cover image Power Plates: 100 Nutritionally Balanced, One-Dish Vegan Meals

Power Plates: 100 Nutritionally Balanced, One-Dish Vegan Meals

Gena Hamshaw, photos by Ashley McLaughlin. Ten Speed, $24.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-39957-905-9

Vegan blogger Hamshaw (The Full Helping) presents appealing options for creating nutrient-dense meals on a single plate. Using her “macronutrient building blocks” concept (which balances proteins, fats, and carbs), home cooks can design dishes that promote a “nutritious, sustainable eating pattern” with recipes that “just happen to be vegan.” There are recipes for savory breakfast options such as a root-vegetable hash and Indian kitchari (a combination of mung beans and rice) along with whole-grain muffins and pancakes. Meal-size salads include a sesame citrus soba-noodle salad chock-full of edamame, red cabbage, carrots, and almonds with a tahini ginger garlic dressing, as well as a warm tofu chop salad with peanut dressing. Soup selections include a spicy chickpea-peanut West African stew and a curried Jamaican stew with kidney beans. There are sides such as green-bean aloo gobi and holiday fare such as a vegetable harvest pie—a shepherd’s pie filled with kidney beans, tempeh, and winter vegetables. This vegan cookbook—with seasonal meal-plan charts that incorporate leftovers and ideas for batch cooking and freezing—is a useful guide for home cooks, vegan or not. (Jan.)