Cooking through Vegan with a Vengeance

[Darcy]

Oh for a massive Whole Foods or a bulk section.

It's frustrating to have to hunt things down or buy loads of something you'll never use again.

I want a vegan recipe book which magically generates recipes from my cupboard.

I have her book "appetite for reduction" which is really unfortunately named but actually just healthy, easy food. Not cooked out of that yet either though!

[vegansludge]

I'm so surprised by how uninspired you seem to be by this cook book. It's such a bible in the vegan world! I've never cooked from it though.

Bibles are like that, inspiring until you actually read them
Don't get me wrong it is a great book, I think being in the UK it is extra challenging because we cant get all the ingredients as easily. Plus the food is a lot more "american" than I am used to. The whole point is to get my to try new things, so its all good.

This was the first vegan cookbook I ever used since my parents bought it for me and, to be honest, I've only cracked it open a few times. While it's not as heavily reliant on hard to find items as other books and recipe sites I've come across, my access to a lot of the things used is pretty limited, even living in the U.S. Being from a rural area (as in there are 300 people in my town) with no grocery store will do that, I suppose.

[Mufflon]

A lot of vegan cook books (maybe other cook books as well, I don't know) are like that: there seems to be always at least one item that is hard or next to impossible to get your hands on. You have to drive to the next big city, you have to order it online... both means that you can't cook it TODAY.

[vegansludge]

A lot of vegan cook books (maybe other cook books as well, I don't know) are like that: there seems to be always at least one item that is hard or next to impossible to get your hands on. You have to drive to the next big city, you have to order it online... both means that you can't cook it TODAY.

Yep. I've gotten into the habit of just altering recipes I come across to exclude the ingredients I can't find/afford (I'm a pretty broke individual) and some of them have been pretty successful, others ... need quite a bit of work. My goal is to have a ton of them perfected and then put them up online because not everybody can get a hold of all or afford some of the "staples."

[baldy]

Not the best picture of my Green Garden Puree lasange.

Had a Saturday to myself so cracked up red wine and made a lasagne.

Pizza Sauce [pg130], I have been using this tomato sauce recipe since I got Veganomicon. Simplest and best recipe out of both books for me, good on pizza or pasta. Chuck in anything else like chickpeas, olives, peppers to take the sauce a little bit further.

Actually ended up making two difference lasagne, one with tofu ricotta like I made before but this time I added cashews to get more cheesy taste. Then Green Garden Puree [pg137] which you can see in the pictures, seems like an awesome way to get loads of veggies into a meal. Turned out very tasty, the asparagus flavour really comes across. Looking forward to trying it on pizza. One caution it makes a load, like 1.5litres probably so be prepared to make a big lasagne or have left over sauce in pasta.

[lobsteriffic]

Oh yum! I keep meaning to make a pizza with the green puree but I still haven't.

[Adena]

The black bean burger recipe from that book is good if you like that sort of thing. One of the few burger recipes that actually sticks together. I don't remember how the recipe goes, but I fry them and it works well.

I second the black bean burger recipe. It comes together really fast and they even hold together on the grill.

[Mufflon]

Same goes for the chickpea cutlets in the Veganomicon. I think it's simply the vital wheat gluten that makes them sticking together.

[baldy]

Chickpea Broccoli Casserole [pg95]
Followed the recipe to the letter and was totally unimpressed with the result. Had to make a pot of instant gravy to even make it palatable, left overs ended up getting chucked away. Worst recipe of the book so far

[Adena]

The chickpea broccoli recipe is so bland it's pointless. And the suggestions next to the recipe are just like, "throw in whatever spices you want!" Maybe they were having a lazy recipe writing day or something?

[Talyn]

Chickpea Broccoli Casserole [pg95]
Followed the recipe to the letter and was totally unimpressed with the result. Had to make a pot of instant gravy to even make it palatable, left overs ended up getting chucked away. Worst recipe of the book so far

Throw in a shitload of paprika and some cheezly and that would be awesome.

[Adena]

Chickpea Broccoli Casserole [pg95]
Followed the recipe to the letter and was totally unimpressed with the result. Had to make a pot of instant gravy to even make it palatable, left overs ended up getting chucked away. Worst recipe of the book so far

Throw in a shitload of paprika and some cheezly and that would be awesome.

I've done their cheesy sauce made with nutritional yeast, but it still doesn't seem to taste right.

[lobsteriffic]

I was underwhelmed by that recipe also.

[baldy]

Mexican Chocolate Rice Pudding [pg239]
Another not great recipe, might have been the chocolate I used but the pudding was not sweet enough. Tasted like rice with cocoa powder.
I ended up added 5 Tablespoons of sugar to make it palatable, still needed lots more creaminess.