Book Review provided by:
Meesha
Meesha
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Book Review provided by: Meesha |
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General comments:
This is a solid basic vegetarian/vegan cookbook. The focus is on
homestyle "comfort" foods, such as "meat"loaf, that have been made
vegetarian. The author's stated goal is to allow "meat and potatoes"
people to eat vegetarian style without sacrificing their favorite foods.
While many of the meat substitutes aren't going to fool people into
thinking they are actually eating meat, they do turn the traditional
meat-based recipes into vegetarian entrees which most omnivores would
likely appreciate. Recipes are mostly of the everyday variety as opposed
to the "impress the company" type, although there are many that would be
appropriate for guests.
The book does not include any photos at all aside from the cover, so cooks
who find inspiration through glossy color photos of beautifully prepared
dishes might be disappointed.
Although this is not strictly a vegan cookbook, all recipes which aren't
already vegan either include vegan options or can easily be made vegan.
Overall the author seems to be sensitive to health concerns and tries to
minimize oil, salt, and sugar usage.
There are information boxes scattered throughout the book alongside the
relevant recipes. For example, right after her Wheat-Meat Satay recipe,
she includes a glossary of Asian ingredients. I personally find it easier
to have such explanatory texts consolidated in a single "reference"
section, but the book does allow you to look them up through the index.
There are many interesting recipes in this book that sound tasty. I
hope to try more recipes soon!
Tested recipes
I tested 5 recipes, as written. I tried two more (#6, 6a, and 7) with
minor adjustments based on my personal food preferences.
1. Double Eggplant Moussaka
2. Garlicky Escarole and Borlotti Beans
3. Homemade Seitan
4. Wheat-Meat Satays with Spicy Peanut Sauce
4a. Spicy Peanut Sauce (for Seitan Satay)
5. Mom's Butterballs
6. Cranberry-Pecan-Stuffed Wheat Meat Ballotine
6a. Good Gravy
7. Seitan Medallions and Button Mushrooms with a Brandy Reduction Sauce
While the moussaka was fairly good, I felt that it took too much time to
prepare for something that wasn't spectacular. Probably the part that I
found most trying was frying the individual eggplant slices. Browning the
eggplant slices took a lot of time as well as oil--significantly more oil
than was indicated in her recipe.
The escarole and beans were excellent. Washing the grit out of the
escarole was the only part of the recipe that took any significant effort.
This recipe included only a few ingredients, but they turned out a very
good homey meal.
The homemade seitan was a simple, easy recipe, but during the washing of
the seitan to remove the starch, a large amount of wheat bran also washed
out, which caused the sink drain to clog up very quickly. This clogging
really made the washing go very slowly. Other than having to unclog the
sink a few times for each rinse of the seitan, this recipe worked quite
well.
Seitan satay was another recipe that had a very good result. The marinade
and the peanut sauce were delicious, although the peanut sauce turned out
a bit too salty. I suspect that the Asian chile sauce that I used had
more salt in it than the one she used for her peanut sauce. Her recipe
calls for marinating the seitan for 30-45 minutes. I was running out of
time, so I only marinated for maybe 10-15 minutes. Even so, the baked
seitan slices really soaked up the flavors of the marinade, and the
romaine lettuce provided a nice cool complement.
The butterball cookies was another recipe that was pleasantly simple.
Although I would rate the cookies at good rather than excellent, this was
a very quick and easy recipe.
The cranberry-pecan-stuffed ballotine was excellent, with a sweet-tart
flavor and a chewy texture from the brown rice and the seitan.
The seitan medallions were mediocre. I found them to be on the bland
side.
My Rating - 3 forks.
.
VegPeople Rating: |
 3 forks out of 4 |
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A note from VegPeople: A big thanks to the folks at Harvard Common Press
for providing a review copy of this book.
Book Contents
1. Just for Starters
2. Soup's On
3. Salad Days
4. Simmering Stews
5. Steaks, Vegetarian Style
6. Hot from the Oven
7. More Potatoes, Please
8. Pasta and Other Comforts
9. The Sandwich Board
10. Saucing It Up
11. Sweet Endings