Please Feed Me - A Punk Vegan Cookbook

This is really a punk rock cookbook. It is more than a bunch of recipes and more than punk. It is part of the story of the HOPE collective from Ireland, who using the spirit of DIY managed to kickstart a whole scene of cheap shows that helped carve out a niche for local creative culture.

HOPE started to put local bands on after realising that nobody else was going to do it for them. When they heard that Fugazi were touring Europe, with a few phonecalls they were able to get them interested in playing. This large show was one of the things that kickstarted the collective. Fugazi's music will do that. If you have not heard them, I cannot think of any other band I would unreservedly recommend if you are interested in sharp, honest music that grabs rhythm and guitars and shapes it into messages and tales for your brain to absorb.

Anyway, I thought I would pick a favorite recipe from the book. Each page has a story from a show thatHope put on and a favorite vegan recipe from a band.

I have picked 'Violent phobia pizza'

1 vegan pizza crust
1 jar pasta sauce
2 large tomatoes
1 green capsicum
1 bag small mushrooms
1 small onion (Spanish onions are good too)
2 cobs of corn (better than tinned corn)
1 jar olives (or something with a salty/sharp taste)
1 block vegan cheese (although if you don’t like vegan
cheese, pizza without cheese is tasty as the taste of
the veggies is enhanced)

OK, so slice all the veggies up, maybe fry the onion lightly, but you've gotta add garlic. That wasn’t in the recipe in the book, but you have to have garlic with pizza...

I recommend putting on Fugazi's 'Steady Diet Of Nothing' album for this but if you need something calmer, the Bad Brains dub album 'I (and I) survived (Dub)' is great. A table is good to eat on because pizza always gets bits flying around the loungeroom and then you find dried mushrooms under the coffeetable the morning after.

Ok, so thaw the base and spread the sauce all over right to the edge. You can get little packs of tomato puree which is cheaper and better for sauce. Spread the vegies all over. If you want to hard fry some hard tofu with herbs and chilli sauce or vegie snags, that can really add to your pizza experience.
Grate your vegan cheese all over the pizza, put in the oven at about 200 Celsius for 15 or 20 minutes. You want the pizza top to be nicely browned. Cutting it can be tricky but in sure you'll be fine.

This book is great. Food, music and tales from a creative community. Find this book!

Editor’s Note: This is a cool punk vegan cookbook with great recipes. There’s even a recipe for the little known Middle Eastern dish Dukka. Dukka comes from Egypt. It’s a blend of spices – cumin, coriander and sesame seeds which can be served with ground hazelnuts or roasted chickpeas. Serve with bread: Dip this in olive oil and then into the dukka. All kinds of varieties of Dukka are all the rage at the Victoria Markets in Melbourne at present.

And ‘Please Feed Me’ cookbook also has a recipe for Thai Yellow Tofu Curry when you’ve done with the Green and Red variety. We can’t recommend this punk vegan cookbook high enough. Loved it!

Click here to read our interview with Niall McGuirk on punk ideology.