Cover Image: The Herbivorous Butcher Cookbook

The Herbivorous Butcher Cookbook

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Member Reviews

Thank you, Netgalley and the publisher, for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion! I'm leaving this review voluntarily!

First, I have to say that I reeeeeealllly loved that the authors didn't do any bashing of those who eat and like meat. This may have been because the authors themselves weren't vegetarian their entire life. But I still appreciate this! I loved the entire backstory (i.e., how the authors came to appreciate the meatless lifestyles and publish this book) and the recipes are amazing! They are easy to follow and include photos. I'm a "visual chef." I need to see photos of the finished dish. This book offers just that. I will definitely incorporate many of these recipes into my meal plans.

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This is a solid cookbook for recipes that are plant based. It was enjoyable to look at and a good reference for those who are cutting out meat. I did find that it was not as beginner friendly as I hoped but the recipes were easy to follow after getting the ingredients.

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Another great vegan cookbook! I'm always on the lookout for new vegan recipes and this cookbook provided me with a plethora of recipes to add to my try-it-soon list.

Thanks to Chronicle Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

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This was a really interesting cookbook to read, as a meat eater I've been looking towards doing more plant-based meals and this was perfect for inspiration! I will definitely share the title with my vegan/keto friends.

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Great recipes, mouth-watering photographs, and I love how both Aubry and Kale introduce themselves and their reason for becoming vegan/opening The Herbivorous Butcher. That personal touch sets this vegan cookbook apart from others.

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The layout of the book is great; the photos are fantastic.

i have made two of the “meats”. My husband loved them, but I wasn’t impressed or excited. I also felt it took far more work than I prefer — and this wasn’t a meal, it was just a component. I don’t think my pepperoni or pork chops will fool anyone—I would be very hesitant to serve either to a vegan let alone a meat eater. The recipes using the meat sounded interesting but would be just too much work for me.

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I was unfamiliar with The Herbivorous Butcher before requesting this cookbook, but now I definitely want to go if I'm ever in the area! This cookbook was unlike any I have read before. I thought it would be closer to the traditional plant-based/vegan cookbooks I've tried, but I was wrong! I don't think I've seen a cookbook that focuses on home-made plant-based "meats" before and that was super interesting. This would make a great addition to someone's collection, even if they already have a ton of cookbooks from the "genre".

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I’m not a vegan or even a vegetarian but my youngest is. There’s many recipes I plan to make out of this book and they look and sound delicious. THE HERBIVOROUS BUTCHER: 75+ Recipes For Plant-Based Meats and All the Dishes to Make with Them, by Aubrey and Kale Walch.

I like that recipes call for mostly basic and easy to find ingredients and not a lot of expensive things we may never use again. The recipes are also well written, photographed beautifully, and seem like they will be easy to follow. This will be a great cookbook for those who are wanting to eat less meat but still want those flavors and textures.

Thanks to Chronicle Books and NetGalley got the gift of this ebook in exchange for my honest review. 4 stars!

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This is a beautiful cookbook. I loved reading the personal stories of the authors.

This book gives beautiful photos, how the recipe was influenced, and detailed directions, along with Pro Tips.

I'm not vegan, but look forward to making some of the recipes. Especially from the Soups chapter.

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I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I don't know if I could go meatless, but the recipes in this book make it slightly more of an option, especially since everything looks so good and the recipes don't look too hard.

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I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

For years I’ve wanted to try food from The Herbivorous Butcher but haven’t lived closed enough. I was very excited to try some recipes from their new book.

There are some people who seek out vegan cookbooks who don’t want to see any faux meats used. If that’s you, this cookbook is not for you. It’s full of from-scratch recipes for mock meats from pepperoni to chicken.

This book is well laid out and filled with gorgeous full-page photos of each of the prepared recipes.

The recipes we tried:

Pepperoni. The flavor was great on this, the texture is closer to sausage. I had this with crackers, on pizza, and in pasta and it added nice flavor to everything.

The Rib. Good texture and flavor.

The porterhouse steaks were good but not great. To me, it tasted like slightly more flavorful seitan but was more effort than making a seitan recipe with a marinade.

Smoked Cheezy Grits. Even without the jalapenos and green onions (because I was between grocery shopping trips), it was very tasty. A little thinner than I usually make my grits but that’s easy to adjust. The liquid smoke added a nice depth of flavor without being overpowering.

We made the beef broth concentrate, which is key to a lot of the recipes. Be sure to pay attention to quantities.

I have never used such a large amount of soy sauce or garlic powder in one go before.

The garlic egg fried rice was bland but I wouldn’t buy a vegan butcher cookbook for a fried rice recipe anyway.

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I absolutely loved this one and cannot recommend it enough - not only for people who are focused on plant based options, but even for those who are not and just love food! Will be sharing and gifting this one for years to come!

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I'm not a vegan—not even close—but I don't eat beef or pork and I love trying plant based recipes that mimic those proteins. I don't not eat them because I don't like them, but because of health and humane purposes. Now, I understand why a vegan might not want to mimic those proteins, but for me, this book was right up my alley. One of the things I especially appreciate about these recipes was how simple the ingredients are. I've bought some vegan recipe books that have so many obscure ingredients, you'd need an entire pantry to house them. Living in a big city with a tiny kitchen and no pantry, that's simply not possible for me. VWG, nutritional yeast, liquid smoke, and tapioca powder are a few of the most common vegan ingredients required here and I tend to have those in my house. I also always appreciate pictures to accompany recipes. Especially in this case where I don't know what these should ultimately look like or what the right texture should be. Definitely much appreciated here. I can't wait to make my way through more of the recipes!

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Definitely an interesting cookbook. I didn’t even know you could make even half the things they did with these recipes! (Like vegan ribs?!?) Now I will say some of the pictures aren’t the prettiest to look at but they do seem very flavorful.

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I LOVE this cookbook. I first heard about the Herbivorous Butcher through the Food Network years ago, and have followed their journey ever since. However, since I don't live in MN, my only chance to try their products would have been to have it shipped to my home. This cookbook took the things I has been wanting to try for ages and broke down the receipes in a simple, easy to follow fashion. For people unfamiliar with vegan/vegetarian cooking, some of the ingredients and techniques may seem unfamiliar, and the cookbook offers them a safe jumping off point to try with plenty of information. I would reccomend this book to people who are interested in vegan cooking, or even my meat eating friends who want to try something new.

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Thank-you NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the chance to review this ARC.

I'm not Vegan. I'll start off by saying that. But I often find myself gravitating to mock meats.
I have lots of vegan cookbooks because I like incorporating vegan meals in my daily life.
So I can say that this is by far the best one I've seen.
I loved the detailed ingredients and the lovely photos. It took a do it yourself approach and I loved that.
My favorite parts had to be the meats it was cool to see all you could create with the right ingredients it was amazing! I can't wait to add this to my shelf!

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I’ve been a fan of the Herbivorous Butcher ever since our vegan son introduced us when we visited Minneapolis. We’ve since introduced many plant based foods to our diet, but the products from Herbivorous Butcher were, and still are, a cut above anything we could get in the grocery store (a cut above - see what I did there?). So when this book arrived for review, I devoured it in one sitting (more food humor). I’m very happy to report that this is an outstanding cookbook. I expected it to be a compendium of recipes that could be made with their products, but they have shared the actual meat recipes with us, along with chapters full of sides, sauces, soups, and much more. All of the recipes are accompanied by mouth-watering photos and cheerful, enthusiastic commentary. (It’s important to note that they don’t use the word “substitute” to describe their meats. These are fantastic on their own, they are not lesser versions of “real” food).

The brother/sister team of Kale and Aubrey Walch grew up in Guam and now live in Minneapolis, and there are nods to the cuisines of both of these places throughout the book. Both of them have a humorous style that makes the commentary as readable as the recipes themselves. Most of the recipes are not particularly complicated, and can be made with item readily found in the grocery store. I heartily recommend this book!

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For those who don’t know, I’m a vegetarian. I tend to eat quite a bit of vegan food because if it’s vegan, then I know I can eat it. I’m always looking for good substitutes for some of my old favorite dishes – like roast beef and pepperoni pizza. Finding The Herbivorous Butcher Cookbook gives me a chance to find those dishes and make them myself without paying an arm and a leg for a premade version.

This cookbook has some amazing, mouthwatering recipes in it. Some of the options include pepperoni, porterhouse steaks, a beef roast, spam, chicken cutlets, and more – all vegan. This cookbook doesn’t just show you how to make the meat substitutes though. Oh no, this cookbook also tells you what things you can do with them as well! Recipes like fried chicken sandwiches and philly cheesesteak sandwiches – again, all vegan.

My favorites out of the meat substitutes were the pepperoni and the beef roast. I also really enjoyed the chicken cutlets. We like to make chicken sandwiches around our house, but I’m often left out if I haven’t purchased a bag of chick’n filets lately. Not anymore. I can grab some ingredients from the pantry and make chicken cutlets for myself.

The recipes in this cookbook are well written and easy to follow. You may find that you’ll be making some purchases from online retailers for items that may not be available in your area such as red beet powder, mushroom powder, or a dedicated steamer appliance for the kitchen, but most of the items are easily found in local stores.

The photography in this cookbook is stunning, giving a clear picture of what you can expect when you make these recipes. Of course, yours will never look as good as the professional’s did, but hey, that’s half the fun, isn’t it?

I highly recommend this cookbook to anyone who is vegetarian, vegan, or looking to reduce their animal consumption, but doesn’t want to buy premade meat substitutes.

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As a food writer and vegetarian based in the Twin Cities, I am very familiar with Kale and Aubry! I think this cookbook is super enlightening to the thought process behind the want/need for vegan meats, on occasion. Some of the recipes are incredibly labor intensive, but that can also be a positive rather than a negative. (Everyone was so into messing around with sourdough during quarantine, why not mess around with some vital wheat gluten and make some ribs sans bone?)

I was also super pleased to see recipes that utilized mushrooms, tofu, and other vegetables included. This book is friendly ,approachable, and inspiring!

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I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. (via Netgalley)

Pretty interesting read! Recipes seem easy enough to follow if you have the right tools/materials.

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