Recent reports show that $1 trillion of food is thrown away annually in the United States. I am guilty of overshopping at the grocery store, and it’s painful to find moldy berries and veggies past their prime. PlantYou is a cookbook that features zero-waste recipes with all kinds of tricks and tips on how to use your food and keep it out of the trash. So, let’s dive in and see how it went cooking a few recipes from PlantYou.
Grab a copy here from Bookshop.org and support independent bookstores. (Or buy from Amazon here.)
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Background of the Book & Author
Carleigh Bodrug has been a vegan food blogger for years. Her first cookbook came out in 2022. The stat she saw that changed her approach to cooking was that 30-40% of the entire United States food supply ends up in landfills. It sent her on a mission to find unique ways to use leaves, peels, and stems. Her Instagram post about turning orange peels into candy went viral, and she realized there was a huge demand out there to cut down on food waste with creative ideas.
The cookbook takes many of Bodrug’s ideas and packages them together in a beautiful book. She calls it scrappy cooking. Each recipe gives you other suggestions for the parts of the vegetable or fruit that you might not be using. There’s even a section at the front called “Got This? Make That!”
What Grabbed My Attention
I hate throwing food away, but I don’t have the brain that automatically comes up with ideas to make the most of every last piece of produce. This book features zero-waste recipes, and it did not disappoint in that realm. With chapters on breakfast, sides, soups, sandwiches, noodles, sweets, and sauces, I bookmarked dozens of recipes immediately. There are also recipes marked with a green circle saying “kitchen raid recipe,” allowing you to use any vegetables you have lying around.
Overall Cookbook Rating
Ease of recipes – 9
Knowledge of methods & ingredients – 7
Fits the theme – 10
Taste overall of test recipes – 8
Quantity of recipes that generated excitement – 10
Overall rating – 8.8/10
Feedback from a lazy cook who hates a dish pile up and making dinner decisions:
Most of the recipes were simple, with one pot and minimal prep work other than chopping. They were easy to follow, and it was never hard for me to pick something that sounded good for dinner. Plus, everything made great leftovers.
Feedback from an aspiring cook who wants to impress herself and learn how to do more:
There were some great tricks to make the most of the food we buy. Learning how to make powders and dressings will be useful going forward.
Recipes I Cooked from the PlantYou Cookbook:
Dish 1 – Street Corn Pasta Salad
This was the perfect way to take advantage of summer produce. A recipe featuring corn and tomatoes seems like the ideal thing to bring along to a BBQ or picnic. We made the full recipe and enjoyed it for days as lunches. Because of that, I’ll likely make this again soon.
Changes made – I used vegan mayo because I didn’t have sunflower seeds to make the sunflower cream.
Suggestions for next time – I want to make the sunflower cream sauce that the book talks about.
Dish 2 – Perfect Peanut Butter Curry
Chickpeas are never a bad idea. We made this recipe and served it with jasmine rice. It was filling and tasty, with lots of vegetables, but it lacked a bit of the pizazz of takeout curry. Mix peanut butter and coconut milk all day, though, because it’s the perfect texture. I also would have cut this recipe in half because it made so much, and it’s not the easiest thing to reheat without a microwave.
Changes made – I used curry powder instead of curry paste.
Suggestions for next time – It needs more spice, so I think I’d buy the red curry paste or add additional spices.
Dish 3 – Hot-Pink Pasta
This was a perfect use of beets. The sauce is made of beets, soaked cashews (or sunflower seeds), lemon, garlic, coconut milk, and veggie broth. It was fantastic. This is a recipe that I will make at least once a month because it’s such a great way to use beets and incorporate them. I will note that the color in the picture is way more hot pink than our pasta turned out. The instructions said to start with one small beet and add another for more color. I used four small beets, and it still looks more like a light pink sauce, but the taste was incredible, so no complaints.
Changes made – I used regular feta, but our friend brought vegan feta for hers. Either was good, and we were just trying to use up what we had. I also used the peeled and steamed beets from Trader Joe’s because they were effortless.
Suggestions for next time – I’ll try some farmer’s market beets next time just to see if the color is different.
Dish 4 – Leeky Tuscon Minestrone
There are people in the world who love soup, and then there’s me. I will use it as a dipping sauce for sandwiches or a great piece of bread, but I don’t often seek it out unless I’m sick. This recipe caught my eye, so we gave it a try. The quantity was way too much, and we didn’t finish it all. I think it would be a great companion to sandwiches, but on its own, it wasn’t the best choice for a summer day.
Changes made – None
Suggestions for next time – I might change my vegetables and make just half the recipe.
Lessons Learned
- Using the end of the peanut butter jar in a recipe, like the curry, was brilliant. Instead of scraping out the bottom of the jar, I poured the veggie broth into the jar, shook it up until the peanut butter was mixed in, and then added it to the recipe. Brilliant.
- Coconut milk should be used more often. I purchased it in bulk from Costco now because it’s more versatile than I realized a year ago.
- Smoothie cubes are an intelligent way to use up produce. You just blend ingredients and pour them into ice cube trays to freeze them. Then, when you’re ready, you can add them to smoothies. It’s such a simple concept, but I’m on board.
- Beetroot powder is a great way to add more beets to my diet.
Who Should Buy This Cookbook
Me. I’m buying this cookbook because there are still multiple recipes that I want to make. It’s a great collection of plant-based recipes for anyone trying to swap out more meat in their typical routine. If you have a vegan in your life, they might appreciate some new ideas and ways to incorporate more of their produce into daily meals and snacks.
Grab a copy here from Bookshop.org and support independent bookstores. (Or buy from Amazon here.)
Final Thoughts on the PlantYou Cookbook
I absolutely loved this cookbook. There are pictures of the ingredients, the book is well organized, and there are tons of tricks I would have never found on my own. I’m planning on grabbing a copy from my local bookstore this week so I can get going on some of the sandwiches I marked but didn’t get a chance to try. And I’ve already started following @plantyou on Instagram and getting in line for her next cookbook for cheese lovers who want to be more plant-based (hint, that’s me!)
If you like this one, check out the reviews on Isa Does It or Best of Vegan.
