The Vegan Cook’s Bible – Interview
May 18, 2009 by Michelle Smith
Filed under Recipes
The Vegan Cook’s Bible, by Pat Crocker, is great addition to any cook’s kitchen – vegan or not. Eating meatless is healthy, economical, and can be better for the environment.
So far, my favorite recipe is the Sweet Potato and Wild Rice Cakes that are on page 308. 
A combination of two types of rice, diced sweet potatoes, shredded vegetables, and rosemary – yum. I look forward to using my own fresh sweet potatoes for this recipe next Fall.
I had the opportunity to ask Pat Crocker a few questions that I’m hopeful will help beginning vegans. Please come back tomorrow and you will have the chance to win a copy of The Vegan Cook’s Bible for yourself.
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Blisstree: Many people want to make changes to their diet, whether for ethical or health reasons. What is the easiest way to transition to a Vegan diet?
Pat Crocker:For me, the easiest transition was to explore the Vegan diet one day a week. That way, I and my family had time to think about just that one day’s food without our whole foodstyle being turned topsy-turvy. Once we were comfortable with finding recipes we liked and enjoying fresh plant ingredients, we ventured out to two days and it didn’t take long before we found that we had totally changed our eating habits and only wanted vegan foods.
Blisstree: Busy people like to have a handful of go-to recipes to fall back on. Can you recommend a few quick, healthy, flavorful favorites?
Pat Crocker: I have always loved roasted vegetables and so naturally, the rich and slightly sweet flavors of roasted vegetables were the first recipes I developed for this book and they have remained my favorites. Dishes such as Roasted Zucchini Shells with Almond Filing (page 281); Lentil and Rice Bowl (page 309); one-pot dinners like Corn, Beans and Squash Bake with Oat Nut Topping (page 275); stir-fry dishes such as Vegetable Paella (page 295) and of course, pasta and grains- see my Moroccan Couscous (page 319) are all relatively fast and easy to make.
Thanks, Pat!
Image credit: Barnes and Noble.com
It’s a shame that you didn’t ask Pat Crocker why she has written a book about a diet that she doesn’t understand – she recommends eating fish, which is shocking in a book ostensibly about a plant based diet. I would warn any vegan against buying this book – if the author’s understanding of what constitutes a plant is so vague, how can anything else be trusted?