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.  

Review: Street Vegan by Adam Sobel

This is the first cookbook from Adam Sobel, owner of the New York City vegan food truck Cinnamon Snail.  I've never had the pleasure of eating any of his food, and this book really makes me  want to fly out to NYC and try it out!  This is a very well-designed paperback original cookbook.  Most of the recipes are accompanied by full-color photographs, and the graphic design is lively and clear.  The recipes themselves sound scrumptious.  Even though I'm not vegan (although I am vegetarian), I have this weird obsession with vegan food and especially vegan cookbooks, so I've read a ton of them.  This is probably the most innovative vegan cookbook I've come across.  But although the recipes are interesting and smart, they're not pretentious or overly complicated, not surprising given that they come from a food truck!  The recipes therefore hit a vegan sweet spot!  The food is also diverse and yummy-sounding.  I'm dying to try recipes like Chimichurri Tempeh Empanadas with Mint Onion Relish, Fresh Fig Arnold Palmers, Gooey Salted-Caramel Pecan Turtle Bars, Tequila Lime Tostones, Truffled Potato and Fried Onion Pierogies with Horseradish Mustard Cream, and Peking Seitan Bao Buns.  This is a fun book with interesting and innovative, yet accessible recipes.

(I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Blogging for Books.)