Nava Atlas is the author and illustrator of many books on vegan cooking, most recently Vegan Express, Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons, The Vegetarian Family Cookbook, and The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet. The Vegan Holiday Kitchen will be published in the fall of 2011, and a book on leafy greens will be on the shelves in the spring of 2012. For the latest on Nava, be sure and visit her website at http://www.vegkitchen.com/.We had the opportunity to catch-up with Nava and ask her more about her book(s).
What prompted you to include nutritional information in your recipes?
I’ve been including nutritional info in my cookbooks for quite some time. Back when vegetarian diets were considered more “alternative” than they are today, people were interested in how vegetarian options compared with more traditional foods. The statistics are also useful for people who are on various diets, such as low cholesterol or Weight Watchers; and finally there is always interest in how much protein veg dishes contain.
Why did you choose to highlight pictures of the selected recipes over the other selections?
It’s always a tough choice when you only get 8 shots in a book of about 120 or more recipes, but we tried to show a range — brothy soups, hearty stews, summer soups, and in general those that are colorful.
How did your creative process for writing “Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons” differ from your preparation for any of your other books?
I’m not sure the creative process was much different, though this book has an interesting history. I originally wrote it for a British publisher (too long of a story in itself), and by the time it was ready the publisher had gone under. So my agent pitched it to NY publishers who all thought it was too specialized. So I self-published it in 1992, it was a smaller book titled Soups for All Seasons: Bountiful Vegetarian Soups. I immediately sold 20,000 copies and then it caught the eye of Little, Brown– a NY publisher. Long story short, it’s now at a different publisher in its 4th edition, and the little book that no one wanted has sold more than 85,000 copies.
You mention in your book’s 4th edition that the 21st century offers Vegans more options that weren’t available before, would that also include greater access to locally grown produce?
That’s a very accurate observation. I don’t quite remember the first year we joined a Community Supported Agriculture farm, but I’m guessing it was maybe 2000. And that kind of thing has proliferated, along with farm markets everywhere, even in cities. It really expands choices and gets us to understand what’s seasonal. And of course the bottom line is that produce that was just picked tastes better than good that have been on a truck or in cold storage for weeks.
Is appropriating regional cuisine and making substitutions based on a Vegan repertoire something you’d advocate in cooking for non-vegan friends?
Absolutely! In fact I think one of the ways to “sell” people on vegan cuisine is to serve familiar dishes, but in a plant-based version. Regional cuisines and especially favorite ethnic cuisines like Italian, Mexican, Thai, Middle Eastern, Indian, etc. have a lot of dishes that are already vegan or are very easy to convert. People already know they like certain styles of food so it’s not a huge leap to get them to try meatless versions of favorite dishes, at least in my experience.
How has your extended family adapted to accommodate your Vegan lifestyle when you visit them?
It’s never a problem because there has long been a number of vegetarians and vegans in various parts of both my and my husband’s families. We’re still in the minority but there’s a great deal of acceptance and everyone likes to come their cookbook author aunt’s home to eat!
Do you view yourself as an activist who cooks and writes? Or as a writer and cook whose ethical principles coincide with a certain consciousness?
I consider myself a writer and visual artist who happens to write cookbooks. I do a lot of other kinds of visual work, particularly limited edition artist’s books and text-driven objects (http://navaatlas.com) — my work is collected and shown around the country. I also work on books other than cookbooks occasionally. Next year I have two books coming out: The Literary Ladies’ Guide to the Writing Life: Inspiration and Advice from Classic Women Authors Who Paved the Way (which I wrote and designed), and The Vegan Holiday Kitchen, which will feature stunning photos by the renowned blogger Susan Voisin of FatFree Vegan Kitchen (http://blog.fatfreevegan.com). I also invite your readers to visit my food web site, VegKitchen (http://vegkitchen.com) which will soon be greatly expanded and will be entirely vegan.