Enemy of the Steak: Vegetarian recipes to win friends and influence meat-eaters by Nikki & David Goldbeck

The introduction in this cookbook was very well thought out.  The neat and easy to read informational section houses organized lists of pantry staples and how to store them, ingredient explanations, and a unique chapter of how-to’s and guides.  Toasting nuts and seeds, roasting garlic, making tomato puree, cooking dried beans and grains, steaming versus stewing, guides to oven roasting, grilling, and pressure cooking vegetables … it’s all in there.

Once I was able to pull myself from the introductory chapters, I began perusing the recipes.  This is a vegetarian cookbook, which means no meat or seafood.  You will find recipes that call for honey, dairy, and eggs, but not many.  Dairy alternatives (such as soymilk) are typically used rather than milk (yogurt is really the only dairy ingredient I saw used with any regularity), and, in general, for every egg-rich dish, you will find several tofu alternative recipes. For this reason, I would definitely rate this cookbook as useful for dairy-free and vegan diets. 

However, this is a very soy-heavy cookbook.  In some cases you could intuitively substitute a non-soy ingredient, but in most cases the soymilk, tofu, or soy flour called for seemed as though they might be required. Honestly, there were more recipes containing tofu than I have ever seen in a single cookbook. Like many, I have to limit my soy protein consumption for health reasons, so the soy-load in Enemy of the Steak is an unfortunate drawback for my own needs.  However, if you are a big soy consumer, this could be a plus.

Luckily, this cookbook is packed full of recipes (over 250!), so there is still a good number that I can choose from.  I am grateful for this, as the authors’ recipes are imaginative, quite flavorful, and very easy to follow and prepare. 

Enemy of the Steak is available on Amazon.

The above review was written by Alisa Fleming, founder of GoDairyFree.org author of Go Dairy Free: The Guide and Cookbook

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