Kathy Patalsky's Healthy Happy Vegan Kitchen perfectly matches her Healthy. Happy. Life. brand: "This food-filled, wellness-seeking, happiness-embracing adventure starts in your kitchen and ends wherever you wish." As a child, Patalsky's love of animals drew her to a plant-based lifestyle; she became a vegan in 2002. While the more than 250 vegan recipes in this collection "are rich in life, rather than death," the sins of the meat and dairy industries are not the focus of this upbeat, cheerful cookbook. Patalsky welcomes "new vegans, savvy long-time vegans, non-vegans, part-time vegans, wannabe vegans and even 'I will never be' vegans."
Her role is a culinary playmate, and to facilitate this role she includes a list of helpful kitchen tools (most will be familiar to any home cook, except possibly "nut milk bag") and staples for the vegan pantry (which may be less familiar--for example, nutritional yeast). The recipes are grouped loosely by course. Breakfast offerings include Cranberry-Nut Farro Porridge and Peanut Butter Toasted Coconut Oatmeal Bars. Old standbys are reinvented, like the Eggless Salad Sandwich and the Toasty Tuxedo Grilled Cheese. As expected, salads, soups and veggie burgers abound, but with a twist: Sweet Potato Veggie Burger with Avocado or the BBQ Peanut Burger. Vegetarians are often forced to create entrees out of side dishes, but Patalsky suggests veggie sides that are truly side dishes; her entrees deserve to be front-and-center, and her desserts are just as tempting as any bakery offering. Healthy Happy Vegan Kitchen celebrates why "there is no diet on earth more uplifting to one's body, mind, and soul than a vegan one." --Kristen Galles from Book Club Classics