vegan+comfort+classics.jpg

Vegan Comfort Classics

By Lauren Toyota of “Hot for Food” 

At a glance: Easy to use, pantry staples, very few unusual tools necessary, not a healthy cookbook, very fun, food to fill you up 

Target Audience: The newly vegan, fun yet straightforward meals, families with kids. 

Recipes tested: 

  • Ceasar Dressing (p. 63)

  • Eggplant Parm and Pasta with Vegan Mozzarella (p.125 and p. 208)

  • Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies (p.187) 

Review: 

Longtime food blogger and former MTV Canada host, Lauren Toyota’s debut book is a perfect cookbook for the newly vegan or anyone looking to mix-up their normal routine and try homemade plant-based versions of their favorite foods. 

I chose to test the recipes for the things I love (or loved, past-tense) to eat out at restaurants.  Now that vegan options are popping up in the most unexpected of places (in Philly, particularly, you can’t walk down the block without passing a restaurant with at least one vegan option), it’s possible that I might find a vegan Caesar salad or eggplant parmigiana out in the wild.  But I was pleasantly surprised to find very easy to follow recipes for these dishes that were satisfying and tasty. No need to get take-out! 

Personally, the dressing needed some capers or nori to achieve a more traditional flavor, but it was a delicious and you can’t go wrong when you use roasted garlic. I also used the dressing on lascinato kale instead of warm brussel sprouts as directed, but that combination would be perfect.  The eggplant dish, however, requires no edits! I chose the baking option for the eggplant after breading it, no issue there. And the mozzarella was so tasty, versatile, and easy to make that I’ve used it many times as a melty cheese alternative. It relies on tapioca starch for the classic mozzarella stringiness which is a very small investment to make in something I can guarantee you’ll make again and again. 

The cookies were exactly the generally soft and chewy yet slightly crunchy combination that I love.  The recipe as-written says you will end up with 4 dozen cookies, so I cut the recipe in half, only to realize later that the cookie portion was a bit on the small side.  I would personally double the per-cookie portion of cookie dough and make the full batch as directed. 

One of the key attributes of this cookbook is that the foundational ingredients for most recipes within are things that most people already have, regularly buy, or can easily find.  If you’re trying to regularly incorporate plant-based meals into your life, you will find many of these recipes very accessible. 

Overall, I highly recommend this book and it’s not for nothing that I picked it to write about first!