The Beginner's Pegan Diet Cookbook: Plant-Forward Recipes Combining the Best of the Paleo and Vegan Diets for Lifelong Health

It might just be me, but I assumed this was Paleo/vegan cookbook. It is not, it has many meat recipes. Flipping through there are very few pictures, I highly recommend getting the cookbook “just the good stuff”

This book is advertised as being plant focused paleo diet. I expected some fish maybe with heavy focus on plants. Nearly every recipe had animal protein in it :( the boom description is incredibly misleading. I have Been eating like this for years and have since wanted to make the switch to full plant base and wanted so creative protein ideas. This is a paleo cookbook. Not plant based or vegan in anyway. Actually the book even contains some dairy so I guess not even paleo…. Fair warning so someone looking for plant based paleo. This is not it.

I have been vegetarian for 40 years now, and this book came up for a recipe of eggplant meatballs which was good, so I bought it, only to find it includes a lot of meat and fish recipes, I feel cheated, It describes itself as vegan?I wish I could get my money back!

There were quite a few missing pages in the kindle version of this book. It was frustrating to find a dish you wanted to make but the recipe only listed the ingredients and the last couple of sentences of the instructions...

I made the 'Eggplant Meatballs', and really liked them. What a good base recipe for vegetarian meatballs- as you can season them any way you like. They were delicious with Marinara poured over top.I also made the 'Golden Lentil Soup with Spinach and Tomatoes' and it is absolutely delicious! Definitely going into my regular rotation. The only thing I changed was, I used a 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes, and a 13.5oz can of full fat coconut milk- (instead of the 2 cups of each), and it turned out awesome!I borrowed this book, and can't wait to try more of the recipes! My husband is a meat eater, and I am mostly vegetarian- so this is perfect for us :)

Pegan is defined as a combination of the paleo and vegan diets without the firm restrictions those diets demands. Some followers of this program place more emphasis on the paleo aspect while others place more emphasis on the vegan component. This particular cookbook I would describe as placing more emphasis on the paleo component, so if you are like me vegan/vegetarian, the entrees in this book are of very limited value, as they are so low in protein as to not qualify as an entree. For example, the Moroccan-style Chickpea Salad per serving has only 7 grams of protein; the Winter glow rice salad has 9 grams of protein per serving; and the Eggplant meatballs with noodles has only 10 grams of protein. This issue is made more glaring when one looks at the protein level of the meat entrees, where the lowest is 15 and many are over 30 grams per serving. While obviously this is not an issue for those who plan to incorporate meat, poultry and fish, it does make clear that the primary focus of adding the "vegan" aspect is side dishes and so this book is not. a good option for a vegetarian/vegan looking to introduce some modifications based on the Pegan concept.That said, this book does have much to offer for those who are looking for a more natural diet while continuing to eat meat, fish and poultry. All recipes include basic dietary information (calories, fiber, carbs, protein, and fat). Although there is no information on sodium, just based on the recipes, it is clear that the author does not use salt as a seasoning, so I am guessing all or most of these recipes are relatively low in sodium. Some recipes do include Coconut amino, which does have sodium, but at a much lower level than even a reduced sodium soy sauce.Second the photography is beautiful. The pictures alone will encourage the reluctant convert to try new things.Third, the book includes valuable information on topics such as natural sweeteners and on the importance of meal prepping for maintaining a healthy eating lifestyle. However, I was surprised given this is an introductory book, it did not include a section on stocking one's pantry, although it did include lists about what grains, cheeses, legumes, oils, etc should and could be enjoyed in moderation. Another topic that it did not tackle and which is always a challenge when wanting to incorporate organically-grown vegetables and environmentally-friendly meat, poultry and fish products is costs. It would have been nice if the author included tips on how this type of diet can be made more cost-effective, so that those in lower income brackets who might benefit from such a diet change might feel that there is a way that they could do this or at least shift in this direction. As we all know buying a organically-grown head of cauliflower can be shocking.Fourth, the book is very well-organized. In addition to the main table of contents: Introduction, Breakfast, Simple snacks, Soups and Salads; Entrees, side dishes, gravies/sauces/etc, dessert, and drinks. Each section also includes a quick access table of contents, pointing you to recipes, as well as an index for finding recipes and topics.

I enjoyed the recipes in this book. I needed more variety and this helped

I made two recipes from this book. I didn't agree with a lot of the ingredients being anywhere close tovegan.While it talks about healthy eating, there was too much other junk in there.