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Please tell us a bit about yourself? I’d have to say I’m a committed person. I’m committed to cooking and developing good vegan food, and this works hand-in-hand with my commitment to helping animals. My husband Jon and I share our home in Virginia with three wonderful black and white cats: Gary, Mitzi, and Jason. How did you get involved in the food business? I grew up in a small town in northeastern Pennsylvania. My love of cooking began at an early age when I would help my mother in the kitchen. I also studied art and enjoyed painting. One day I had an “ah ha” moment that I should channel my creativity into cooking and I decided to become a professional chef. I started out by getting a job as a line cook in a small restaurant in my hometown in Pennsylvania, then worked my way up to ultimately become chef at a French restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina. What led you to become vegan and what led you to become an author? My lifelong love of animals persuaded me to follow my heart and become vegan more than 20 years ago. It was then when I quit working in restaurants and began to develop my own cooking style, using my professional experience to prepare plant-based ingredients in delicious ways. I began teaching others how to do this and realized that I wanted to show people on a larger scale that vegan food could be creative and interesting, so writing cookbooks was a natural step in my progression. I consider writing vegan cookbooks to be my activism. My goal is to eliminate all the excuses people have for not going vegan by showing them how easy and delicious it can be. You’ve published quite a few well-received books. Please tell us about your latest book, Vegan on the Cheap! 
In writing Vegan on the Cheap I wanted to dispel the myth that eating vegan is expensive. In Vegan on the Cheap, I provide recipes and tips to show how to prepare great-tasting and nourishing vegan food on a budget. All the recipes cost less than $2 per serving, with many costing just fifty cents per serving. In terms of today’s economic climate, this book couldn’t have come out at a better time. Please give us some insight into what goes into developing a cookbook and how do you choose a topic? Sometimes I choose a topic, other times, a topic chooses me. For example, when slow cookers had their renaissance several years ago, I saw the need for a good plant-based slow-cooker book, so I decided to write Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. In the case of 1,000 Vegan Recipes, the publisher for the “1,000 Recipes” series contacted me about doing a vegan cookbook for their series. The way I develop a cookbook is to first write a concept statement or a brief synopsis so I have a foundation in mind about the scope of the book. I then write an outline, listing the chapters that will be included, followed by actual recipe titles. I just keep working on it until I have a comprehensive outline which I then develop into a full-fledged book proposal and eventually, a cookbook. You were publishing vegan cookbooks before vegan went mainstream. What challenges have you faced and how did you overcome them? When my first cookbooks were published, vegetarian was considered “fringe,” and vegan was virtually unheard of. It was difficult enough to interest publishers in vegetarian cookbooks, and most balked at not including dairy and eggs because they didn’t want to alienate the vegetarian market. For a while, the only way I could get my vegan recipes published was to let the editors add an “either/or” to some of the ingredients, such as “milk or soy milk” in order to allow people to make their own choices about dairy. In a way, this was a compromise, but in another way, I think it served as a useful bridge to gently help people make the transition to veganism and show them that often a simple switch of an ingredient or two is all that it takes to make healthy vegan recipes. How has the change in media over the last few years, particularly the internet, changed the way you approached your work? The internet has had a tremendous effect on the way I approach my work. It literally brings the world to our doorsteps, so I’ve been able to learn a lot about what people are looking for in cookbooks and have been able to interact with fans of my work thanks to e-mail, blogs, and social networking. The internet has also allowed me to go from relying on friends and family to test my recipes to being able to reach out to wonderful vegan cooks all over the world who now test the recipes for my books. Also, in terms of promotion and sales, Amazon and other online booksellers have had a tremendous impact on bringing the audience to the book, rather than the other way around. Out of all nineteen books that you’ve published, what is your all time favorite recipe? (please share!) Wow, that’s a tough one. My favorite recipes are the ones people enjoy the most. It gives me a lot of pleasure when people write and tell me how much they enjoy my recipes. I have lots of personal favorites including my hot Italian vegan sausage, that tastes like my mom’s recipe, and a stuffed seitan roast that my husband and I enjoy on holidays. I also love my vegan cheesecake with blackberry sauce, which I make from blackberries in my garden. Pasta Puttanesca is a family favorite too. To pick just one, though, I’d have to say the Mac and Chard recipe from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. What sets this recipe apart from the typical vegan mac and cheese is that it’s made without tofu, fake cheese, or nutritional yeast — all ingredients that people seem to either love or hate. I happen to like tofu and nutritional yeast, and occasionally use non-dairy cheese, but I thought it would be great to come up with a mac and cheese that could literally please every palate. At the same time, I wanted to include a leafy green, such as chard or spinach, so it could be served as a one-dish meal. The result of my personal challenge is this Mac and Chard. Mac and Chard If rainbow chard is unavailable, use another variety of chard or substitute fresh spinach. To make the sauce silky smooth, it is best to use a high-speed blender such as a Vita-Mix to help grind the cashews to a powder. (This recipe is from 1,000 Vegan Recipes © published by John Wiley & Sons.) 12 ounces elbow macaroni 
1 medium bunch rainbow chard, tough stems removed, and chopped2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion 1 garlic clove, chopped 1 large Yukon gold potato, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices Salt and freshly ground black pepper 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth 1/4 teaspoon turmeric 3/4 teaspoon sweet paprika 1/2 cup unsalted roasted cashews 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs (use panko, if you’ve got it) 1. In a pot of boiling salted water, cook the macaroni over medium-high heat until al dente, about 8 minutes. Drain well and set aside. 2. Steam the chard until tender, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, squeeze any remaining moisture from the chard and set chard aside. Lightly oil a 9 x 13-inch baking dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350? F. 3. In a large saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and potato. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, cover, and cook until the vegetables are softened, about 10 minutes. Add 1 cup of the broth, the turmeric, and 1/2 teaspoon of the paprika, and continue cooking, uncovered, until the vegetables are very soft. Remove from the heat and set aside. 4. Grind the cashews in a high-speed blender until ground to a fine powder. Add the onion and potato mixture, the remaining broth, lemon juice, mustard, and salt and pepper, to taste, and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary. 5. Combine the sauce with the cooked macaroni and steamed chard and transfer to the prepared casserole. Sprinkle with the bread crumbs and remaining 1/4 teaspoon paprika and drizzle with the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Bake until hot and golden brown on top, about 30 minutes. Serve immediately. What is the key to making great tasting, satisfying vegan cuisine? There’s no substitute for great ingredients, simply prepared, and seasoned well. Developing a keen sense of taste to achieve a good balance of flavor, as well as an awareness of texture and color are important to create meals that please all the senses. What advice can you give aspiring vegan cookbook authors? If you have a great idea, write down your concept and come up with an outline with chapter ideas and recipe titles to see if a cookbook emerges. Then work hard to make it a reality. Now that you’ve got Vegan on the Cheap published, what exciting new project do you have coming up next? My next book comes out in September, 2010. It is called Party Vegan. One of my favorite activities is to entertain and celebrate with food, so this book was especially fun to write. It contains menus and recipes for every occasion, including holidays such as a casual Halloween Party, Thanksgiving Dinner, a New Year’s Eve appetizer party, a Mother’s Day brunch, and hearty “guy food” for Super Bowl Sunday. There are also menus and recipes for everyday get-togethers such as birthday parties for children and teens, picnics, guests for dinner, and so on. And of course, the recipes can be used on their own for everyday meals as well. The book is also filled with lots of ideas on how to have stress-free get-togethers, with entertaining tips gleaned from my years as a professional caterer. I’m really excited about Party Vegan. Thanks Robin! A longtime vegan, Robin Robertson has worked with food for more than 25 years and is the author of nineteen cookbooks, including Vegan Planet, 1,000 Vegan Recipes, Vegan Fire & Spice, and Vegan on the Cheap. A former restaurant chef, Robin writes the Global Vegan food column for VegNews Magazine and has written for Vegetarian Times, Cooking Light, and Natural Health, among others. Robin lives in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. You may contact her through her website or blog: www.globalvegankitchen.com and www.veganplanet.blogspot.com *PRIVACY POLICY - Contact information is never, ever given or sold to another individual or company By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Service. | subscribe contact contributors pro bonum classes meals |