Customer Reviews

The Inspired Vegan: Seasonal Ingredients, Creative Recipes, Mouthwatering Menus

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The Inspired Vegan lives up to its name. This book is full of simple, great tasting recipes that creatively remix food from the African diaspora, Asian, and other food traditions. Each menu has a drink, sides, entrees, and dessert! What a great way to plan dinner parties and meals. I've tried several of these menus all the way through and they are incredible. My favorite dishes so far are rice wine poached asian pears, jerk tempeh with cilantro sauce (this jerk sauce is seriously the best I've had - and could be put on anything), Mexican chocolate pudding, and wet jollof rice with carrots, cabbage, and parsley-garlic paste. Yum yum yum!

The word "cookbook" simply doesn't capture the multivalent wonder that is Bryant Terry's *The Inspired Vegan*. This book is better described as a manifesto on how to re-imagine the growing, preparing, and eating of creative, nourishing, compassionate food as transformative activities that propel us toward individual and communal flourishing. Expect to be dazzled as you leaf through his gorgeous recipes that are somehow still simple to prepare, his micro-essays that expose the intertwined oppressions of animal exploitation and institutional racism without a whiff of self-importance, and his selection of musical accompaniments that enable one to hit that kitchen-prep groove without ever losing sight of the fact that eating is always already a political act--that the autonomy that one realizes (or does not realize) through good cooking is a big part of the difference between striving and barely surviving in someone else's system and experiencing material and spiritual fulfillment on one's own terms. Here is the work of a rare and true philosopher--a person who has found a way to materialize our best ideas into the lived pursuit of wisdom in our daily lives. In crafting this exciting, unpredictable, bracing bricolage of food, wisdom, music, beauty, compassion, and justice, Bryant Terry mobilizes six of life's most compelling forces toward the end of lifting creatures up in the everyday--one and all, human beings, animals, and the planet. Astounding!

Quite simply, this book is gooood! Tonight I made the Roasted Winter Vegetable Jambalaya and Wilted Dandelion Greens with Hot Garlic Dressing and Garlic Chips (The Savory Grits and the Garlic-Braised Gai Laan are on deck for tomorrow!). Test of success? Getting new food past my finicky little ones. Verdict? They loved it!

As a homeschooler, I was particularly thrilled by the learning presented in 'The Inspired Vegan'. Yes you can learn new and delicious recipes (Recipes which actually work, by the way). But you can also learn a bit about seasonal eating, about other political and food activists and about ideas around community building. I love the addition of like-minded websites following each mini-chapter. And the suggested music and book recos!

Seriously, 'The Inspired Vegan' could serve not only as an awesome cookbook, but also as a fantastic resource for teachers and students alike! Bravo Mr. Terry!

This book is a rarity. It combines community action, quality of living, spirit of community, and a blueprint for the future. The book is a survival guide for impoverished communities throughout the globe. On top of that it provides touchstones to culture - artistic and musical - that give substance to one's endeavors. We are lucky to have this book in our lexicon.

This truly unique cookbook is perfect for curling up with a cup of tea and spending an afternoon reading, as it's full of personal memories, tales of inspirational people and stories about social movements. Oh, and there's quite a bit about food too! The book is divided into two parts - Basics and Menus, with an Interlude containing a list of recipes in between.

The Basics section covers all of the basics of cooking, food preparation and nutrition, and includes simple recipes such as Basil Pesto and Basic Tomato Sauce. The Menus section takes the guess work out of meals and combines recipes that work well together. The menus are listed seasonally and all include soundtracks and a book or film. The recipes are extremely creative, and your mouth with start watering while just reading through them. Chewy Lemon-Coconut Cookies with Lemon Icing, anyone?

The menus use fresh, seasonal, plant-based ingredients, so they're super healthy but without sacrificing any flavor. At first glance, the recipes may seem a little daunting, but they really are easy to make and come together quickly. This really is an incredible cookbook - with it, you can impress your vegan friends with your fancy cooking, or show your carnivore friends how incredibly delicious vegan meals can be. So far my favorite dishes are Tortillas Stuffed with Swiss Chard, Currants and Spicy Guacamole and Jerk Tempeh with Cilantro Sauce, but my book is full of sticky notes marking other recipes I want to try soon, so I'm sure I'll have new favorites soon.