It was the Ramen Hacks that convinced me that I had to have this book. Or, rather, it was the introduction to the Ramen Hacks. I was crouched in the vegan cookbook section killing time when I read the sentence ‘Sometimes when I can’t be bothered to cook I buy Pot Noodles.’

This resonated with me. As much as I like to go on complicated shopping trips to find unusual ingredients and as much as I like to cook everything from scratch I also don’t sometimes. Oh yeah. I know that McDonald’s Sweet Curry Dip is vegan and that Morrisons make the best packaged onion bajhis and six of them totally count as breakfast.

Three days later I was still mulling over the cookbook that tells you how to crack open a coconut and contains pot noodle confessions. I was also out of Nutritional Yeast so instead of buying it on Amazon Kate went all out and bought me The V is For Vegan Kit from Sous Chef. She’s a good un.

So here is a quick rundown of why you need this book. There is the usual section of what is vegan anyway and then we get to one of the best vegan ingredient primers ever. Interspersed between the paragraphs on why umami is all important and all the types of seaweed you can eat you’ll find recipes for homemade tofu, watermelon rind pickle, nut cheese and so much more. You could flip through it everyday for a week and still find new stuff to try. Ask me how I know.

Then we get to snacks like 13 things on toast, Dried Pineapple Flowers and Roasted Chickpeas. Into the breakfast section and The Mexican Chocolate Shake with optional chipotle paste has become my new favorite light breakfast. Light on chewing that is.

The Lunch Section has the Ramen Hacks. My fist experiment involved a packet of the cheapest noodles in the supermarket, some miso, all of the flavorings, spring onions, the last of our home grown spinach and slabs of smoked tofu. So satisfying to slurp. Since then I’ve bought even more cheap noodles.

Dinner and Desert I’ve yet to cook from. I know, I’m a disappointment. They’re a bit too fancy, dinner partyish for the last couple of weeks in our life. It’s been kind of a ‘lets just have pasta’ couple of weeks. The dishes sound fab though and I have high hopes for the Carrot , Pepper and Lentil Tagine and Three Topping Polenta Party appearing on my table soon.

And that’s why I recommend you buy V is for Vegan. There is food for when you are feeling lazy, food for when you are feeling fancy and a wealth of information to turn you into an empowered vegan cook. Any one of those things would earn a book two thumbs up from me but V is for Vegan has all three. So go buy it.