Review: Sheet Pan Suppers Vegetarian by Raquel Pelzel

Sheet Pan Suppers Vegetarian by Raquel Pelzel is a cookbook that advertises "100 recipes for simple, satisfying, hands-off meals straight from the oven." I'm always looking for new ways to cook veggies, so I thought I'd give some of these recipes a try.  Overall, I'm pretty happy I did!

There are two things I think consumers need to know about this cookbook right off the bat. First off, while the title may be a little deceiving, most recipes do call for the dirtying of multiple dishes, not just a single sheet pan. Less dishes to do after cooking is always a plus, but I found the recipes in this book to require several bowls, utensils, and pans on average. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but the title left me expecting a little less clean-up.  And secondly, the recipes in this book are meatless with more than half being already vegan. The remaining non-vegan dishes could easily be adapted for vegans by just leaving out something simple, like an egg wash. I liked having that option!

This cookbook was visually appealing and had beautiful photographs. The food looked appetizing and that's not always easy to do when you're limited to plant-based meals. However, like I've complained about in other reviews, there weren't pictures for every main recipe. I'd guess maybe 90% of the meals did have photos, but I will never give a 5 star review for a cookbook that doesn't show me what every single dish looks like (excluding things like dressings and sauces).

There is a great variety of vegetables used in this cookbook! Some vegetarian/vegan cookbooks tend to overdo it on the beans, quinoa, and kale in my opinion, but this one had me wanting to branch out and try some new healthy combinations. The 100 recipes are organized into the following chapters:
Chapter 1: Bits, Bites, and Snacks
Chapter 2: Soups and Salads
Chapter 3: Veggies with a Side of Vegetables
Chapter 4: Grain Bowls and Beyond
Chapter 5: Beans and Legumes
Chapter 6: Pasta, Bread, and Pizza
Chapter 7: Breakfasts and Brunches
Chapter 8: Desserts

There were quite a few recipes I wanted to test out of this cookbook, so it was difficult just choosing three for this review. Keeping my husband's likes and dislikes in mind, I decided on the "Hoisin Eggplant, Spicy Brussels Sprouts, and Tofu" from Chapter 3, the "Zucchini Breakfast Cake with Pecan-Coconut Streusel" from Chapter 7, and the "Rustic Pear Galette" from Chapter 8.

I made the "Hoisin Eggplant, Spicy Brussels Sprouts, and Tofu" for dinner one night. I chose this recipe because we tend to like Asian-style dishes and to be honest, I don't cook eggplant or Brussels sprouts very often. We have an eggplant sandwich we really like, but other than that, I shy away from these vegetables. I considered this dish a success! I was worried because the sprouts were really charred, borderline burnt, but they tasted so darn good that way! I honestly told my husband I should try making Brussels sprouts chips instead of kale chips next time. This dish had a lot of in-your-face flavor, but it didn't store well. I would make it again, but cut the recipe so there's no leftovers. ★★★★☆

The breakfast cake was a no-brainer! I love zucchini bread and we had fresh zucchinis from the garden, so I knew I had to try this. It was really simple to make and it turned out so good! The cake is moist and sweet, the pecans give it a nice texture, and the zucchini flavor really comes through. This made a lot of servings and it stored well in the fridge throughout the week. I just heated up a slice each morning in the microwave for 30 seconds and it was good to go! I will definitely make this again. ★★★★★

Finally, I made the "Rustic Pear Galette" because I was craving a fruit-centered dessert. I like that Pelzel gave you options for the galette filling depending what was in season. I took her suggestion and added a handful of cranberries with the pears. This was one of those instances where a photo comes in handy because I have never "pleated" dough before and I might have just ended up making a traditional pie had the photo not steered me in the right direction. This recipe came together in a snap, but it was kind of a disaster for me. My crust hemorrhaged while in the oven and a lot of the delicious juices escaped, filling my kitchen with a horrible burnt smell. That's not the recipe's fault, but I thought I'd mention why the picture looks so messy. Taste-wise, this galette was a bit of a miss for us. It reminded me of an apple pie that was lacking in flavor. It just needed more spice of some kind. The cardamom was nice and did come through, but that was about it.  I definitely won't be making this pear/cranberry combination again without some tweaking. ★★★☆☆

I plan on trying a few more recipes from this book later on, but my experience so far has been very pleasant. I would recommend this cookbook to everyone, vegetarian or not. It can give you some new ideas on how to prepare vegetables that everyone will enjoy. If not for a main dish on a Meatless Monday, the majority of these recipes would make great side dishes for your usual choice of protein.

My Rating: ★★★★☆
This title will be available for purchase on October 3, 2017.

*Thanks to Workman Publishing Company and Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Review: Tasty. Naughty. Healthy. Nice. by Susan Jane White

My husband and I have been experimenting with healthy eating for the last several years. I like to call myself an aspiring vegan. We eat vegan pretty regularly in our house, but do occasionally cook with meat, eggs, and fish.  The main reason we switched to a predominantly vegan diet is because of the health benefits associated with plant-based food.  My husband has MS and his symptoms can get pretty severe. I read about a doctor who reversed her MS significantly by eating a paleo-type diet. While we know a plant-based lifestyle is not going to magically fix everything, we do feel better and have more energy when eating this way. Plus, we both love and appreciate animals and do not like the thought of contributing to factory farming or animal rights violations. So I like to buy vegan or plant-based cookbooks to give us more healthy recipes to try as we continue down the path to full veganism.

The cookbook I received for review is called Tasty. Naughty. Healthy. Nice. written by Susan Jane White. White lives in Ireland and changed her eating ways when faced with a serious immune disorder. Her cookbook includes over 135 recipes that are gluten-free, sugar-free, and dairy-free. Her book promises "whole food made sinfully delicious."

It's important to note that this is not a vegetarian/vegan cookbook, but a lot of the ingredients found in typical vegan cooking can be found here.  If you're not familiar with plant-based cooking, things like nutritional yeast, brown rice syrup, quinoa, agave, buckwheat, etc. might seem very foreign to you. Since I've been cooking plant-based for a few years now, I had the majority of ingredients on hand.  There were, however, quite a few ingredients that I had not heard of and couldn't find easily.  Ingredients such as pea protein, nettle leaves, wild garlic leaves, black garlic, coconut blossom sugar, etc. were very new to me and I was only able to locate them online.  Some were quite pricey, as well.  That was definitely one of the downfalls of this cookbook. I think a reader who is new to whole foods cooking would be overwhelmed by such oddities and the expense that comes with them. In White's defense, perhaps these ingredients are easier to find and more commonly used in the UK and Europe as opposed to the US.

Another thing I disliked about this cookbook was that not all the recipes have photographs. I know that is pretty commonplace to save publishers money, but I'm one of those cooks who needs to see what I'm supposed to be making. Not only will a pretty plate get me to try a recipe I'd normally pass over, but it helps me feel more confident in the kitchen. I need to have an end picture in my mind for comparison. Especially when readers are cooking with unfamiliar ingredients, they may need the extra support that a good photograph can provide. More than half of the recipes did have photos and they were gorgeous! There were also several pictures of White herself and old-timey kitchen utensils throughout the book which I felt were unnecessary. Instead of seeing a can opener or the author smiling and standing with a bowl of fruit in her hands, I could have benefited more from another recipe picture.

I enjoyed White's backstory and felt that she gave a lot of good information about whole foods in the intro. She did an excellent job with her recipe descriptions, especially when it came to why you were doing certain things to the food.  For example, for the "Mango, Blackberry, and Buckwheat Porridge", she explains that soaking the buckwheat overnight breaks down the acid in the cereal and makes it easier to digest and quicker to cook.  I haven't seen many cookbooks like that before and enjoyed picking up new facts about the food I was cooking.

There was also a lot of variety when it came to the plants and grains that White cooks with, which I liked a lot. More diverse fruits and veggies means a variety of vitamins and nutrients. When it came to the proteins, however, it was a different story.  The non-plant-based proteins used in this cookbook are predominantly types of fish. If you're not a huge fan of fish (raw and cooked), then most of the main dish meals won't work for you. There is only one chicken recipe and one lamb recipe.

Before I felt like I could give an honest review, I had to try some of these recipes myself.

From the "Snacks & Other Nutritional Hits" section, I made the "Strawberry & Banana Shoelaces". The shoelaces were very simple to make. I just threw some strawberries, a banana, and some flax into a blender and then spread onto a pan.  The recipe suggests cooking for 6-8 hours, but at only 4 hours, mine were already overcooked.  As you can see from the photo, my shoelaces did not have a leathery texture and instead are more like fruit chips. They tasted great either way, but I would have preferred them chewy as they were intended to be.  ★★★☆☆

From the "Soups" section, I made the "Smoky Black Bean Soup". I need to preface this by saying I'm not a big soup person. I tend to stick to chicken and noodle and the creamier, the better! However, my husband loves soups of all kinds, so I decided to have this for dinner one night because I love him and all that jazz.  It was super simple to make and I had everything except for the leek already.  This soup included leek, garlic, black beans, and some tomatoes.  A creme fraiche type topping was made using garlic, coconut yogurt, and parsley.  It had a decent flavor and I really enjoyed the depth the leeks brought to the dish. It felt like it was missing something though. Maybe it needed more heat or some noodles? Because I'm hard on soups in general, I'm going with my husband's review on this, which was "3.5 stars because it is good, but I wouldn't ask for it again." ★★★☆☆

From the "Tasty Healthy Treats" section, I tried the "Lemon Whoopie Pies".  There were a lot of delicious looking treats from this section, so it took me a little deliberating before I could decide on these little sandwiches of sunshine. The recipe was quick and easy to whip up without any over-the-top ingredients. I made a half batch because too many of these lying around would be dangerous for my waistline.  I was able to make 3 medium-sized pies. When I was blending the cream, I couldn't quite get the smooth consistency like in the photo because my Ninja blender is just not powerful enough. I wish I had $800 to drop on a Blendtec or Vitamix right now, but I don't, so I'm okay with the results.  The cream was supposed to firm up once it was refrigerated for a few hours. I left it overnight and it still had a runny consistency in the morning.  I ate a few bites of one and left the rest for my husband to eat.  I was a little disappointed I didn't like these better. ★★☆☆☆

My recommendation is that this is not the cookbook for those brand new to plant-based or whole foods cooking. The ingredients and tools required for these recipes could be very daunting and expensive for even the most determined of chefs. Without pictures for every recipe, it's easy to be unsure about how your dishes should turn out. The dinner recipes are very fish-centered and I do not think many children would find them appetizing. If you know what you're in for because you are experienced with this kind of healthy cooking, then you might be able to find a few recipes you like in this collection.

My Rating: ★★★☆☆
This title will be available for purchase on September 19, 2017.

*Thanks to Shambhala Publications, Roost Books, and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!