The Sexy Vegan Cookbook (Extraordinary Food from an Ordinary Dude) Review

Many of you might be familiar with funny cooking videos on YouTube that start with "Hello, people! Sexy vegan here........" Yeah, that funny dude is Brian L Patton and he has been visually entertaining us and our taste buds since 2006. I am thrilled to see that all his hard work has finally paid off and he is now a newly publish cookbook author. I was lucky to receive a copy of his new cookbook directly from his publisher at the "New World Library". The Sexy Vegan Cookbook (Extraordinary Food from an Ordinary Dude) did not just happen overnight. Brian wasn't born an excellent cook or a vegan. He did not even know how to cook spaghetti until he was in college, his senior year! After school he moved to Hollywood and became addicted to cooking shows on TV. He would record 30 Minute Meals shows and label them "Star Trek" to camouflage them in front of his roommate (brilliant) :-) His life was not easy, he was a jobless, depressed and directionless guy who was pushing 260 pounds at 5 feet 9 inches. Around that time his passion for cooking started really taking off and he felt confident enough to serve his food to other people. He found an online ad looking for a cook to work at a small Cafe, called "On Higher Grounds". He got hired on spot despite the fact that had zero professional experience. This job did not mean just preparing dishes, it was also prepping, organizing, taking inventory, produce ordering, and shopping. basically Brian ran the cafe. He enjoyed doing this job despite all the stress that came with the responsibilities of running a cafe. However, it was not fulfilling him entirely. With the mentality more of a home cook than of a professional chef, he questioned his career path.

His friend had a small weekly vegan delivery service "Vegin' Out" at that time. Brian became part of this delivery service while still working at the cafe. After six months of cooking with Vegin' Out he accepted a full-time position with them doing marketing during the week and prepping food Sunday nights (he is the executive chef there at the moment). And then something amazing happened! He decided to try becoming vegan for a month. It happened on September 11th 2006. After the month he lost about 8 pounds and felt better than before. He decided to give this vegan diet an extra month which over time turned into years. In just the first ten months he lost sixty pounds, WOW! In late 2006 he started doing cooking shows on YouTube with the purpose of entertaining his friends and to distract himself from his Halo video game (nerd alert LOL). His cooking shows took over the internet and soon he became pretty popular in the vegan world. And now he gives us awesome recipes and great humor in a a paper form :-)

I have always enjoyed Brian's recipes (I make his "Mock Tuna salad" often) so I was thrilled to get his new cookbook. Have you ever read a cookbook and laughed so hard that you almost choked on your dinner? Well, read this book with no food in your mouth or you will end up like me, choking on your food with laughter :-)

Brian has a great sense of humor and he is not afraid to make fun of himself. His clever, sarcastic and exclusive sense of humor and his amazing cooking skills combined make this cookbook hilarious and unique. Funny Introduction, hilarious recipe names and directions, and WTF facts will make your cooking experience unforgettable. Here are just a few examples of some funny things I found in the cookbook:

*My Balls recipe

*The Tomato Killer pasta sauce recipe "This is my go-to tomato sauce. Pasta, pizza, cereal-it goes on everything. I don't kill flies or spiders, but I'll murder the crap out of some tomatoes."

*The Fat Ass sandwich

This cookbook would be an awesome gift to anyone who has a sense of humor and loves good vegan food. A great cookbook for any vegan "dude" or a "chick". Probably not the best cookbook for your Puritan grandma, elementary school library or your 10 y/o cousin though LOL

I made several of the recipes and loved every single one of them! Years of experience in creating recipes, testing recipes and cooking based on other cookbook recipes make it easy for me to read a recipe and predict if the recipe is going to be any good (not in baking though). So I read every single recipe from The Sexy Vegan Cookbook and I am confident that they will work nicely even without trying them first. The only thing I missed were desserts. No baked goodies in this cookbook :-( And the section with ice cream recipes was useless to me since I do not own an ice cream maker :-(

So if you like pizza, sandwiches, mock meats, soups, snacks, vegan comfort foods and goodies, ice cream (and own an ice cream maker) and cocktails, and have a sense of humor, this is a cookbook for you.

Here are the recipes that I tried:

Tempeh Bacon (page 32) was really nice. Smokey, flavorful and salty with a hint of sweetness. I cut it into chunks and served it over cooked quinoa and salad.

WOW!!! These fake meatballs are out of this world! Brian calls them "My Balls" (page 26) which sparked up a conversation after my husband asked what was for dinner and I replied "Brian's balls over brown rice pasta"........ LOL

When I made the balls I tried the mixture before baking it and it was so good that I ate about 1/4 of the whole batch.... It would make a fantastic tempeh and walnut pate. Next time I am making a double batch, one for the balls and one for a pate. These balls are addictive and should come with a warning "Serious addiction can develop after a first bite!".

I served Brian's balls over brown rice pasta and roasted red pepper and tomato sauce. I sprinkled everything with Parmesan Topping (page 211). Amazing meal, all flavors blended together nicely.

Parmesan Topping (page 211) is a perfect vegan parmesan cheese alternative. Cheesy, salty with a hint of nuttiness. I used the topping over pasta, including couscous and over salads. Yummy!

Avocado Toast (page 49) was scrumptious! I used Pretend Canadian Bacon (page 34) instead of the tempeh bacon suggested in the recipe.

Pretend Canadian Bacon (page 34) turned out great! I have never had the real Canadian bacon so I could not compare it to the "real' stuff, but wow, this was so good! Sweet and smokey with a touch of salt. We ate the entire batch in one day.... And by we I mean mostly me :-)

I made a potato and tofu scramble using Brian's Scramble Seasoning (page 209). The seasoning gave my scramble a wonderfully flavorful touch, with the aroma and taste of real eggs. It was not too spicy or overwhelmingly eggy, just perfect. You have to see what Brian used in this recipe to make it taste like eggs!

Order The Sexy Vegan Cookbook Here

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By the way, you have to see this cute and funny song "Bacon on Ukulele" that Brian posted on YouTube