My husband and I are both vegan and we had our honeymoon in Japan! While we found several amazing vegan restaurants in Japan, we also at times struggled to stay strictly vegan. There were so many amazing Japanese dishes that we wish we could have tried but couldn't because of our veganism. How thrilled I was to see this book!! Bouchchard has a perfect balance of memoir meets cookbook. Her personal experiences and knowledge of Japanese culture is woven in naturally with each recipe. In cookbooks I find the personal stories that precede each recipe are sometimes too long or irrelevant, and I am tempted to skim them. Not with this one! I learned so much from this book, and not just about food. I am so excited that this book was written, and that my husband and I can finally enjoy Japanese cuisine!

Vegan Japan is a cookbook that is filled with just that vegan Japanese dishes.

While the cooking techniques are relatively easy, the ingredients may be a challenge if you don’t live in a large city. My daughter who lives near Los Angeles had no problem finding the ingredients in her local Asian store. However, many ingredients puzzled even the storekeepers of my local rural/suburban Asian market.

The few recipes that I tried were very good and easy to follow. However, there is some prep work required that is not included or only mentioned briefly in the separate Essential Ingredients chapter. This may be a stumbling point for new chefs.

All of the recipes included scrumptious looking color photos. I just wish nutritional information was also included.

Overall, Vegan Japan is best for intermediate level chefs familiar with either vegan recipes, Japanese cuisine, or both. I could see this book becoming very popular with vegans looking for something different from the usual stews and burrito bowls. 4 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley and The Experiment for providing me with an advanced review copy.

I visit Japanese restaurants regularly and find that there are vegan appetizers but they are missing vegan main dishes on their menu. Another problem is meat is hidden in many dishes. Julia solves this by finding vegan substitutes for all her dishes. I have always hated cooking Asian food at home because there is too much sodium in the sauces sold in Asian food stores. I was happy that this book has given me a solution by having homemade low sodium recipes for popular essential sauces and noodles. If the author were to add more to this book I would add more homemade sauce recipes. There are lots of irresistible recipes. The illustrations are high quality and authentic. Real pictures that display the outcome of each recipe.

My husband is vegan and I'm trying to eat a more plant-based diet. We both love Asian cuisine and I was excited to get my hands on Vegan Japan by Julia Boucachard. The cookbook is definitely for someone who wants authentic Japanese recipes that offer vegan alternatives. Many of the recipes call for ingredients that aren't typically found in your neighborhood supermarket, such as aburage and tonikatsu sauce. Thankfully, we have an Asian market near by. If you don't, you may either be ordering a lot of items on Amazon or forgoing many of the recipes. But, ultimately, the cookbook has very impressive vegan recipes.

I perhaps foolishly had the impression that Japanese food was highly reliant on fresh fish and rice. When I saw this cookbook Vegan Japan, I was intrigued and excited when I was approved for this ARC. The recipes in this book that I tried were all delicious and really opened my eyes to the variety within Japanese cuisine.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The illustrations and photography in this cook book are amazing! I really appreciated the descriptions of the different Japanese ingredients and basic recipes at the beginning of book for easy reference while making the more complex recipes. I'm very excited to make more of these recipes, I love Japanese food but its a tough cuisine for vegans. I am a little disappointed that there are no sushi recipes as I was hoping for some sushi inspiration,

As a vegetarian myself, loved the recipes on this book; most of which are made with easy to find ingredients and simple instructions to make.
I am always on the lookout for vegan dishes to try out; there many on this book.
I was pleased to find a variety of recipes that will Impress any fancy eater. (There are many in my
Family)
The pictures also make receipts appealing and there are nice tips to give that special Japanese touch.
I definitely will get it.

Thank you for the opportunity to review - the file acctually didn't have the full book in but from what I saw a great selection of recipes and recipes were straightford and easy to follow. Will definitely be looking out for a physical copy of this book in the near future.

Vegan Japan
Love this! There are so many great Japanese recipes that are a great alternative for vegans or those who are looking for a meatless meal. Some ingredients are hard to find in everyday grocery stores and will either need to be purchased at an Asian Market/Store or ordered.
Our household loves Japanese foods and we know how to make a few dishes, but this cookbook has given us a few more recipes for dishes we love. I can’t wait to make the Udon, Dango and sauce, and Okonomiyaki.

At the beginning, there is a description of some of the essential ingredients used, recipes for different sauces, and how to make udon noodles. Then at the end there is an index with the page numbers where you can find the different recipes.

The concept and content for this one was great, but the cover art needs to be improved for this to stand out.

This beautiful cookbook covers the basics such as rice and sauces to much more complex recipes. This would be a great book to cook your way through to master some excellent vegan recipes. Beautiful photographs accompany recipes.

Inspiring and great recipes, that not only save money but allow for a vegan lifestyle. Lots of tips in here as well. Very impressed by the overall recipes and will definitely be using them again

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this DRC of Vegan Japan for review!
I am not vegan, but I used to date someone who was and it introduced me to a world of using veggies and plant-based cuisine to add more fibre to my diet lol. That relationship is over now, but I'm grateful for it giving me healthy habits. One of these things is finding easy, accessible ways to turn my fave cuisines (like Japanese) into healthier, plant-based versions. Boucachard's book, while translated from French, provides the season for recipes (because seasonality is important), measurements, pictures, and tips and tricks for each recipe. She also provides context for the recipes and how she discovered them-- I liked learning about her journey and personal story and *why* she decided to write this cookbook. Her recipes are accessible (to my knowledge,) and I can't wait to try out these delicious recipes. Because it's a vegan cookbook, she also provides handy essentials for the vegan pantry, especially when it comes to Japanese cooking. I recommend this to all my vegan friends who want to try cooking Japanese food and didn't think they could!

Wonderful book with clear pictures and nice illustrations. Very good explanation of all ingredients at the beginning to help those of us not familiar with Japanese cooking. I look forward to making some of these meals that I have previously only enjoyed in restaurants. They are written well - so much so I feel pretty confident that I can make some delicious new meals. The recipes feel like the Japanese element is foremost, and they are vegan but not to the detriment of the result which is wonderful.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Vegan Japan by Julia Boucachard is a cookbook full of vegan versions of Japanese classic main dishes, side dishes, desserts, and street food. I’ve seen a few vegan Japanese cookbooks before, most focusing on shoujin ryori, Buddhist Japanese cuisine, but I hadn’t seen one that had a chapter dedicated to street food before.

The yaki onigiri was delicious and easy to make. There are two different recipes for okonomiyaki, the Hiroshima and Osaka versions, providing options as well as a glimpse into the variations of Japanese classics. I’m planning on making the kabocha korokke very soon as well as the kobocha soup as I’m a big fan of pumpkins.

The explanations for each ingredient and what dishes they were used in would be good for beginners to Japanese cooking. There’s enough variety in the dishes provided that I think would give someone a strong foundation for making vegan or vegetarian spins on Japanese dishes that they really want to try out.

I would recommend this to fans of Japanese food, whether they are vegan, vegetarian, or not.

A good cookbook is like a good tour guide, providing just the right context so you can learn something new. Vegan Japan meets this standard. I learned about Japanese cuisine and the pitfalls and possibilities of translating it for vegans. Needed info was provided: prep time, cook time, servings, etc. (One exception: I did not understand what the ingredient "vegan cream" meant.) Even with decent explanations, this comes across as a cookbook for experienced home cooks who are looking to cook some basic ingredients before actually cooking any dish, which may make it a tough entry point for folks new to either vegan or Japanese cooking.

Still, as a long-time vegetarian and five-year vegan, I always cheer on cookbooks like this one!

This cookbook seems pretty good! I’m looking forward to trying more recipes from it. Every single recipe has a picture, which is always appreciated.

The beginning lists and describes common/specialty ingredients to have on hand, which was helpful. We had many, but not all, and it wasn’t difficult to track the others down.

We made the Tantanman, and everyone enjoyed it. The recipe was easy to follow, although we did dirty a lot of dishes during the cooking process.

Overall, seems like a lovely addition to our cookbook shelf, and it offers a different flavor profile than the other vegan cookbooks we have.

Beautifully laid out and illustrated, the cookbook ideal for vegans and anyone who loves Japanese food.

Gorgeous photos accompany many of the recipes, which are written in an accessible and engaging fashion, with clear instructions and bits of history about the dishes.

As a vegan, I love perusing fully vegan cookbooks and the recipes here are appealing on their own and appealed to the non-vegans in my family as well.

Vegan Japan is a winner and has a recommendation from me.



Thank you to The Experiment and NetGalley for the PDF

I read cookbooks for the stories as well as the recipes. The introduction to this gives background on the author's childhood between France and Japan, then a bit about how she became vegan.

The recipes have a description of the traditional meat version and info on the vegan one. There's info on the season it's usually eaten too.

The first section is basic sauces, which is then referred to a lot, so be warned if that annoys you. It then goes through mains, side dishes, street foods and desserts.

The recipes have American and metric measures but a few of the ingredients don't have non-American substitutions (what is cake flour?). The ingredients mainly seem like they would be available in a decent Asian supermarket but the author offers substitutions for more unusual ingredients.

The recipes are comprehensive for well-known Japanese recipes and introduces some new ones. They seem well written but I haven't tried any yet.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced ebook copy in exchange for an honest review.

I think most vegans are likely to love this cookbook. The recipes seem very authentic other than being veganized, there are photos of the recipes, and they sound delicious. Do note that wheat and soy are featured heavily, so it may not work well for those with allergies. There is no nutritional information. The recipes also did not strike me as very healthy, which surprised me since Japanese food can be so heavy on vegetables and cooked so healthy. There are lots of street foods here and lots of recipes that are mostly starches and sauces, fried and breaded, relying on a lot of mayonnaise and ketchup, etc. With our family’s nutritional needs (gluten free, higher in fiber, vegetables and protein, etc) it was not a good fit for us. As I said though, I think most vegans will love it.

I read a temporary digital copy of this book for review.