Canada: Appetite by Random House, 2017. 222pp.

First, my apologies for not having more photos in this review. I just failed to take them. And the ones I did take aren’t that great. Goals. But I don’t want my recalcitrance to keep you from considering this nifty volume!

Fuss-Free Vegan, like the cover photo, just has a nice disposition. The graphics are fun and easy to read. The photos are realistic and not over-styled. It’s a large paperback, stays open nicely, and has a lot of white space, which makes it gentle on the eyes and generally very approachable. Booksmart gives it an unequivocal Vegan Beginner rating. The recipes and ingredients are very simple – in fact for most of them, you likely already have what you need on hand. This is the perfect book if you have a teenager who has just decided to go vegan and you are at a loss. The recipes here aren’t going to win any James Beard awards for wow factor (they aren’t meant to), but they are straightforward and, for the most part, tasty.

The author’s personality really comes through here – beginning with the story of how she – and I suspect many of us – became vegan. She learned about what happens to animals in the food production industry and just couldn’t do it anymore. But she didn’t initially want to be vegan. At all. That she has now become a professional at it should be encouragement to anyone who is still on the fence! She wants to be vegan with out being vegany, which is what makes this such a great place to start. As she says, “Why did I have to become all sprouts and kale just because I was vegan?” This book is an effort to make vegan food feel familiar without feeling fake.

Fuss-Free Vegan is broken down into Morning Munchies, Get the Party Started, Soups & Salads, Burgers & Sandwiches, Feast Your Eyes (& Belly), Sweet Tooth, and Vegan Staples. Of course, because I am here to serve, Vegan Booksmart has sampled recipes from all of them.

Morning Munchies brings us Extra-Bananay-Banana Bread which is easy and yummy, and of course makes the house smell nice while baking. Same goes for Blueberry Bliss Muffins.

Nothing says lovin’ like surprising someone with fresh muffins made in minutes with ingredients you already had. There is also a good basic recipe for a tofu scramble. Tofu scramble is another one of those things Booksmart is always blathering on about – please don’t try this thinking it is going to taste like eggs. It doesn’t. It tastes like tofu scramble. But that can be a good thing if taken on its own terms. It took me a long time to get on board with tofu scramble myself, and I had to come back to it a few times. It’s okay. The Overnight Cinnamon Bun French Toast sounded and looked so good, but it wasn’t a hit. Sadly, it ended up “in the bin,” as they say on the Great British Baking Show.

This chapter also features Insanely Good Rice Paper Bacon, which is a fairly recent vegan fad. I find it to be a bit more trouble than it’s worth given the good fake bacon available at the store, but this is a good recipe if you want to dabble.

The Party section has a fun recipe for Pizza Dough Pretzel Bites, seen here in the boiling phase.

You will really impress the kids if you show up Xbox-side with a bowl of piping hot pretzels, so why not? The Spinach and Artichoke Dip didn’t work for me because I didn’t take my own advice and expected it to taste like the real-cheese kind. I might try it again in the future.

The All Hail Caesar Salad is a “do,” although the croutons need more bread and/or less oil salt. And, if you are a fan of a creamy soup, the Absurdly Cheesy Broccoli Soup, which gets its creaminess from potatoes and cashews, will scratch that itch.

My foray into Feast Your Eyes (& Belly) took me to 15-Minute Peanut Noodles. I wrote “blech” in the margin, although in all honesty now, I don’t remember why. But don’t let that dissuade you from other gems in this chapter like Crispy Coconut Cauliflower Tacos. Now that’s the kind of change-of-pace I love, and it still requires only a few minutes and few ingredients. Although I’m personally not a huge fan of the taco salad, the Big Burrito Bowl has made its way into the regular rotation here. I have also made many a batch of the ranch dressing just to eat with veg. The Scrumptious Sun-Dried Tomato & Walnut Bean Balls are perfectly serviceable, especially if, for some reason, you don’t want to buy a bag of meatless meatballs from Trader Joes.

Finally, the sweets! The Instant Vanilla Ice Cream, made with coconut milk, is good, but really better when it’s first made, so make it for a crowd rather than yourself. (You have Ben & Jerry’s plant-based Seven Layer Bar for that.) The same is true for the Instant Fruit Ice Cream version, which I made with strawberries. The Fudgy Double Chocolate Brownies are VERY fudgy in consistency and when removed from the oven kind of look crisp at the middle and raw in the center.

At first I balked at the direction to chill them overnight before eating – because brownies are only made in a brownie-requiring crisis, right? But all was well. They were just fine out of the pan.

The Vegan Staples section at the end features a number of what I would consider new standbys you will see in a lot in vegan recipes from the last five years or so, like coconut whipped cream and the aforementioned cashew cheese. If you’ve never tried coconut whipped cream, definitely do.

But wait. There’s MORE. Sam Turnbull also has a website, itdoesnttastelikechicken.com, where there are scads more recipes of the same ilk. — many, I would argue, better than those in the book. I am ordering you to go to the site and get the recipe for Lasagna Soup. https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/the-best-vegan-lasagna-soup/ I make this at least once every couple of weeks in the winter. It is mind-boggingly good for how easy and quick it is. Hers calls for tofu, which works, but substitute Beyond Beef, and it’s just a home run. The Split Pea Soup with Smoky Tofu Ham is also excellent. https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/easy-vegan-split-pea-soup-with-smoky-tofu-ham/

Overall this is a very approachable book, which you will find yourself turning to repeatedly for simple, please-everybody, weeknight vegan fare. It and the website should be in your rotation if you are vegan or love one, particularly if you are short on time and or/cooking experience.

Note: I did not receive any compensation for products or links mentioned in this post.