Cooking is love. That’s one message I pick up from Maria Amore’s cookbook, Cooking with Amore. When I started reading Maria’s preface to her book, I couldn’t help noticing how her words were infused with love and compassion.
“Cooking with Amore is a personal odyssey back to wellness, a journey of self-discovery and my way of making this world a more peaceful place.” (quoted from Maria’s introduction)
Delicious and Easy
As she states in her introduction, her goal with this cookbook is to show how easy and delicious vegan cooking can be, and I agree. I love cooking, and I have also prepared many vegan meals and surprised myself every time with the explosion of flavors.
This cookbook comes with great tips. She gives useful advice about water, salt, olive oil, herbs and spices, tofu, organic vs non-organic, sweeteners, dressings, garlic, broth, croutons, and beans. The tip about beans blew me away. And I’m not going to tell you, I don’t want to spoil that surprise 😉 Best to leave that to Maria 🙂
What I especially love about this cookbook are the quotes that accompany the recipes.
“If I sing when I cook, the food will be happy” – Pasquale Carpino
What Delicious Meals Are in This Cookbook?
It’s time for another list. I love making lists 😉 , so here we go.
- Soups
- Stews
- Autumn Harvest Bowl
- Quinoa creams
- A vegan Italian minestrone – use those vegan sausages for that 😉
- Warm avocado soup. Yes, warm, and it looks yummy!
- And so much more
- Salads, dips, and pâtés
Maria has a way of making incredible salads that seduce even me – remember, I’m not a fan of salads 😉
-
- Tomato Cacao Salad (Yes, she got me with that one)
- And how about a quinoa chia crunch salad, making a full meal out of a salad. I love that idea.
- Hummus (I have tasted Maria’s hummus and it is divine)
- Veggie and seed pâté (I want to make that)
- How about a Cilantro Salad (like a Mexican-style tabbouleh)
- Pesto
- Artichoke spread
- And the list goes on
- Fully plant-based main meals and side dishes
- Vegan shepherd’s pie is among my favorites and Maria’s version is delicious. I’ve had it and it was so good.
- A veganized version of the French-Canadian Poutine
- Casseroles
- Sauces
- Maria’s wonderful lasagna rolls which – you guessed correctly – I’ve also tasted 🙂
- Risotto
- No-meatballs (how about that? They look yummy)
- BLT wraps with tempeh bacon
- Burgers
- Spring rolls
- Lentil meatloaf
- Thanks to Maria’s Italian heritage, there are plenty of Italian recipes which are finger licking good
- Several Mexican dishes
- So much more, too much to add to this list.
- Desserts and snacks
- Triple chocolate cupcakes (need I say more?)
- Italian desserts (old family recipes, they are always the best)
- Muffins
- Cakes
- Crispy kale chips
- Ice cream
- Brownie balls
- Scones
- Chocolate spread (I am craving dessert now)
It’s a Piece of Cake
I have had several of Maria’s desserts and they were always mouthwatering good. This is part of the reason why I am reviewing her cookbook.
I know Maria personally and over the years I have eaten many of her meals, such as shepherd’s pie, lasagna rolls, creamy lasagna, lentil stews, mudslide pie, key lime pie, smoothies, etc. So, I can honestly tell you that this cookbook is worth your investment.
Second, this cookbook has some amazing recipes and some are not the ones you usually find in a vegan cookbook. Maria also includes old family recipes and her own incredible creations.
Third, there are 100 recipes in Cooking with Amore. They are easy to follow and with every recipe comes a photo of the meal.
Pros and Cons
So, I see only advantages to getting this cookbook. The one con may be the price. The Kindle is listed on Amazon at $7.79 US and the paperback at $41.12 US, but as I said, it is an investment worth making. I got the cookbook as well 🙂 
And remember the wise advice my father gave me a long time ago. “Cheap often turns out to be expensive.” I’ve never forgotten those words. While there are certainly cheaper cookbooks, Cooking with Amore offers you quality vegan meals for your health and well-being. For Maria, cooking is not only preparing something to eat, but it’s about “mindfully infusing love into every ingredient you choose to ingest.” (quoted from back cover, Cooking with Amore)
Cooking with love. Interesting how I wrote about that in one of my previous blogs. It really does apply. My meals don’t come out that well when I’m in a bad mood.
So, if you’d like to discover Maria’s wonderful recipes, get your Cooking with Amore, cooking with love is the best way to cook 🙂
Disclaimer: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Thank you Christine for this post
I’m from France and I’ve been working in a kitchen and I can tell cooking and love has to be together
I don’t really cook vegan food but as I can see there is a infinity of ideas and dishes in this book
Definitely worth to try specially if you love cooking for everybody
I’ll be ready for my guests to cook everything now
Thanks
Charles
Hi Charles, I definitely love French food (I’m from Belgium), and I have tried several veganized versions of it and it was yummy. I’m glad you got some more ideas from my post 🙂
Thank you for stopping by 🙂
My husband was a vegetarian for a long time and it was difficult for me to find recipes that I liked as well. Nowadays I have been looking for simpler, healthy, and delicious meals to make us but it’s so hard to choose- and half of the time they fall flat on their face. These recipes sound amazing and I can’t wait to try some of them! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Laura, these recipes are so good. You and your husband will love them. I have tried several of Maria’s creations and they were incredible 🙂
I never knew being s vagan can not deprive one from taking good food combinations. This is a fantastic food ideas. There is nothing as fun as cooking with love and passion. I always make good food out of my recipes combination any time I am cooking with free mind and happiness. It do bring a peak fufilment because my household will surely endorsed it. But when am emotionally disturbed, my cooking zeal got decreased. This book is pocket friendly and I’ll love to check it out. Most time, we love to change taste in my household,and going on vegan diet way for that period would be amazing.
Thank you for your comment, Stella. Yes, there is so much variety, and it is delicious. Try it out, you’ll like it. Vegan food also gives you more energy, so it is good for emotional health 🙂
What I like about this cookbook is that there are recipes for a variety of comfort foods, I especially like sound of the shepard’s pie, poutine, and lentil “meat” loaf. I’ve been a vegan for about 5 years now and never really knew how to make any vegan foods, I just eat a lot of rice and canned beans, packaged stuff, fruits, etc. I want to learn how to cook some more intricate stuff to impress my girlfriend. Sounds like the Kindle version is very affordable and definitely worth checking out…
Yes, there are so many vegan comfort foods, they are easy to make and so yummy. Let me know how it goes when you try out the recipes 🙂
Thank you for your comment!
I have been working on dropping some weight recently. It’s a terrible thing when the metabolism start to slow down. Some sites say to eat all the fruits and vegetables you want, but I have been amazed at how much sugar is in certain fruits and vegetables. Trying to cut out meat was a difficult task but I am truly amazed at how many great quality vegan options there are! I don’t know if I will forever choose this type of eating style but there are so many quality and fantastic tasting vegan options. And what I was most surprised by was how filling the meals were. Can’t wait to download and try some of these. Thanks for the review.
Thank you for your comment!
If you like the flavor of meat but want to cut it out of your diet, try “Beyond Meat” products, they taste really good. The Beyond Burger got excellent reviews. I am glad you’re going to try some of the recipes 🙂
And yes, fruit has a lot of sugar and some veggies can leave one feeling bloated. That’s why these recipes are so great 🙂
Hello Christine, I must say that this article is very helpful and informative. I am not a pro cooker but I enjoy cooking for me and my family. This book will definitely help me to discover new recipes and what I like the most about it is that it is not expensive at all, anyone who likes to cook can afford this great book.
Hi Danijel,
Yes, this book has wonderful recipes. Your family will enjoy it 🙂
Thanks for visiting my page!
Hello, Christine.
My wife and I are taking a serious look at some of our eating habits (mostly good but could use some tweaking). This sounds like it might be a great book to help make some of those changes.
We do occasionally eat vegan but I think we might like to increase that to three or four times a week form our current once or twice. Having more of a variety in menu selection (we eat mostly the same recipes) would probably help us get more into that way of eating as well.
We both know that, even though we eat quite healthily, we can do it better. Might have to check out this book. I’ll see what the wife says as she does the cooking (good at it too) in our house.
Wayne
Hi Wayne,
I think your wife will like it. The recipes are easy to follow and they each come with a photo. Maria Amore’s food tastes amazing, I was fortunate to eat several of her homemade meals. And with more recipes you can have more variety in your menu selection 🙂
All the best on your vegan journey!
Thanks for this review. It’s nice to know that the cookbook has vegan-friendly desserts. For the most part, I’m familiar with plenty of vegan friendly meals, but not too savvy with vegan desserts. I might actually get this book in the future, and seeing it’s only under $8 for the Kindle, you can’t beat the price!
Hi Nate,
The desserts are amazing, especially the amoretella chocolate spread and the triple chocolate coconut cupcakes.
Thanks for visiting!
I am most definitely not a vegan cook but I can see in this cookbook that there are plenty of recipes that I would love to try. The variety is absolutely amazing and I would certainly like to know the bean trick. One thing I’d like to ask, though, is if each recipe comes with a picture of the finished dish? I really do like to see what they’re supposed to look like by the time I’m done so that I can see that I’ve done a good enough job on it or if I really massively messed it up. The Kindle price on this cookbook is really quite good but I do like to have an actual cookbook in my hands when I am cooking mainly because of the pictures.
Hi,
Yes, every recipe comes with a photo, so you can actually see what the end result looks like. I also like to see photos of the recipes, they definitely help 🙂
I just posted a video in this article where I talk more about the cookbook and show some pages.
I love to cook Christine!
Hence it was a delight to read your review on Cooking With Amore. Confession time. I am not Vegan. However, meat does not dominate my meals. I love vegetable soups and salads. I also use a lot of veggies in my sandwiches. However, I have no idea on how to select and use ingredients for Vegan dishes that emulate meat equivalents.
In the LA area there are many Indian vegetarian restaurants. Not vegan but close enough. Last Saturday I enjoyed a delicious South Indian meal called Masala Dosa. If you don’t know what it is, the focal point is a huge crepe made out of rice with a spicy potato and vegetable filling. The accompaniments were two sipping sauces and a spicy vegetable soup called sambar. The best part was this delicious and filling meal only cost $5. The restaurant had other veggie delights to chose from too.
Your list was mouthwatering. I am not a fan of tofu. That would be one challenge since it is used extensively in vegan recipes. What would be an alternative to tofu?
You are correct in stating that going cheap can be more expensive in the long run. I feel that the physical book can be more inspiring than reading a recipe from a screen. Is the book spiral bound so the pages could be opened flat? I hope so; otherwise trying to keep it open at the right page could result in food soiled pages at the wrong moment.
One more thing. How does it feel having short hair since it has been a while since you had your long hair cut?
I wish you all the very best.
Bob Apetite!
Edwin
Hi Edwin,
Masala Dosa sounds divine! I would love to try it, basically, I really love Indian food! Yes, tofu is not everyone’s favorite, the thing about tofu is that it needs to be marinated so that it can absorb the flavor. Tasty replacements for tofu could be seitan and tempeh.
The book is not spiralbound, so you may have to put some weight on a page to prevent it from flipping over when you’re cooking 🙂
I love the short hair! It’s so super short, a nice change, and I am shocking many people, lol, but it feels great. No hair in my food when I’m cooking now 😉