Being vegan in Atlanta not only means finding the best places that serve vegan-friendly fare; it also means cooking in a lot of the time, too. Luckily, my partner and I love cooking, which is to say, my partner really loves cooking.
We've recently acquired two vegan cookbooks: Vegan with a Vengeance, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Veganomicon by the very same Ms. ICM and Terry Romero. Isa is the host and star of The Post Punk Kitchen, a cable-access vegan cooking show in Brooklyn. Of course, when you have a brand new cookbook, you spend a long time testing recipes before you really get a sense of how the writers think about cooking. If our previous cookbook experiences are any indication, the testing on these will take years.
So far, Vegan with a Vengeance has been a pretty nice experience. It's an homage to Isa's punk rock ethos, with most of the recipes featuring cheap, easy-to-find, and quick recipes. The dishes we've tried have gone over brilliantly, and there's a lot of innovation in Isa's cooking. The Fronch toast is out of control. Seriously, it's awesome. And our recent houseguests (Ms. E-to-the-D and her sidekick, Jamie the boy detective) can attest to the wonder of Isa's blueberry scones.
Veganomicon is a fancier cookbook; it's got superlong ingredient lists and generally calls for more time and effort. We are working on testing the recipes in it too, seeing which ones we like, marking the ones we don't with devil horns, etc. This process takes forever, especially since my boy wonder does most of the cooking around the house. However, the first recipe I personally tried from the Veganomicon was a sad disaster. It was for a Spinach-Noodle Kugel. I should have known; I've never been a huge fan of Jewish cuisine because it has always seemed to be a mixture of bland ingredients and salt. Don't get me wrong; I love a good bagel and I'll almost never turn down a knish. Sometimes, though, there's just not enough flavor for me. Anyway, the Kugel was noodle-y and spinach-y and that was it. I hated it. We saved the pan by mixing in tomato sauce and improvising a spinach lasagna.
On the bright side, we also tried Veganomicon's recipe for Potato Latkes and were delighted with the results. The Latkes came out crispy on the outside, with creamy potato in the middle, perfect. I'll keep posting as we try out new recipes.
Do you have either of these books? Have you found or created any great vegan recipes lately? Share the recipe blogs or websites that you love!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
thanks for vegan with a vengeance - I heard of it about 5 months ago...but that was barely on my radar as I was working through "Vegetarian Times" a lacto-ovo veggie book worth picking up (imho). And when I say worth picking up, I mean, invaluable to my eating in as a L-O veggie.
But...in my long drawn out process of conversion, I think this will be helpful. Thanks Nija Nija. :)
I checked VwaV out from the local library and gave it a spin for a couple months. I just ordered it, so I can finally stop staining up the library's copy. I have hardly exhausted this book, but so far I find it to be very easy and approachable. Many of the recipes leave me saying "I can make that--right now!" The index is also very useful and organized.
I absolutely love Vegan Lunch Box. Too bad she doesn't update regularly any more. :(
--Rachel
Thanks for your comment, Rachel! I think I'd heard about Vegan Lunch Box a while ago, but I never really looked into it until you reminded me. Another example of the great vegan resources on the web! The great thing about this is that it shows how we can work around dietary restrictions, whether they're from allergies or choice. There are lots of options out there. Thanks for promoting one more resource!
Post a Comment