Book Review provided by:
Dragonfly
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Located in Athens, Georgia, is a restaurant that serves up meatless, down-home soul-food in big, hearty portions. That vegetarian restaurant is called The Grit and this cookbook, written by Jessica Greene and Ted Hafer, includes more than 130 of their most requested recipes. I was really excited to get started on this book. Many of these recipes are familiar favorites, while others are new to me. Perusing the book was a lot of fun because it is filled with quotes from the many folks (mainly musicians) who have eaten at The Grit and loved it. These quotes and anecdotes scattered throughout the cookbook by their famous clientele were enough to convince me that the recipes in this cookbook were going to be worth my while.
The authors have provided a list at the front of the book of their favorite items that you will want to stock your pantry with. They call this their Pantry Prerequisites. This reference is handy to have, as these are main items they feel work best in their recipes. After the Pantry Prerequisites comes The Fundamentals. These are a handful of recipes that are likely to be “secret ingredients” in other recipes. They are recipes that can be eaten as is on their own or you'll find that other recipes call for any one or more of these recipes. For instance, the Grit Marinara recipe yields 8 cups. Serve it over pasta tonight and tomorrow night make the Spinach and Lentil Soup, which requires some of the Grit Marinara. Enjoy Grit Black Bean Chili alone or stuffed into a Breakfast Burrito.
What I loved about the book more than the down-home recipes was the ease of preparation of those recipes. And every recipe I made required very little time, both in preparation and cooking. It was easy for me to come home from work and put together a meal without feeling like I was never going to leave the kitchen. This is not a vegan cookbook, but there are many vegan recipes in it and others that can be easily be made vegan. They have noted their dairy-free recipes with a V, but I cannot think that it's means vegan, because many of the recipes called for honey.
Deciding on which recipes to make was not easy because they all looked so good. Here are the recipes I did try and what we thought of them:
Grit Marinara
- It's really hard to mess up a marinara sauce, but it's possible to make it the best marinara sauce ever. Just the right seasonings, herbs, and cooking time. It has become my favorite marinara, hands-down.
Creamy Garlic Dressing
- This was “okay”. I doubt that I'll make it again. It got too thick after sitting overnight in the refrigerator and had to be thinned later.
Spinach and Lentil Soup
- All three of us liked this soup. It was fresh tasting and easy to prepare. The Grit marinara we had leftover from the night before adds a nice touch to the soup. It made too much, though, so next time I'll have to cut the recipe in half.
Mock-Cream of Chicken Soup
- This was really yummy. My new favorite soup. I'm going to try it with noodles or dumplings the next time I make it. It has a nice kick to it because of the tablespoon of hot sauce added to it.
Corn and Potato Chowder
- Good, but not great. I won't make it again, although my omni brother and his girlfriend enjoyed this soup.
Old-Time Grit Buns
- I am fond of making my own sandwich buns and now I have a new favorite bun recipe. These are light, but substantial enough to hold the sauciest of fillings.
Cinnamon Raisin-Craisin Bread
- Yummy, easy to make and freezes very nicely. I'll be making this again for sure.
Herbie's Cream Cheese Spread
- This is not a vegan recipe, but I veganized it using Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and it was wonderful. My omni brother and especially his girlfriend, loved this recipe. We served it up with cucumber slices and bagel chips. It is also good as a sandwich spread with some sprouts and cucumbers, lettuce and tomato.
Spicy Honey BBQ Tofu Sandwich
- My husband loved it. I hated it. I didn't like the fennel seed in it and I thought it tasted too citrus-y. I substituted agave nectar for the honey to make it vegan. I won't make this recipe again.
Sage and Onion Gravy
- Our new favorite gravy!! Even my daughter's picky omni friend went back for seconds! I've made this recipe three times so far. We absolutely love this gravy!!
White “Sausage” Gravy
- This is not a vegan recipe. I made this for my vegetarian husband and daughter. They both enjoyed it a lot. My 11-year-old daughter proclaimed this to be the best “sausage” gravy in the world! I'll make it for them again.
Mac and Cheese
- Again, not a vegan recipe, but I made it for the rest of my family. They both liked it, but said that my recipe is better and they don't like the breadcrumbs that were on top and that it wasn't saucy enough. I had enough leftover to freeze for future meals for them.
Chocolate Vegan Death Cake
- I never thought I would find a chocolate cake recipe that would be so good, let alone a vegan chocolate cake recipe! We didn't care for the frosting, but I'll definitely make the cake again, just using a different frosting.
Super Seven-Spice Potatoes
- Nothing fancy, nothing special, just good ole chunky taters that are seasoned and crisped to perfection. We really like the Super Seven-Spice. The recipe makes a lot so you have plenty of extra for seasoning other foods.
Of these 14 recipes I made there were only a couple that didn't really appeal to us and several that I'll make again and a few that have become our favorites. The recipes were all easy to follow and easy to make. I can see why The Grit restaurant is so popular – look at the wonderful food they are serving up! Familiar, comforting, fulfilling, nourishing. I still have many, many recipes to make out of this book. My rating for this book, based on my experiences while in the kitchen with it, is 3 forks.
VegPeople Rating: |
3 forks
out of 4 |
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