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Veganf
Veganf
Exclusive VP Book Review
Book Review provided by: Veganf |
Exclusive VP Book Review |
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New vegan cooks beware! You're going to need the instincts of an experienced chef to conquer some of the recipes in this cookbook. While the ingredients list for most recipes was short, there was little in the way of direction. As the author said, “I am happiest when someone leaves the quantities behind and simply works with a list of ingredients.” That's all well and good if you're comfortable improvising to get the results you want, but many people pick up a cookbook looking for direction, or at the very least, some optional suggestions!
Some of the suggested ingredients confounded me. Why would dry beans be used versus canned, but then canned tomatoes, tomato juice, tomatillos, and red peppers be the first choices? While some people would welcome the convenience of popping open a can of tomato juice to make tomato soup, I preferred fresh tomatoes myself. These ingredient choices reflected the author's catering experience, but I doubt they were tested by the average at-home cook looking for convenience AND taste.
Another source of bewilderment…what do you do with all of the dips and condiments?? There were many instances where the author neglected to suggest foods to pair them with. I was left with a vat of tasty dip wondering, Crackers or celery? Chips, carrot sticks or burger topping?
With very few exceptions, the number of servings suggested were way off. We may be big eaters at our house, but when an entrée is supposed to serve 4-6 people and it only covers ¼ of a salad plate, I'd call that inaccurate. I couldn't imagine how she sold these portion sizes in a catering business!
I also had a gripe with the index section of the book. For example, when I was trying to find a spicy eggplant dish, I wanted to look it up in the index under “eggplant”, not Szechuan. All that the index accomplished was an alphabetization of the recipes, not a comprehensive list of which recipes used which main ingredients. It was frustrating to say the least, albeit it was the publisher's and editor's fault, not the author's.
To round out the cookbook, the author included a very brief dessert section. I wished she hadn't. I only sampled one dessert, but was not impressed. And some of the recipes hardly qualified as desserts in my opinion. Which brought me to my biggest concern regarding this cookbook….
It's NOT vegan!! Half of the desserts contained honey, with only one recipe offering an alternative of raw sugar. This happened elsewhere in the book, ie. mole sauce, teriyaki marinade, etc. The author is not vegan herself, but I found this inexcusable. The cookbook title contained the word “vegan”, she cooked supposedly vegan meals for many of her catering clients, yet she ignored the definition of the term “vegan” by including honey in her recipes without apology or explanation.
I wanted so much to love this cookbook! There are a number of excellent recipes and I'm excited to try some new ones. I haven't tried enough from the salad section, but I'm just not a big salad eater. The array of ethnic vegetarian dishes is wonderful. The ingredients are simple. But I hesitate to rate this cookbook higher than ‘2 forks'. It wouldn't be fair to the other strong ‘3 fork' candidates out there. I'm always happy to add a few new favourites to our menu at home, but I was disappointed by too many recipes to give this a higher rating.
It's a nice selection of ethnic main and side dishes, but you've got to know when to deviate from the book and know when to use a little of your own creativity. One plus: it's a great place to find recipes for those in season vegetables!
2 strong Forks!
Here are the recipes I sampled with my family and what we thought of them:
Artichoke Dip (p. 24) – The first of many recipes in this cookbook based on artichoke hearts, this was a good tasting dip that even my son yummed up. It's simple to make and would be nice with raw veggies at any gathering.
Roasted Pepper Dip (p. 25) – Good, but not overwhelming. Might be nice to serve with a variety of other dips as it had a pleasing color. My husband liked it better than I did.
Egyptian Lentil Soup (p. 57) – I wasn't impressed, but the boys both loved it! What made it “Egyptian” were the mustard greens, mint and cumin. Still quite mild. I have quite a few other preferable lentil soup recipes in my arsenal, so unless I had too many mustard greens I probably wouldn't repeat this.
Palak Tofu (p. 89) – “Super Mega Yummos,” and my husband does not exaggerate. Served aside Pulao , this was an authentic tasting Indian dish that I'd definitely make again.
Sesame Baked Tofu (p. 100) – Another very easy to prepare recipe, but excessive on the sauce. I'd recommend halving the tahini sauce, because it just pooled around the tofu on the pan and burned. Regardless, the end result was very dry tasting. My husband called it “passable and uninspired”. My almost 3 year old tried a bite, then said, “I like the wet kind.” My advice, make this the morning or night before a picnic, because this dish improved dramatically as leftovers! This was probably why the author could offer this to her catering customers.
Indonesian Stir-Fry (p. 106) – Again, I'd say this serves 2-3 people as a main dish, not 4-6. Very tasty and different. I'd certainly serve this again. Here was another instance where I just had to use my instinct that “1 onion” would be too much if it was a large onion. She almost never specified produce size in her recipes.
Mushroom Polenta Casserole (p. 108) – Maybe my expectations were too high, but with the preparation time involved, I was definitely expecting something more triumphant. This ended up rather bland. I think a good sauce over the top would have saved it. I would not want this as a main dish, but maybe as a side dish; in that case it could serve 9.
Red Beans and Greens in Coconut Milk (p.116) – Very light on the coconut, and a great way to use my store of chopped frozen kale. The recipe called for fresh kale and dried beans, but the preparation time would have been daunting, so I used frozen kale and canned beans and it turned out fabulously, though I feel this dish served two people as a main dish, definitely not four. Add ample “cayenne to taste”!
Bean and Basil Burgers (p. 122) – A hit with every member of the family! I would say this recipe served a maximum of 6, and small servings at that, though she claimed it served 8-10. The only drawback was that these did not taste too good as leftovers. So make them and eat them right away!
Polenta with Fresh Herbs and Bean and Basil Burgers (plus a side of greens).
Basic Seitan (p. 127) – Squishy like a sponge. I had to dump the first attempt down the drain and completely re-work her measurements before it would take any solid form. The ratio of water to flour needed to be halved at least. I might try this again some day in the far future (when I've recovered from this disaster) with a different brand of high-gluten flour; maybe it was the flour, maybe it was me, who knows! But for now, my desire for seitan has declined markedly thanks to this recipe.
Cooking Basic Seitan.
Korean Barbecued Seitan (p.130) – Utilizing the result from the Basic Seitan recipe, I concocted the sauce for this supposed “barbecue” recipe and baked it in the oven as required. I cooked it for the suggested length of time, but it burned and resembled a soy sauce soaked kitchen sponge. Ack! I've eaten at a Korean barbecue in Japan, and this wasn't remotely similar. My husband actually spit this out and stepped outside.
Szechuan Eggplant (p. 142) – I've eaten at supposedly Szechuan restaurants, and this recipe did not remind me of anything Szechuan. I enjoyed this dish, and even my husband had a bit, and he's not usually an eggplant-eater. I would have preferred more spicyness and some Szechuan peppercorns in the recipe—anything to make it say “Szechuan” to me! This recipe was very easy, although no mention was made regarding whether the eggplant should be peeled or not, or what variety of eggplant was best suited for this dish.
Polenta with Fresh Herbs (p. 154) – A very basic polenta recipe that is easy to make. I don't think it required the baking or pan-frying that she recommended. I tried to pan-fry it, but abandoned that because it was too greasy and would have required far too much oil to successfully brown it. In the future I'll cook it, let it set, and stop there. By the way, I let mine set in the refrigerator; this was not mentioned in the recipe, but it would have taken hours to set in a hot humid kitchen on the counter. All in all—quite good.
Curried Millet (p.157) – Another simple recipe, easily adapted to the rice cooker. I normally hesitate to use “curry powder” in place of a fresh mix of Indian ingredients, but it was quite successful here. Clearly this was a low fat recipe, but I felt that the lack of any oil made the taste suffer. It was good but dry, so not the greatest. I think I'd add a bit of olive oil to the mix if I made this again.
Spanish Rice (p. 161) – This recipe got an A+ from everyone in our family. It's easy to make (I threw everything in the rice cooker instead of a pan) and it smelled fantastic while cooking. I've already repeated this one a few times!
Pulao (p. 162) – “This is a good one,” was the family's response when serving this dish. Another easy rice dish that I adapted to the rice cooker. I paired it successfully with a Palak Tofu .
Butterflies with Basil (p. 164) – No, there are no butterflies in this recipe, just shaped pasta. Really, I could have used any shape of pasta, but personally I wouldn't bother. This wasn't that great, or in my husband's words, “passable”.
Romanesco (Spanish Tomato) Sauce (p. 170) – I quite enjoyed this, but my husband thought it was too strong and that the parsley completely overpowered the rest of the flavours. The green olives and hazelnuts really made this sauce unique. I froze extra for later, but only for when I'm cooking for myself.
Pesto (p. 171) – This attempt at a low-fat pesto was not very successful. While mildly tasty, it failed to coat the pasta, or be scooped or spread onto a piece of garlic bread. I was very surprised at the miniscule amount of garlic in this recipe, though the sun-dried tomatoes were a welcome addition. I wouldn't make this again without quadrupling the oil and the garlic!
Muffaletta Sauce (p. 172) – For a low-fat muffaletta, this wasn't bad. I have always experienced muffaletta dripping in olive oil, so this was different indeed. I thought that even more sun-dried tomatoes, and maybe more garlic would have been nice, since as it was the artichoke hearts overwhelmed the rest of the ingredients completely.
Peanut Sauce (p. 176) – In my opinion, this recipe made the whole cookbook worthwhile! Granted, after tasting it, I added some crushed red pepper and garnished with scallion, but the coconut milk and lime juice made this to die for!! While rice noodles were recommended, I served this with honba sanuki udon (a variety of Japanese wheat noodle) and broccoli. We all loved it. The sauce appeared runny, but coated the noodles well.
Peanut Sauce served over udon noodles and broccoli with crushed red pepper.
Tomatillo Salsa (p. 179) – No matter how much I tried, I couldn't like this salsa. Not even my husband who normally devours salsa cared for this one. The recipe called for canned tomatillos, but I used fresh. This was very watery and tasted mostly of vinegar. Not knowing what else to do with the leftovers, I cooked it down and threw in some extra hot peppers and used it as a warm salsa verde in bean and rice burritos. There are definitely better green salsa recipes out there.
Asian Cucumber Salad (p. 189) – A neat side dish for any asian meal, or a quick light snack. Easy to prepare. Serves four….mice, not people! Double the recipe for four small rice bowl sized portions. And halve the soy sauce or you'll be swimming in it.
Baked Apples (p. 217) – Don't use more than ½ of the juice called for in this recipe or you'll end up overflowing your pan in the oven. There was no mention of apple-type, or whether to core them all the way through to the bottom, or whether or not to peel the apples, or whether to baste them more than once. I used two types of apples. One type failed miserably and was a pile of mush with tough skins, the other was better, but the skin was still tough. I'd add more raisins than she called for; they really made the dish visually appealing. I thought they were “okay”, and my husband thought they were “tasty”. Once he added some ice cream he said he'd eat them again.
VegPeople Rating: |
 2 forks out of 4 |
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