Roberto’s New Vegan Cooking: 125 Easy, Delicious, Real Food Recipes

Having grown up in a Mexican-American family, many of Roberto Martin’s recipes in Roberto’s New Vegan Cooking are based on Mexican cuisine. This is a nice vegan cookbook with a large variety of recipes to choose from, each well-written and easy-to-follow, using reasonably easy-to-find ingredients. But don’t expect to find quick cooking. Many recipes mimic traditional items vegan style, but you can’t expect the flavors and textures to be very close (e.g. making croissants or mayonnaise using vegan ingredients)—they are good but different. Nice professional photo illustrations help to visualize some recipes, though the author’s nine, nearly identical photos are a bit awkward. A series of thumbnail photos on illustrating techniques are nice. The cookbook is divided into eight chapters, including a first chapter on basics, staples, sauces. Each chapter starts with a list of recipes for your convenience. The variety of recipes is awesome: pumpkin curry soup, tapenade, barley and faro risotto, peach and ginger crisps—some original, some old standards. Martin’s recipe headnotes and tips are informative. The cookbook’s major fault is recipe layout: many recipe instructions flip to overleaf pages to allow placement of photos, making it inconvenient for the cook.