Customer Reviews

The Vegan Table: 200 Unforgettable Recipes for Entertaining Every Guest at Every Occasion

5 star:		(163)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Some background - This past mid-April, my husband and I attended the 5-Day McDougall Program in Santa Rosa, CA. Colleen was there as one of the chefs giving a cooking demo/lesson to help us learn how to cook food for our new healthy diet. My husband has always been an omnivore and swore he would never give up meat (but he was willing to attend the 5-day session with me). I have been what I call a fat 'imperfect vegan' for over 20 years (cheese, butter and oil were my vices). Enter Colleen. She prepared a few dishes out of this new book and passed around servings for us to eat. My hubby said: Babe, if we can eat like this all the time, I'll never miss the meat. And I agreed. We adopted a lowfat vegan diet that week, and have not looked back. I have cooked several of the recipes that Colleen gave us that week (all from the book) and they are all yummy. I have ordered the book because I want more. Colleen, I hope you are reading this: You are a wonderful, witty, talented chef. My husband and I loved your your cooking, and your wonderful sense of humor. Dr McDougall, Mary, Jeff, and Doug helped us adopt this new healthy diet, but you definitely sealed the deal. The 'No-queso Quesadillas' have been our go-to snack when we need a little something-something, now! Since April 15, I have effortlessly lost 15 lbs and my hubby has lost 12. Thank you SO much! We hope to see you again!

Like most people I was eager to get my hands on Patrick-Goudreau's second book. One cannot live on sweets alone, and her first book on baking is one of my go-to titles. The Vegan Table is a far more attractive book, full color, beautiful photography, and all the tidbits on vegan food and living we've grown to expect. The recipes I haven't tried look very good, and the ones I have tried turned out well, with the exception of the chocolate espresso ganache cake FAIL. (To be accurate, the cake was delicious, but the topping and glaze were a miserable failure.)

However, I absolutely loathe the organization of this book. As cookbooks go, and I have dozens, I feel it was an experiment gone awry. The book is divided into meals for two, four to six, six to ten, and so on. If I'm interested in finding an entree, I have to flip through five chapters. The chapters are further divided by the four seasons. I appreciate eating seasonally, but this goes too far. At the very least a master list or index of apps, soups, salads, entrees, etc. would have made sense. If I want to make cornmeal-crusted tempeh for just my husband and me, I have to adjust the quantities since it's under "formal dining for six to ten." Granted, one would probably adjust for servings with any cookbook depending on your family size, but this system feels much more complex and unwieldy. I can think of several more effective ways this book could have been organized with respect to seasons and the appropriateness of each recipe for various styles of entertaining. As is is, I find it very difficult to use in the way one normally uses a cookbook. ("I need a main dish with beans," or "what can I do with all this zucchini?")

All that aside, the book is very well written and the recipes are mostly rather simple, with some sophisticated 'touches' and seasonings to make them feel more special. There are no ingredients that a well-stocked pantry wouldn't have on hand already, or that would be difficult to find in most large grocery stores. Even when an unusual ingredient is listed - kudzu root comes to mind - the author suggests a far more accessible substitute (arrowroot, in that case).

Perhaps the best thing to be said about the book is that it doesn't waste the cook's time with an abundance of "veganized" versions of foods omnivores typically like to eat. Most vegans who cook already have a favorite tofu scramble or lentil loaf recipe, and while these are included, by far the majority of the dishes are just good, original, vegan food. So I give Patrick-Goudreau credit for developing and marketing her own style of dining and entertaining, instead of writing "The Joy of Cooking...Vegan Style."

Despite the challenges in the book's structure, I absolutely recommend it.

I have a pretty big cookbook collection, but this is the first one I've seen that I actually want to try EVERYTHING! Even if you aren't vegan, you will find many delicious additions to your menus here. There are great tips for people new (or even not-so-new) to vegan cooking, and interesting information on subjects like edible flowers, high tea, and what they *really* ate at the first Thanksgiving. I've been looking forward to this book's arrival for a long time, and I agree with another reviewer who said it exceeded expectations. (I've already tried 3 recipes & all were delicious!)

Like many other reviewers on Amazon, I am a cookbook fiend. I often wonder if I like purchasing new cookbooks more than I like actually using them because sometimes I will buy one, and after the initial look-through where I drool over the recipes, it sits on my shelf collecting dust for too long before I finally use it.

This is so not the case with Colleen's first cookbook, "The Joy of Vegan Baking," or thankfully, her newest, "The Vegan Table." "The Vegan Table" is the perfect follow-up to "TJoVB," and every single recipe begs to be made. The recipes are healthy, delicious, and beautiful. Gorgeous photos of MANY of the dishes are scattered throughout the book, which I love because that inspires me that much more to get cooking!

I was lucky enough to be a recipe tester for this book, so in addition to the several recipes I've made since receiving the book this week, I knew I already had some favorites. The Matzoh Ball Soup is perfect, as is the Panini with Lemon-Basil Pesto. The Tempeh Pate melts in your mouth, and the Warm Spinach Salad is amazingly healthful & delicious. I recently impressed company with the Blackberry Pecan Crisp, which took literally less than five minutes to assemble. The Portobello Mushrooms with Herb-Infused Marinade are on the menu for tonight, and I think I'll serve them alongside the Scalloped Potatoes.

Each dish is simple, yet upscale (but that does not mean expensive!). Most things could be served for a simple weeknight dinner, yet they're impressive enough to share with company. I love that Colleen split the book into chapters based not only on the group size (meals to serve from two to ten, and everywhere in-between) - but also by season. The index is also terrific, and makes everything SO easy to find. Of course, Colleen's compassion for all living beings shines throughout the book, and I LOVE her explanations of different holidays & how we can (and should) celebrate the essence of them without harming animals in the process - like Easter without eggs, for instance, and Thanksgiving without turkey.

"The Vegan Table" is a must-have addition to every kitchen out there, vegan or not!

First came The Joy of Vegan Baking, which elevated baking without dairy or eggs to new heights! With The Vegan Table, Colleen expands our repertoire to everything from salads, to pizza, to kugle! Peppered with insightful pieces on vegan philosophy, this is not just a cookbook, it's a tome on how you can live your life compassionately and joyfully and share that spirit with your friends and family. Absolutely amazing recipes and exquisite photography, this is one of the best cookbooks I've bought!

I own several vegan cookbooks and this is one of the best. I've owned this book for only a month, but have made several recipes already, all of them delicious. Furthermore, most of the recipes are low-fat - the author calls for sauteing in water for many recipes. I admit, I often sub oil, but I like knowing that I can make the recipe low-fat if I want to.
One of the best recipes in this book is the Creamy Macaroni and Cashew Cheese, it is the first vegan recipe for "mac n' cheese" that I've liked. And I like this one a lot, I couldn't believe how good it was! We had an omnivore friend over for dinner and he loved it as well.
The tempeh bacon recipe is also one of the best I've used.

I haven't tried any of the Indian-style recipes - which there are several - but I'm looking forward to trying them.

THE JOY OF VEGAN BAKING by the same author, was the very first vegan cookbook I bought, and I was so impressed with it, I felt I had to buy this one. The book has exceeded my expectations. Everything in the book sounds delicious and I can't wait to make all of the recipes.

Colleen set the bar for new Vegan cookbooks pretty high with her "Joy of Vegan Baking" so, I knew I would not be disappointed with "The Vegan Table" when I ordered it. What I did not expect was to be impressed again but, I am. It is a very attractive, nicely designed book. There are plenty of photographs (something missing from most Vegan cookbooks) and there are sidenotes and tips everywhere. This is a cookbook that would be a good read even without any recipes. The one recipe I have had a chance to make so far (savory tofu spread) was superb.

Excellent book.

Is your stomach growling? Are you planning to grab this cookbook, slip comfortably into bed, and do a little meal planning before you doze off to sleep?

Don't. Even. Think. About. It.

The Vegan Table is chock-full of so many tantalizing recipes, interesting tidbits, and gorgeous photos that you'll be up into the wee hours of the night, contemplating whether to make the Peach and Pecan Muffins or the Home-Fried Potatoes when morning finally does arrive! (That's what happened to me, anyway!)

Not surprisingly, Colleen's new cookbook is amazingly well-organized. The recipes are laid out according to theme, season, occasion, and even party size. And, although I normally don't gravitate towards "meal-based" recipe organization in cookbooks (just a personal preference), this book does it in such an intuitive and helpful way that I can't help but love it! The "Food Lore," "Compassionate Cooks' Tips," and "Did You Know?" blurbs that accompany each recipe are also great, as they give the reader more insight into each recipe.

And, speaking of the recipes, here are just a few of the stand-outs:

*African Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew
*Fruit Sushi with Strawberry Reduction Sauce
*Red Velvet Cake with Buttercream Frosting
*Purple Potatoes with Cashew Cream
*Spicy Black Bean Burgers
*Potato Salad in Radicchio Cups
*Chai-Spiced Almond Cookies

As if that weren't enough, even the intro/informational pages at the beginning of each chapter are captivating! They range from light topics (like how to prepare a romantic dinner for two) to heavier stuff (like "surviving the holidays" as a vegan, and confronting difficult food-ethics issues). If you're a fan of the author's podcasts, you'll probably recognize some of these discussions, although they fit perfectly into this cookbook as well.

Being one of many voracious readers/collectors of veg-based cookbooks, it takes an awful lot to impress me when it comes to products in this area. Happily, however, I can confidently say that The Vegan Table has already far exceeded my expectations. (Who can argue with heaps of creative recipes cloaked in a colorful, text-book-like package? I mean, really?) Just like Eat, Drink & Be Vegan: Great Vegan Food for Special and Everyday Celebrations, The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks' Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets (also by this author!), and Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook that came before it, this book is destined to become the next big thing!

I have been cooking out of the vegan table for about a month now. I LOVE colleen's "vegetarian food for thought" podcast and I wanted to try her cookbook out. I own many vegan cookbooks and this is right up there with veganomicon and Vegan with a vengeance on my top vegan cookbook list. its hard sometimes to break up the dinners for 6 into dinners for two but i still love her ideas and would use them if i had a party.

good recipes:
moroccan stew- great. i was eating it for about a week it made so much! very flavorful and great to serve to non-vegans

chocolate truffles- gave them to friends as presents and they were eaten up very very quickly. easy to make with that special feel

beet/squash pizza- really interesting flavor. completely different from anything else i have tried. very good

tofu with orange ginger sauce- also very good. i am not crazy about most tofu but this was very edible

potatos with caramelized onions- AMAZING. could barely stop eating them

Lentil Loaf- the second one of these i have tried and this was very edible. great with potatoes.


BAD:
red velvet cake. made this for my BF because it was his favorite- the icing was good but he said the cake tasted like "cornbread". i agree. had to throw it out. :(

Colleen's first cookbook, The Joy of Vegan Baking, has been my gift to more friends and family than I can count. I have been anxiously awaiting her follow-up. The Vegan Table definitely raises the bar for cookbooks of *any* genre ... but for people who are wanting to find delicious recipes for increasing fruits and vegetables in their diet, this is the cookbook! I've only been really cooking for a year, so it's important for me to find easy-to-follow recipes that still end up with a delicious product. I've already made the Muhammara (red pepper & walnut spread) and the Polenta Squares with Roasted Red Pepper Coulis (I had to make this after seeing the gorgeous photo in the book). Simple but DELICIOUS ! Can't wait to try the other 198 recipes!