronic copy! Thank you to BenBella Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Whole-Food Plant-Based Cookbook
Dreena’s Kind Kitchen by Dreena Burton 100+ Whole-Foods Vegan Recipes to Enjoy Every Day Always on the lookout for new vegan recipes, this book caught my eye. I had hopes that the recipes would be basic, have readily available ingredients and nutritional information and calorie counts. Sadly, that was not true for me. That said, this is a beautiful book with recipes that no doubt can be easily made where the ingredients can be found. What I liked: * The introduction * Information about ingredients * FAQs on ingredient substitution and ways to sauté without oil * How to wash and store produce * The author information/history * Gorgeous photographs * Familiar foods/recipes * New recipe ideas * Tasty looking baked goods – sweet and savory * Recipe suggestions for picnics, holiday menus and which recipes freeze well * Bean and Grain cooking time charts * Metric Conversion information * Excellent index What I didn’t like: * Nutritional information and calorie counts not provided – for someone watching those it would be helpful * Knowing that some of the ingredients are not available where I live (small village in Lebanon) or would be prohibitively expensive. Did I enjoy this book? Yes Would I read other books by this author? Probably NOTE: This is a book I can see buying as a gift for a vegan family Thank you to NetGalley and BenBella Books for the ARC – This is my honest review. 4-5 Stars
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Plant based Cooking
This cookbook contains 100 vegan recipes. Most are healthy, all are free of animal products I appreciate the variety of recipes and color photos are the food. This is a good choice for those looking for plant based eating. Lots of cooking tips included. I received a copy of this book from Net Galley for my unbiased review.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
A good inspiration for vegan cooking
Dreena’s Kind kitchen was a good inspiration for vegan cooking. My favorite thing about the book: The substitutions and explanations. While many recipes contained ingredients I couldn’t find in my small Spanish town (see below) most recipes included helpful substitutions, explanations on why ingredients were important, and additional tips and tricks. This makes is a much more user friendly read for the average cook working with what they have. I wish EVERY cookbook did this. Our favorite recipes: The Novio loved the A-Game chili. I loved that it got my meat forward partner to eat a veggie packed meal and ask for seconds and thirds. My favorite recipe was what-amole, which taught me some wonderful tips and tricks to make guac a meal and stretch those expensive avocados to feed a crowd. Baby Duck (3yrs old) loved that this cookbook had me cooking a lot of roasted sweet potatoes which they could eat like candy. What I didn’t love: A lot of these recipes called for ingredients that simply aren’t available in my area. I live in a small ish Spanish town and, while we have several specialty food stores, there were still ingredients I wasn’t able to get my hands on. Could I have ordered them online? Yes. Do I usually plan that far ahead? No. I also found, for my personal taste, that many of the recipes needed about twice the spice, salt, and fat content that they called for. While its easy to double the amount of seasoning, following the recipe often left me feeling a bit ‘this is tasty but needs a little more…’ Who I would recommend this book for: Honestly? The Spanish would probably love a vegan cookbook like this. The Novio and my friends and relatives here often favor blander food. It was a good way to get him to eat more veg. It would also be great for someone in a slightly more cosmopolitan area who would be able to get their hands on ingredients that I simply couldn’t find, like molasses, cashew butter, or date syrup.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com