Ever-Green Vietnamese: Super-Fresh Recipes, Starring Plants from Land and Sea

In this enticing cookbook, James Beard Award winner Nguyen (Vietnamese Food Every Day) enticingly reimagines traditional Vietnamese dishes with a heavy focus on plant-based ingredients. When health concerns caused her to rethink her diet, Nguyen decided to incorporate more vegetables and less meat into her repertoire. The resulting mostly (but not entirely) vegetarian twists on Vietnamese recipes are sure to please. Her broad approach encompasses rice dishes, snacks, soups, salads, and more—all appetizing and accessible—but the real gems are in her chapters on banh mi, “mains without meat,” “veggie-packed mains,” and desserts. Her “grand slam banh mi breakfast combo,” with fried eggs, vegan bologna, and sautéed onion, and deconstructed vegan meatball banh mi are inventive and appealing. Home cooks will find her tofu-mushroom curry and spicy sate tofu crumbles easy and quick enough for a weeknight meal. Vietnamese mocha cake and coconut-coffee pops round out the sweet end of a delicious array of healthful offerings. Nguyen also offers useful advice on Vietnamese herbs, pantry staples such as nori dust and chile-garlic sauce, and techniques for making crepes and rice-paper rolls. For those looking to enhance and expand their plant-based repertoire, Nguyen proves a skillful and creative guide. (Apr.)