Dairy-Free & Delicious

Bought the book for a friend who is lactose intolerant. After a lot of research, it really stood out as the best book. Unlike many books, it's entirely dairy free, which is key to those who are fully lactose intolerant. And I wasn't specifically interested in a book that was vegan (or soy free). He likes the book quite well, and I think/hope it'll prove useful to him. It's hard to buy something like this who has been intolerant for a while, and already knows many of the specifics the book covers, but I think/hope it'll prove useful.

My partner complained of a lack of options when I told him he should stop eating dairy. (He has a dairy sensitivity and was at the time avoiding cow's milk, but still eating goat dairy.) Then I found, among other things, this book at the local natural foods store, and it disproved that theory quickly. Our household agrees that the cheese sauces work very well. The hard cheeses, I found that I liked, but my sweetie disagreed. The "Melty Pizza Cheeze" is one of his favorites, whereas I don't much enjoy it, probably for the same reason why he likes it ("It's exactly like squeeze cheese! Except all, like, natural and healthy and stuff!") There hasn't been a single thing we've tried from this book that *one* of us hasn't liked, and the most valuable thing in it is the substitution information, which allows us to make familiar recipes with different components -- such as the sweetened condensed soymilk recorded here, which made a fabulous key lime pie. (We couldn't even taste the difference.) It's allowed my partner to continue eating variations on "normal food" that he otherwise would have missed, and which the rest of the family enjoys as much in their altered forms as we do the standard versions. High praise. Furthermore, although this is not an issue for us, I'm pleased by the sensitivity of the book to people with soy allergies; many of the recipes have variations made with non-soy products, which I'm sure must come as a great relief to those who can't have either milk or soy.

I really enjoyed the nutrition section at the beginning of this book. I've been a vegan for a long time, so I've got to be impressed when a cookbook teaches me some new things about vegan nutrition. The recipes are great as well - as is expected for Joanne Stepaniak's work. My small complaint is that some of the recipes are identical to those in the Uncheese Cookbook. Yeah, that Gazebo cheesecake is excellent enough to deserve getting printed again, but I was really hoping for some new cheesecake recipes! Quite a few of the recipes are new, so it is still worth picking up this one as well, especially if you've got picky non-vegans to feed.

Whether you are lactose intolerant, have a dairy allergy or are vegetarian or vegan, you will find lots of interesting nutritional information and recipes in Dairy-Free & Delicious. The first five chapters look at "Lactose Intolerance", "Milk Allergy", "Building Strong, Milk-Free Bodies", "Superb Substitutes" and "Dairy-Free Dining." Information is provided that will help you learn if you have an intolerance to lactose or are allergic to milk. Considerable information is also provided on such topics as calcium, calcium supplements, vitamin D, milk substitutes, dining out and travel tips, to name a few. While reading the section on vitamin D, I was hit once again with the realization that being truly vegan can be very difficult - and not because it is hard to eliminate meat, dairy and other animal products from our diet. That was easy. Learning to understand labels can be much more difficult - especially when important information is missing. For example, under the section "Does the vitamin D added to foods come from animals" I learned that vitamin D2 comes from plants while D3 comes from animals.  "There are two forms of dietary vitamin D: D2 or ergocalciferol, which is of plant origin, and D3 or cholecalciferol, which comes mainly from sheep's wool and hides, fish liver, and eels. Unfortunately, most of the vitamin D added to foods is vitamin D3. The main exception is nondairy milk - many of these products contain vitamin D2." (page 40) Armed with this information I went to the kitchen to see what is in our multi vitamins. Arrghh! Of the three brands of children's vitamins, two listed vitamin D as D3 while the other just listed it as vitamin D and didn't specify whether it was D3 or D2. The bottle of adult multi vitamins contained vitamin D3 as well. A quick check of some of our soy and rice milks listed vitamin D3 or just vitamin D. We will have to be more vigilant in ensuring that the products we eat and drink are totally vegan. The second part of the book is entitled "Dairy-Free & Delicious Recipes" and contains a good selection of vegan recipes for spreads, uncheeses, milk, sauces, breakfast, salads and dressings, soups, main dishes and desserts. Each recipe contains: yield, calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, calcium and sodium. If you are a vegetarian or vegan Dairy-Free & Delicious is a good book to have. If you are lactose intolerant or have milk allergies then this book is a "must have."--Reviewed by Glenn Perrett