New Vegan – With Other Dietary Restrictions PLEASE HELP!
Hello
This is my first post.
I have always been a big meat and cheese eater, but for a specific health reason I knew I had to make some changes. I have also felt guilty about eating animals, but tried not to think about it whilst doing so!
It has taken me three years to slowly wean off meat and cheese, but I have finally done it and am now committing to a fully vegan diet and lifestyle.
I also need to avoid wheat and gluten – so that rules out bread, crackers and vegan pasta.
And I really dislike soy / tofu and plan to avoid it. Having said that, yesterday I tried some soy duck in a vegan restaurant and absolutely loved it.
I have been trying to find a vegan cookbook that covers my dietary needs, but most of them seem very heavy handed with the use of soy based products.
The other problem is finding the books in the first place. I am in Australia and last week I went into Boarders bookshop. For those who don’t know the name, it is one of the biggest book stores in Australia. They had literally thousands of books on cooking with meat and dairy. A very small section on vegetarian foods. And literally one book for vegan cooking. One vegan book in the whole store.
I have heard there is a book called something along the lines of Vegancon that came out a few years ago. I can’t quite remember the name. Someone said it was excellent except you had to translate all the American measurements in Australian, which was a bit of a pain, but they still highly recommended it. Trouble is, I can’t track it down as I obviously have the name wrong
If anyone can suggest some good vegan cookbooks that don’t rely on soy/tofu, I would very much appreciate it.
Please also bear in mind that I am a new vegan and so therefore new to vegan cooking, so nothing too complicated. I know I can source many recipes on this website, but I would like some books for the shelf.
Thank you for any help
hi and welcome! The book you're trying to remember the name for is Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.
It is a good book and lots of people here reall rave about it, but for me it's not the best book in the world and I think that there are quite a few tofu/gluten/soy based recipes, although you may be able to adapt them. Also, like you said it is and American book. When I was in the UK, I never used the book as I couldn't find loads of the ingredients....interestingly I've managed to find them since moving to New Zealand.
Have you tried your local library? I was surprised the our local library here in Wellington had a huge range of vegan cook books. If you do want to buy some then Borders may be able to order them in or this website does free worldwide shipping (and they're pretty cheap): www.bookdepository.com
Otherwise have a look at Amazon and their 'look inside' feature. You can see a list of the contents to see if you'd like them.
But there are also tons of great recipes on the internet and so you may not need to buy books just yet.
Vegweb is obviously great for recipes, plus there heaps of good blogs (e.g. fatfreevegan, vegan dad) - you may just need to sift through to find recipes to suit you.
I have also found Vegetarian Times to be a good for vegan recipes: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/search_recipes/?keywords=&vegan=on/ Again you'll need to have a search through.
I can't really help you with specific soy/gluten free I'm afraid, but hopefully I've given you a few things to think of.
Hey, welcome! :D
If you dislike tofu but liked soy duck, maybe you'll like fake meats and meat substitutes. They don't tend to have tofu's "mushiness" and are often very well-seasoned. They're also really good for giving you protein, iron, etc., despite the fact that some dislike that they're often very processed.
1000 Vegan Recipes has a huge variety of things to try, a large percentage of which do not have soy. They have desserts, sauces and dressings, salads, entrees... the works. The only issue I have with this cookbook is that its main dishes occasionally err on the side of simple; I like things really well-seasoned, so I often have to add more than is suggested. The baking is fantastic though; the brownies are the most delicious thing on the freakin' planet!
Also, as for wheat and gluten-free things, those are pretty easy to find too. For a grain instead of rice, try quinoa - it's a nutritional powerhouse, and IMO is really tasty. Gluten-free bread is also not terribly hard to find; have you tried spelt flour? And as for pasta, I know that those exist in gluten-free varieties too. I've even seen 'pasta' made from thin slices of zucchini, it was actually really yummy.
Good luck! ^^
Just want to say hello and welcome to VegWeb.....all the best in your vegan journey!
We have a Borders here and they have a lot of vegan cookbooks. That's too bad about the Border's there. I agree with the above advice, your best best would be online resources.
I also have to avoid gluten because I have celiac disease. I cook with tempeh and black beans alot. There are plenty of recipes in "The Gluten-Free Vegan" cookbook you might like and The Veganomicon also has a lot of tempeh and tofu-less recipes. Of course, there's always google search engine. Good luck!
i don't think being gluten free and a vegan is hard at all... in terms of the soy/tofu thing, that's also easy to avoid, but if you liked it the other day you probably just need to find ways to prep it that you like.
Vegan Yum Yum, Vegan with a Vengeance (same author as Veganomicon), Vegan Planet, Sarah Kramer's 3 books The Garden of Vegan, How it all Vegan, and La Dolce Vegan are what I used when I first became vegan. I know that many of the vegan cookbooks I have used or owned had guides to help find many substitutes for various ingredients, including soy, flour, eggs, tofu, etc. I think 4-ingredient Vegan is supposed to be good, too. When cooking try to sub things you like or can eat that act the same in that recipe. Recipes can be tweaked to liking, so once you figure out what substitutes you prefer, any recipe can be modified as desired.
Good luck and welcome!!! ;)b
How fun...you have opened yourself to an entirely new world of taste :) Try the Flying Apron Cookbook. It's vegan & gluten free and it avoids soy as well.
Best of luck!
Steffi