The Vegan Slow Cooker: Simply Set It and Go with 150 Recipes for Intensely Flavorful, Fuss-Free Fare Everyone (Vegan or Not!) Will Devour [Paperback]

Kathy Hester (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2011

"Kathy’s stellar recipes and straightforward instructions will have you creating hot, fresh, gourmet meals in just minutes a day. No more slaving away in the kitchen. With The Vegan Slow Cooker, you’ll be eating like a queen with just the flip of a switch!"—Rory Freedman, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Skinny Bitch

"This book might just revolutionize vegan cooking! Kathy Hester's recipes are ridiculously fast and easy, unbelievably delicious, and believe it or not—cheap. Bravo, Kathy!"—Kathy Freston, New York Times best-selling author of Veganist, Quantum Wellness, and The Quantum Wellness Cleanse

"The Vegan Slow Cooker is a fantastic collection of mouthwatering, fuss-free, easy-to-make vegan recipes. From curries, dals, and steamy stews to casseroles, breads, and decadent desserts, you'll be serving up delicious slow-cooked meals every day of the week."—Julie Hasson, author of Vegan Diner

"The health advantages of a plant-strong diet are compelling and well proven. But preparing yummy meals that are wholesome can be time consuming. That's where this book comes in. Slow cookers can be huge labor and time savers, if you know how to use them. This is the book that will show you how."—John Robbins, author of The Food Revolution, The New Good Life, and Diet for a New America

 

If you want to prepare hot, nutritious, home-cooked meals for your family and friends, but feel like time is never on your side, think again! The Vegan Slow Cooker shows you how to create fresh, nourishing cuisine in just two simple steps, using all the healthiest produce, whole grains, and vegan-friendly ingredients found at your local market or farm stand (or home garden!).

Author and slow cooker expert Kathy Hester, founder of the blog Healthy Slow Cooking (www.healthyslowcooking.com), will show you how simple it is to 1.) Prep your ingredients the night before, in just a few minutes' time, and 2.) Assemble everything in the slow cooker in the morning, right before you head to work.

The results vary from one-dish meals that are hot and ready as soon as you walk in the door to dishes that are ready in less than 3 hours. There are even recipes for staples like bouillon, apple sage sausage and seitans that you can make once and store in the freezer to use all month long.

From your favorite comforting casseroles to fresh and exciting new stews, and even desserts and quick breads—all veganized!—you find recipes that cover every meal and a wide variety of cuisines, including:

—Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

—Exotic Cardamom Hot Chocolate

—Chick’n and Dumplings

—Mushroom Lasagna with a Garlic-Tofu Sauce

—Chili Relleno Casserole

—Tempeh Braised with Figs and Port Wine

—Kung Pao Chick’n

—Turkish Delight Tapioca Pudding

With The Vegan Slow Cooker, you’ll find all the tasty inspiration you need to pull that neglected crock pot out of storage and get start creating compassionate, crave-worthy meals today. Home cooking has never been more easy, or delicious.  

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Hester, who blogs at http://www.healthyslowcooking.com and http://www.busyvegan.com, has written a no-nonsense, easy-to-understand guide to vegan slow cooking. The first chapter is a brief introduction to the slow cooker, with an ingredient substitution list. In the next 12 chapters, readers learn how to make soups, stews, curries, casseroles, breads, party dips, and desserts, among other items. Hester draws her inspiration primarily from American (Chick’n Mushroom Casserole; Corn-Tastic Tex-Mex Loaf), Indian (Baigan Bharta; Easy Veggie Chickpea Biryani), and Asian (Ma Po Tofu; Thai Red Curry Tofu and Vegetables) cuisine, but many other culinary traditions are represented. Soy- and gluten-free dishes are clearly labeled, but a list of these dishes isn’t included in a separate index. Dishes are indexed by the main ingredient, so Tofu Bouillabaise and the Smoked Tofu and Stars soup recipe are both found under 'tofu.' In a larger cookbook, this would be detrimental; here, it is merely annoying. VERDICT: This is a great slow-cooker cookbook with scrumptious dishes featuring ingredients that are easy to find in any major grocery store." - Library Journal XPress

About the Author

Kathy Hester lives in Durham, NC with her two cats who would rather not live together, a cute dog with a belly rub addiction, her very own picky eater, a kitchen garden, and more slow cookers than one person should own. 

 She writes HealthySlowCooking.com, is the vegan blogger for Key Ingredient (http://www.keyingredient.com/blog/bloggers/kathy-hester) and writes for various publications like Chickpea Magazine. She also teaches vegan cooking classes, has put together a social media class for writers and has more classes in the works.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Fair Winds Press; Original edition (October 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592334644
• ISBN-13: 978-1592334643
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (157 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Special Appliances

More About the Author

Kathy Hester lives in Durham, NC with her 2 cats who would rather not live together, a cute dog with a belly rub addiction, her very own picky eater, a kitchen garden, and more slow cookers than one person should own. She writes a vegan slow cooker blog (www.healthyslowcooking.com)and writes a vegan column for Key Ingredient on their blog every Wednesday (http://www.keyingredient.com/blog/bloggers/kathy-hester). When she's not blogging or developing new recipes she teaches classes and writes articles about eating healthier, menu planning and cooking for picky eaters.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

267 of 273 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple, nutritious slow cooker recipes you'll love - vegan or not! September 20, 2011

By C. Lyons

Format:Paperback

Before I begin, let me make this clear: my husband and I are not vegans, or even vegetarians. So I hope you're pleasantly surprised to hear that upon opening this book for the first time, I literally bookmarked at least 15 recipes and couldn't decide what to make first. And even moreso, that our experiences thus far have been great. We've enjoyed the Italian Eggplant Casserole with Cashew-Tofu Ricotta and Pantry Pot Pie so much that we fight over leftovers. Last night I made the Whole Wheat Pumpkin Gingerbread and had a little sliver this morning - fantastic!

For a long time, I was not the biggest fan of the slow cooker because most of the recipes I found were comprised of processed ingredients and just plain boring and bland. And let's not forget the slow cooker recipes that require a zillion preparation steps, thus defeating the purpose of an appliance that is meant to save some time. Recently, though, that's been changing, as I've been compiling and developing a lot more recipes that fit my desire for flavorful, healthy recipes using wholesome ingredients. And that are quite easy to throw together. This book is a wonderful piece of that collection and I can't wait to try more of the recipes, because they all meet exactly what I'm looking for.

Besides great food, Hester delivers others requirements of a great cookbook: simple ingredient lists; clear, concise instructions (that even highlight the steps which can be completed the night before); and options for substitutions to meet various dietary needs.

153 of 159 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My new favorite cookbook! September 12, 2011

By Proud Vegan

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

You won't be sorry if you buy this one! Not only does this book contain simple, delicious, and nutritious, 100% vegan receipes, but it is also put together extremely well. The arrangement of the ingredients and instructions on each page makes each recipe easy to follow. All recipes are limited to one page, with the ingredients in the left column, and instructions in the right.

I own another cookbook (Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero), and while it contains tasty recipes, I rarely use it because there are multiple recipes on single pages, requiring you to turn the pages to see the remainder of many of the recipes... Which is not a good thing because you have to stop what you're doing to wash food off your hands, remove the book from the stand, turn the page, and place the book back in the stand before you can continue with the recipe. A 2nd problem I find with the arrangement of the Viva Vegan book is it's simply hard to follow with my eyes. Every time I look away (to do the next step), it takes me several seconds to find and "refocus" on the correct place on the page. So I really appreciate the user-friendly format of THIS book by Kathy Hester!

There are so many great recipes in this book, that I had a difficult time deciding what to try first. I decided to go with the "Chik'n Cacciatore" (made with seitan), and my family LOVED it! Over the next couple of days, I made the "Mix-and-Match Jambalaya", and the "Baigan Bharta" (eggplant curry).... and both were followed by rave reviews!

Some prep time is required in the recipes (chopping and sauteing), but Kathy makes it a cinch, by breaking up the instructions between "The Night Before", and "In the Morning". This helps tremendously if you want to toss everything in the crockpot on your way out to work in the morning. That being said, you don't have to do anything the night before; if you have a few additional minutes to spare in the morning, you can do everything at once.

Simply put, this is an EXCELLENT cookbook, whether you are a new vegan looking for simple, yet tasty and satisfying recipes that do not contain hard-to-find ingredients (which is common in vegan cookbooks)... or whether you're a long-term vegan, looking for a nice variety of easy to prepare, delectable dishes!

396 of 440 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Save your money; just read your slow cooker manual November 3, 2011

By Azura

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have never written a bad review for a cookbook before, but every time I look over at this one, I feel so ripped off. I have over 140 vegan cookbooks and this has to be the very worst I have ever seen.

Page 17, Dried beans from scratch: 1 pound beans, water, cook overnight. That's it! And that's not all: Page 18, Everyday rice: basmati rice, water, pinch of salt, cook. Page 25, Preserve-the-harvest diced tomatoes: "tomatoes to fill your crock," cook, freeze. Page 26, Beyond Easy Baked Potatoes: you guessed it; put potatoes in slow cooker and cook. Page 27, All-Occasion Roasted Garlic: Add 4 to 6 heads garlic and cook. Really? A whole slow cooker to cook 4 heads of garlic? Page 35, Brandied Cranberry Sauce: brandy, cranberries, sweetener, cook.

Page 59, Creamy Potato Soup: potatoes, water, non-dairy milk, 1 clove garlic, and a little seasoning. Couldn't anyone come up with that on their own? Even the Cheater Chili another reviewer mentioned, is a joke: 3 cans beans, 1 can corn, 1 can tomatoes, and chili flavorings. Anyone could do that on top of the stove in less time than it would take to clean the slow cooker!

Page 131, Sweet Herbed Beets: beets, water, herbs. Page 142, Southern-Style Green Beans: green beans, water, seasoning. Page 143 Vodka and Dill-Glazed Baby Carrots: carrots, water, vodka, seasoning. Page 189, Big Pot of Grits: grits, water, margarine. Page 190, Big Pot of Oatmeal: oats, water, non-dairy milk. Page 191, Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal: See previous recipe and add pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spices. Also, two other recipes wasted on changing the flavor of oatmeal. Page 211 Earl Grey Poached Pears: pears, tea, sweetener. Page 216, Spiced cider: apple cider and spice, duh. Page 217, Cardamom Hot Chocolate: non-dairy milk, chocolate, cardamom, sugar.

I don't consider these to be vegan recipes. They are foods everyone prepares, whether they are vegan or omnivore. These so called recipes have not been adapted for vegans . . . they never, ever, contained animal products!

True, there are other more extensive recipes, but it is advertised as having 150 recipes. I think that is very misleading. And as other reviewers have mentioned, the more extensive recipes just say to add faux meat.

I only paid $11.00 for the book and got free shipping so it's not worth the trouble to send it back, but if I had looked through the book before purchasing it, it would not be a part of my collection. Any other slower cooker book would serve better; just substitute faux meat, non-dairy milk, and margarine when the original ingredients are specified.