‘Cool Beans’ Is the Perfect Cookbook for This Moment in Beans
Joe Yonan’s approachable new book will teach you how to bring beans to their full potential — such as a creamy chickpea and cashew gazpacho
Joe Yonan, the food editor at the Washington Post, is “90 percent vegan.” He might be the only person in such a role to be a committed vegetarian, going so far as to mention “compassion for animals” in the introduction to his brand-new cookbook, Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking with the World’s Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, with 125 Recipes. And that commitment both to animals and food is on full display in the recipes here, divided into sections that delve into everything from dips to soups to burgers to hearty mains to desserts. There’s even a great aioli made with a chickpea base, proving how versatile and necessary to the vegan pantry a big selection of beans can be.
And he’s not a bean snob, though it was the quality of Rancho Gordo’s beans that made him understand their full potential. He understands and makes room for canned beans, gives instructions for Instant Pot bean cooking, and runs down when it’s necessary to soak and when it’s not. This is both an approachable and distinctive book, providing insight into the basics and a lot of neat flavor and technique…
