Comments: If food is your medicine, this is your book.

The Vegan Cook's Bible starts with 50 pages on the seven systems of the body and which foods especially benefit which systems. This is followed by 80 pages on whole foods, what health benefits (and risks) they bring, how to buy and store them, and how to use them in cooking. This is followed by 250 recipes that make use of many of these whole foods. Chapters feature appetizers, spreads and dips, and pestos and salsas; soups, salads, and "sides"; casseroles, stews, and curries; baked, roasted, and stir-fried vegetables; pasta, rice, and whole grains; beverages and snacks; and desserts.

Particularly surprising to us were the warnings about the consumption of soy products, including tofu and soy milk (although there nearly 50 recipes in the book that include soy ingredients), and the admonition not to eat raw mushrooms.

As with much vegan cooking, finding the ingredients and getting them ready will demonstrate your commitment to a vegan life.

We are delighted to have found another vegan cookbook that is not preachy. As with all cookbooks from this publisher, all the recipes include metric measurements (in addition to American measurements), and have a two-stage table of contents – one at the beginning of the book listing all the chapters and one at the beginning of each chapter listing the recipes in each.