How It All Vegan – Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer

Vegetarian Cookbook is a Handy Guide for Going Green and Animal-Free

Jun 1, 2009

More than a cookbook, this best-selling guide to veganism offers not only vegan recipes, but also recipes for cruelty-free beauty products and green cleaners for home.

How It All Vegan: Irresistible Recipes for an Animal-Free Diet, by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer, the first in a series of vegan cookbooks, has sold over 150,000 copies. The book has earned several honors, including the 2003 and 2004 Veg News Veggie Awards for Best Cookbook, and the 2005 Veggie Award for Best Cookbook Author. Kramer's other titles include The Garden of Vegan (co-authored with Barnard,) La Dolce Vegan, and Vegan A Go-Go.

Easy Vegan Recipes

How It All Vegan! has remained popular for good reason. The enthusiastic and lighthearted conversational tone, DIY approach and retro-inspired black-and-white photography throughout appeal to teenagers and young adults. The authors introduce veganism and explain the reasons people choose to become vegan without getting too boring or preachy. And the primer on kitchen equipment and vegan ingredients is a useful introduction for anyone new to vegan cooking.

Organized into 12 chapters, hundreds of recipes cover the spectrum of vegan cuisine: dairy-free milks and beverages, vegan breakfasts, soups, breads, entrees, sauces, and desserts. The chapter "Vegan Kids Stuff" provides dairy-free, egg-free and gluten-free recipes that are kid-friendly. Quite a few of the recipes are animal-free versions of favorite foods, such as pizza and French toast. In other recipes, the authors creatively use vegetarian mainstays, such as tofu and tempeh. Recipes include:

Most of the recipes are simple and many require only a few ingredients. And, most importantly, they taste good! Too often, animal-free recipes require too many "weird" ingredients, or they just don't turn out to be edible. But Barnard and Kramer's have taken much of the guesswork out of vegan cooking, their culinary inventions, such as the savory Sweet Polenta Pie, Faux Chicken Salad (made from steamed tempeh,) and hearty Mushroom Barley Stew actually look and taste like good food. Sadly, however, there are no pictures of specific recipes to entice the reader or provide additional instruction.

Green Cleaning and Natural Skin Care

In addition to recipes for tasty and easy vegan dishes, the authors the "Vegan House and Home'" chapter offers recipes for homemade natural cleaners and cruelty-free bath and body products. Keeping with the book's focus on veganism for ethical reasons, the authors explain why they advocate avoiding animal products wherever possible, and include an extensive glossary of "Vegan No-Nos" - animal byproducts vegans may want to avoid in consumer goods.

And, though there is a list of "45 Things to Do with Vinegar", these green cleaners and skin care recipes go well beyond the commonly used vinegar and water,including a variety of home remedies and non-toxic cleaners:

Barnard and Kramer's homemade concoctions for household cleaners and skin care solutions are not only animal-friendly, they are also eco friendy. Their DIY versions of expensive environmentally-friendly cleaners and natural skin care products offer the savvy reader an opportunity to reduce and reuse consumer packaging, and to conserve energy used to manufacture and ship many consumer products.

Vegan Nutrition

Proper nutrition should be a concern for for all vegetarians and, especially, for vegans. The authors of How It All Vegan, however, fail to emphasize the importance of certain nutrients. The importance of eating foods with protein, calcium, iron, and B-12 are briefly discussed, but recommended daily allowances are not even mentioned. And other nutrients usually gotten from animal foods, such as Omega-3 fatty acids, are not even mentioned.

Barnard and Kramer do not claim to be nutritional experts, and they do suggest consulting with a licensed nutritionist about any dietary or health concerns. They do also advocate eating a wide variety of vegan foods for a nutritious diet and the recipes in the book reflect this stance. Still, How it All Vegan should not be used as the sole resource for any new vegan.

Despite its lack of detailed information about nutrition for vegans and the absence of slick and enticing color food photography, How It all Vegan remains a valuable resource for anyone interested in veganism, or making natural cleaners and cruelty-free cosmetics, and, especially, anyone who wants to eat a vegetarian diet without feeling deprived of good food.

Publication Information