I didn’t realize that the Love & Lemons Cookbook wasn’t a vegan cookbook when I agreed to review it. It turned out to be a happy mistake. This is the most vegan-forward vegetarian cookbook that I’m aware of, with recipes for tofu ricotta, sunflower cheese, and cashew cream, and a vegan option for nearly every entry.
And also, this book is beautiful. From the cover design to the photography, the fonts (or typefaces, whatever) to the recipe layout. Mwah. Perfect. I must say I was especially impressed by the food styling: Not a dog hair, a wilted green, or a dried up pasta sauce in sight.
The impeccable design is high-end magazine-quality, inspiring readers to get off their buns and actually go to their farmers markets, buy all the fresh produce, AND eat it. Farmers, take note. You may want to start selling copies at your stands. It’d be good for business.
To get to the veggie-meat of the matter: All of the recipes I tried were home runs. Strawberry salad with toasted hazelnuts, complete with paper-thin radishes and wheatberries; this will most definitely be my go-to salad all summer long. Coconut rice with Brussels sprouts, topped with basil and mint and sprinkled with sesame seeds–a-mazing. Carrot-ginger grain bowl with sriracha-infused, baked tofu cubes; it was Goldilocks-just-right. Vegan tart cherry french toast. Vegan tart cherry french toast. Kinda says it all.
Thank you to Jeanine Donofrio for this brilliant labor of love (and lemons, I must assume).
We’re asking U.S. residents only (sorry, world) to tell us in the comments section of this Vegansaurus.com blog post (not on Facebook): where is your favorite farmers market? Non-residents can comment too (who are we to stifle your excitement?) but are not eligible for the giveaway. Contest ends May 31st. GO!
Alright, superfood health nerds, listen up: This is the book for you. Every recipe has like a gazillion superfoods in it! Just reading this sucker and contemplating which recipes to make first made me feel healthy and energized. And the photos and design are A+. Everybody loves a pretty cookbook.
What’s more, Jason Wrobel knows what he’s doing. A trained celebrity chef, former Cooking Channel cooking show host (!), and YouTube star, Wrobel has been around the [tofu] block a few times. He walks you through what foods you might want to reach for depending on how you’re feeling or what your body needs, with the recipes organized into chapters on sex, sleep, happiness, and more. Guess where Cheesy Cauliflower “Popcorn” fits in? Recipes for Detox! Who knew? Turns out cauliflower contains phytochemicals that break down into cancer-fighting compounds during digestion. Nice! I love this recipe, and my body does too, apparently.
I also made these somewhat off-beat falafels with a lime and avocado sauce. The sauce didn’t really hit the mark for me, but the falafels were not bad – and so easy to whip up. I very much appreciate an easy dinner. I’m so naughty though, I swapped out this recipe’s featured superfood (quinoa) for brown rice, just because I had some lying around. I did keep the chickpeas, however, which Wrobel tells us have plenty of manganese to protect our mitochondria and red blood cells. So GET OFF MY BACK, mitochondria and red blood cells. 🙂 :-*
The next dish I made was nom, nom, nom, and I will make it again. Spaghetti Squash Primavera! Would you believe that this was my first time making spaghetti squash? It was way fun to shred up the squash with a fork. I loved the broccoli and oyster mushrooms in this recipe. Oh, and if you were holding your breath for the superfood deets on this one – the featured player is the squash. It’s got beta-carotene, and you know what that’s for. Eyeballs, dudes!
That’s all I’ve had so far. Here’s what I’m looking forward to trying next:
Spicy Tortilla Soup
Butternut Squash Mac N’ Cheese
Summer Nectarine Salad
Figtacular No-Gluten Newtons
Rockin’ Red Smoothie
& more!
Full Disclosure: I was sent this cookbook free from the publishing company for review, however, all of the opinions stated above are my own.
Q&A with Jason Wrobel
Eaternity told me all about Jason’s childhood, how he became interested in food and health, and some of his impressive accomplishments, but I still had a few questions. Let’s get to know this Jason Wrobel character a bit more:
RP: Eaternity is a super book–it is absolutely packed with useful information and recipes. It must have taken so much time and effort! What advice would you give your past-self before embarking on the book-writing journey?
JW: I would tell my past self to be really, really patient and have faith with the process. From the start of my book proposal to handing in the final manuscript, it took over two and a half years. Consistent, daily effort and taking it one paragraph at a time is pretty important. Pace and space, baby.
RP: I know you’re super-knowledgeable about superfoods. Is there a superfood you eat every day, without fail?
JW: I have a “holy trinity” of daily superfoods that I put into my morning smoothie everyday. Raw hemp seeds, chia seeds and goji berries are three of the most nutritionally-dense superfoods out there. I like to focus on getting as much nutrition into each meal as possible, and superfoods are a great way to accomplish that.
RP: When it comes to nutrition and food supplements, it can be hard to find trustworthy sources of information. Where do you go to read up on a food or supplement that’s new to you?
JW: My top websites for nutrition information or supplementation are NutritionFacts.org, NaturalNews.com and MindBodyGreen.com. Tons of great information and well-researched articles on all three sites.
RP: What is a healthy habit of yours that you’re pretty sure you’ll never break?
JW: I’ve been practicing daily meditation since 2012 and it’s been invaluable in terms of my emotional balance, mental clarity and ability to deal with stress. Before I start my workday, it’s a foundational part of my morning routine.
RP: We’re always learning and growing, wouldn’t you say? What’s a healthy habit that you’re working on developing right now?
JW: I’m working on staying motivated to work out in some form everyday, whether its weight training, hiking, jump roping or just daily walks. It’s my #1 challenge with such a busy schedule as an entrepreneur. When I’m on top of my fitness game, though, I feel amazing!
RP: You’re already a pro at cooking for a crowd. Do you think you’d ever open an Eaternity restaurant?
JW: It’s honestly a hard sell for me. Having worked in the restaurant business right out of culinary school, I’ve seen the ins and outs of the business. In particular, the amount of capital you need to run a restaurant and the amount of stress the owners/chefs go through. I have no real desire to open a restaurant. I much prefer to focus on healthy food media to reach millions of people through videos, TV shows, books, podcasts and online courses.
RP: What’s a message about nutrition you wish everyone could hear?
JW: Get clear about what your body really needs. It’s invaluable to invest in a blood panel test, which your doctor can do for you. It shows you exactly what’s going on with your nutrient levels so you can accurately determine what your current needs are. The second thing I’d tell people is to be willing to experiment with new foods and supplements until you find what works for YOUR body.
RP: If you do live to 100 or 120 or 150 (!), what do you want to do with your extra decades of life?
JW: I’d like to launch a children’s series at some point and bring messages of compassion, acceptance, love and health to kids. I also would love to finally record my solo album. Oh, and learn how to base jump. And take up rock climbing. And be a dapperly dressed older man. With bowties and really nice suits.
RP: Anything else you want to tell Vegansaurus readers?
JW: Eat your veggies (duh) but really make time for exercise every day, focus on cultivating healthy relationships with people who raise you up and trust the Universe. It’s on your side no matter what. I’ve been through hell and back so many times I stopped counting… and can’t deny the power of trusting that all is well. Nourishment comes in many forms–food, thoughts, beliefs, relationships, impressions–so focus on the healthy ones and let what doesn’t serve you go.
I think it’s nice when a cookbook author doesn’t exclude themselves from their writing. I don’t know Kerstin Rodgers and I hadn’t heard of her before getting V is for Vegan, but I can say with a substantial amount of confidence that no one else could have written this book. In her recipe headnotes, you learn that she’s an amazing organizer and director, heading up supper clubs and feeding hundreds of people at music festivals. She’s traveled the world and generously shares her souvenir-like memories, observations, lessons within the pages of this bright pink and yellow book. She shares some pretty great recipes too, gyoza and crumpets among them!
I have to say it, a lot of these recipes seem pretty twee to me. Gold-dusted pineapple flowers. Maybe at some point in my life making those will feel appropriate, but probably not more than once or twice. This isn’t an everyday cookbook, but the beautiful magazine-spread photos and whimsical layout make some of the more esoteric recipes worth reading and contemplating. Oh, to imagine a life in which we have time to step out to our backyard English gardens to gather a few edible flowers for tonight’s fresh flower and herb pasta or a towering, layered, 18th-century-style salad. I mean it–it really is nice to dream about.
That said, the gyoza and crumpets I mentioned earlier were totally doable and wonderful. I had been wanting to make gyoza for a few years, but I was intimidated about the prospect of making my own dough (all the recipes I’ve seen for vegan gyoza call for store-bought vegan dumpling wrappers, but every ingredient list I’ve ever checked has included egg!).
Combined with some independent research on making dough and dumpling folding techniques, this recipe has been categorized ‘keeper’ in my book, i.e., I want to make them every day from today until forever because they are so delicious and I want to eat them all the time.
And the crumpets! How fun. I can’t wait to make them again and perfect the process. They were chewy and amazing and reminded me of that German Apple Pancake/Dutch Baby fluffy but eggy texture I had been craving from my pre-vegan epoch.* I used to Google every now and then for a vegan German Apple Pancake recipe, but no more Googling for this problem will I do!
I had to get crumpet rings to cook these puppies in on the stovetop, but to me, four 99-cent round cookie cutters work sooo much better than crumpet rings (j/k, I’ve never used a crumpet ring – AND I NEVER WILL!). Back to the book though, I’ve learned to be a little skeptical of Rodgers’ recipe directions, to trust my gut about what heat or amount of cooking time will work best, because she said medium-high, and that was NOT RIGHT!
I also made a basil-quinoa-hazelnut-eggplant concoction that was nice, but I probably wouldn’t make it again. I have enough go-to, easy-peasy dishes in rotation already, and this one didn’t offer enough give any of them the boot.
I’m looking forward to making: Vegan Malt Loaf, Scrambled Tofu on Truffled Sourdough Bruschetta, Ramen Hacks, Spectacular Russian Stuffed Cabbage Rose, and, gosh darn it, maybe I will make that 18th-century salad.
*I looked up the word ‘epoch,’ and you can actually use it in reference to a person’s life, isn’t that cool? [Ed. note: yes, yes it is.]
**I also looked up whether or not the asterisk should go before or after the period, and it turns out asterisks go before a dash but after all other punctuation! YLSNED! (You learn something new every day!)
***Also looked up the difference between acronyms and initialism. I know I’m misusing asterisks right now. I’m sorry about that.
Full Disclosure: I was sent this cookbook free from the publishing company for review, however, all of the opinions stated above are my own.
