The Good
- Detailed step-by-step recipe instructions
- Gorgeous photography
- Free
The Bad
- Few recipes
- Not much functionality
VeganYumYum is one of the most popular vegan blogs around. Not only does the creator, Lauren Elm, have a new cookbook, but she also has a recipe app called VeganYumYum Mobile (Free). If you are clueless about vegan food, VeganYumYum's detailed instructions will have you chowing down in no time.
Read More: Top Recipe Apps for the iPhone and iPad
Drool-worthy food photography
Unlike the VegWeb app, which has thousands of user-submitted vegan and vegetarian recipes, VeganYumYum Mobile has a much smaller batch of about 75 recipes. When you first launch the app, you’re thrown right into the recipe listing -- there’s no pretty homepage here. Recipes are sorted alphabetically. While I prefer to browse recipes by category, the small number of total recipes here makes it manageable. The recipes lean heavily towards entrees and side dishes, but there are some dessert and breakfast recipes included as well.
The VeganYumYum blog is known for its gorgeous food photography, and the app doesn’t disappoint either. Each recipe has a full-color photo in addition to pictures for nearly every step. This is good to have for complicated recipes, and definitely comes in handy when you’re making things like Aloo Parathas.
You can add recipes to a favorites category, but that’s about it when it comes to extra functionality. There is a spot to place a check next to the ingredients in each recipe -- almost like you could add them to a shopping list -- but there’s no button I can find that would accomplish that. So, I’m not sure what purpose those check marks serve. Other recipe apps have extra features like shopping lists, instructional videos, and Twitter or Facebook integration.
The Bottom Line
VeganYumYum Mobile may not be packed with features, but this app certainly helps make vegan cooking more accessible to those who don’t know their seitan from their tofu. The illustrated step-by-step instructions are fabulous and the gorgeous photography is a huge plus. Now all the VeganYumYum Mobile app needs is more recipes -- and maybe a tad more functionality. Overall rating: 3 stars out of 5.
What You’ll Need
The VeganYumYum Mobile app requires iPhone OS 2.0 or later, and it works with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.