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Vegan Fire & Spice: 200 Sultry and Savory Global Recipes
Still the best-selling spicy vegan cookbook, Vegan Fire & Spice delivers fiery recipes from around the world using easy-to-find ingredients with simple instructions to make them as spicy as you like.
Spice up your life! - Take a trip around the world with delicious, mouth-watering, meatless, dairy-free, and egg-free recipes ranging from mildly spiced to nearly incendiary. Explore the spicy vegan cuisines of the U.S., South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, and Asia Organized by global region, this book offers inventive and delicious spicy vegan recipes of traditional dishes using readily available ingredients. Best of all, the recipes are designed so you can adjust your own heat tolerance allowing you to enjoy it hot - or not. With the bold and scintillating recipes of Vegan Fire & Spice , you can travel the globe without ever leaving home - while still enjoying meals that are healthy and 100% vegan.
Spice up your life! - Take a trip around the world with delicious, mouth-watering, meatless, dairy-free, and egg-free recipes ranging from mildly spiced to nearly incendiary. Explore the spicy vegan cuisines of the U.S., South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, and Asia Organized by global region, this book offers inventive and delicious spicy vegan recipes of traditional dishes using readily available ingredients. Best of all, the recipes are designed so you can adjust your own heat tolerance allowing you to enjoy it hot - or not. With the bold and scintillating recipes of Vegan Fire & Spice , you can travel the globe without ever leaving home - while still enjoying meals that are healthy and 100% vegan.
238 pages, Paperback
First published January 2, 2008
6 people are currently reading
365 people want to read
About the author
Robin Robertson
40 books59 followersAn experienced chef and consultant, Robin Robertson worked for many years in restaurants and catering in northeastern Pennsylvania and Charleston, South Carolina before she began writing cookbooks. In 1988, she left the restaurant business and became vegan for ethical reasons. She then rededicated her life to writing and teaching gourmet vegan cooking.
Over the years, she has fine-tuned her plant-based diet into an eclectic and healthful cooking style which she thinks of as a creative adventure with an emphasis on the vibrant flavors of global cuisines and fresh ingredients.
The author of more than 20 cookbooks, including the bestselling Vegan Planet, 1,000 Vegan Recipes, Vegan Fire and Spice, Vegan on the Cheap, and Quick-Fix Vegan, Robin also writes “The Global Vegan” column for VegNews Magazine and was a contributing editor and columnist for Vegetarian Times. She has also written for Cooking Light, Natural Health, Better Nutrition, Restaurant Business, and other magazines.
Robin Robertson has the professional experience in classic, contemporary, international cuisines to show you how to use plant-based ingredients to make the family favorites you grew up with and learn the secrets of exotic international cuisines, too.
Robin lives in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley with her husband Jon and their cats Gary and Mitzi.
Source: http://robinrobertson.com/about-me/
Over the years, she has fine-tuned her plant-based diet into an eclectic and healthful cooking style which she thinks of as a creative adventure with an emphasis on the vibrant flavors of global cuisines and fresh ingredients.
The author of more than 20 cookbooks, including the bestselling Vegan Planet, 1,000 Vegan Recipes, Vegan Fire and Spice, Vegan on the Cheap, and Quick-Fix Vegan, Robin also writes “The Global Vegan” column for VegNews Magazine and was a contributing editor and columnist for Vegetarian Times. She has also written for Cooking Light, Natural Health, Better Nutrition, Restaurant Business, and other magazines.
Robin Robertson has the professional experience in classic, contemporary, international cuisines to show you how to use plant-based ingredients to make the family favorites you grew up with and learn the secrets of exotic international cuisines, too.
Robin lives in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley with her husband Jon and their cats Gary and Mitzi.
Source: http://robinrobertson.com/about-me/
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 6, 2008
I've hesitated to review cookbooks because I'm never sure when I've tried enough of one to warrant a review. After all, I can only comment on the bits and pieces with which I have experience. Still, the good cookbooks are worth mentioning, and this is one of the good ones.
As I flip through Vegan Fire & Spice, I'm finding that just about every recipe screams "Try me!" The recipes are organized broadly into large swaths of the globe (The Americas, Mediterranean Europe, The Middle East and Africa, India and Asia), and each section is further broken down into more specific regions. The recipes are -- you guessed it -- spicy, though of course this is adjustable to taste by varying the amount of spice or the quantity of chilis.
Anshu's Red Lentil Sambar sounded immensely appealing, although it required a trip to the local Indian grocery to purchase Garam Masala and a Sambar spice mixture. This is a good weekend recipe, as preparation and cooking takes some time. And there's a small criticism: I wish this cookbook included estimated prep times, because although some steps in this recipe gave approximate times, others did not and so it was hard in advance to get a sense of how long I'd be in the kitchen. I started making this at 6:45 and the meal wasn't ready until 9:00. Now that I understand the recipe, I'm sure that I could cut that time way down -- but it was worth even the long prep time.
The sambar is a delicious, hearty dish, full of chunks of vegetables and rich simmered lentils. It is more like a stew than the thin sambar soup you normally get in restaurants. Spiced to perfection -- and even better when I brought some with me for lunch the next day.
On a side note: I purchased this and another vegetarian cookbook from Amazon, and in a lovely gesture, they tucked in a coupon for a McDonald's chicken sandwich with my order. How thoughtful. At least I got a laugh in about it!
As I flip through Vegan Fire & Spice, I'm finding that just about every recipe screams "Try me!" The recipes are organized broadly into large swaths of the globe (The Americas, Mediterranean Europe, The Middle East and Africa, India and Asia), and each section is further broken down into more specific regions. The recipes are -- you guessed it -- spicy, though of course this is adjustable to taste by varying the amount of spice or the quantity of chilis.
Anshu's Red Lentil Sambar sounded immensely appealing, although it required a trip to the local Indian grocery to purchase Garam Masala and a Sambar spice mixture. This is a good weekend recipe, as preparation and cooking takes some time. And there's a small criticism: I wish this cookbook included estimated prep times, because although some steps in this recipe gave approximate times, others did not and so it was hard in advance to get a sense of how long I'd be in the kitchen. I started making this at 6:45 and the meal wasn't ready until 9:00. Now that I understand the recipe, I'm sure that I could cut that time way down -- but it was worth even the long prep time.
The sambar is a delicious, hearty dish, full of chunks of vegetables and rich simmered lentils. It is more like a stew than the thin sambar soup you normally get in restaurants. Spiced to perfection -- and even better when I brought some with me for lunch the next day.
On a side note: I purchased this and another vegetarian cookbook from Amazon, and in a lovely gesture, they tucked in a coupon for a McDonald's chicken sandwich with my order. How thoughtful. At least I got a laugh in about it!
May 26, 2010
Bought this book after checking it out from the library several times. I have tried several of the recipes and they have been winners. The Mr. and I love spicy foods, so this one is frequently turned to.
Updated review: I really love how this book incorporates recipes from many different cuisines. I find that 2 years after picking this book up, I am still finding little gems inside. I use the Thai and Chinese sections all the time - at least once a week - and I am also trying some African recipes. I have enjoyed African cuisine many times at restaurants, and it is so fun to try it at home with my own ingredients. I really love this book, so I am giving it an extra star :)
Updated review: I really love how this book incorporates recipes from many different cuisines. I find that 2 years after picking this book up, I am still finding little gems inside. I use the Thai and Chinese sections all the time - at least once a week - and I am also trying some African recipes. I have enjoyed African cuisine many times at restaurants, and it is so fun to try it at home with my own ingredients. I really love this book, so I am giving it an extra star :)
Read
November 15, 2022I made this complete (I think) list of Robin Robertson's cookbooks. She is a very prolific author and it was a project to compile, so I thought I'd share it with any other Goodreads members who might find it helpful.
Here is her bibliography as best as I could reconstruct it (this order is mostly from newest to oldest, except that reissues and original versions grouped together blur the order some):
The How Not to Diet Cookbook
The Plant-Based Slow Cooker / Fresh from the Vegan Slow Cooker / Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker
The Plant Protein Revolution Cookbook
Vegan Mac and Cheese*
One-Dish Vegan Revised and Expanded Edition / One-Dish Vegan / One-Dish Vegetarian Meals
The How Not to Die Cookbook (co-written with Michael Greger)
Veganize It!*
100 Best Vegan Recipes
Cook the Pantry /Vegan Unplugged: A Pantry Cuisine Cookbook and Survival Guide / Apocalypse Chow
Hot Vegan / Vegan Fire & Spice*
Robin Robertson's Vegan Without Borders
More Quick-Fix Vegan*
Vegan Planet: 425 Irresistible Recipes… / Vegan Planet: 400 Irresistible Recipes…
Nut Butter Universe / Peanut Butter Planet
Quick-Fix Vegan*
Party Vegan*
Vegan on the Cheap*
1,000 Vegan Recipes
Quick-Fix Vegetarian*
Carb Conscious Vegetarian
The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook*
Pasta for All Seasons (described as vegetarian)
Rice and Spice (described as vegetarian)
The Sacred Kitchen (“higher-consciousness cooking” so probably vegetarian)
The Vegetarian Chili Cookbook
Some Like It Hot (described as vegetarian—this may be an older version of Hot Vegan / Vegan Fire & Spice, but I’m not sure)
366 Simply Delicious Dairy-Free Recipes
366 Healthful Ways to Cook Tofu and Other Meat Alternatives
The Soy Gourmet
Her website, which has some recipes on it as well, can be found here: https://robinrobertson.com/
*The asterisk denotes that we have threads for these particular cookbooks already, so there’s no need to start new ones. The Quick-Fix cookbooks are all in one thread, titled “Quick-Fix Cookbooks by Robin Robertson.” I am not going to pin this many threads but you can search for them in the search engine to the right.
(Where I noted that a cookbook was “described as vegetarian” I meant in the full title. It’s a shorthand because I didn’t want to include long full titles for any of these cookbooks. I noted it to let you know this is not an omni cookbook. However, some of her cookbooks with “vegetarian” in the title, for example Quick-Fix Vegetarian, are actually vegan. In the old days when I first went vegan calling a cookbook vegan was the kiss of death so some authors called their cookbooks vegetarian when they were really vegan. Robin Robertson did that more than once. For that reason “described as vegetarian” means that in reality it could be vegetarian or vegan.)
Here is her bibliography as best as I could reconstruct it (this order is mostly from newest to oldest, except that reissues and original versions grouped together blur the order some):
The How Not to Diet Cookbook
The Plant-Based Slow Cooker / Fresh from the Vegan Slow Cooker / Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker
The Plant Protein Revolution Cookbook
Vegan Mac and Cheese*
One-Dish Vegan Revised and Expanded Edition / One-Dish Vegan / One-Dish Vegetarian Meals
The How Not to Die Cookbook (co-written with Michael Greger)
Veganize It!*
100 Best Vegan Recipes
Cook the Pantry /Vegan Unplugged: A Pantry Cuisine Cookbook and Survival Guide / Apocalypse Chow
Hot Vegan / Vegan Fire & Spice*
Robin Robertson's Vegan Without Borders
More Quick-Fix Vegan*
Vegan Planet: 425 Irresistible Recipes… / Vegan Planet: 400 Irresistible Recipes…
Nut Butter Universe / Peanut Butter Planet
Quick-Fix Vegan*
Party Vegan*
Vegan on the Cheap*
1,000 Vegan Recipes
Quick-Fix Vegetarian*
Carb Conscious Vegetarian
The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook*
Pasta for All Seasons (described as vegetarian)
Rice and Spice (described as vegetarian)
The Sacred Kitchen (“higher-consciousness cooking” so probably vegetarian)
The Vegetarian Chili Cookbook
Some Like It Hot (described as vegetarian—this may be an older version of Hot Vegan / Vegan Fire & Spice, but I’m not sure)
366 Simply Delicious Dairy-Free Recipes
366 Healthful Ways to Cook Tofu and Other Meat Alternatives
The Soy Gourmet
Her website, which has some recipes on it as well, can be found here: https://robinrobertson.com/
*The asterisk denotes that we have threads for these particular cookbooks already, so there’s no need to start new ones. The Quick-Fix cookbooks are all in one thread, titled “Quick-Fix Cookbooks by Robin Robertson.” I am not going to pin this many threads but you can search for them in the search engine to the right.
(Where I noted that a cookbook was “described as vegetarian” I meant in the full title. It’s a shorthand because I didn’t want to include long full titles for any of these cookbooks. I noted it to let you know this is not an omni cookbook. However, some of her cookbooks with “vegetarian” in the title, for example Quick-Fix Vegetarian, are actually vegan. In the old days when I first went vegan calling a cookbook vegan was the kiss of death so some authors called their cookbooks vegetarian when they were really vegan. Robin Robertson did that more than once. For that reason “described as vegetarian” means that in reality it could be vegetarian or vegan.)
April 1, 2022
This book was just full of great recipes. I grabbed a stack of global recipes vegan/vegetarian cookbooks from the library and this was by far the best one. Even if you don't like your food hot the recipes are easy to customize, and the beginning of the book gives you a lot of information on what peppers are hottest, and other things you need to know to get things right for your taste buds. I can't say enough nice things about it :)
October 5, 2009
This was a wonderful birthday gift from someone who knows me well: I’m vegan and I’m addicted to hot & spicy foods. I have this author’s book [Some Like It Hot:], which is a vegetarian, not vegan, book. This book is the updated and veganized version of this earlier book.
This book has international cuisine recipes. The contents are divided up by area: The Americas, Mediterranean Europe, The Middle East and Africa, India, and Asia. There are also more specific regions/countries within these areas for these recipes. At each section, a little information is given about the cuisine of the area, including specific foods and seasonings for each location.
Each recipe is given a 1, 2, or 3 chilis icon depending on how hot it is, and each recipe can be altered to make it hotter or milder.
This is my kind of cookbook because the recipes are for the most part incredibly easy to make, although some contain ingredients that might be somewhat hard to find, or at the least be unlikely to be on hand. The author does give appropriate alternatives for these latter foods.
In the superb introduction, the author gives a brief overview (basically a blurb) of the history of spices, lists specific pungent foods, allows for changes to her recipes (which is great since I rarely exactly follow recipes and I’m sure to use enough chilis & spices to approach or surpass the 3 chili rating for most dishes, and I’ll probably eliminate most oil, for which she gives substitutions) and she gives various other tidbits of information too. I had not known that chilis are not peppers, but are fruits. I just love learning this kind of information!
I was somewhat disappointed with the recipes from India and Asia, as I’ve seen better in other cookbooks. (However, if I left out food I don’t like such as coconut, vinegar, sherry, wine, mustard, tempeh, seitan, etc. and made substitutions for them, perhaps I’d enjoy those dishes.) The recipes from the Middle East and Africa, the and the Americas were my favorites. There were also some tasty looking recipes from Mediterranean Europe.
The dish I most want to try is quinoa-stuffed avocados; it’s from South America. Also sounding delicious to me are Nigerian Peanut Soup, West African Yam and Groundnut Stew, North African Pumpkin Stew, and Tofu Piripiri, all from Africa. From the Middle East, Turkish Eggplant, Stuffed Tomatoes (or Eggplant) with Currants and Pine Nuts, Persian Orange Rice with Pistachios, and Red Chili Hummus looked particularly good. From Mexico the Smooth and Sassy Guacamole and the Spicy Bean and Spinach Burritos look like must tries. The recipe from the U.S. that looks the best to me is the Red Hot White Bean Chili. In the Mediterranean Europe, from Italy the Ziti with Fresh Tomatoes and Olives looks yummy, and from Europe-other the Portuguese Spicy Kale Soup and two Basque recipes: Basque Chickpea Stew and Farcia Intchauspe (spicy Basque stuffing) are recipes I’d like to make. After the quinoa stuffed avocado, that stuffing looks like the next most intriguing dish to me.
Anyway, I just kept reading until I read this book all the way through. I haven’t actually made anything from the book yet as I’ve had the book for just six days, but I’m skilled at telling what I’ll enjoy just by looking at recipes.
Personally, I’d probably leave out the salt for all these dishes as I don’t normally cook with salt, and the spices and chilis give plenty of flavor.
This book has international cuisine recipes. The contents are divided up by area: The Americas, Mediterranean Europe, The Middle East and Africa, India, and Asia. There are also more specific regions/countries within these areas for these recipes. At each section, a little information is given about the cuisine of the area, including specific foods and seasonings for each location.
Each recipe is given a 1, 2, or 3 chilis icon depending on how hot it is, and each recipe can be altered to make it hotter or milder.
This is my kind of cookbook because the recipes are for the most part incredibly easy to make, although some contain ingredients that might be somewhat hard to find, or at the least be unlikely to be on hand. The author does give appropriate alternatives for these latter foods.
In the superb introduction, the author gives a brief overview (basically a blurb) of the history of spices, lists specific pungent foods, allows for changes to her recipes (which is great since I rarely exactly follow recipes and I’m sure to use enough chilis & spices to approach or surpass the 3 chili rating for most dishes, and I’ll probably eliminate most oil, for which she gives substitutions) and she gives various other tidbits of information too. I had not known that chilis are not peppers, but are fruits. I just love learning this kind of information!
I was somewhat disappointed with the recipes from India and Asia, as I’ve seen better in other cookbooks. (However, if I left out food I don’t like such as coconut, vinegar, sherry, wine, mustard, tempeh, seitan, etc. and made substitutions for them, perhaps I’d enjoy those dishes.) The recipes from the Middle East and Africa, the and the Americas were my favorites. There were also some tasty looking recipes from Mediterranean Europe.
The dish I most want to try is quinoa-stuffed avocados; it’s from South America. Also sounding delicious to me are Nigerian Peanut Soup, West African Yam and Groundnut Stew, North African Pumpkin Stew, and Tofu Piripiri, all from Africa. From the Middle East, Turkish Eggplant, Stuffed Tomatoes (or Eggplant) with Currants and Pine Nuts, Persian Orange Rice with Pistachios, and Red Chili Hummus looked particularly good. From Mexico the Smooth and Sassy Guacamole and the Spicy Bean and Spinach Burritos look like must tries. The recipe from the U.S. that looks the best to me is the Red Hot White Bean Chili. In the Mediterranean Europe, from Italy the Ziti with Fresh Tomatoes and Olives looks yummy, and from Europe-other the Portuguese Spicy Kale Soup and two Basque recipes: Basque Chickpea Stew and Farcia Intchauspe (spicy Basque stuffing) are recipes I’d like to make. After the quinoa stuffed avocado, that stuffing looks like the next most intriguing dish to me.
Anyway, I just kept reading until I read this book all the way through. I haven’t actually made anything from the book yet as I’ve had the book for just six days, but I’m skilled at telling what I’ll enjoy just by looking at recipes.
Personally, I’d probably leave out the salt for all these dishes as I don’t normally cook with salt, and the spices and chilis give plenty of flavor.
January 7, 2010
I made my first meal from this cookbook last night. During the cooking process, I had serious doubts as to the flavorful-ness of the recipe, but the finished result was not only delicious but surprisingly so!
The recipes was for "Spicy Bean and Spinach Burritos" on page 26. The ingredients were incredibly simple with very few spices at all. I DID make substitutions. Instead of using 10oz. of frozen spinach I used a 6oz. bag of fresh which ultimately resulted in there being no leftovers. The "four" servings that the recipe is supposed to make only did so because my fiance and I added plain white rice to each burrito for filler.
I also used a dried Thai chili pepper as opposed to a serano. Thai peppers are hotter, supposedly, than seranos, but the spiciness of the food remained at a medium flavor. The dried pepper also brought a roasted aroma and taste to the burritos.
Ultimately, the recipe was easy to make and incredibly delicious. I look forward to making more recipes from this book in the future.
The recipes was for "Spicy Bean and Spinach Burritos" on page 26. The ingredients were incredibly simple with very few spices at all. I DID make substitutions. Instead of using 10oz. of frozen spinach I used a 6oz. bag of fresh which ultimately resulted in there being no leftovers. The "four" servings that the recipe is supposed to make only did so because my fiance and I added plain white rice to each burrito for filler.
I also used a dried Thai chili pepper as opposed to a serano. Thai peppers are hotter, supposedly, than seranos, but the spiciness of the food remained at a medium flavor. The dried pepper also brought a roasted aroma and taste to the burritos.
Ultimately, the recipe was easy to make and incredibly delicious. I look forward to making more recipes from this book in the future.
July 8, 2008
Another great cookbook from Robin Robinson. This book has a recipes from the Carribean, India, Italy, Spain, Thailand, and back to China...there is something for everyone-or anyone willing to challenge their tastebuds with a few chiles and spices. I love the way the book is arranged. It goes from country to country and gives a historical context and background to the food. I've tried about 8 dishes so far, and they are easy to prepare and deliciously spicy.
August 6, 2010
This book was just full of great recipes. I grabbed a stack of global recipes vegan/vegetarian cookbooks from the library and this was by far the best one. Even if you don't like your food hot the recipes are easy to customize, and the beginning of the book gives you a lot of information on what peppers are hottest, and other things you need to know to get things right for your taste buds. I can't say enough nice things about it :)
Currently reading
January 21, 2014Tofu kaprao: This Thai tofu-basil dish was quick enough for a weeknight and delicious to boot! I'm definitely making it again.
Seitan fajitas with poblano chiles: Wooo! Our peppers were spicy. But that didn't stop Jeff, kiddo, and me from gobbling this up. A perfect weeknight meal paired with a black bean salad. Two thumbs up!
Seitan fajitas with poblano chiles: Wooo! Our peppers were spicy. But that didn't stop Jeff, kiddo, and me from gobbling this up. A perfect weeknight meal paired with a black bean salad. Two thumbs up!
June 16, 2010
I wanted to copy so many of the delicious sounding recipes in this book that I gave up and have decided to buy it.
November 24, 2012
I have marked many pages and am looking forward to trying some new recipes that have a hot and spicy turn.
November 14, 2010
Yum, I made 3 recipes from this book and they were wonderful.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews