Vegan On The Cheap

Instead of being called “Vegan on the Cheap,” this book should be called, “Vegan a Little Cheaper.”

The good:

• The first chapter is full of money and time saving tips, and more advice is sprinkled throughout the book.  This chapter is excellent!
• The second chapter, called “Cooking Basics,” gives recipes for basics like vegetable cooking broth, marinara sauce, made-from-scratch seitan, vegan sour cream, oven-dried tomatoes, a basic recipe for beans, and basic recipes for making rice on the stovetop or in the oven.  This chapter was also helpful.

The bad:

•  In the beginning of the book Robin claims all the recipes cost less than $1.85 per serving, with each recipe typically making four servings.  However, the cost per serving beside each individual recipe ranges all the way up to $2 and $2.50 per serving!  I’m sorry, but I don’t call a $10 main dish cheap!  Even if the cost per serving matched her “maximum” of $1.85, that would still be $7.40 for the main dish – and that’s not counting her “splurge a little” suggestions  or the salad, vegetables, or fruit you would need to round out the meal.
• I didn’t find the recipes very enticing.  Robin has much more appetizing recipes in some of her previous books, such as the rather excellent 1,000 Vegan Recipes or Quick Fix Vegan.  I suppose she was trying to come up with “new” recipes for this book and not repeat herself, but I think the frugal concept would have been better served had she selected the best frugal recipes from her previous books.

In short:  Some of her advice may save you money, but these recipes will not.

Tagged as: cookbook, Robin Robertson, vegan, Vegan On The Cheap, Vegan Recipes, Veganism, vegetarian