Avery (New York): 2024. 608 pp.

What follows is an absurdly long review, because this is a monster of a 600+ page manifesto on vegan cooking. If you want to skip the review, that’s fine, because, basically, you’re getting this book. Just run along and get it. Shoo. But if you insist on knowing the detailed reasons you are doing so, get comfortable.

Big vegan flavor isn’t really a cookbook as much as it is a treatise, assembled by Nisha Vora, creator of the Rainbow Plant Life website. Vora explains that she is is a former attorney turned ethical vegan, which explains a lot. I’m not sure anyone but a lawyer could put together something this comprehensive that anticipates any question whatsoever you might have about vegan cooking, or really, cooking in general. Also, she describes herself as “book-smart,” so…😁.

The first 147 pages are a cooking class – detailed information on layering flavors, handling ingredients, mixing textures, and setting up your kitchen. You don’t have to read all this text of course, but it really is extremely thorough and helpful. Even if you’ve been cooking for a long time, there is a new angle or a reminder you will find useful in these (many, many) pages. In addition to all that, the recipes in the book each have extensive supplemental material in the form of ingredient notes, which offer substitutions or adjustments, tips on techniques, gluten-free versions, meal combination ideas, and make ahead instructions. These are all very handy and a testament to the attention to detail that characterizes this volume.

Part II of the book is entitled The Building Block Recipes. It starts with a section on Condiments & Flavor Boosters, which includes things like dressings, sauces, pickles, and various other toppings. Yes, this section comes last in most cookbooks – but it is early in this one as it really conveys Vora’s main point: vegan food isn’t fundamentally different from other food — to the extent that food is about flavor. It’s all in what you put on it, in it, or with it. One good condiment can launch the ship of numerous different proteins, grains, and veg. I made several things from this section, but since they are always used as a complement to another recipe, I will mention them as they arise.

Except for one. The Savory Walnut Crunch. Oh. My. God. This concoction is some kind of sorcery. A magic elixir of fried breadcrumbs, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and other savory things. It calls for one teaspoon of flaky sea salt, which I knew would be too much, but I added it anyway. Good thing I did, because otherwise I would be eating this with a spoon, and it would not be pretty.

Let me reiterate, this is mic-drop good. Salt and crunch with added protein? Yes, please. It is one of those condiments that will cause you to make things just to provide a vehicle for it – pasta, beans, soup, salad, or tofu scramble (ask me how I know). My shelf will never be without a jar of this. There are a few other variations on this crunchy crumble theme included in this section, and you can be assured I will be making them all. This is definitely the “made this purchase worth it alone” recipe.

Onward to the Easy-to-Swap Proteins, which includes your beans, legumes, tofu, and tempeh. I made the Wildly Crunchy Cornmeal Beans.

These were super easy to make and had a texture you don’t normally experience from a can of beans. This is an easy choice for a last minute weeknight meal to accompany whatever leftover veg or pasta you have the refrigerator. AND it features one of the many awesome charts in the book, which allow you to customize spice and herb combinations to accommodate whatever flavor profile you are craving at the moment.

I also made the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Chicken (Super-Savory Grated Tofu). I can’t really say whether or not I believe it’s not chicken (which I haven’t had since the Clinton administration), but this was a very welcome change from the usual soy/sesame flavored tofu dish. It had a complex and interesting depth and heat from gochugaru (Korean chili flakes) and black vinegar, neither of which I had never used before. Grating tofu is easy and also adds variety to the usual tofu rotation.

(I also made the Edamame Salad with Chili Crisp. But I used store-bought chili crisp rather than making her recipe for Life-Changing Homemade Chili Crisp. Not sure what the difference would be, but whatever it is, it would have to be significant to elevate this forgettable salad to life-changing status).

Finally I made the Spiced Lentil Salad with Fresh Herbs. This was pretty much what you’d expect, despite the inclusion of cool ingredients like pomegranate molasses. But I added the Savory Walnut Crunch, so, you know, goodnight Irene.

The end of this chapter offers another fabulous chart with several combinations of recipes you can use to create Crunchy Protein & Grain Bowls by mixing a crunchy protein, a condiment, a grain, a veggie, and a “jazzy extra.” Have I mentioned I love charts like this? I don’t know why more cookbooks don’t have them.

From the next chapter, The Grains, I made the Rosemary Farrotto with Cheesy Pine Nuts. It is the height of summer here, so creamy grains with rosemary aren’t quite the vibe. But this is so good, I barely noticed. I love farro, and it is definitely underused. This will be a regular in the winter rotation for sure.

The recipes in the Everyday Veggies section are, perhaps not surprisingly, simpler than than those elsewhere in the book, as these are generally meant as side dishes or components of grain bowls. I made the Jammy Zucchini (pictured above with the crunchy beans) which promised to make me love zucchini. I have to come clean here that I could not bring myself to use three entire tablespoons of oil to cook a pound and a half of zucchini, so I halved that, but this still turned out “jammy” as the title suggests. I mean, I don’t know. It’s still zucchini, but if you have a lot from your garden, you can cook it this way, basically just melting it down in oil and garlic and salt. The end of this chapter features another helpful chart showing how several different meals during the course of the week can be built around one condiment.

Part III is entitled Wow Worthy Meals. This starts with Big-Personality Salads. (Just a moment here to appreciate the author’s sense of humor, which permeates the book. She says, “Once you know how to make magical salads, your life will be forever changed. Your food will be more fun and functional, but you’ll also be eating more vegetables, and this will make you feel (rightfully) superior to everyone else in your life.” She also adds here that her website has a guide to assembling salads without a recipe. So, the tips just keep on comin’.) I decided to make Smashed Cucumbers with Yogurt-Tahini Sauce & Spicy Honey because it appeared as part of a compilation of menus for different occasions and seasons. I love menus in cookbooks, but rarely see them anymore. Anyway, this was from the Summer Lunch with Your Besties menu. It was cool and refreshing and definitely not your usual salad.

The Yogurt-Tahini Sauce was tasty if you like tahini – I initially didn’t think it had enough acid — but look at that, right in the recipe, she says, “if you’re yogurt isn’t tangy, add more lemon juice.” I used the left over dressing as a dip for chips.

(Note: this book is very heavy on the tahini. If that is not your jam, you will find yourself skipping a lot of recipes. The author also appears to be a big fan of Aleppo pepper). This recipe called for a drizzle of the Spicy “Honey” with Candied Jalapenos from the condiments section. This is easy to make and provides a nice element of sweet/hot. The leftovers went on a pizza to good effect.

The Wow Worthy Meals chapter is rounded out with the Vegetables are the Main Event section (which I skipped because it was very oven-heavy and it’s not too hot) and a brunch section which I also skipped because I felt like I had enough of a sense of this book, but I do plan to come back to the Cheesy Herb Bread Pudding with Caramelized Leeks when we are back under 90 degrees.

From the Next Level Dinners portion of the book, I made Pasta & Chickpeas with Fried Capers & Tomato-Shallot Butter. I was excited about this, as it sounded like it would involve some kind of yummy compound butter. But as the author notes, the title is really a misnomer as it is more of a roasted tomato sauce. It tasted okay on the spoon, but kind of had a pasty texture in the finished dish.

This recipe came with a different recommended add-ons from the condiment section. Cheesy Crumbles are made of nuts and nutritional yeast and the surprise addition of olives. I didn’t like it as much as the Walnut Crunch (and it required me to use the oven, which the walnut didn’t), but it was still good, and different, and absolutely worth having around.

Also appearing here was the centerpiece of the aforementioned Summer Lunch menu, Korean BBQ Jackfruit Sandwiches with Creamy Sesame Slaw. I don’t cook with jackfruit a lot, and I should. Again, this was good and relatively easy, but in addition to making the BBQ sauce, I had to make the slaw and the dressing for the slaw. It was a nice, light summer meal, that might pleasantly surprise a curious guest or two, but to be honest it felt a lot like work.

The leftovers were really good, though, if not better. One request to cookbook authors, PLEASE include water in the list of ingredients. It is so hard to overlook when it is in the text of the recipe, and it’s just nice to have it measured out ahead of time with all the other ingredients. That said, major shout out here to Vora for giving us a heads up that different brands of jackfruit have wildly different sodium contents and instructions for what to do if we end up with one of the really salty ones. I never would have known that, or thought to look, and that could be a recipe-ruiner. I don’t often see this guide of guidance provided.

Which brings me to another aside about salt: because this book is all about learning how to layer flavors, the author includes a primer about the different kinds of salt – and this is key. Many people are unaware that salt not only comes in different textures, but, like peppers, some salt is much “saltier” than other salt. So it is an important thing to be aware of both when following her recipes (she specifies which kind of salt to use) and when learning how to cook on your own. At the same time, I found these recipes had a lot of salt overall, particularly as they often include two or three components stacked upon each other. That means a lot coming from me, as I love salt, and undersalted food actually makes me angry. Do with that information what you will.

From the dessert section, I made the Caramelized Peach Crumble. This was really tasty – particularly due to the addition of almond flour and almond extract – a flavor that I love. It is (no fault of the recipe) not great left over though, so be sure you have a crowd that can eat this shortly after it’s made.

The go-with for this was a Tahini Custard. This was a totally new one for me. I have never made a vegan custard. It was incredibly easy. But the tahini flavor had me a little confused. It made for a nice textural contrast with the crumble, and it’s lack of sweetness was appreciated. But I still have quite a bit left and am a little uninspired to use it. Major creativity points for this one though.

Its sort of hard to know where to place this book on the Booksmart Scale. On the one hand, it’s great for beginners because it has so much instructional material. On the other hand, it does call for a fair number of unusual ingredients like umeboshi paste, black vinegar, and gochugaru. The cooking techniques are not complicated, but there are a LOT of them, and I could see a beginner getting overwhelmed. But because the author offers so many options for substitutions, I think this one can safely land at Vegan Advanced Beginner.

There is so much joy and excitement about vegan food in this book. There is so much information about vegan food in this book. There is just. so. much. vegan food in this book, that, as I said twenty minutes ago when you started reading this, there really is no way you can get around adding this to your collection. Enjoy.

Postscript: I took a break from writing this review to make a fourth batch of Savory Walnut Crumble, which I am now shamelessly and flagrantly eating with a spoon.

I did not receive compensation of any kind in exchange for this review.