Finally, I was able to request a book from Blogging for Books that I could actually post up here. (My last few Blogging for Books reviews have been novels and non-fiction that had nothing to do with food.)
Publisher’s Blurb
Jenné Claiborne grew up in Atlanta eating classic Soul Food—fluffy biscuits, smoky sausage, Nana’s sweet potato pie—but thought she’d have to give all that up when she went vegan. As a chef, she instead spent years tweaking and experimenting to infuse plant-based, life-giving, glow-worthy foods with the flavor and depth that feeds the soul.
The result? Her first cookbook, Sweet Potato Soul, offering 100 vegan recipes that riff on Southern cooking in surprising and delicious ways, beautifully illustrated with full-color photography. Jenné revives the long tradition of using fresh, local ingredients creatively in dishes like Coconut Collard Salad and Fried Cauliflower Chicken. She improvises new flavors in Peach Date BBQ Jackfruit Sliders and Sweet Potato-Tahini Cookies. She celebrates the plant-based roots of the cuisine in Bootylicious Gumbo and savory-sweet Georgia Watermelon & Peach Salad. And she updates classics with Jalapeño Hush Puppies, and her favorite, Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls.
Along the way, Jenné explores the narratives surrounding iconic and beloved soul food recipes, as well as their innate nutritional benefits–you’ve heard that dandelion, mustard, and turnip greens, okra, and black eyed peas are nutrition superstars, but here’s how to make them super tasty, too.
From decadent pound cakes and ginger-kissed fruit cobblers to smokey collard greens, amazing crabcakes and the most comforting sweet potato pie you’ll ever taste, these better-than-the-original takes on crave-worthy dishes are good for your health, heart, and soul.
What I thought…
The first forty pages are a how-to, what and why to vegan cooking, and obviously the Southern soul food way.
- There’s the definitive guide to the many different varieties of sweet potatoes.
- There’s the “Why is it good for you” rationale.
- There’s the can’t-live-without “Tools to Stock your Soul Kitchen” list.
- There’s “Southern Pantry Staple” recommendations.
- There’s witty vegan quotes from the likes of Erykah Badu and Natalie Goldberg and Bob Jeffries.
While I found these introductory pages intriguing and informative, I was ready to get to the meat of the book (pardon the ironic pun).
I think I could embrace vegetarianism and a lot of our meals tend to be meat free. But, embracing the vegan lifestyle has always caused me to pause—there’s that whole fake cheese thing to get past. Claiborne’s book makes me think, however, that I could embrace a plant prone diet.
Sweet Potato Soul is divided into the following sections:
- breakfast, salads & soups
- greens & sides
- mains
- sweets & drinks
- pantry staples & sauces
I really wanted to pull a recipe from each section like Sweet Potato Granola (48), Coconut Corn Chowder (94), Black-Eyed Pea Hummus (110), Southern Buddha Bowl (131), Blackberry Mint Julep (196), or Peach-Date BBQ Sauce (207). All of these recipes mentioned here could easily be put on a non-vegan table with no complaints. I would highly suspect that that corn chowder shows up posted here soon.
It’s rare that I get a cookbook that I want to go through recipe by recipe and try them all. Claiborne and Sweet Potato Soul makes me want to do just that, especially this spring and summer when ingredients will be fresh, ripe and delicious.
photo taken from Claiborne’s blog, Sweet Potato Soul
Claiborne has blogged for years at Sweet Potato Soul.
As a non-vegan, I rate this cookbook FIVE STARS!
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Blogging for Books for this review. All opinions, exclamations, gushings and rants are my own. For my other Blogging for Books reviews, click here.
I’m linking up with Foodies Reads for February.
Sounds like a wonderful cookbook! And I do love sweet potatoes 🙂
There’s a mighty lot of sweet potatoes in this book.
I saw that one but I’m not able to request a book again until I do a review of the last one. Oh, that coconut corn soup would be my first recipe to try.
I’ve got another one coming—the lemon one.
Interesting cookbook and the recipes you cited sound really good! Thanks for the review!
Recipe to come….and it’s delicious!
You said: “there’s that whole fake cheese thing to get past” … I’m with you! Makes me suspicious when vegetarians and vegans really wish for the meat/cheese they are rejecting, so all their recipes are for fake things. I guess this one is different. But I’m an omnivore, so I think I’ll skip it.
My big question in response to reviews of free books: would you buy it if you had to pay your own money for it?
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
And of course bacon….that’s a big one, too. I actually might buy this one, truly.
Great review and tempting for sure. Soul vegan food is a great idea and the recipes sound delicious. Agreed, NO to fake cheese lol.
I kind of wish I had not played up the vegan angle in this review—it’s just a great cookbook.
I am not a vegan either but I like to make recipes according to my guests taste so I always am looking for new vegan recipes. Thanks for sharing.
This would be a good book to have for both your vegan friends and your non-vegan alike.
Really good review. We often eat meat-free, just because there are so many great vegetarian recipe out there. Vegan is harder — but with proper spicing, etc pretty doable. And soul vegan? Sounds wonderful!
I really think I could do vegetarianism (mostly). Vegan IS harder.
Great review! This looks fabulous. I am meat and poultry free but eat vegan a lot and it sounds like a cookbook I would really enjoy. 😉
It is a good cookbook, period.
i was a vego. for about a decade and i lived with lots of vegans so this sort of food is very familiar to me. But I’m afraid the lure of bacon was too much for me:=) cheers S
There is that….I wonder how many vegetarians have been thwarted by the culprit bacon?
I’m always looking for good vegan cookbooks that don’t rely on fake meats and cheeses. I don’t eat meat because I hate the taste so I don’t want pretend meat in my food. This reminds me of a book called Afro-Vegan that is wonderful.
I would certainly look this up.