Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The Sarno brothers, cofounders of the Wicked Healthy website (which advocates an "80% healthy, 20% wicked" diet), along with veteran cookbook author Joachim, emphatically tell readers to eat their vegetables. The book jacket features a chef's apron and cleaver stained not with blood, but with beet juice. A good portion of the collection are hearty dishes in which vegetables play the part of animal proteins, and only five of the 129 recipes are salads. Examples include sloppy barbecue jackfruit sliders; New England lobster rolls made with "dense and meaty" lobster mushrooms; and seven different types of plant bacon created by marinating tofu, eggplant, or even rice paper in a questionable mix of soy sauce, maple syrup, sriracha and liquid smoke. Among the desserts detailed is a lemon cheesecake made with cashew cream and coconut butter. Happily, ingredient substitutions do not extend to the pasta in pasta dishes, which, for dishes such as porcini ravioli with garlic butter and sorrel, use actual durum wheat pasta and plant-based butter. The liveliest chapter, "Straight-Up Vegetables," boasts a rainbow of colors, captured by photographer Eva Kosmas Flores, in a spectrum of vibrant dishes like grilled purple cabbage, and painted Dijon potatoes, which employs a paint brush to top red potatoes with strokes of mustard. This varied assortment will appeal mostly to herbivores wishing to comfort their inner carnivore. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The Sarno brothers, Chad and Derek, who both work in the food industry and cofounded wickedhealthyfood.com, along with coauthor David Joachim (The Food Substitute Bible), share their motto of 80 percent healthy living and 20 percent wicked, with their new vegan cookbook aiming to help readers attain that goal. Recipes for first bites, bowls, comfort food, sauces, and cocktails use plant-based ingredients and list essential pantry items. An appendix lists recipes and ingredients for special diets including gluten-free and nut-free. The recipes are unique, such as mayonnaise made from the liquid within a can of chickpeas, along with mustard powder, olive oil, and salt. Badass Sriracha contains chiles, garlic, coconut sugar, salt, and white vinegar. A sandwich is named Kickass Plant-Based Reuben with the bread a seitan of wheat gluten, chickpea flour, and red beets. Some readers may be bothered by the coarse language throughout. Verdict Suitable for large public and academic libraries with extensive vegan collections.-Christine E. Bulson, Emeritus, Milne Lib., SUNY Oneonta © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
