Lynda Stoner, New Holland Publishers, 2008
I snapped up this book when I saw it in the book store, as it is an Australian vegan cookbook - something that you don't see too often. This book is hardcover and yes, another square book! There are colour photos of many of the recipes. Chapters include Introduction, Where To Get Your Vitals, Soups, Entrees, Side Dishes, Mains, Salads and Dressings, Baking and Desserts, Condiments and Drinks, Conversion Guide and Contributors. American friends, Entrees is used here in the Australian sense, so what you would call appetisers. I would rate this book as OK. One of my major criticisms is that a lot of recipes just call for 'one packet' or such of something. I really don't like it when recipes don't include specific quantities. I can get tofu in 250g, 375g, 500g and 750g blocks here... that is a lot of variation for a 'packet'. The Side Dish section is also fairly basic, but I like how it has some fun suggestions for making different types of vegetables into sides.
I haven't explored this book that much, so I will share with you here all that I have made and their ratings!
Greek Pasta Casserole and Greek Salad
The casserole is a fantastic dish. It uses a can of Sanitarium casserole mince as well as a tin of their Savoury Lentils, with kidney beans and tomatoes and a lovely, creamy white sauce. This also reheats superbly. 5 stars.
The salad is also great, with homemade marinated tofu (though not as good as the recipe for Tofu Feta from How It All Vegan), lettuce (or spinach here), red onions, tomatoes and cucumber. 4 stars.
Lentil Cottage Pie
A crappy photo - clearly before I started thinking about what was in the background and the quality of utensils that would appear in my photos! But this is a satisfying, warming dish. The recipe only calls for 1/2 cup for crushed tomatoes, but I just went ahead and used the whole tin anyway and it was fine. A bit of cayenne to the lentil mix lifts it. 4 stars.
Mum's Curried Sausages
Simple comfort food, made even better by serving over creamy mashed potatoes. 4 stars.
Coconut Korma
A tasty curry including lentils, tofu, your choice of vegetables and lots of spices. 4 stars.
Berry and Apple Crumble
This was strange, because the topping ended up all gloopy and not crumbly at all. It still tasted nice, but a crumble it wasn't. The picture in the book has a crumble topping, though. 3 stars.
Pear Upside Down Cake
Super awesome stuff, this tastes like a gingersnap in pudding form! The topping goes all glorious and sticky and toffee-like. 5 stars.
Strawberry Shortcake
I made this for my friend Lisa's birthday. It is quite easy and super cute. The recipe just has you put strawberry jam and strawberries in the centre, however I think strawberry shortcakes should have some sort of cream! I added a layer of the Macadamia Creme from Vegan With A Vengeance. 4 stars.
Black Forest Cherry Cake
Of course I had to try a black forest cake. The instructions for this include reference to adding soy milk, but none is listed in the ingredients. I just ignored it. The cake did need to cook for a bit extra, and I found it to still be very moist and crumbly and hard to transfer. This has no cream layer, so to me is really more a chocolate cherry cake. You make a mock chocolate cream to cover it, which ended up looking completely ratty. This is because I put it into the freezer to chill quicker as I was in a rush and accidentally froze it, then tried to gently warm it in the microwave but made it too runny again, and repeat cycle. 4 stars.
Jelly Tart
This is easy to make and is a cute way to use up vegan jelly. The instructions for the base make no sense to me - a packet of plain biscuits (again, how big is a packet?) and a huge amount of margarine, so I used a doubled recipe of the cookie base from the Joy of Vegan Baking. 4 stars.
Things I have made but don't have pictures for:
Baba Ganoush: A bit bland, needs more garlic and lemon. 3 stars.
Chocolate Orange Cake: 4 stars.
Vegan Vanilla Slice: OMG so awesomesauce for reals! 5 stars!
I talk about my love of chocolate and cherry a lot. What is your favourite flavour combination?
The wonderful Savannah over at In Her Grace, the lovely Kate at The Spade And Spoon, the amazing Jojo over at Vegan In Brighton have given this blog an award!
The Liebster Award
“Liebster” is German and means ‘dearest’ or ‘beloved’ but it can also mean ‘favorite’. The idea behind this award is to bring attention to bloggers who have less than 200 followers and show your support during Vegan Mofo! ('lieb' is actually part of my last name, so this award makes me smile).
The rules of winning this award are as follows:
1. Show your thanks to those who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal 5 of your top picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Enjoy the love and support of some wonderful people on the www!
I am not sure about follower numbers, but here is who I have chosen to share with!
*Angst Loves Spinach
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*Tales of a Vegan Food Fetishist
*Tea and Sympatico
*Vegan Food for the Hungry Student
Cute Kitty Photo of the Post
Dim Sim has recently taken to sleeping in the cat turret again of late.
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