Jordan Riley (1)

A few disclaimers first. I am not a vegan. From time to time I chose a vegetarian meal, but that is far as it goes. I am not pinching my pennies or concerned with the cost of food. That is not to say I am wealthy. I am just not always looking for the most economical recipe. Since Riley mentions writing this book for those audiences (vegan and frugal), I am reviewing this book from a completely different perspective. I want my food to taste good. Period. While the internet is crawling with show more free recipes I was curious about what The Vegan Snack Cookbook could do for me. Let's start with the beginning. The cover is delicious. Pun totally intended.
Confessional. Here are my headscratchers: recipes are snacks intended for four people. That surprised me until Riley acknowledged that makes this cookbook different from most snack-based cookbooks. I think Riley could have done away with the history of veganism. Chances are, if someone is interested in a vegan snack cookbook, they already know what it means to be vegan. That is something that should come as an insert with the mailing and not take away from the length of the actual cookbook. The Vegan Snack Cookbook is short enough as it is. Same with the repetitiveness of the promises of what The Snack Cookbook will deliver. Riley literally says the same thing twice within a few pages. One last criticism - troubleshooting. How do I know what the original recipe tastes like to determine that my version does or doesn't come close? I appreciate the pictures so I can make visual comparisons, but the success of the snack is not determined by how it looks on a plate. As I said in the very beginning, I want my food to taste good.
I did appreciate the section on leftovers. I am constantly trying to figure out what to do with them. I also thought the list of vegan essentials was critical. Having said all that, the recipes (finally) start on page 40. After perusing all the recipes I think they all sound wonderful, but I wished they were grouped a little differently. for example, why not put al the nut snacks together? The veggies snacks and dips in one chapter would be nice. Same with beverages.
The total headscratcher was the section on cooking and mental health with references. Why not lead with that information and make the cookbook even more unique? show less

Sadly, I found this book very disappointing. It read as if it was just thrown together with sections from other efforts. It needed a serious editor. There were typos everywhere, most jarringly within the recipes themselves making the recipes—the whole point of a cookbook—confusing. Some of the recipes were pointless: Who needs a recipe to put peanut butter and raisins on a celery stick? And many recipes contained ingredients that wouldn't make them a convenient snack. The table of show more contents doesn't show up until almost half way through the book. Then there was the back info with author after author whose names aren't on the cover. But I might have forgiven the rest of the book's strangeness if the recipes were great, but they weren't, and they were full of errors. show less

This book is rather strange. There is a copyright notice that does not name the copyright holder(s). In the paragraph after the notice, it proclaims the author and publisher to be the copyright holders. Note: Author is singular. The following prohibition appears in the next paragraph: “You cannot amend, distribute, sell, use, quote, or paraphrase any part, or the content within this book, without the consent of the author or publisher.” Not being able to quote or paraphrase any part or show more content of the book makes it hard to review. Not being able to use the content makes it hard to follow the recipes. Furthermore, the last section listed in the table of contents begins on page 123. But the book goes on after that section, for twenty-two more pages, to include biographical information as well as a section on mental health by a different author.

As for the content, the first thirty or so pages are about veganism, leftovers, and other common knowledge. This material might be helpful to someone who’s never had to cook for themselves. The six-page list of food items called “essentials” seems to be a waste of space. If one were to buy all of these “essentials” we would soon have a refrigerator full of rotting vegetable matter. Clearly, some items are more essential than others. I would suggest moving the much shorter lists of staples from the end to the beginning of the essentials list.

A lot of these recipes look and sound delicious. However, if the book is for an audience that needs to know how to store leftovers, that same audience will need more guidance and explanation when it comes to following the recipes. For an example selected at random, the recipe for almond flour muffins (p. 42) calls for one “flax egg” in the list of ingredients. But the first step of the recipe calls for 1 tbsp of flax meal and three tbsp of water. In other words, the first step is to make one of the ingredients. The new cook needs to know this. For another example, the Mediterranean Pinwheel (p. 53) calls for 1 tsp nigella seeds. Since this is not a common ingredient and it’s not listed as an “essential,” some explanation would help immensely. In the same recipe, one ingredient is thick pizza sauce. The instructions tell us to put it in a colander and press with a spoon to remove the excess liquid. I think if one were to do that, there would be no pizza sauce at all. And the photograph seems to confirm this, since there is not a trace of red in the final product. On page 89, why is the preparation time for the falafel 105 minutes, when all we do is dump the ingredients into a processor (or coffee grinder?? yech)?

In short, I would say that (1) the assortment of snacks and snack ideas look great. (2) The photographs explain much better than the text does. (3) The recipes are probably an excellent starting point for an experienced cook, but the beginner will need much more help than the author provides. (4) There is far too much useless information before and after the recipe collection, and not enough information where it is needed. (5) Many of these snacks take as long to prepare as a full meal. show less

I have a bunch of other vegan cookbooks, but a lot of the time they're short on snack/quick options, especially if you don't want to make a giant pot of something. Much as I like making vegan enchiladas or curry or whatnot, I don't always have 2-3 hours to make a complicated recipe. If it was just me I could throw bratwurst on the grill or bake pork chops or something, but my wife's medical condition rules out those as options for her, so I need the vegan cookbooks to provide other ideas. show more Plus vegan food generally is going to be healthier than non-vegan food unless you only eat sweet potatoes fried in olive oil or something, and that doesn't hurt when you're trying to lose some weight like I am.

The actual recipes look fine and I expect I'll make a bunch of them (the cream cheese pinwheel idea looks particularly promising if fall and winter ever remember to happen), plus the lists of different ingredients can help the reader understand that vegan recipes aren't just rabbit food salads with vinaigrette dressing. The other text in the book can get a little woo, particularly and unsurprisingly around the idea of animal cruelty. Some people aren't necessarily interested in a cookbook preaching to them about needing to find cruelty-free shampoo, but that sort of thing is a stereotype about vegans for a reason. Also while I agree that mental illness is a substantial problem that frequently isn't treated properly or approached correctly, I'm not sure I want to take pointers on it from a cookbook. While it's still definitely mostly a cookbook, I won't be surprised if the author turns out to already have published or soon will publish a more comprehensive "guide to wellness" or something similar that talks about a bunch of these things in addition to food.

5 stars on the recipes, 3 on the other stuff. show less