Book Report: But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan + Bonus Recipe

Another vegan cookbook! Kristy Turner of Keepin’ It Kind has done it again. She as written a follow up to her first book, But I Could Never Go Vegan. That book addressed many of the common excuses people have when resisting going vegan like “Vegan cooking is too hard” or “I could never give up cheese!”

Now,  in her second book, she addresses the issues that arise when cooking vegan for friends and family members. The new book, But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan, has 125 easy and stress free recipes that will satisfy everyone – from teens to those who say they just love their bacon. (Grrrrrr…)

Anyway, the book is organized around 20 familiar objections like, “My brother thinks there is no such thin as a ‘meatless’ sandwich” and “it’s just not the holidays without Aunt Betty’s pumpkin pie!” There are fun recipes for breakfasts, sandwiches, holidays and of course desserts. Most of the ingredients are totally recognizable so there not a lot of unusual or “overly vegan” ingredients that might turn people off. Kristy does use tofu, tempeh and jackfruit – staples of the vegan kitchen – and veganizes familiar meals like maple peanut butter pancakes, oatmeal, and vanilla french toast. She has recipes for chickpea and dumplin’ soup, shiitake stroganoff, no tuna casserole, fillet o’ chickpea sandwiches. There are scones, muffins, cookies, hash browns, fondue, gravy, even a marbled pumpkin cheesecake and deviled potato salad. I am excited to make the beer marinated portobello tacos (recipe excerpted below), the roasted carrot wild mushroom ragu and my favorite idea, cauliflower parmesan!

I feel simpatico with Kristy – so many of her recipes are dishes that I already make and have posted my own versions of. And, it seems to me that Kristy is influenced by Isa Moskowitz, my vegan hero, as well as recent vegan culinary trends, so this book is really on point. I really like this book, and I think it is great for someone who doesn’t have a lot of vegan cookbooks or is looking for some good dishes to go with the excuses people make!

And But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan is going to be our vegan cookbook for our January cook along. Hop on over to Instagram, follow me @lisasprojectvegan, and see what recipes we are making. We will be using #BMFWNEV and #vegancookalong and posting on Sundays (and sometimes other days.) You can join in too – start with the recipe below. It will be the first one I make!

Beer-Marinated Portobello Tacos with Avocado Corn SalsaMakes 8 tacos // Prep Time: 25 Minutes // Active Time: 35 Minutes // Inactive Time: 15 Minutes

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Beer-Marinated Portobello Tacos with Avocado Corn Salsa

Guess what? Marinating food in beer isn’t just for meat anymore! Woohoo! What that means for us is that we can drench meaty chunks of portobello mushrooms in beer and other spices, pan-fry them, and throw them in tacos, smothered in avocado-corn salsa. Sound too good to be true? It’s not. Get over your astonishment, pop open a bottle of beer, and after you’re done drinking it, pop open another bottle and start cooking!

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings 8 tacos

Ingredients

Tacos

• 1½ cups 360 ml vegan pale or blonde ale (Ground Breaker Brewing IPA No. 5 and Brunehaut Bio Blonde are both vegan and gluten-free)
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 4 portobello mushrooms stemmed, gills scraped, cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) slices
• Sunflower oil for cooking
• 6 to 8 corn tortillas or small flour tortillas

Avocado-Corn Salsa

• 2 avocados pitted, peeled, and diced
• 1 cup 140 g corn kernels (fresh or thawed frozen)
• 1 cup 50 g chopped fresh cilantro
• ½ cup 135 g chopped red onion
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon chopped jalapeño
• Salt to taste optional

Instructions

1. Combine the beer, lime juice, cumin, and garlic powder in a shallow baking dish. Add the portobello strips and toss to fully coat. Marinate for 30 minutes, moving the strips around every 10 minutes.
2. While the portobello strips are marinating, make the salsa: Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, cover, and chill until ready to use.
3. Heat a large frying pan, preferably cast iron, over medium heat. Add a couple of teaspoons of oil and tilt the pan around to evenly coat the bottom. Add about half of the portobello strips and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, turning every few minutes, until tender and slightly charred, and most of the liquid has been absorbed. Transfer the strips to a plate or bowl and cover with aluminum foil. Add another couple of teaspoons of oil to the pan and repeat with the remaining strips.
4. Heat a griddle or frying pan over medium heat (or just clean the pan you cooked the portobello strips in and reuse it). Cook the tortillas for 30 to 60 seconds on each side, placing them on a plate and covering with aluminum foil when they’re done.
5. To serve, place a few portobello strips in a tortilla and top with the avocado-corn salsa. Leftovers will keep in the fridge in separate airtight containers for up to 4 days.

Recipe from But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan!: 125 Recipes to Win Everyone Over © Kristy Turner, 2016. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, The Experiment. Available wherever books are sold. theexperimentpublishing.com