Lindsay Nixon is the author of the cookbook The Happy Herbivore, as well as her blog http://happyherbivore.com/blog/.  I recently had the opportunity to do this interview with Lindsay, and I appreciate the time she was willing to share.

Why did you want to write a fat-free/low-fat vegan cookbook as opposed to a “regular” vegan cookbook?

A: The cookbook is the result of my blog, happyherbivore.com, which is a fat-free recipe website, so it made sense to make the kind of recipes I was already know for. I also wanted to do something different. I think there is a stereotype that vegan food is healthy, and while it certainly can be, most vegan cookbooks use lots of oil and margarine, so it’s a more ethical alternative, but not necessarily a healthier one. I also think a lot of chefs, both vegan and omni, rely heavily on fat for flavor, which I wanted to prove isn’t necessary. Spices can offer just as much flavor and delicious taste, and without all the extra fat and calories.

Where do you get the inspiration for the dishes you create?

A: It’s sort of a mix of trying to find ways to recreate healthy and fat-free vegan versions of foods I used to love, responding to suggestions and requests from fans and inherent inspiration. For example, I might see a beautiful eggplant and think “I really need to come up with a recipe that uses eggplant!” Or more commonly, I’ll realize I’ve totally neglected a certain food, like say kidney beans, so I’ll try to develop a recipe that uses them (hint: that’s how the Rajma Masala was born!)

Why did you feel it was important to use ingredients that were so accessible for everyone, rather than offering more extravagant type of vegan recipes?

A: I wanted to show vegan food can be easy, affordable, healthy and above all — approachable for everyone, even non-vegans. I think a lot of vegan cookbooks can be intimidating to newcomers because they use specialty ingredients that are hard to find, foreign to the reader or expensive. I also wanted to sort of “defeat” the stereotype that you need to live in a big city with a Whole Foods to be vegan. I wanted to prove it was realistic and doable to be vegan, no matter where you live.

You’ve cooked at a luxury resort and 4-star restaurant, where you developed vegan menus for all four of their venues and had the opportunity to cook for A-list celebrities, how was that different (if at all) from your blog and the book?

A: The biggest obstacle was learning how to cook and write recipes on a much, much bigger scale. Most of my blog and book recipes serve 2, or 4, and there I was cooking for 20-plus. One saving grace, though, was that I had never gotten used to specialty ingredients. Since the resort is on an island, they don’t have access to a lot of the things we have in the U.S. so all I really had was produce, grains and spices to work with. I was also able to recycle some of my blog and cookbook recipes for their menus, so that was cool.

How is cooking vegan in St. Maarten different than New York, meaning, are you making their island dishes vegan in order to suit your palate?

A: Since everything has to be flown here, it’s really unpredictable what will be at the store. For example, they’ve been out of whole wheat bread for 4 weeks now, and carrots for 2 weeks vs. in NYC, I could have any vegetable I wanted, no matter the time of the year or even the time of day! So my island cooking is very much on the fly, making what I have work. I haven’t done too much dabbling into the local fare, but I have become really obsessed with some of their cultural/specialty ingredients, like Angostura bitters.

What would you hope that people could gain from the recipes offered in The Happy Herbivore Cookbook?

A: The realization that eating a healthy, low fat vegan diet can be easy, affordable, realistic and most importantly, really delicious.

Any plans for a second book and what would you want to cover that you didn’t in The Happy Herbivore Cookbook?

A: I’m actually meeting with my publisher in New York here soon to talk about the possibility of a second book. I’d love to write one for my fans but I’m still feeling a little exhausted from this book! I’m not sure what my new theme will be, but I’d definitely like to include more ethnic and worldly dishes. There are so many great cuisines out there and I just touched on a few of them in the last book.