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I love gluten, sugar, and dairy (in moderation, Mom), and Amy Chaplin’s newest book, Whole Food Cooking Every Day, is a collection of 250 vegetarian recipes with none of that. That’s why, at first, I was uninterested. But then my colleague Christina Chaey began regaling me with tales of her apple-citrus chia bircher bowls, rosemary butternut squash soup with toasted hazelnut milk, and walnut miso sauce with lemon. She’s made upwards of 30 recipes from this book, and because I trust Christina, this sent me down a WFCED rabbit hole.
Formerly the executive chef of one of New York's beloved vegan institutions, the now shuttered Angelica Kitchen, Chaplin is a teacher, recipe developer, and two-time cookbook author. At this point I’ve spent hours paging through the book, scrawling down grocery lists full of grains, nuts, and seeds. Each naturally colorful recipe—fig almond cake with fennel, spicy miso-roasted tomatoes and eggplant, steamed kabocha squash with nori and scallions—sounds like the sort of thing I’d make in a kitchen with a farmhouse table and windows looking onto a breezy meadow.
Most of my cookbooks are destined to live out their lives on a high shelf once I’ve cooked a few recipes enough times to have them memorized. But this one will grow with me as I become more comfortable with the techniques and ingredients. Nearly every chapter is structured around an anchor recipe—like simple soups or dishes to make with cooked beans—that spins off into seemingly infinite variations (there are no fewer than 12 variations of nut and seed milks, from pumpkin-nutmeg almond milk to Brazil nut milk with star anise and vanilla bean). I can start simple, then advance as I get more adventurous (or as I try to use up my psyllium husks). Even when I’ve been skeptical about a recipe—will this combination of soaked rice and seeds really come together into a sliceable, toastable gluten-free bread? Will raw carrots blend into a creamy dressing?—Amy has delivered.
Even if I never have a kitchen with a farmhouse table and windows looking onto a breezy meadow—and even if I continue to cook and bake with gluten, sugar, and dairy for the rest of my days—I’ll still know a gazillion ways to make gluten-free crackers. And that’s enough for now.
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