The Korean Vegan Cookbook
Reflections and Recipes from Omma's Kitchen
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST NEW COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Epicurious • EATER • Stained Page • Infatuation • Spruce Eats • Publisher’s Weekly • Food52 • Toronto Star
The dazzling debut cookbook from Joanne Lee Molinaro, the home cook and spellbinding storyteller behind the online sensation @thekoreanvegan
Joanne Lee Molinaro has captivated millions of fans with her powerfully moving personal tales of love, family, and food. In her debut cookbook, she shares a collection of her favorite Korean dishes, some traditional and some reimagined, as well as poignant narrative snapshots that have shaped her family history.
As Joanne reveals, she’s often asked, “How can you be vegan and Korean?” Korean cooking is, after all, synonymous with fish sauce and barbecue. And although grilled meat is indeed prevalent in some Korean food, the ingredients that filled out bapsangs on Joanne’s table growing up—doenjang (fermented soybean paste), gochujang (chili sauce), dashima (seaweed), and more—are fully plant-based, unbelievably flavorful, and totally Korean. Some of the recipes come straight from her childhood: Jjajangmyun, the rich Korean-Chinese black bean noodles she ate on birthdays, or the humble Gamja Guk, a potato-and-leek soup her father makes. Some pay homage: Chocolate Sweet Potato Cake is an ode to the two foods that saved her mother’s life after she fled North Korea.
The Korean Vegan Cookbook is a rich portrait of the immigrant experience with life lessons that are universal. It celebrates how deeply food and the ones we love shape our identity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this touching and transportive debut, TikTok creator Molinaro reinterprets the Korean classics she grew up with as vegan fare. She swaps out the beef used in bulgogi for soy curls (cooked and dehydrated soy beans) to recreate its meaty texture, and makes a vegan "fishy sauce" with a variety of mushrooms and dashima (dried kelp) for umami flavor. Throughout, Molinaro's dishes are enriched with wistful anecdotes about cooking with her omma (grandmother) and stories from her parents' youths in Korea: The chocolate sweet potato cake, for instance, is inspired by the two foods that saved her mother's life when she fled from North Korea to South Korea as a little girl. Molinaro also adapts Western dishes for the vegan Korean kitchen, such as Angry Penne Pasta, a riff on pasta arrabbiata prepared with gochugaru and gochujang. Each recipe is categorized by difficulty level, ranging from "easy" dishes like dooboo jorim (braised tofu) to "practice makes perfect" choices such as kkanpoongi (spicy crunchy garlic "wings" made with tofu and jackfruit). Though some ingredients may prove difficult to source (such as jjajang, a fermented black soybean paste), Molinaro's assured guidance simplifies everything else. This tasty tribute is full of heart and flavor.
Customer Reviews
Simply the best
This book’s existence is a magnificent and so long overdue. The author is cool as heck, and so it makes sense this book is so well thought out. Korean food is traditionally very meaty, so to have her recreate these same comfort classics into a vegan option is SO COOL. As an Asian American woman who has lived in Korea this book was a true gift. The representation alone brings tears to my eyes. Thank you for this!