Opinions of a Wolf

Summary:
Far more than just your basic veggie burger, this cookbook offers up interesting varieties of veggie burgers plus veg*n versions of everything else you will need at your summer bbq.

Review:
This is such a pretty cookbook!  Beyond gorgeous full-color photographs of the food, the recipes themselves are colorful with the numbers in blue and the headings in red or green.  It’s not just readable and usable; it’s fun to do both.

This is a vegetarian cookbook, not a vegan one, but there are quite a few vegan recipes, and they are all clearly labeled with a green “V.”  There are also some gluten free recipes labeled with a green “GF.”  These labels are found in both the contents and on the recipes themselves.

The cookbook is divided into: Introduction, Veggie Burger Basics, Bean Grain and Nut Burgers, Vegetable Burgers, Tofu Seitan and TVP Burgers, Burger Buns, Sides: Salads and Fries, and Condiments and Toppings.  I have to say while I was pleased with the inclusion of sides, I was most impressed by the inclusion of the section on burger buns.  I also really appreciate the anti-processed food stance in the Introduction.  It’s a nice touch, particularly for people who follow a diet that often leaves us wallowing in processed foods at friends’ bbqs, and we can’t complain because, well, they bought us veggie burgers, didn’t they?

One drawback to the cookbook is quite a few of the recipes call for ingredients that are kind of hard to find like: chickpea flour, bulgur, roasted chestnuts, Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP), or arame.  If you’re pushing for people to do fresh, whole foods instead of processed, you shouldn’t make the ingredients list so complicated.

I found about three recipes that intrigued me enough to add to my “to try” collection.  So far I’ve tried one, Beet and Brown Rice Burgers on page 59.  It’s a fairly straight-forward recipe: combine shredded beets with cooked brown rice and mashed up beans, along with a few spices.  I made them all at once then froze them.  I also added in vital wheat gluten, which Volger oddly doesn’t use in a lot of his recipes in spite of its binding qualities and protein content.  I’m glad I did because the burger still had some issues staying together even with it in there.  However, the flavor and textures are different from other veggie burgers I’ve made, so it was definitely worth the effort.  I still think the recipes in the book in general need a bit of tweaking, particularly for flavor and stay-togetherness (shhh that is so a word).  The burger was good but not great. It’s almost there….I do intend to try it out again and tweak it a bit.

So….out of the whole book I found 3ish recipes, have made one, it was different and interesting but needs some tweaking.  Not exactly a result that would make me encourage others to purchase.  I do suggest you borrow it or check it out from a library if my review has intrigued you at all.  You may find it more useful than I did or perhaps enjoy the flavor combinations more or even just have more easily accessible oddball ingredients in your town.

3 out of 5 stars

Source: Public Library

Buy It