Seitan and Beyond: Gluten and Soy-Based Meat Analogues for the Ethical Gourmet

As a vegetarian for 45 years, I was interested in this book from a different perspective than new vegans transitioning to a plant-based diet using meat analogues. I have rarely used meat analogues since I became a vegetarian and easily create vegan dinners without them. I don't "miss" meat of any kind, but I still enjoy chewing on flavorful, meaty foods. Although commercially available meat analogs have improved in quality over the years, they are often highly processed. I feel that using them regularly is contrary to a healthy, whole foods diet. However, when my local source for fresh, traditional seitan disappeared, I decided to make my own. There was no way I was going to eat what passes for seitan in those little expensive, vacuum-packed packages. This book offered that basic recipe and many other interesting vegan "meats." It is an astonishingly creative book, and over the past couple of years, I have enjoyed making some of these dinners. Chef Conroy's instructions are very detailed and easy to follow to success. Although it does take some time to make these foods, it is really quite simple. The basic ingredients required are vital wheat gluten, tofu, garbanzo bean flour, miso, TVP, and easily obtained condiments such as Tamari soy sauce and vegan Worcestershire sauce. Making these analogs from scratch is not only much healthier than purchasing them but is also much more cost effective. His vegan versions of classic sauces, gravies, glazes and condiments which are included in this book are an invaluable resource all on their own. He recommends making your own simmering stocks, which I agree makes a huge difference, although you can use good quality, prepared stocks as well. This will never be my primary way of creating vegan dinners, but it expands my culinary world to have these recipes in it. I highly recommend the book to all interested in plant-based cooking.

(This is Blake's wife) I have cooked the chik'n cutlets, and tonight I did the Prime beaf, and OMG, heaven in your mouth. I miss meat, I am WFPB (vegan, sort of) for health reasons, had to fix a bunch of medical issues with diet because I seem to be allergic to most medications. I've had to do a little substituting here and there, because of stuff I didn't have access to (where in the hell do you get porcini powder? I had morels that I had harvested and dried from last season, they did just fine), but, so far, this man is a genius. Period. Some of his stuff is a little heavier on the fats than I'd like, but these recipes are awesome. Not a big fan of the porq, but I think that was because my gluten was gone off. Will try again with fresh, and wrap it tighter, it kinda exploded in my oven. Got bunches of stuff I can sub for the fats. Yeah, pics would be nice, but WTH, I can read instructions.After cooking the Prime Beaf and the fako chicken (OMG, heaven when you put the cutlets in an air fryer and dip them in sweet chili sauce), I can get over animal products really easily. I love meat, but I don't love what you get with it, saturated fat, hormones, GMO feed, cholesterol, and these days, who knows what they put in things these days anymore. Not to mention that factory farming is pretty ugly. Animal products were literally killing me, I was in so much pain from a couple of auto-immune diseases. Cut out the animal products, and 4 months later, I was feeling better. But I wanted the occasional meaty tasting food. Thanks Skye. I can now have meat without actually eating it. Can't say enough about this cookbook.

This has become the most important cookbook I own -- now I can take any cookbook and make just about any recipe. So I make Thai chicken with cashews, for example, using the "chickun" strips from this book, and when I make pizza I can now put slices of "pepperoni" or "sausage" on it. I have never in my life craved a meatball parmigiana sub (hero, grinder, hoagie -- whatever they call it in your neck of the woods), but with the meatballs from this book, it's delicious. Tomorrow we're having breaded and fried "porq" cutlets, and the Turkish pizza (traditionally a lamb dish) that I'm making tonight is with this book's "beaf crumbles." Sure, there are lots of good vegetarian and vegan recipes and cookbooks, but humans have been cooking meat since the invention of fire, and every culture has a rich heritage of meat-based cuisine. Now we can make those dishes as well.Don't let the "text-only" nature of the book dissuade you. Sure, pictures would be great. You don't need them.And you should understand that all these things take plenty of work. Lots of them require making a vegetable stock first, lots of them require baking and then simmering, and most of them require refrigeration overnight or thereabouts. You'll be working on tomorrow's dinner, not tonight's. Oh well, enjoy it. The "porq" cutlets I just made were more work than buying pork at a supermarket, but a lot less work than raising, slaughtering, and then butchering a pig...Last thing: If you're thinking you can buy these "fake meat" products at the store and just use those, you're wrong. Those are at best okay every once in a while; they don't measure up in the long run. Maybe one day.