Blogger Interview with the Happy Herbivore

I started following the Happy Herbivore blog soon after we went vegan. Lindsay published her first cookbook recently and it's the first one I bought. She invited blogger to do a "blog book tour" and of course I jumped on the opportunity. Here it is:

Biography

Lindsay S. Nixon is a rising star in the culinary world, praised for her ability to use everyday ingredients to create healthy, low fat recipes that taste just as delicious as they are nutritious. Lindsay's recipes have been featured in Vegetarian Times, Women's Health Magazine and on The Huffington Post. Lindsay is also a consulting chef at La Samanna, a luxury resort and four-star restaurant in the French West Indies. You can learn more about Lindsay and sample some of her recipes at happyherbivore.com

How did you get started with writing recipes?

I started the blog happyherbivore.com (for which the cookbook is named after) shortly after I went vegan. Back then blogs were still pretty new (it's amazing to see how much the blog community has grown!) and
since there also weren't a lot of vegan cookbooks on the market back then either, it was my way of trying to share recipes, information, connect with others, etc. I figured there had to be other vegans other there like me trying to figure out what to eat.

How did you get started with writing a cookbook?

The cookbook was a lucky-haphazard event in my life. I was trying to grow my blog and had started doing giveaways to get more traffic and readership. I'd been in contact with a few publishing houses to score free books for the giveaways and it just happened that my contact at one house was curious about veganism, so we got to talking via email. A few months later, I casually inquired if she knew anything about cookbooks. Her house didn't publish cookbooks, so I didn't think I'd overstepped my boundaries... turns out her house had wanted to do a cookbook for a long time but was looking for the right author. The publisher himself contacted me the next day and the rest is history. It's a story of being in the right place at the right time with the right experience.

I have some friends who are encouraging me to try my hand at a cookbook.

I think a lot of people romanticize writing cookbooks. It's a lot of  fun, true, but it's also a lot of hard HARD work -- and it's not lucrative (but that's true of publishing in general). I do it because it's what I love (I still have a "day job"). I don't want to discourage people from trying to write a cookbook because if the omni
cookbook world is any indication, there is never enough, and the more vegan recipes and cookbooks the better! However, in the last year or so, there have been a lot (and I mean a LOT!) of vegan cookbooks hitting the bookshelves, so the market is now kind of saturated and really, really competitive.

Most publishers are looking for a "new idea" and someone with a lot of notoriety-- a lot of fan and community support before the book.

How do you write your recipes? I just rip recipes out of mags I subscribe to and make them vegan with substitutions.

If you want to write a cookbook, you'll have to write recipes from scratch. It's great to get inspiration from  others places like magazines -- I certainly have, but you really want to put original (not adapted or tweaked) content out there for people. I think every chef has his or her own "thing" -- a signature. Mine is "no added
fats/fat-free/no oil" and I'm sure in time you'll find yours as well. I noticed a lot of Asian-inspired food posts on gloskitchen, so maybe that is your calling :-)

Quick Queso (makes 1 cup) - It's okay to go at this sauce with a spoon. I won't judge.

1 cup non-dairy milk (such as fat-free soymilk)
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
2 tbsp whole wheat flour
1 tsp granulated onion powder
1/2 tsp granulated garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp chili powder or cayenne (optional)
1/4 tsp salt, or to taste

Whisk all ingredients together in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often until thick. Serve immediately.

Note: Gluten-free flours or blends may be substituted, such as chickpea flour. Also, add a 1 10-ounce can of Rotel tomatoes with green chilies for a Mexican Queso twist.