Make It Plant-Based! Filipino is one of a new series of related kitchen guides with recipes, this one featuring plant based Mexican recipes developed and curated by Ria Elciario-McKeown. Due out 13th May 2025 from Hachette on their Workman Publishing imprint, it's 190 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is a good basic, well organized, vegan friendly Filipino fusion cookbook. The basics and well loved recipes are represented, and the instructions are easy to understand and follow. They are arranged in chapters, thematically: breakfast & brunch, salads starters & staples, stews & soups, dinners & mains, snacks, and sweets & treats.

Ingredients will mostly be available at any large/well stocked international market/grocery store in North America. Recipes include an introduction, background info, and yields. Ingredients are provided in a bullet list, followed by step by step preparation instructions. Measurements are given in imperial (American) units with metric in parentheses (yay)!. Nutritional info is not provided.

About 25% of the recipes include color photographs. The plated foods are professionally styled and serving suggestions are appetizing and appropriate. The author/publisher have also included pantry lists for convenience as well as a cross-referenced index.

Four stars. Simple, but effective. It would be a nice choice for public or school library acquisition (it's a set volume, so it's worth acquiring all the volumes which are graphically similar with different themed cuisines), as well as for home use and gift giving.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

It's so nice to see a book about foods that I haven't had much of a chance to try yet. I loved the ideas in this book and the wide variety of options I never knew were available to me. Can't wait to try some of these out.

This had some really great recipes in it that I will definitely be trying out!
Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

What a vibrant cookbook! The colour palette, design and typeface felt really fresh and consumer friendly. The general design really stood out to me and I can imagine it would definitely catch my eye in my local bookshop. It is also about time for a plant based filipino cookbook - I'm so here for it!

I loved how easy is was to see a clear line between the history of filipino food/filipino classics and the final recipes. It felt really authentic and it did feel like the recipes were directly influenced by Philippines' food culture. I also liked that there was sections dedicated to explaining filipino food history which was complimented by the gorgeous food photography.

Now, you may be wondering why I rated this cookbook so low, and it is primarily to do with the lack of options and my issues with the recipes themselves. Whilst the food photography was great, the food did look like it verged on the side of bland and my premonition was complimented by the lack of spices and flavours in the recipes. There weren't also that many healthy options, which felt a little disappointing but I understand some people might be looking for maybe a more indulgent recipe or aren't concerned with super healthy recipes which is completely valid.

So overall, this one didn't tickle my tastebuds but a great concept and this still could be a great read for someone with a different palate to mine.

This is a great vegan cookbook if you’re looking for authentic style Filipino food. There are photos for about a third of the recipes. There were a few techniques and ideas that were new to me for vegan cooking, which is always a pleasant surprise. Most of the recipes are very high in sugar and carbs, low in protein (other than lots of tofu), heavy on wheat and white rice, and fried. These won’t work for my family but may for yours. No nutritional information is provided for the recipes.

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