INTRODUCTION

Make Room For Fantastically Full

We believe that the most convincing argument for going vegan is the food. If you can serve up a delicious, hearty, filling meal to a die-hard meat eater only to hear, “Man, that was so good! I’m so full, I couldn’t eat another bite,” then you know just what we mean.

People go vegan for a multitude of reasons, and this book wasn’t written to wax philosophical. Rather, it was written so that you can create magnificent vegan meals that will have your dinner guests wondering why they ever “needed” meat in the first place.

Eating vegan doesn’t mean sacrificing flavor. Quite the opposite: Eliminating the flavors that come along with animal products means using the natural flavors in fruits, vegetables, grains, spices, herbs, and more to create enticing and familiar flavors.

We must admit that when we each decided to go vegan, our first thoughts were, “Boring food, here we come—at least the animals will be safe and we’ll be healthier,” followed immediately by, “How will we ever survive without cakes and other sweet treats?”

But the good news is that we’ve never had as much fun eating as we do now—and our family members agree! In fact, we’re happy to report that our significant others and even some family members have either switched from consuming an omnivorous diet to eating solely vegan foods when at home, or have at least made great steps toward including more vegan foods in their diet, which, to us, is as great an endorsement as any!

We think you can convince your family to do the same, which is why we’ve written this book. Inside you’ll find a vast collection of our “secret” recipes, the ones we keep in our back pockets when we know a nonvegan is coming over (or living among us) and needs to be wow-ed with straight-up great food. All said and done, this is a book full of hearty, flavorful recipes written by a couple of gals who find feeding friends and loved ones to be one of the best (and tastiest) pleasures in the world.

To anyone who’s ever thought, “a meal without meat is a terrible thing to eat,” we’ve got news for you: You’re about to sink your teeth into some of the best food you’ve ever eaten. Food that happens to be vegan but is always definitively delicious.