Vegan Cookbooks: A gift for life This season of goodwill, why not give the gift of knowledge to friends and family? And nothing beats a decent vegan cookbook when it comes to knowledge. Tony Bishop Weston, author of copious vegan cookbooks over several decades, and thus somewhat of an expert in this area, gives us the lowdown on the highs of vegan cookery books. The Perfect Gift So what’s the perfect gift for a non vegan friend for Christmas? A vegan course!
cookbook
of
It ticks every box, including the one where you get invited to dinner without the long list of questions. “Do you eat gluten?” “Is chocolate ok?” “Is it OK if I just use half an egg?” “But honey is just pollen, made by flowers not bees, bees just collect it, no?” Book Bias Of course, if you ask, I’ll just advise that the best book is ‘The Ultimate Book of Vegan Cooking’ now re-edited and reprinted as ‘Vegan Cookbook’ by Lorenz. We put a lot into that - a history of veganism, the why, how, where, when and what of veganism and a great nutrition and health section by nutritionist Yvonne 80 I Plant Powered Planet
Bishop-Weston as well as over 140 recipes. A perfect introduction to vegan food. Cookbook Consensus Full disclosure, I don’t really use recipe books apart from for cake and bread. I tend to look at the pretty pictures and sometimes I think, “oooh that’s a good idea...” So in the interest of full disclosure - ‘other vegan cookbooks not written by Tony Bishop-Weston are available’ - I turned to my twitter followers, few in number but very lovely and asked for their favourites. Bish Bash Bosh! Inevitably there were numerous people singing the praises of the “as seen on TV”, “Bestselling” , “Simply Amazing” Bosh Boys Books. Henry Firth says The Big BOSH! Wellington Roast, a great Christmas favourite, is a firm favourite with their massive fanbase. Ian Theasby,
Henry’s other half says The Ultimate Chilli is a definite crowd pleaser. As a vegan chef for over 27 years it took all my sparse social skills to suppress the “I was cooking that before you were potty trained!!!” thoughts and begrudgingly admit that the BOSH! vegan scheese and onion crisps are an absolute game changer. (Not sure if they have a recipe for them but you can buy them in the shops in massive yellow packets) Without any sense of irony, empathy or sensitivity even my neighbour proudly
