One down, 999 to go

By: Matt Frazier

1000 Vegan Recipes

I don’t buy cookbooks very often. You can get so many recipes online, pirated adapted by bloggers like me, that it’s hard to justify spending 35 dollars (29 with my BN member card) on a cookbook.  But impulse buys are fun.

Also fun — posing for stupid pictures.

I’m not a vegan but I’ve been eating a lot of vegan meals, noticing that they leave me feeling considerably more energetic than even vegetarian meals made with cheese or milk.  Something about them just feels “cleaner”; whether that’s psychological or not I can’t really say.

But even if 1,000 Vegan Recipes weren’t vegan, I’d still have bought it.  (Though in that case, I’d suggest they change the title.)  Without exaggeration, I’ve never seen so many easy, good-looking recipes in one place.  My favorite part is that while there are a decent number of tofu and tempeh recipes, the vast majority of the recipes don’t use any processed soy products.  Instead, care is taken to recreate the flavors — not just the textures — of meals that ordinarily use meat or meat products.

For example, French onion soup is a dish I haven’t quite enjoyed the way I used to.  Vegetable stock alone just can’t replace hearty beef stock in this one.  But in 1000 Vegan Recipes, the French onion soup recipe uses brandy and apple cider in addition to the vegetable stock to recreate the heartiness of the original.  There are lots more examples I’ve found just leafing through the book, like using bulgur wheat rather than TVP to give chili a ground-beef texture.

Anyway, if you can’t tell, I’m excited.  I’ve been in a rut with cooking recently and I think this book might single handedly get me out of it.  Meal planning for the week was a cinch; actually I was overwhelmed by the number of recipes I wanted to try and more or less just chose the first ones I read.  On the menu in the NMA household this week:

• Roasted chickpeas (a crunchy snack, apparently)
• Watercress, fennel, and avocado salad with dried cherries and macadamias
• Fennel-orange salad with black olives and pine nuts
• Quinoa salad with black beans and tomatoes
• Soba and green lentil soup
• Ziti with red pepper-walnut sauce
• Red bean and bulgur chili
• Lemon-kissed linguine with garlicky white bean sauce

As they say nowadays, “I know, right?”  Lots of beans.  Lots of poor person food.  Right up my alley.

Pasta with White Beans and Garlic