Monday, January 17, 2011

New Cookbook

I received a gift card to Borders for Christmas and was having a tough time deciding what I wanted to get.  I knew I wanted a new vegan cookbook.  I've had Vegan Planet for a couple of years now and it is a fantastic book with yummy recipes.  But, I was itching for something new.  I also have Dreena Burton's Vive le Vegan which is a great family-friendly cookbook.  I love how easy Dreena's recipes are to put together.  She is a mother of 3 young kids too and she can make anything vegan, and make it delicious.

So, the cookbook I bought is... (drumroll please) Veganomicon!!  I'm reading it through cover to cover and the recipe descriptions are so well written and funny.  And, since purchasing it just over a week ago, I've made 3 different recipes.

I started with a stir fry that has quinoa, cashews, and pineapple.  Can I tell you how delicious it was?  Ohmygoodness.  So yummy!!!


It's so light, yet filling and the cashews are crunchy and the sweet pineapple went so well.  Wow, fantastic!   The liquid used for cooking the quinoa is half pineapple juice and half water.  Delicious!

Second, I made their black bean burgers.  I have a recipe I've used for a while that's delicious, but they don't really hold their shape.  I'd never be able to cook them on a grill for fear they'd fall through the grates.  So, I was open to try another recipe.  I failed to take a picture, but these burgers held their shape, would be able to be cooked on the grill if it hadn't have been snowing and blowing outside, and were equally as delicious.  They were easier to make too, since I didn't have to get out my food processor to create the patties.  I just had to mash and stir the ingredients with a fork.  I kind of liked having larger pieces of bean in my burgers too.  Fantastic!

The third recipe I tried was a salad with roasted portabella mushrooms.

There was red onion, chickpeas, avacado, with a spicy mustard dressing.  I used romain and boston lettuce which worked well.  The mushrooms were marinated in a mixture of garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and soy sauce and then roasted in the oven.  Fabulous!

Next, I'm going to make a pasta dish with avacado.  Can you tell I love avacado?  I can't remember what else is in there, but it sounded great.  Oh, and I can't wait to make their chickpea cutlets with mushroom gravy.  Mmmmm.

Happy Monday!

3 comments:

  1. You're on a vegan cooking spree! :)

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  2. You are the second person in like a week to tell me about Veganonicom! I've been looking for a good vegan cookbook that includes nutrition facts...but has SIMPLE recipes...I can't do complicated recipes. ;-) Got any ideas for me??

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  3. I'm liking Veganomicon A LOT!!! They are very health conscious recipes (you may be able to find the entire book or part of it online to give it a gander). They don't have the calories, fat, salt, etc. shown though. :( Dreena Burton is also a very health conscious vegan cook. She has 3 young kids so her recipes aren't too hard, some are just dump and bake and they're delicious! Maybe stop by the bookstore and thumb through them. That's what I've done too. If I had to choose, I may suggest Veganomicon as it has lots of recipes. Hope this helps, if not you can email me specific ?s too. :)

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