Plant-Powered Families by Dreena Burton

I’m not a vegan, but the number of vegan cook books I own may be just as many as my nonvegan ones. Or at least it feels that way since I probably use them more. Even in non plantbased books it’s always the vegan or vegetarian recipes that attract me the most. Well I suppose that reflects the way I eat…which is mostly plant-based.

Dreena Burton is the author of several vegan cookbooks and creator of the website Plant Powered Kitchen. Plant-Powered Families is her newest book and the only one I’ve tried (so far). The book is aimed at introducing plant-based and nutritious recipes that the whole family will enjoy.

Honestly the book is more for me than my kids, although they do love her teriyaki sauce on stir-fried vegetables. I’ve tried several recipes and tagged way more. Almost all the recipes are gluten-free and refined sugar free.

The recipe I’ve enjoyed the most so far is the Sneaky Chickpea Burgers and the Lemon Tahini Sauce (pictured above). The tahini sauce is amazing with baked falafels. I didn’t like the Artichoke Spinach Dip, although the problem might be the artichoke I used and not the recipe itself. I also tried the Sweetballs recipe (also delicious with the lemon tahini sauce)….which are sweet potato and nut balls that are tasty but quite heavy. I have yet to try the recipes in the breakfast or desert sections.

The only thing I’m not crazy about is that there aren’t many salad recipes, although there are several dressing recipes. I tried the Magical Applesauce Vinaigrette. It wasn’t the type of dressing I would make more than once.

Overall the recipes are easy with many suggestions and variations in the notes. The pictures are lovely, and almost every recipe has an image (always a plus). I’m looking forward to trying more of the recipes in the book!