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Can Lexi Do What Isa Has Done?

Writer's picture: Alexis CroswellAlexis Croswell

Updated: Jan 20

Isa Does It is my all-time favorite cookbook. I got it as a gift from a family friend when it was published back in 2013. At that time, I’d been vegan for a few years, mostly making recipes from low-key bloggers like veganyumyum.com. At the store, brands like Gardein and Field Roast were gaining popularity, but we weren’t drowning in options like we are today.


Vegan cheese back then? I shudder to think about it.


I was perfectly happy as a new vegan to eat blocks of cold, firm tofu, doused in barbecue sauce. Yes, just like that. But the gift of Isa’s cookbook opened up a whole new world of delicious and accessible vegan food.



Beyond drawing me in with its full color photographs and pretty pastel pages, this cookbook, Isa herself, made me laugh.


It’s easy to be a serious, angry new vegan. When you first acknowledge the immense scale of animal agriculture, and the cruelty that goes with it, you want to just shake people and yell…How can you not see how messed up this is?! So, while reading about why you should massage your kale and getting this guidance: "Don't worry; kale can take it! In fact, afterward it might feel a little like you after a massage; tender, relaxed, and ready to be smothered in vinaigrette." I laughed, it help me unwind a bit.


The first recipe I made from these influential pages was the Pizza Bowl with Greens, Sausages, and Olives. I used Field Roast’s Italian Sausages, and cooked the dish with a friend. My dad’s kitchen was so small that we left the cookbook on the (also small) dining table and took turns reading the next step to each other. The finished dish looked like the photo from the book. And it tasted amazing! It was creamy, a little spicy, meaty, and zingy with olives and lemon juice.


It’s been over ten years since I got my copy of Isa Does It. I’ve cooked many recipes from its pages and now have a tidy collection of other vegan cookbooks too. But I find myself going back to Isa the most. The dust jacket is long lost, I’ve taped the binding together, and its pages are adorned with flour and spices and flecks of oil. It’s the only cookbook I packed with me when I moved from my home state of Michigan out to California after college.



My copy of the cookbook Isa Does It

This book is the one I recommend when someone asks me which vegan cookbook they should buy. This year, I decided to gift a copy to my stepbrother and his fiancé, who both enjoy plant based cuisine. As I was flipping through it and adding in love notes leading to my favorite meals, I realized that there were still many recipes in this most marvelous of cookbooks that I had yet to explore.


This year, it’s my goal to finish cooking all of the recipes in Isa Does It.


Here’s the challenge ahead:


  • There are a total of 145 recipes,

  • of which there are 91 recipes that I have yet to make,

  • 10 that I consider to be all-time favorites,

  • 15 that I’ve made multiple times and enjoy,

  • and there are 29 that I’ve made only once and may or may not try again.


So, how will this work?

Each week I’ll be choosing a handful of recipes from Isa Does It that I haven’t made before. I do want to revisit some recipes that I made once years ago and left lukewarm reviews to see if I like them better now, but I probably won’t remake all 29 one-timers.


Here’s what I aim to cover each week:

  • What did I think of the recipe? Would I make it again?

  • What modifications did I make?

  • I’ll try to take a picture for you, but I chose blogs/newsletters over Instagram for a reason

  • If I shared a meal with someone, what did they think?

  • How did it keep? As someone who cooks mostly for one, food storage is important!


When I’m done with this project, I’m hoping to have some new go-to favorite recipes and have pushed myself out of my culinary comfort zone (I don’t like chili, will I like it at the end of this? Who knows). Also, I hope that I’ve inspired some people to dust off their copy of Isa Does It, or go buy one (see below for where to get it for yourself) and just have fun with vegan cooking and sharing meals with friends and family.


And if all else fails, saying that I’ve cooked an entire cookbook cover to cover will be a fun fact about myself I can use at corporate or social gatherings (my current go-to fact being I’ve had five pet rats).


And yes, you should feel free to send me ideas for who will play Isa and I in a “Julie & Julia” style movie.


How to get this cookbook

Feel like cooking along? You can get Isa Does It in a few ways:


  • If you want to support local bookshops from the ease of your own home, you can purchase through Bookshop (and I'll get a few bucks if you use my affiliate link!)

  • You could also call up your local bookstore and see if they have Isa Does it in stock or could order it for you!

  • Isa also has a lot of recipes available on her website, theppk.com and you can order the book there as well.

  • Lastly, if you want to go the used book route, you can purchase from the PangoBooks app.


Thanks for being here


I’m excited to be embarking on this project and I appreciate you being here with me!


ps. If you're wondering why you signed up on Substack and now I've sent you this email through Mailerlite, and am hosting the blog on my personal website, the short version is that I found out about some disheartening business practices regarding Substack.


Since one of the main reasons I'm starting this project is simply to keep in touch with you lovely folks (would it be nice to make money on a newsletter one day, sure!) and get off of platforms that I feel not 100% about using (hello, Meta) I decided to just use Mailerlite for now.


pps. If you want to read about the controversy, I thought this former Substack user (with a substantial list) did a good job summarizing a lot of the criticism I had read about. I particularly like what he has to say about the "slippery slope" of regulating speech in online communities.


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