Cookbook Review: Power Plates by Gena Hamshaw

Blogger Gena Hamshaw's Power Plates is a beautiful vegan cookbook.  It contains 100 healthy vegan recipes, all of which are accompanied by lovely photographs.  Like all of Ten Speed Press' books, it is beautifully well-designed, with clear layouts and instructions.  And like pretty much any vegan or vegetarian cookbook I've encountered, it starts with a longish section about common ingredients and techniques.  I guess every vegan/vegetarian cookbook writer is hoping their book is the first and only one of its kind the reader has ever owned?  Power Plates is set apart from other vegan cookbooks I've seen because while its focus is on balanced proteins, which is suggested by the title, which I'm not super enamored of, as it makes it sound like a diet book.  Hamshaw explains macronutrients (basically complete proteins?) and how to get them by combining different types of ingredients.  Each of her recipes does this for you, but she also explains the principle so the reader can it apply to meals not made out of this cookbook.  The recipes all sound tasty, and photos are beautiful.  I really like the combination of flavors and dishes from all over the world she includes here.  For breakfast, you can make Steel-Cut Oats with a variety of suggested toppings (I love the pictured toppings of dried apricots and pistachios--yum), or kitchari, a rice and lentil dish.  The flavor combinations are sophisticated and complex, but not scary or difficult.  Beluga Lentils and Tomatoes with Tempeh Bacon and Turmeric Mustard Vinaigrette! Curried Tomato Stew with Chickpea Dumplings! Sweet Potato Falafel Bowls with Freekeh Pilaf and Roasted Cauliflower!  Almost every dish sounds and looks mouth-watering.