I Bought A Book: Isa Does It

Like any good veggie cook book obsessive I bought my copy of Isa Does It as soon as I could. I'd usually link here to Amazon or wherever I bought the book but I wanted one of the US editions and ordered it imported from two places, both of which screwed up my order so I have nothing to recommend. Except the book of course.

So Isa Does it is the new book from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and there is a lot of things to recommend about it. If you get this book, and you should, the first thing you'll notice about it is that it's huge. 311 pages, hardback and gorgeous. We're talking full colours, plenty of pictures, drool worthy fonts. It's a huge book packed full of really pretty things and I love it.

Also there are recipes. I know that it's taken three paragraphs so let's just get to the pictures and I'll explain what I made.

Sticky Orange Chicky Stir-fry

Sticky Orange Chicky Stir-fry is a revelation. It's amazing. The chicky in this case is Seitan, sliced and browned to crisp, chewy glory. The veggies are lovely and then you put sauce on it. And the sauce is just pure tangy, sweet, happiness. I loved this.

Alphabet soup

I really tried hard to spell a message out in the middle of the soup like the picture in the book but that's really hard, so sorry. This is a great basic vegetable soup which I was really happy to serve. It has potatoes in to make Stephen happy and pasta  in to make me smile. I left out the celery because I can't touch it without breaking into a rash but otherwise the recipe is perfect. And really I'm not expecting authors to take my allergies into account when writing this stuff. I have a hight opinion of myself but not that high.

Tempeh Meatballs and Spaghetti

My second attempt at a meal appropriate for both Stephen and me was the Tempeh Meatballs and Spaghetti. I got double the amount of meatballs that night. Sometimes Stephen being picky does me really big favours because I loved these meatballs. I had a go-to meatball recipe and a go-to tempeh meatball recipe but this one is better than anything I've tried.

Bistro Beet Burgers

I've also made the Bistro Beet Burgers. Why I made them was is basically the story of why Isa Does It is so great. I've been meaning to make these burgers since they appeared on the PPK blog in 2012. I was growing vegetables professionally and surrounded by beetroot in 2012 so why didn't I make them.

Making your own veggie burgers takes ages and is a pain in the ass. Or so I thought. The recipe lists an active time of 20 minutes and I thought sure. Whatever. But I had all afternoon to make them so I went ahead and did it. I made my own almond butter, cooked the rice and lentils myself. That didn't even take more than half an hour. The rest of the burger took... about 20 minutes of active time. My mind is blown.

Those Tempeh Meatballs? Quick and easy. The soup and the stir-fry? Quick and easy. The Lentil-A-Roni which was impossible to take a picture of was really easy to cook. These recipes are either all super quick or they take a long time but you don't need to do anything for that time. This is a perfect everyday cook book. I love involved recipes but most of the time I don't have time to be that involved. So I need simple, quick tasty. Anything that means we don't waste money on take-aways or supplementing our diets with snacks.

This book just makes life so much easier. And yummier.