The Unofficial "Other Cookbooks Not Listed" Thread
Posted by Tweety on Jul 27, 2010 · Member since Jan 2003 · 3135 posts
I thought I would start a thread for recipe reviews of cookbooks that don't have a thread, and probably don't need a thread.
So if you are using older cookbooks, or cookbooks without a thread, I'd love to hear from you here.
From World Vegan Feast - Italian polenta loaf with beans and kale - This is a simple polenta dish made with veggie broth, kale, garlic and pinto beans...that's it. I wasn't expecting much but the final result was fantastic when served with a salsa. This definitely calls for some kind of added gravy, sauce or salsa otherwise it was slightly on the plain side. I was pleasantly surprised.
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I won Vegan Slow Cooker in a Lightlife giveaway in December, and I've tried a couple of recipes out of it, unimpressed with each.
I made the Chick'n Style Seitan, and it was borderline gross. And I LOVE seitan, so that takes a lot. I also love garlic (enough to have a tattoo of it), and a tablespoon of garlic powder was overpowering. And a tablespoon of thyme? No way. I added half a tablespoon and I still thought it was too much. The texture was chewy and sqeaky. I liked the method of preparing it in the slow cooker, but I would NEVER use this recipe again.
I also made the Pecan Loaf, and that turned out pretty gross, too. I didn't make the ketchup topping thing (I didn't have a single one of those ingredients), so that might've helped. Somehow, tofu and pecans and vegetables, things that are usually delish and full of flavor, are rendered grossly tasteless. I'm so unimpressed so far.
Vegan Deli - Kasha varnishkes - Meh...not thrilled with this. It's simply buckwheat groats, pasta and caramelized onions. Supposedly it's a popular Jewish dish.
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Tweety, when you are not thrilled with a dish your photos make it look like cat vomit.
Tweety, when you are not thrilled with a dish your photos make it look like cat vomit.
what a compliment! lol
:D :D :D
Yeah, I should have used the traditional bow tie pasta to make it look more appealing.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/21/dining/22mini_650.jpg
Vegan Fusion World Cuisine - St. Patrick's potato fennel leek soup - This was very good. The flavors of fennel, potatoes and leeks came together will well blended into a smooth soup. I found it a bit thin, but the flavor was perfect.
quick--fix vegan (for the next three reviews)
hummamole - This is nothing more than your basic hummus with an avocado blended in with a little cumin. It was o.k.
farmer's market pasta salad - Very good. This combines sauteed garlic and spinach with pasta and veggies including fennel which I love. She called for zucchini which I didn't have and I used an orange bell pepper instead of yellow, and I omitted the sugar and used red pepper flakes instead because that's how I roll.
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Chesapeake chickpea sandwiches - Delish! My experience is that I don't have good luck with patties/burgers and my luck continued as this didn't hold together all too well when cooked. This one in the picture wasn't cooked as long and held together o.k. I loved the flavor when put on bread with a tomato....the patty is made from chickpeas, panko crumbs, chickpea flour, scallions, parsley, mayo, lemon juice, brown mustard, nori flakes, capers, Worcestershire sauce, and a little Old Bay Seasoning. Despite a long list of ingredients it was indeed a quick fix.
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Carb Conscious Vegetarian - Crispy tarragon tofu strips with mushrooms, lemon, and capers - This was really really good. She gives instructions for frying or baking the tofu and I baked it. Afterwards you sauté it in a little bit of oil oil, shallots, mushrooms and then add some wine, lemon juice (I cut down to two tablespoons instead of three because that's all I had, but probably would have done anyway and it was perfect), capers and tarragon (I used dry).
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The following are from Quick-Fix Vegan -
Summer pasta with red and yellow tomatoes - The store was out of yellow tomatoes so I made it with all red grape tomatoes. I added the tomatoes at the beginning to cook out the juices (she doesn't call for any cook time) and cut back on the cooking time for the veggies to keep them crisp. I love this dish....these type of dishes are a staple dish for me....it also has garlic, spinach and fresh basil. I added crushed red pepper.
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Sicilian-style orzo salad with walnuts and raisins - this is a very good salad. Orzo adds a nice twist to a pasta salad that I like, and I use whole grain orzo. This also has spinach, fresh basil, tomatoes, scallions, and kalamata olives. The dressing is pretty good. It's made from olive oil and white vinegar, spices, shallot and garlic. Because the shallot and garlic are raw, that was a powerful taste to me, and perhaps I used too much. Wouldn't want to bring this to a cover dish or eat before a date...garlic breathe occurs. :)
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Quinoa and chard with sherry glazed mushrooms - Not bad. I couldn't find chard so I used beet greens instead and wasn't too wild about that. The mushrooms were better, but didn't "glaze" but were good nonetheless...the "glaze" is sherry, agave nectar, lemon juice and thyme.
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Sweet and spicy tempeh - Very good. This tempeh has a nice sauce that includes crushed tomatoes, hoison sauce, some pineapple juice, soy sauce and rice vinegar. The additions are garlic, scallions, green pepper, and pineapple. It all came together very well. I omitted the salt thinking rightly that the hoison and soy sauce was enough. I omitted the sugar thinking rightly that the pineapple and hoison were enough. My tempeh pretty quickly absorbed all the oil in sautéing so I added the sauce early and cooked the green peppers in the sauce it came out fine.
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Spicy tomato achar - this is a sauce that she says is Napali...and it it is so very good. It has diced tomatoes (that you purree and I had some leftover crushed tomatoes that I used instead), cilantro, hot chiles, garlic, ginger, and spices like curry, cumin and smoked paprika. I used it on stir fried tofu and onions over brown rice. I have some leftover and am thinking it would go good with chickpeas.
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Mediterranean quesadillas - these were pretty good....made with onions, garlic, roasted red bell pepper (I usually make my own but always have a jar on hand and used jarred this time), artichoke hearts, white beans, kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes and basil. Donna Klein has a recipe almost exactly like this one in one of her cookbooks that I've made. Served on top of some whole wheat couscous of course.
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burrito scramble - This is a pretty good tofu scramble in a burrito. The scramble is made with tofu, green chilies, spices, nutritional yeast, onions and garlic. As suggested for condiments I used salsa, avocado, and cilantro. The only minor change I made was that I sautéed the onions in grapeseed oil instead of olive. Olive seemed wrong for this.
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Moroccan chickpeas with tomatoes and spinach - I've made similar dishes many times from other writers and her version isn't really unique. That said it's very extremely good. She suggests a Moroccan spice blend and to her credit she offers a recipe if you don't want to use a blend. We have a good specialty spice shop here and I actually have a blend of "ras el hanout" that I used. I added some harrissa for heat and enjoyed the dish a lot.
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Below is from Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons
Potato Soup with Pink and Green Beans.....very very good. It's one of those dishes that flavors well as it sits. It is spiced with paprika, cumin, garlic, white wine, parsley, and salt-free seasoning. It also has tomatoes and it begs for heat, so I added a red hot Thai chili pepper.
I usually think that cookbook writers that use prepared spice blends are being lazy, as I would rather not buy them and use individual spices. However, I did buy some just for this dish and plan on using it on steamed veggies that I sometimes eat with lunch. I bought McCormick's brand and I like it better than Mrs. Dash. I used fresh rather than frozen green beans and cut 10 minutes off the cooking time to keep a crunch, knowing it would cook more as it sits. I don't like mushy green beans.
This is a very hearty, low fat, low sodium and healthy meal and alongside a sandwich or salad would make a good meal.
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The following two are from Vegetarian Times: Everything Vegan
Steamed greens with sliced leeks - This was a quick, tasty and easy way to prepare collards and I'm a huge collard green fan (they are a superfood full of all kinds of good stuff too!). It basically is leeks sauteed a bit and then greens are garlic are added. You can use other greens too.
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Fiery tofu with red chiles, orange, and ginger - Very good! It has a sweet and sour taste from 1/3 cup of lime juice (I used fresh key limes from the tree in my backyard. :)) along with orange juice and maple. I cut back from 1/3 to 1/4th cup of maple syrup because I don't have a sweet tooth like that. I used sambal olek instead of dried chilies the recipe calls for.
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From World Vegan Feast -
Crispy tofu with olives and corn-tomato relish.....Very good. The tofu is a separate recipe in the beginning of the book...it calls for you to marinade the tofu in a broth of water, soy sauce, nutritional yeast and spices like sage, onion powder, etc. Then you dip the tofu in another recipe of whole grain flour, onion and garlic powder and nutritional yeast. Then fry in some olive oil. Mine didn't come out crispy but was very good nonetheless.
For the relish you toast some corn and tomatoes in the broiler with the strange combo of dark sesame oil and olive oil (very small amounts), and then add olives, balsamic vinegar, green onions and fresh basil. I used parsley since I didn't have basil and that worked out good.
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Tweety! You got World Vegan- how do you like it so far?
World Vegan Feast
Indonesian green curry on sweet potatoes - Did not serve this on sweet potatoes since I hate sweet potatoes. I served it on top of russett potatoes and with some jasmine rice because you could never have enough carbs. This was a great recipe and I usually make my own curry paste but I cheated and use Maesri green curry paste which was awesome and had just the right amount of heat. I highly recommend for this one.
Tweety! You got World Vegan- how do you like it so far?
I like it o.k. The stuff I've made I've liked so far. Right now from reading it, I'm giving it about a C+ or B- WIth a cookbook that's an "A" like Big Vegan, stuff jumps out at me and I want to try a lot of things. For some reason this book doesn't do that for me. But it could be that I'm just being moody right now and liking quicker easier things to cook.
I recently got Caribbean Vegan, so I'll be making a review thread for it soon, for those interested.
Tweety! You got World Vegan- how do you like it so far?
I like it o.k. The stuff I've made I've liked so far. Right now from reading it, I'm giving it about a C+ or B- WIth a cookbook that's an "A" like Big Vegan, stuff jumps out at me and I want to try a lot of things. For some reason this book doesn't do that for me. But it could be that I'm just being moody right now and liking quicker easier things to cook.
I've only made one recipe from World Vegan, but I agree that I am not nearly as inspired by reading it. She uses a lot of faux meats and the recipes can be a lot more involved than I prefer.
I recently got Caribbean Vegan, so I'll be making a review thread for it soon, for those interested.
Yes please! I just bought this too.
That's cool AC, it's an interesting book.
In fact today from Caribbean Vegan
I made the "Spicy baked sweet potato wedges"....While he have a lot of Islanders here in St. Pete, I've never been to one of their shops and didn't get white sweet potatoes and just used regular orange ones. This recipe is quick to make and uses several spices to include Creole seasoning, cayenne, chili powder, Madras curry, chili powder, paprika and cinnamon.
Lood forward to more reviews from this book.
Bok Choy, Broccoli and Edamame Skillet in Bean by Bean:
I really liked this. Lots of veggies and edamame in a simple stirfry with lemon. Served with millet.
About the cookbook, there are a few meatist recipes but otherwise vegetarian and lots of vegan options. I am really liking this new cookbook so far!
From Carb Conscious Vegetarian
Caponata-topped baked tofu triangles - I loved this. It has eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, olives, red peppers and capers. It's meant to be a salad eaten at room temp. but I ate it hot. The tofu triangles are quick baked and brushed with tamari and olive oil.
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I recently got Caribbean Vegan, so I'll be making a review thread for it soon, for those interested.
Yes please! I just bought this too.
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=42032.0
Tweety and intheend's reviews definitely have me very interested!
tweety, for your "creole bean" review, I wasn't sure which bean thing that was..so I guessed the creole red bean stew.
You guessed right AC! Thanks for taking the time to find our reviews from this thread and post them there.
The following recipes are all from Carb Conscious Vegetarian
Moroccan-spiced lentil soup - Really good but, but just your run-of-the-mill recipe. It calls for 3 cups of broth and 3 cups of water. I used only a total of five cups of diluted broth.
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Moroccan green pepper salad - Excellent...everything came together real well for a great taste. This calls for roasted green peppers which I've never had before and found it a real good twist on roasted red peppers. It also has cukes, tomato, cilantro, onions, ginger, and cumin in a lemon and olive oil dressing.
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Jammin' Jambalaya - Pretty run of the mill recipe. She suggests adding Lightlife Chik'n Strips as an option, and I decided to make my own chicken seitan (from La Dolce Vegan) and this was genius. The flavors from the chicken and the recipe blended together very well for a great stew that I gobbled up.
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Fennel salad with sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, and pine nuts - Fantastic! Everything mixed very well together for a great flavorful salad that was different. I used walnuts instead of pine nuts, and served it over spinach. It contained fennel bulb, red bell pepper, kalamata olives, parsley, scallion and sun-dried tomatoes in a lemon and olive oil dressing. When I chose this recipe I didn't realize I had smoked sun-dried tomatoes and worried it wouldn't combine well with the other ingredients, but it tasted good.
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From World Vegan I made green beans with browned shallots which is simply what it says. I added a zucchini I needed to use up.
Slacking on my commitment to myself to cook at least one recipe from my zine scriptions I made this Spicy Brazilian Stew from VegNews...it's pretty good, it has chiptole peppers, sweet potatoes, black beans and fresh mango added after it's cooked.
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From Quick Fix Vegan I made Asian noodle soup with bok choy and shiitakes - I subbed whole wheat vermicelli for the rice noodles, baby bella for the mushrooms, used baby bok choy and added diakon radishes. I added several pieces of chicken seitan that I had left over. This was excellent and easy to make.
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From Carb Conscious Vegetarian I made [dame, sno peas, and bean sprouts with ginger-lime vinaigrette which was very good. I resisted the urge to add soy sauce which I thought was a strange omission, but it didn't need it. She calls for a total of four tbs of oil and I used 3...cutting back on one tbs of canola oil but using her suggested 2 of toasted sesame seed oil.
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Ok, so this one isn't so much a cookbook as a vegan book that happens to include recipes. It's from The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life.
Pasta with Asparagus in Lemon Cream Sauce
Excellent! The sauce is scrumptious, and it goes great with the asparagus. This is definitely one worth repeating!
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