eat your fucking vegetables.

Book Review: Viva Vegan!

Last month I tabled at a Health Fair for the Brooklyn Food Coalition. I had on the table postcards from a book I have an essay in. A woman approached the table, excited to see the postcards and wanted to talk to me about vegetarian diets. “I want to be vegetarian,” she said. “But I don’t like tofu”.  Smiling, I let her know that she didn’t have to eat anything she didn’t like, and that there was so much more available to her. We discussed her goals (eating healthier versions of foods she grew up with; doing this together with her mom and sister) and exchanged info. We talked a bit about traditional Puerto Rican diets, how they mirrored American Soul Food diets, and how she could still eat the foods she was used to without meat or deprivation. I don’t have a lot of experience with Latin food (besides eating it), but I knew I could reach out to my colleagues for advice. I started to wonder how many more people of Latin descent were curious about plant-based diets but wanted to make culturally relevant dishes.

It appears Terry Hope Romero had the same question – and decided to answer it. Romero, co-author of the highly-acclaimed Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and Veganomicon (so highly coveted that a coworker stole my review copy), offers a dynamic intro to Latin foodways with her latest cookbook, Viva Vegan! that even the most staunch omnivore will salivate over.

Born and raised in NYC, I am privileged to have access to so many different cultures and their cuisines. While I grew up with mostly Puerto Ricans and Dominicans and am familiar with dishes like sofrito, arroz con pollo, and mofongo, it wasn’t until many years later that I was introduced to taquitos, arepas, tamales, and tres leches cake.  Just like American Soul Food cuisine, dishes vary by country (or region) and are influenced by the availability of specific ingredients and blending of cultures.

Newcomers to Latin food and plant-based dishes will appreciate Romero’s primer on the Latin pantry and how to source these ingredients. All of the recipes are meat- and dairy-free, but I especially like that she also identified which recipes were soy-free and/or gluten-free. She even has a downloadable shopping list available on her website.

I can’t wait to get started on these recipes and I definitely plan to start integrating them into my health coaching practice.

Viva Vegan! is available in stores today.

Viva Vegan!
by Terry Hope Romero

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books (April 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738212733
• ISBN-13: 978-0738212739