The Book Chat 5.30.13 Cookbooks

I am super psyched to be co-hosting The Book Chat this week, especially because it is a topic I am pretty passionate about, Cookbooks!

Along with vegan blogs, cookbooks are what taught me how to cook healthy, whole foods. I was raised on a pretty traditional Mexican-American diet that included many fatty animal products. Once I decided to cut animals out, I needed to re learn how to cook and start from scratch. I credit Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero with teaching me how to think outside of the Standard American Diet (SAD) box and experiment with new ingredients (seitan, tofu, tempeh, etc.) to still enjoy some of my old favorites. Most of my cooking is now done from scratch and I have mixed and matched so many of their recipes in new and diverse ways. I am determined to never let veganism get boring and I am committed to serving anyone who comes to my house to eat, a delicious and healthy meal so they can marvel how tasty and nutritious food can be, without having to cause harm to our animal friends and environment.

The recipe I chose to save for this post was my Mother’s Day meal I whipped up using inspiration from Terry Hope Romero’s Viva Vegan. I blogged about this book before and I am enjoying cooking my way through it (check back next week for a re-cap of the taco party I am hosting this weekend!)

I really appreciate the Latina love that Terry has given to our community and how dedicated she is to honoring and celebrating traditions within our culture, without including harm to animals. One of my favorite things about this book is how simple so many of the recipes are. I have had so many “why didn’t I think of that before?!” moments. I completely wrote off so many dishes because they are based on animal products, yet through her creativity, she makes easy swaps, and boom, I can enjoy pozole and ceviche again.

I made her ceviche recipe for our Mother’s Day appetizer.  Ceviche is typically made with fish, fresh veggies, spices and plenty of lime. It is a flavorful appetizer with crisp corn chips on a hot day, and is best when coupled with an ice cold beer.

Terry subs out the fish for diced hearts of palm. This has a similar consistency, and adds a nice fatty texture. It was the perfect substitute. After that, the ceviche came together as usual. I added in fresh tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, lime juice, olive oil, salt and chilled the dish. Right before I served it, I added in fresh dices of avocado.

We started off with the ceviche, along with chips and guacamole.

Our main dish was tacos with potatoes and soyrizo, one of my favorites! Of course, we topped them tons of guacamole.

Click here for a few of my other favorite Terry & Isa cookbooks. Vegan or not, I highly recommend checking out their recipes (you can get a preview at their blogs, click here for Terry’s and here for Isa’s).

To join in today’s Book Chat, click here and follow the directions below:

1. Please follow the host and co-host

2. Visit a few other book chat links and show some support.

3. Link back here in your post.  Or use the button provided.

4. Old posts are always welcome if you have blogged on the topic before.