Nisha Vora’s evolution as a vegan cook sounds so familiar. When she first decided to go vegan eight years ago, she says, “I didn’t know how to make my food taste interesting.” That’s because, like so many others in her position (including me), she was single-mindedly focused on what she subtracted from her go-to dishes to adapt them to her new diet.
Column by Joe Yonan
“So once I took out all of the chicken and the fish and the sour cream and the mayo and the butter, I was just left with the other stuff that I was eating, but it just felt so boring and bland,” she told me in a Zoom call from her San Diego home. “And I’m not someone who can just eat to live.”
One she started focusing on the possibilities rather than the limitations — and on the idea of building flavor — everything changed. “I started to realize, okay, I have a cauliflower, so how can I make it the most delicious cauliflower? Rather than just throw it in a stir-fry with a bunch of other vegetables.”
Vora’s new approach led her to leave her job as a lawyer and create Rainbow Plant Life, an incredibly popular website, YouTube channel and Instagram account. The author of “The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook,” Vora took on a bigger task with her follow-up “Big Vegan Flavor” distills her many years of hard-won cooking wisdom into more than 150 recipes, plus tips for building flavor into every meal.
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End of carouselI’m Joe, the food and dining editor of The Post and the author of this weekly column on plant-based cooking. My latest cookbook is “Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking,” and I’m also the author of the bestselling “Cool Beans.”
Sometimes I develop my own recipes for this column, and sometimes I spotlight the great work of other cooks and authors. And I love hearing from readers: Feel free to email me at joe.yonan@washpost.com.
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One of the major points of her book is that this is a distinct cuisine with its own principles and strategies, and in that way, she and I are nothing short of kindred spirits. (My new book, “Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking,” employs a similar philosophy — and, coincidentally, was published on the same date as Vora’s.)
What Vora does so beautifully in “Big Vegan Flavor” is break down plant-based cooking into its crucial elements, writing about how to achieve various textures, make condiments and other “flavor boosters,” properly cook legumes and grains, explore the ins and outs of tofu and tempeh, and more. For the latter, she shows how the way the main ingredients are cut (or crumbled) affects the cooking method, and that leads to wonderfully diverse results.
Perhaps you’ve cut tofu into cubes, squares or slabs, or torn it into nuggets. Maybe you’ve frozen and thawed it. But have you grated it?
My favorite recipe (so far) from Vora’s book shows how grating tofu — preferably the super-firm kind, which is usually vacuum-packed — can lead to something she describes as “delightfully crispy, chewy and super-savory,” and in my testing that is no exaggeration. After pan-frying it with aromatics (including Thai or serrano peppers), you stir in a vibrant sauce made of soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, gochugaru, toasted sesame oil and a little sugar. Eat it with grains and vegetables, or, as was my preference, in lettuce cups.
Vora named the recipe I Can’t Believe It’s Not Chicken. I’m officially naming it Spicy Grated Tofu, something more descriptive for readers who find it outside the context of a cookbook, but I’m also giving it a nickname, at least in my mind: Tofu With Big Flavor.
