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introduction

I have particularly enjoyed writing this book of vegan – or dairy-free vegetarian – recipes. When I first started writing about vegetarian cookery, part of the pleasure for me lay in the challenge of creating delicious dishes from a limited range of ingredients, and in people’s surprise when they realized how good they could be.

In many ways, being a vegan today feels similar to how it felt being vegetarian when I began my career. Now, though, vegetarianism is pretty mainstream – eating out, buying ingredients or ready-made meals are all relatively easy, and friends and acquaintances no longer recoil in dismay at the thought of having to cook for a vegetarian. Vegans today, however, have much the same difficulties vegetarians used to have. Packets in shops have to be scrutinized carefully – whey seems to be in almost everything; the choice when eating out or buying prepared foods is often limited and, yes, you’ve guessed it, friends find it difficult to know what to cook, exclaiming, “Well what on earth do you eat, then?” They worry, too, about whether or not malnutrition has set in, perhaps destroying a few brain cells along the way.

Poet Benjamin Zephaniah explains what vegans eat more eloquently than I ever could in his rap poem “Vegan Delight” – my warmest thanks to him for allowing me to include it. This book gives around 160 recipes and variations for creating some of the dishes he mentions and others which I have found to be easy to make and good to eat. And here, I’ve suggested some vegan menus to give you a few ideas for combining the recipes. Regarding the nutritional aspect of a vegan diet, I have discussed the main issues of concern here, and I am indebted to Dr Michael Klaper for permission to use his nutrition chart. Follow this and you’ll eat well and feel fit and full of vitality.