Cookbook Review: Bad Manners

 A note about the name before we get started- as you can see the cookbooks that I own have their previous name “Thug Kitchen” which was apparently an anonymous blog before it was a cookbook. When the world found out that “Thug Kitchen” was actually two white people when the first book came out, well, that wasn’t great. It took a few years (and by a few years I mean they didn't address it until summer 2020 :-/ ), but now they have renamed all of their publications “Bad Manners.”

We’ve actually had the original Thug Kitchen cookbook (renamed Bad Manners: The Official Cookbook) in our pantry for a while and I didn’t even realize it was vegan. I just thought it was very into healthy eating; less fat, less sugar, less processed food. Now that my kid can’t have eggs and milk, the vegan part of the cookbook became a lot more appealing. Generally, the recipes are good, though they can take a long time to make. The enchiladas take over an hour. The chickpea and dumplings (SO DELICIOUS) take a good 90 minutes. I like to cook, but an hour and a half? Chopping, making dumplings, standing by a stove? That is insanity!

And... 5 hours later, you got some enchiladas!

That’s what led me to the second book in the series- Thug Kitchen: 101 (renamed Bad Manners: Fast as F*ck). Supposedly all of the recipes take less than 30 minutes to make. "Supposedly" being the operative word. Some of the recipes are actually very quick. But quite a few of them have in their list of ingredients entire other recipes, and expect all of us to just have the cooked quinoa in our freezers, ready at a moment’s notice (I don’t. You don’t. Nobody does.)

The biggest thing that sets this series apart from other cookbooks? It has cuss words in the titles. In the directions. In the helpful hints. It's a little aggressive.  I think they are trying to make vegan cooking “cool,” but really, how "cool" can you make tofu?

Okay, so are the recipes actually good?

They are good- but they definitely taste healthy. Which, sometimes is great. I like vegetables. I like when dinners have vegetables in them. My kids, on the other hand, don’t love vegetables and have different feelings about these meals. It doesn't use vegan alternatives- like cream cheese or sour cream; it has recipes that let the vegetables shine rather than trying to emulate bad for you (read: delicious) food that uses dairy (yum) and meat (yum).

The other thing that gets me is that they have a lot of soups, salads, and sides and less full meals. Which if you are really trying to convince people to eat vegan, seems like something you would want to address. Most people who are skeptical of a vegan diet are skeptical because they find it hard to imagine a meal that’s not centered around a meat. So, if you have a vegan cookbook of a bunch of sides, but don’t tell people what goes in the center of the plate, I’m not sure who you are going to convert.

So, is it good for people with allergies?

It’s great if you are allergic to eggs, milk, fish, or shellfish!

If you are allergic to other things, though, it’s not great. Some of my other cookbooks at least mention alternatives for common allergies, but this one is unconcerned. If you take out all animal protein, you’ve got to find some protein somewhere- so there’s a lot of soy, there’s a lot of peanuts and tree nuts, and there’s a fair amount of sesame. And, while some recipes have rice or corn, there is also a lot of wheat. If you have multiple food allergies, you are going to have to make some substitutions.

 

If you want a cookbook that swears at you to try to make vegetables cool, then this series is for you! If you don't want to offend your grandma, you might want to hide it in the back of the pantry.