Veggie Works Vegan Cookbook
By Mark W. Rasmusen
Wolf Press, 2001
ISBN: 0970996616
Nonfiction-Cookbook

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, MyShelf.Com
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Weaving Foods Vegan Style

The Health Conscious and Vegetarians Unite
Behind Chef Rasmussen

I am what I call a "casual vegetarian."

By my definition (I get to do the defining because I made up the term!) that is someone who rarely cooks-- veggie or otherwise-and someone who merely removes a piece of beef floating in her soup with as little fanfare as possible so I can eat what is left. No gasps of disbelief. No chastising the chef. No gagging reactions.

These two aspects of my commitment to a vegetarian diet are why I haven't bothered learning to cook the vegan way.

The Vegan Cookbook, by the chef of Veggie Works Vegetarian Restaurant may change that. It is a big, fat book (about the only way the word "fat" can be applied to this book). The author, Mark W. Rasmussen, weaves basic recipes (like how to make meats and sauces of all kinds) with his more advanced recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. What he comes up with is a plaited basket of unboring vegetarian cuisine.

Rasmussen's approach to cooking is presented in a manner so easy to understand that even I am ready to make my Taco-Style Ground "Beef" so I can add it to the Mucho Mexican Quesadilla made with healthy stuff like beans, vegetables and soy cheddar cheese. Trust me, when I serve this at my next book launch, my guests won't know they're eating vegan.

If I'd known about this book long ago, a vegan recipe might have appeared in my Cooking by the Book, a promotional cookbook available on my website. www.TLT.com/authors/carolynhowardjohnson.htm. Find Veggie Works Vegan Cookbook by clicking on the Amazon logo on this page.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of "This is the Place" and "Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered"