Vegan Japaneasy by Tim Anderson Cookbook Review
Vegan Japaneasy by Tim Anderson Cookbook Review
Cooking Japanese food through a vegan lens
Ever wanted to know how to cook Japanese food, but vegan? The thought hadn’t crossed my mind until recently, at a dinner with a vegan friend. She pointed me in the direction of Vegan Japaneasy by Tim Anderson. It’s a cookbook, she said, that would make me think twice about vegan cooking.
Interest suitably piqued, I started cooking through some of the recipes in Vegan Japaneasy. And I’ve gotta say I’m surprised at how easy it is to create delicious vegan Japanese food at home.
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What are the recipes like in Vegan Japaneasy by Tim Anderson?
Vegan Japaneasy is a gorgeous cookbook. The cover is all pink and rose gold, and the pages are edged in a vibrant purple. It’s a feast for the eyes and would make a great coffee table book or gift.
Luckily, most of the recipes are also good.
Vegan Japaneasy begins with a section describing the power of umami. Tim credits umami with delivering a savouriness to food, and Japanese cooking is filled with it. So how can we inject vegan food with the same deliciousness? Apparently really easily. Tim describes how to wield nori seaweed and dried mushrooms to impart that umami ‘meatiness’ without using meat.
And there are also a couple of different recipes for a basic vegan dashi, using dried mushrooms instead of tuna-based katsubuoshi.
Next up is a section on essential vegan Japanese ingredients. There are a lot of traditional Japanese elements that you can use to up the tastiness and eliminate animal products. Obviously things like tofu and soy sauce, but also rice vinegar, miso and mirin. I haven’t come across any ingredients that I couldn’t find at a bigger grocery store, or at an oriental supermarket (if you live near one).
So what are the recipes in Vegan Japaneasy like? They start with an interesting and often funny introduction, followed by a list of ingredients and method. And as you’d expect from a book with ‘easy’ in the title, everything seems pretty straightforward to make.
Each recipe also has a facing, full page picture of what the end result will be. The photography is gorgeous and its printed on matte, thick paper.
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Proper miso soup recipe
I was always going to try Tim’s proper miso soup recipe first. After all, it’s one of my favourite things to eat for a quick weekday lunch.
Tim’s recipe uses lashings of red miso, stirred into a hot dashi base. I’m using instant dashi powder, but Vegan Japaneasy has 3 or 4 different recipes to make vegan dashi from scratch.
On top of this classic miso base, Vegan Japaneasy also tells you to add dried mushrooms which give real depth of flavour, and leeks that melt down to buttery slivers. Wakame seaweed amps up the savouriness, and tofu and snap peas give great texture. It’s a good miso soup recipe, no doubt about it.
Stir-fried cabbage and bean sprouts with ginger sauce recipe
I really like this stir fry recipe because it takes vegetables to the next level. And it’s simple to cook, using just cabbage and bean sprouts with a massive whack of ginger. The stir fried vegetables go great with Japanese rice if you can get, or just any rice. The secret is definitely in the excess of ginger. It’s warming and satisfying.
Japanese-style celeriac steak recipe
It’s with a heavy heart that I’ve gotta say this recipe doesn’t work for me. I take it quite personally when a recipe doesn’t work, so the disappointment is real.
The method seems all wrong for a start. There isn’t enough time given to properly cook the celeriac through, without totally burning the exterior. And even then, because the celeriac is sliced so thick, I still think it’d be partly raw in the middle (and not in a good way). So you end up with a plate full of a woody vegetable that’s blackened on the outside, but has only a superficial char.
And even though Vegan Japaneasy tells you to use a lot of dressing, it’s still not enough to really get into the heart of the your thick, semi-raw slabs of celeriac. So, as well as being uncooked, it’s also bland. Pft.
Yakisoba recipe
Vegan Japaneasy has some great rice and noodle recipes, and the Yakisoba with carrots and hispi cabbage is a winner. It’s got great flavour from a sauce that uses dashi powder and ketchup, among other more likely ingredients like mirin and sesame oil.
I’d say that you could easily double the wet ingredients for more impact – which is what I did the second time I made it. It’s definitely a case of more is more with this one.
Rough night rice recipe
Tim Anderson’s rough night rice is one of my new favourite ways to make rice. It’s delicious. And it also sums up Vegan Japaneasy really well, as a cookbook full of strong flavours that come together in the best way.
So what’s different about this rice recipe? Kimchi. Yep, I know. Kimchi isn’t Japanese, it’s Korean. But Tim says it’s been so widely adopted in Japan that it makes sense to have it in a Japanese cookbook. I’m not complaining, because it makes this dish ah-mazing. Also on hand to add even more flavour are vegan sausages, jalapenos, garlic, lime and hot chilli sauce. It’s a beaut of a recipe.
Overall thought on Vegan Japaneasy by Tim Anderson
All in all I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Tim Anderson’s version of Japanese food, through a vegan lens. Although I’m not vegan, it’s made a really nice change to cook things without animal products. Just to know that you can do it is a gift in itself. And although I had a little mishap with one of the recipes, I think Vegan Japaneasy is a nice cookbook overall.
Buy Vegan Japaneasy by Tim Anderson.
