is The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman. I have had this cookbook for several months now and although I already was a tester for Celine and Joni, I still found so many new recipes that I had to try. Here’s my review:

With Vegan Subs you get two books in one.
1. You get a guide of how to substitute dairy, cheese, eggs, meat, and by-products like honey and gelatin. If you are a vegan allergic to soy or gluten, there are also tips on how to get rid of those ingredients. And if you are health conscious, two chapters discuss the substitution of sugar and fat. Each chapter starts with substitution guidelines that will tell you what to use instead of butter, cheese, meat, etc. I think this guide is very helpful especially for new vegans. The book also includes basic substitutes, such as yoghurt and sour cream, home-made non-dairy milk, different kinds of cheese ( feta, ricotta, brie, mozzarella, etc.), mayo, seitan, burgers, bacon and even ribs.

2. This book is not about substitutions only. It is a regular and a fantastic vegan cookbook. You will find both very easy and more elaborated and inventive recipes suitable for every occasion.

Plus, the book is pretty! It has lots of great photographs by Celine herself and also some very cute drawings. It has a great size and if I had a handbag, I’d carry it around with me all day long.

I tried many recipes from this book, unfortunately I didn’t take many pictures. I have to recycle some of my tester pictures here. (And I apologize for the poor quality of some.) You can also find many more awesome pictures in the Vegan Subs flickr pool.

• Granola biscuits: these are both great as a snack and a filling breakfast.

• Maple Orange Creamy Sorbet: very creamy indeed! And made with speculoos cookies.

• Fondue: I didn’t take a picture of this, which is a shame, because we really enjoyed it. The fondue is thick and creamy and is a flavour bomb because it’s made with white wine and kirsch.
• Baked Pestotatoes: My picture definitely doesn’t do these delicious and filling potatoes justice. This recipe reminded me of a pre-vegan favourite of mine: baked potatoes with herb quark or herb cream cheese. I am so glad that I finally found a substitute for this old stand-by of mine.

• Pulp-Not Fiction Muffins: If you’ve never done this before, Celine and Joni will teach you how to make your own non-dairy milk. And their recipes are not about almond milk. (I am not saying almond milk is bad, though. But I like some change, too.) Instead you can taste your own cashew or peanut milk. And use the pulp for these fantastic muffins:

• Marzipan-Filled Pillows: I swear these cookies are heavenly. Marzipan and chocolate, do I have to say more? And the best part of this recipes is that you can make the marzipan yourself! There’s a recipe for marzipan from scratch included.
• Speculoos spiced cookies: Belgian speculoos cookies are all over the internet. They are spiced cookies which usually get most of their amazing flavour from cinnamon and caramel syrup or brown sugar. In this case the combination of sucanat and maple sirup does the job very well, too.

• Sesame Orange Tempeh with Caramelized Onions Pizza: Most inventive and unique pizza ever! Plus, it’s very delicious!
• Smokey Potato Wedges: A couple of weeks ago I woke up on a Sunday morning with a craving for potatoes. These are perfect for every brunch.

• Pizza Pepperoni Topping: I have made this pizza topping countless times.  Usually I prefer veggies on my pizza, this is the only exception I’ll ever make. The topping is very fast and easy to prepare. Because it’s made with lots of spices, you can add lots of flavour to your pizza in no time. You will find two versions in the book: one is gluten-free and the other one soy-free.

• Stone-Ground Corn Pancakes: You won’t need to hunt down a gluten-free flour mix for these tasty pancakes. The recipe for the flour can be found in the book, too.
• Provençal Socca: Another one of my favourite recipes from the book. Of course everything that is made with olives, tomatoes, garlic, basil and thyme is awesome, but the addition of a crispy and slightly sweet crust takes all this to a new level.

• Amaretti cookies: From now on you can enjoy your espresso with a cruelty-free version of these wonderful almond cookies!

• No-Knead Banana Bread Waffles: Yeasted waffles made with the no-knead method? Yes, please! These are addictive.
• Banana Chutney: I never liked chutney – or so I thought. This chutney changed my opinion and even P, the chutney expert claimed that this was the best chutney he ever had!

• Banana Chutney Quick Bread: What a great use for chutney!

There are many more recipes I want to try, for example: brie, walnut cookies, white bean cutlets, mushroom margarita fajitas, linguine with green beans and spinach walnut pesto, etc. Which probably means that this book is staying on top of my cookbook list for a long period of time. I am not complaining.