Epic Vegan: Wild and Over-the-Top Plant-Based Recipes (2024)

***Advance Review Copy generously provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What can I say? The cover is just selling the cookbook!

However, after reading it, I'm not sold.

I have to start by saying that I'm not a vegan, I just don't eat meat. However, I'm all in for a full vegan food, those tend to be so delicious! But I'm not a fan of dishes like vegan some-traditional-meat-dish-where-the-meat-is-replaced-with-tofu/seitan-or-whatever. I prefer it when the recipes do not try to be a meat dish without the meat, especially with Czech traditional dishes where you usually have a lot of heavy sauces.

As for this cookbook, I wrote down several recipes which I'm going to try. Especially with Cauliflower! I love Cauliflower.

But this cookbook is crying for more pictures; there are only a few which are lovely. I wish there was more of them because it would show the dishes way better.

All cookbooks I ever bought had a picture for all or at least 95% recipes. I need to see what I'm going to cook.

This is a book that will be fabulous for some people and just good for others. Even folks who are not vegan (or not even vegetarian) are likely to enjoy it, but there are some drawbacks for some.

The good--

These recipes are truly epic. These are the sort of dishes you see on shows like "Diners, Dives and Drive-ins" where people drive for hours to get them, or treats that are offered by restaurants trying to out-junkify the competition (think burgers loaded with mac and cheese and bacon, or made with donuts for the buns with a fried egg and cheese in there for good measure). If you lust over those recipes but can't have them because no vegan ones are available, now you can make your own.

The photos and food styling are fantastic. The shakes look impossibly decadent, for instance, with stacks of things like brownies and whipped cream and so on. All of the photos look like something from a drool-worthy ad campaign or late night cravings menu.

The sauce section alone made me consider purchasing it. There are simple, tasty recipes for everything from caramel sauce to red and white barbecue sauce to tartar sauce and more. The ingredients are also mainly real foods like cashews and spices, rather than just store bought processed imitations.

The recipes are indulgent, and likely to appeal to folks who really miss comfort food, late night cravings food, over-the-top desserts and so on.

The bad--

There are not a lot of photos. The ones it has are fabulous, but most recipes don't have one. There are some spreads that show a lot of the recipes in that section in one photo, plus some recipes do have one or even two photos, but this isn't a cookbook with a photo for each recipes. This especially matters in a few recipes that are a little hard to follow, such as the fried phish, which involves wrapping tofu slices in nori and then coating and deep frying it. I really wanted to know what wrapping it looked like and what the finished phish sticks were supposed to look like.

This is incredibly wheat-based. Gluten free vegans are likely to be discouraged by how much wheat and gluten is everywhere. There are entire sections that are just about wheat, like the bread chapter, but most recipes also call for flour for breading and so on. Experienced gluten free cooks can figure out how to swap out flours for recipes (such as which ones will work for the mushroom gravy recipe) but you can't generally just swap GF flour mixes one for one even when the flours promise you can. The many recipes for brownies, waffles, pizza, donuts, etc. will all be out, which doesn't honestly leave a lot for GF folks other than the said sauce chapter or using their own recipes to put together the dishes.

Most of the recipes are very time intensive. Many of the dishes involve making multiple recipes and putting them together (making meat patties and macaroni and cheese and layering them on a bun with a bunch of other stuff, for instance). This isn't a typical weeknight cookbook.

There is no nutritional information provided. Looking at the ingredients in many of them, I can guess that a single recipe would often total in the range of the total number of calories I'm supposed to consume in a day for my weight and age. Many are quite high in fat and low in protein and fiber.

As mentioned, most of these are decidedly junk food recipes. These would be great for an occasional splurge but it's mostly processed white flour that's fried and then put together with a bunch of other high calorie, low nutrition food. There are almost no fruits and vegetables in the whole book, other than the occasional salad or fruit add-in (like mangos in the over the top shakes).

Some processed fake foods are required for many of the recipes and no homemade recipes are provided. While there is a recipe for homemade cream cheese, you're expected to buy imitation vegan versions of shredded cheese, cheese slices, etc.

This is definitely a fun cookbook, and one I do recommend. As mentioned, it will be a better fit for some folks than others. You might want to alternate the recipes with some nice green smoothies though.

My rating system:
1 = hated it
2 = it was okay
3 = liked it
4 = really liked it
5 = love it, plan to purchase, and/or would buy it again if it was lost

I read a digital ARC of the book for the purpose of review.

REVISED VERSION!

Thank you to the publisher's for sending me another copy that had actual content between the endpapers.

Yes, the book has a boisterous title, I stand by that, but it delivers, add a pinch of humour and a side of reality, and you have a wonderful cookbook. Honestly, Mr Harder, wants to make cooking a joy and not slaving at the stove, following recipes that have weird ingredients and even weirder instructions.

My personal favourite is the very first recipe in the book, Quinoa Bacon Bits. Who doesn't love bacon? Here's a vegan variant that works not only for the potato soup recipe on p. 140, but with a lot of other recipes.

Speaking of potato soup. My father likes potato soup in a particular way and with lots of bacon in it. Mr Harder, Dustin, I fooled him with your bacon bits, so that is a very big win in my book.

In conclusion, I agree, this cookbook has epic recipes that are easy to follow. As a part-time vegan, I might not try all of them, but I am definitely trying to cook as many as I can.

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Boisterous title! Wonderful cover picture!

BUT my review copy had little to no content between the ToC and Index. Shame! I would have loved to find out more about the epic food, not just read a few snippets about the author and look at a few pictures of yummy food.

The few pictures are exquisit. I would have liked to try out one of the recipes the book is hinting at and see whether I can follow the author's instructions easily. Alas there wasn't a single recipe in this book. I found one paragraph with part of the instructions for preparation.

I've been looking forward to this one. Having previously stumbled across his YouTube channel and later purchased his first cookbook, when I saw he was working on another, my interest was piqued. Happily, there are many more options available for vegans and vegetarians these days, but there's always room for more! There's a lot to like here. Most fried recipes include the option of baking instead which is nice. Ingredients are listed by weight as well as volume - this is one of my pet peeves with cookbooks since weight is so much more accurate and means fewer dishes to wash so big thanks for this! If you don't already have one, a small digital scale can be had for around $10 and it's so worth the small investment! The photos included are nicely-shot, but I do wish there were more of them. It's always fun to browse through a cookbook and choose a recipe based on the final product image. So far, I've only made the Fudgy AF Brownies (easy to follow directions, no weird ingredients and YUM!), but I have a ridiculous number of other recipes marked to try. As with any cookbook, not every recipe will appeal to every cook, but I think Dustin has provided enough variety here to please just about anyone (not just vegans). I'll definitely be adding this one to my own collection of vegan cookbooks!

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group – Fair Winds Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Epic Vegan is an ebullient, playful, fun cookbook, full of whimsical photography of the food and the author, and recipes that sound delightfully, unhealthily delicious, from the creator and host of The Vegan Roadie. This isn't a cookbook for people in a rush on a weeknight who need something easy to make, as the author states in his introduction. Instead, it's a joyful love letter to the fun of playing with food and to the decadent flavor possibilities of vegan food, flavors that are meant to be accessible to vegans and carnivores and every human in between. Harder calls this "stunt food", food that is extravagantly delicious and attention-getting. His playful, non-judgmental exuberance rings throughout the text and photos of the book and in his personal stories of life with his husband and his extended family and friends.
The only part of the book that didn't really strike me as consistent with its fun and joyful theme was the simple, sometimes dense, black font throughout the book. I gave up on trying to read the electronic advance copy I had, and waited til it came to my library instead. Even so, it can be hard on the eyes. As much photography as there is throughout the book, many recipes don't actually have an accompanying photo, so there can be page after page of dense black and white text.
The only other possible party pooping element of this book is if you have food allergies or other dietary restrictions. The author has apparently attempted to include less soy in his creations, but manages to do so by relying HEAVILY on gluten-containing products. Vital wheat gluten, all-purpose flour, bread crumbs, baked goods, and seitan are on heavy rotation in the recipes. Nuts, especially cashews, also figure heavily in the recipes. I wouldn't recommend these recipes to anyone who is trying to eat vegan for health reasons, either--they are full of refined and/or saturated fats, such as vegan mayo and coconut milk, and processed foods (although there are also many recipes for basic items that can be used in recipes throughout the book). These recipes are wild and over-the-top, as the cover says, and are meant to be fun and decadent and delicious, not healthy. There's no shame in that. It's just a consideration for any reader of the book.
Despite the elaborate, if playful recipes, this cookbook is actually quite practical. The kitchen equipment called for is fairly simple and standard--some pots and pans and a blender and food processor. There's a list of the more obscure ingredients mentioned throughout the book, with suggestions for acquisition or substitution, and cooking hacks featured throughout as well. The recipes are written up in an orderly and easy to understand way, with simpler recipes featured in the first section of the book, with progressively more complicated recipes in the following two sections. Many of the basic recipes, for sauces and other ingredients to later dishes, can be used on multiple recipes throughout the book, so you shouldn't be left standing with the remnant of a batch of Cheesiest Cheese Sauce or Aquafaba Whip that you don't know what to do with.
These recipes remind me somewhat of recipes by Chef Chloe Coscarelli, who has written several cookbooks I enjoyed and now has an eponymous line of fast casual restaurants. While they aren't healthful exactly, they offer a painless way ahead for those who want to eat vegan without sacrificing favorite tastes and textures, and may, as Harder says, serve as a guide to a healthier lifestyle. He says, "Vegans can create fun, irreverent, and exciting food too!"
While my health and dietary restrictions mean that I won't be trying the vast majority of these recipes, there are some, especially many basic recipes, that do sound worth trying for me. I'm especially intrigued by Quinoa Bacon Bits, Dreamy Creamy Cream Cheese, Carrot Lox, "Lobster" Rolls, Silky Sunflower Caramel Sauce, Carby Carbonara, Keep It Clean Bowl (a lettuce bowl! how have I not thought of that sooner?!), and I Try to Think About Elvis Ice Cream. I look forward to trying them and hopefully incorporating them into my plant-focused diet.
Thank you to #Netgalley and Quarto Publishing for letting me read an advanced copy of #EpicVegan in exchange for my honest opinion. If you're looking for fun and fanciful vegan dishes, and don't have a lot of dietary restrictions, I hope that you too will pick up a copy and check these recipes out.

This cookbook is full of interesting recipes. The premise is that you can take “basic” recipes and then play with them to create epic variations. You can use a cheese sauce with a bread and seitan for a sandwich or perhaps use the cheese sauce on pasta or on a baked potato. The first chapter has “the basics” and then lists other recipes they can be used in. The rest of the chapters include: sauces, breads, appetizers, giant handheld foods, pizza, pasta, bowls (made of food), beverages and sweets. Some of the recipes looked intriguing but as usual, living where I do overseas, many of the ingredients are not readily available. I can see this as a gift to a vegan wanting to try something different. I did find out that the author has a website with recipes, programs from the past and other items that I plan to look at in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto-Fair Winds for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4 Stars

I am not a vegan or a vegetarian even, but oh my God these recipes look amazing. This book is full of food that looks amazing, sounds amazing and from the ingredients you can tell will be tasty. I tried the ‘fried chicken’ noodle soup tonight and it’s so tasty. The book is well laid out, easy to navigate with clear chapters and subheadings. It’s bright and attractive with appealing photos. I think this is one of the best cook books I’ve seen in a long time. Highly recommended (and this is from a non vegan). I think this will be great to encourage nay-sayers who pull their faces when you say vegan. Brilliant.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Sometimes creating delicious vegan meals can be a chore, you end up stuck in a rut using the same safe ingredients and find the prospect of experimenting too much effort... look no further than Epic Vegan, for this book puts the fun back into food!
The recipes are delicious, full of flavour, texture and nutrition, but there are plenty of comforting (junk) options too.
With easy to follow recipes and bright, colourful photos this is a must have guide for die-hard vegans or those looking to embrace a more plant based way of life.

Epic vegan is an amazing book. Filled with information and awesome recipes. I cannot wait to try them all. So good.

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Epic Vegan is a cookbook full of hearty and satisfyingly tasty classic plant based recipes with an American slant by Dustin Harder. Released 9th July 2019 from Quarto on their Fair Winds Press imprint, it's 192 pages and available in hardcover and ebook formats.

As the author says in the introduction, plant based dishes have an undeserved reputation for being bland and boring. People who love bacon, Philly cheese-steaks, pizza, fried chicken, and BBQ burgers tend to think that vegan cuisine has nothing to tempt them. This book has recipes for all of the above and more.

The book is laid out logically. Staples and recipes for ingredients are followed by categories like beads, appetizers/snacks, handheld food (burgers, sandwiches, etc), pizza, pasta, soups/bowls, drinks, desserts, etc.

Some of the ingredients could prove difficult to source unless the reader has access to vegetarian specific ingredients or specialty suppliers. The rest of the ingredients should be buy-able at any well stocked large grocery.

There's a lot of humor and whimsy in the instructions and recipe names: the pastabilities are endless, cheesus take the wheel, etc. I found it amusing; serious foodies might take exception (lighten up, it's supposed to be fun).

I really feel that moving toward a plant based diet will solve a lot of problems for our resource management as well as provide positive health benefits for all of us. I do think that there is room for a cookbook based on 'cheater' recipes which attempt to replicate meat heavy dishes. I've only tried a handful of the included recipes but we found them tasty and anything but bland. The cover photo is a good indication of the style of recipes included in this cookbook.

Many (but not all) of the dishes are photographed and the photography is lush, clear, and beautifully appealing. I must say, however, that many of these recipes require quite a bit of prep-time. They are mostly 'cooking on the weekend' type recipes and not so much 'I worked all day, the dog threw up in the lounge, and my toddler is naked and running around with her undies on her head for the 34th time today' type recipes. I feel better for having said that (no judging here).

This is the go-to book for veg*ns who want to convince their omnivorous friends and family that plant based meals are not boring and bland.

Five stars, very well done. The flower petal unicorn french bread pizza is -really- beautiful (but all my friends took the petals off before they ate the pizza, cowards).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Truly over the top recipes.

I’m a huge fan of cookbooks and love to find ones that while may not appeal to me directly, help me find recipes for when friends who have different dietary needs or interest come to dinner. This was the case with EPIC VEGAN.

While only a few of the recipes sounded appealing to me (see above: I’m not vegan), they would definitely be appealing to the friends I have that are. The big things I look for in all cookbooks, though, were missing from this. I felt that 1) there aren’t enough pictures. Especially in a situation like this where it’s dietary specific, it’s helpful to know what you are aiming for on a visual level. Minus one star for that. The other huge thing, in my opinion, that is missing is a nutritional value breakdown, which absolutely should be in a book like this.

50/52 books read in 2019.
Provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Really my one criticism of this book is the reusing of recipes from the front of the book to make more complicated recipes at the end of the book. I mean, it sounds great in theory, until you realize you would have to have the book open at 4 different pages to make one recipe. Unless, of course, you've memorize them, rewrite them on a separate piece of paper, or, you know, own this book in four-fold (great for the author, looks a little silly on your bookshelf).

Having said that, this book is beautiful. Great recipes, decadent food completely made vegan, and gorgeous food photography. I mean, what more could a vegan enthusiast want?
I also think the selection of recipes makes this a perfect book for anyone who complains about how boring vegan food is, because this book is anything but boring.

So 4 stars, with an definite round up if you plan to use it regularly enough to make the recipes from memory in the future.

*thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review*
I’ve been vegetarian for 3 and a half years now and I still get really excited when I see new recipes that look amazing! This book is FILLED with those. I still have to try some of them like that Fried Chicken noodle soup was so calling my name and the Fudgy Af Brownies! For now, me and my friends got together and tried to make the All-American Burgers. We didn’t have every ingredient ( like the Vital Wheat Gluten ) but the results were still pretty good, a tad mushy but I think that was a bit of our fault. My friends gave the recipe in between 3 and 4 stars but it did mess with our stomachs sooo we’ll give that particular recipe 3,5 stars. Overall it could have more pictures because I love seeing what the food should actually look like BUT I just can’t give it less than 4 stars, it has so much potential good recipes and I’m here for it!

Fair Winds Press and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Epic Vegan: Wild and Over-the-Top Plant-Based Recipes. I was under no obligation to review this cookbook and my opinion is freely given.

Epic Vegan is chock-full of exciting food recipes that will have readers looking at vegan eating in a whole new light. With mouthwatering photographs accompanying many of the recipes, this cookbook brings to mind the old adage "you eat with your eyes". Eaters will be hard pressed to miss the meat with these delicious and varied offerings. The author clearly had fun with this cookbook and did not take anything but the recipes too seriously.

The cookbook is divided into different sections, each with recipes that boast over-the-top flavor profiles that are insanely good. There are Basics like Easy Creamy Shells and Cheese and Crispy Drive-Thru Potato Wedges. In the Sauces and Dips section, stand out recipes include Beet Mozzarella and Fuss-Free Tartar Sauce. Breads like Pizza Dough and Crispy Cream Donuts will make readers scrambling to make more. The Appetizer section has varied offerings such as Sweet Chili co*cktail Peanuts and Breakfast Nachos. In the Handheld section, recipes range from ones like Breakfast Platter Dog to Mac Daddy Crunch Burrito. Pizzas include unique recipes like Franks n' Mac Pizza, while the Pasta section boasts more mainstream offerings like Lobster Mac and Cheese. I am most excited to try the recipes in the Bowls of Stuff section, with finished dishes such as Wonton Bowls with Garlic-Fried Quinoa and Loaded Baked Potato Soup. Both the Shakes section and the Desserts have tantalizing recipes that include Cookie Dough Frostee and Power Tower Brownie Sundae.

Overall, this cookbook has the power to change the opinions of non-vegan eaters, while happily expanding the palate of those who eat this way on a daily basis. For this reason, I would recommend Epic Vegan to those new to the cuisine and those who enjoy the vegan lifestyle.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Fair Winds Press for an early copy of Epic Vegan by Dustin Harder. This cookbook was so fun to read. Dustin Harder defines epic food as food to wow and that is really true of this cookbook. This book is dedicated to “all the adults who still like to play with their food.” I am not vegan or even vegetarian, but I do like to try all different recipes and I really enjoyed trying the recipes in this book.

This book starts with a very detailed table of contents listing all recipes, not just the chapter headings. And as you go through the recipes, there are “create your epic” sections which tell you how to use that recipe with other recipes…use this sauce over here, etc. The majority of the ingredients are easy to find and the few that are not, the author states are used to take the recipe to the next level, so are definitely worth the trouble of finding them. There is not a picture next to each recipe, which is usually a negative to me, but the recipes were so fun to read, I did not even notice this until I was almost to the end of the book. Many recipes do have pictures and some recipes are featured in group pictures with several recipes shown at once.

Now onto the food, some of my favorite recipes from this book were:
-Quinoa Bacon Bits (this book starts strong, this is the first recipe in the book)
-Easy Creamy Shells and Cheese
-Fudgy AF Brownies
-Sweet Thai Chili Sauce
-Breakfast Nachos
-Bacon Cinnamon Roll Burger with Peanut Butter
-Sweet Thai Peanut Cauliflower Tacos
-Almost Famous Buffalo Chicken Lasagna
-Epic PB&J Bars
-S’mores Cookie Cups

I really enjoyed this book, both just reading it and cooking from it. There is a wide variety of recipes from breakfast, to dinner, to dessert, to sauces, to bacon bits! I highly recommend you go out and get this book today!

An unusual cookery book containing vegan recipes from Dustin Harder, also known as The Vegan Roadie.

It contains ten chapters of plant based recipes, starting with the basics though if you just look at the recipe titles on the contents page, chicken, meats and bacon do feature as names; it feels a little wrong to see those if its a vegan book, even if it's not real bacon, meats or chicken being used.

The other nine chapters cover Sauces, Breads, Nibbles, Handheld, Pizza, Pasta, Bowls of stuff, Shakes and Desserts. There is also an introduction in the book which explains the tools required, ingredients and staples along with how the chapters work.

The main recipes often refer to other recipes in the basics chapter of the book to make a complete dish and vice versa, the basics refer to the main recipes that can be used in conjunction with each other.

Each recipe comes with its own introduction, all the ingredients required in both imperial and metric measurements, how much it makes and plenty of steps to follow. Not all dishes have a photograph to accompany them. The recipes also include tips, such as how to press tofu or adding extra seasoning when looking for a particular flavour.

It's interesting enough but a little too much going backwards and forwards between recipes for my liking and the misnaming of the foods as mentioned before doesn't feel true vegan. Also it seems odd to recommend using organic sugar but not organic flour.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

Full disclosure: I'm not a vegan. I'm not even a vegetarian, but admittedly I do enjoy working plant based meals into my repertoire. Even though I've never heard of Dustin Harder nor his TV show I was very much drawn to the cover and description of this book, which reminded me so much of the American diners that I enjoyed as a child. In fact as an adult living abroad I still gleefully visit retro American style diners that have sprouted up all over the UK. Epic Vegan is a love letter to that kind of jaw dropping, technicolour food. There are riffs on high street favourites like Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Auntie Anne's pretzels and a legendary cheddar biscuit that I'm almost certain is inspired by Red Lobster. I also loved the nostalgic comfort foods such as mac and cheese with a suggested topping of potato crisps or my personal favourite crab rangoon.
Alongside all the fun stackable foods I really appreciate the more refined recipes included for dinner party wow factor. A small gripe is that I would have liked more than just a lettuce bowl as a healthier option since surely healthy can be fun too? And I do wish that more recipes had their own accompanying photo however the ones that are included are both eye catching and fun. Because let's face it, if you're making a carbonara the final step is always to live your best Lady And The Tramp fantasy.

Fun Vegan Recipes that May Surprise You

If you’ve ever thought that vegan food is boring, this book will disabuse you of that notion! It is full of fun and tasty-looking recipes, some of which will definitely challenge what you think vegan food can or should be. The book starts with a tiny section about vegan essentials, but the book really is all about the recipes. Sections for the recipes include basics, breads, appetizers, pizza, pasta, sandwiches, and dessert. Some recipes are meant to mimic foods and textures that omnivores are familiar with, like a section on making your own fake meats; I think these kinds of recipes in particular appeal to those who are considering becoming vegan or are in the early days of following this diet. When I have tried veganism, the one thing I missed most was a creamy texture, like you get with dairy products. This book has recipes that definitely scratch that itch, with creamy dishes that don't have dairy. Other recipes are simply wholly vegan, with no reference to omnivore recipes. A simple flip through this book will show you the creativity contained within and will perhaps inspire your own. Whether you are new to veganism or are an old hand at it, this book will most likely give you plenty of fun ideas for this way of eating.

I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.

With its delicious looking recipes, this book helps making vegan cooking and baking more accessible, especially for people who aren’t used to cooking completely plant-based.
The recipes are - even while sometimes being over the top - more simple than many vegan recipes I’ve seen out there. In a good way. An example: a recipe calls for (vegan) mayonnaise. This cookbook just tells you to use store-bought (vegan) mayo instead of explaining how to make mayonnaise yourself. I loved that. Vegans don’t need to know how to diy all of their sauces, there’s stores for that. Most stores - at least here in Germany - already offer a lot of vegan products, and telling people how to make everything themselves overcomplicates things and makes veganism look more difficult than it actually is. Okay, done ranting.
While I wished there were a bit more pictures of the recipes, I’m really happy about this book and will definitely try out the „cinnadiction rolls“ soon.

- I received a free copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. -

Epic Vegan: Wild and Over-the-Top Plant-Based Recipes by Dustin Harder from Quarto Publishing Group is truly epic! A beautiful cookbook full of amazing sounding recipes and I am not a vegan though I have been trying to move in that direction. I had to try a few right away. The Fried Chicken Noodle Soup was excellent. I made it as the recipe is written with the rotini pasta and again at a friends house using some of this summers zucchini crop as zoodles. I also made Mom's Chili for a cookout and it was a hit with everyone. The recipes are formatted to be easily followed, though some ingredients may be new to some. It's easy to navigate through this book and there are beautiful pictures for most recipes and introductions to each recipe. The dessert chapter is my favorite with recipes for cakes, bars (the Sweet N Salty Bookmark bars are to die for), ice cream and more. This book will make you want to go to a vegan life style I highly recommend this book, even for other non-vegans.
I received an ARC and this is my unbiased review.

The Epic Vegan is the perfect cook book for junk food or comfort food vegans! It is also perfect for vegans who are just starting out. Rather than a bunch of complicated individual recipes, Epic Vegan begins with a few chapters of simple basic recipes, which are then used in the later chapters to make a myriad of other recipes. Essentially, if you master the first few chapters you can make anything later in the book. This is why it is great for newbies, as it starts with simple recipes and works it's way up. It also focuses on vegan alternatives to a lot of comfort food staples; fried chicken, fish, crab Rangoon, and cheese steak. My personal favorite was the vegan lobster roll (made with artichoke hearts and hearts of palm).
However, I do not think this book is for all vegans. If you are a vegan that doesn't like replacing animal products with vegan alternatives, then it may not be for you. I am usually one of those vegans, but I did still found a lot of the basics, especially the sauces, to be worth it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

Epic Vegan lives up to its title with a vast array of recipes that vary from the unusual to comforting favorites. The book is also gorgeous with full-color images and stylized pages. I enjoyed the conversational tone of the author's voice, which was very appropriate for this type of book. It was also awesome to receive a good guide to the basics that recommended many resources for vegan food. Even as a vegetarian of 28 years, there were still a few resources listed that I'd never heard of.

Some of the recipes may be a bit too out there for my rather plain tastes, but I'm sure that people who thrive on trying new things will absolutely love all of the selections. I'm already a huge fan of the book's vegan macaroni & cheese, which is the first time I've ever truly enjoyed a vegan substitute for this classic favorite.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

I really enjoyed this cookbook! I feel like the "cookbook world" has become more competitive as most people don't want a million cookbooks. The recipes need to sound enticing, look fantastic, have nutritional facts and the layout of the book itself needs to be appealing. I thought the layout of this book was very nice and fit the "epic" theme. The pictures are gorgeous and makes me want to make all of the food! I do wish there were more pictures. There were many and the ones that were in there were amazing, however, a picture for every picture would have been even better! It was unfortunately missing nutritional facts. I realize not everyone needs them but I always enjoy seeing them and they are helpful for anyone trying to improve their eating or those who need to watch certain macros, such as diabetes.

Overall though, this book is definitely worth getting! I can't wait to try some of the yummy recipes in here!!

Full disclosure: I am not a vegan, nor I am even a vegetarian. I am trying to eat less meat and a more plant-based diet.

The Quinoa Bacon Bits sound intriguing and the Avocado Sour Cream and Cinnadiction Rolls sound fantastic! The Garlicky Cheddar Biscuits sound like a great substitute for anyone who loves Red Lobster's biscuits. The Keepin' It Clean Bowl looks delicious, as do the Wonton Bowls with Garlic-Fried Quinoa.

(NetGalley ebook - I received a complimentary advanced reader copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is a beautiful book! The pictures are absolutely amazing! I love that the recipes don't call for all pre-made items and actually provide recipes to make my own seitan, "chicken" and something I have never heard of before tofu phish (which sounds super appealing). I cannot wait to create all of these amazing recipes in my kitchen. Thank you for taking vegan recipes beyond the mundane and creating truly epic meals!

Damn! I was so excited about this book. I read several rave “must have” reviews in my trusted news sources and, despite my “borrow cookbooks from the library first “ policy, I splurged and bought a used copy. Although I appreciate the occasional recipe suggestions for a healthier version, this is basically a junk food cookbook. Dress up “vegan” or any other current diet (keto, anyone?, sigh), junk is junk. Healthier than the original McDonald’s? Sure, but really? Why? If you want to eat like that, it’s waaaay easier to just stop pretending to be vegan, and own up to who you are.

First off: hell yes to all those desserts! But also, more pictures please? Maybe I'm being greedy, but I'd love to see pictures of all this epic sounding food, not just some of it. There were a few recipes that made me raise an eyebrow ("unicorn" french bread pizza where the rainbow just comes from edible flowers? pass.) but overall there was some really tasty sounding food in here that looks like real food and not just non-stop salads.

I received an advanced reader copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review. This is a beautiful vegan cookbook filled with delicious-sounding recipes using normal ingredients and photos. Hallelujah! There are many recipes in here that I want to make right away. In fact, I made two for a Christmas in July party this past weekend: the festive cheesy spinach bread and the chocolate chip cookies. Both were hits!

I'm not a vegan but I'm on a semi-vegetarian diet and this book was full of interesting new ideas I will surely try.
The recipes are clear and well explained, the pictured gorgeous, the recipes mouthwatering.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.