From vegnews.com
By Charlotte Pointing
Isa Chandra Moskowitz is back with The 29-Minute Vegan. The cookbook icon opens up about quick recipes, fresh starts, and life after restaurants
Cooking has long been Moskowitz’s love language, and her passion for veganism and food has taken her in many directions. She hosted her own cooking show in the early 2000s and opened two vegan restaurants under the Modern Love banner—one in her native Brooklyn and another in Nebraska—but sharing food through the written word may be her truest calling. Alongside her blog, Moskowitz has authored multiple cookbooks. In fact, the vegan chef is now on her 12th title: The 29-Minute Vegan: Real Food, Real Vibes, Anytime.
For Moskowitz, the new cookbook is about more than quick, easy, and delicious plant-based recipes (though it certainly delivers plenty of those). It also reflects a new chapter in her life. Like many restaurant owners, the vegan chef has faced challenges in recent years. Modern Love’s Nebraska location closed in 2024, followed by the Brooklyn restaurant in 2025.
Moskowitz had seen the signs for some time. Before the closures, she joined other vegan business owners in speaking with VegNews about the difficulties of keeping a vegan restaurant afloat in the current economic climate. “I don’t think the storm is over,” she said at the time. “What are these tariffs going to do to us? Where does the avocado come from? Where does the tofu come from? Will we have to raise prices?”
Modern Love isn’t alone. Oakland’s Millennium recently announced its closure after more than three decades in business, while Brooklyn favourite Toad Style shuttered suddenly in May.
But Moskowitz isn’t dwelling on the past. Quite the opposite, in fact. She’s embracing a newfound freedom away from restaurant ownership and focusing on The 29-Minute Vegan. Below, she shares more about the new book, including the recipes she makes on repeat, why she wants to cook for Tim Robinson, and why she’s feeling content in this latest chapter of her life.
VegNews: What inspired you to focus on quick, under-30-minute meals for this book?
Isa Chandra Moskowitz: It was basically life deciding for me. I had a very busy and stressful few years (was I the only one?), and I still wanted really delicious food, so it was this natural process of figuring out how to get there. It happened very naturally, and I hope that it’s what makes the book really work, because it worked for me.
VegNews: Do you have a personal favourite recipe from the book right now?
Moskowitz: I am loving the sandwich section, maybe it’s this transitional spring weather, but a sandwich manages to be both warm-weather and cold-weather food. So I love the first recipe in the book, the Stacked Tofu Deli Sammy, with all the thinly sliced tofu slices and balsamic mayo and the usual sandwich suspects. I also make the Chickpea Salad BLT a lot because it has tons of protein and my favourite flavours: dilly chickpea salad and smoky tempeh bacon.
Okay, and just one last thing, the Pad Thai from the Pasta & Noodles chapter. I know I have Pad Thai in every book, but somehow this is my favourite yet. I have been on a yuba kick.
VegNews: Many people associate vegan cooking with time or complexity. How does this book challenge that perception?
Moskowitz: As Yoda said, there is no try, there is only do. Once you make the recipes, you will understand that it’s not that deep. Vegan cooking can be as easy as you let it be. I think vegans like to have fun and make seitan roasts and cashew cheese sometimes, but these are not for those times. Even though there are a few quick cashew cheeses in the book.
VegNews: If you could cook a 29-minute meal for anyone (past or present), who would it be and what would you make?
Moskowitz: Well, off the top of my head, and if I am being totally honest, it would be Tim Robinson (I Think You Should Leave). First of all, it seems like he has been leaning vegan lately, and maybe that will be the final straw. He will say, “It’s simply TOO GOOD.” But also, I just need to laugh. And if I were able to make him laugh without making it look fake, that would just carry me through the rest of my life.
VegNews: Since the closure of Modern Love, how has your day-to-day life and creative focus shifted?
Moskowitz: Well, I mean, how hasn’t it?
It’s night and day. It’s kind of impossible to explain, but I am able to be a person again.
VegNews: What have you learned from stepping away from the restaurant world?
Moskowitz: That there are sunsets, and I can call my mother and spend time with my cats, and go to the movies, and that it’s okay to just breathe and exist.
VegNews: Do you see yourself returning to restaurants in the future, or are you excited to focus on other avenues?
Moskowitz: I don’t see myself returning to restaurants in the future. It would have to be the exact right situation, and I don’t see that happening in our current climate. I’m excited to focus on other things. I am still healing from the psychological trauma of the whole situation.
VegNews: How does this new cookbook reflect where you are in your life right now?
Moskowitz: I think it’s bright and happy, and I hope that my future is that way, too. I am in my fifties now and starting everything over, so that is a pretty wild place to be. I think a lot of women are in that same position. I hope that these quick, yummy meals help everyone get a little more time back in their day to do what they want with the time we have. And have fun doing it.
Want more of Moskowitz’s recipes? Find some of our favourites below:
- Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Irish Stout Stew With Fluffy Potato Biscuits
- Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Famous Banana French Toast
- Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Tempeh and Broccoli Stir-Fry
- Vegan Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
- Crispy Baked Vegan Fish Sticks With Tartar Sauce
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