As those of you who have been reading Kveller for a long time and/or following The Official Mayim Bialik Page on Facebook know, I love to cook and bake. I have written about my grandmother’s legacy of teaching my mother to cook and bake (and also clean a sink like nobody’s business) who in turn taught me to cook and bake (and clean a sink like nobody’s business) and I have many times posted pretty pictures of some of the dishes I cook and bake. Of special note is my Fruit Face post but that’s not the best example of my cooking, I promise.
I love turning traditional Jewish foods vegan without sparing the deliciousness or “heimishe” taste of so many dishes I grew up with: rugelach, babka, sufganiyot, latkes, tzimmes, kugels, hamantaschen… I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that just because I am vegan, it doesn’t mean I don’t want to still make delicious food that suits all of my ethnic and gustatory needs, as well as those of my friends and family.
Over the years, many Kveller readers and Facebook friends have asked for my recipes for things such as my veganized honey cake, sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts), and hamantaschen. Vegan baking is not hard to do in general, and I have found it far less expensive than baking with eggs since eggs are dozens of times more expensive than a box of powdered egg replacer which contains dozens and dozens of egg equivalents (egg replacers like Ener-G are made from potato starch and have been touted by Bill Gates as a wonderful answer to our global environmental crisis!). The “fear” some people have of weird dry crumbly gross vegan food is not a reality, and as the cookbook and restaurant industry have been reflecting, if done right, vegan food can be fantastic.
Anyway, I have a vegan cookbook of 100 of my favorite recipes coming out in February called Mayim’s Vegan Table. It contains all of the recipes Kveller readers have been asking me to share as well as the recipes that I most frequently make for my family that no one complains about. I also feature recipes I make for non-vegans which they don’t complain about and often remark, “THIS is vegan!? I never would have guessed!” To me, that’s a compliment.
The goal of this book was to not use a ton of fake “meat” or fake “cheese.” The goal was to share actual recipes I actually make as an actual mom. The goal was to share recipes that are not expensive and don’t require weird ingredients from supermarkets that make you wonder if you should get a second and third job so that you can continue to shop there. The goal of this book was to not be a pretentious celebrity mom, but to show you the things I really make and eat which my kids and friends really eat. We have a few chapters which Dr. Jay Gordon, pediatric nutritionist, contributed nutritional information for, and it’s a fun book with a very light touch which I hope you will all like.
Above is the first peek of the cover of the book. The book doesn’t come out until February but I will keep updating you on its progress and there will be lots of fun press to do in February and book giveaways and the like.
Enjoy!
Pre-order Mayim’s Vegan Table on Amazon here, and a portion of the proceeds will go to support her work on Kveller.
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