Veganomicon

After reading some positive reviews for Veganomicon, the latest cookbook from the author of Vegan with a Vengeance (VwaV), I decided to request it from the library. VwaV has become a go to cookbook in this household when I am looking for either inspiration or merely a tasty recipe to blindly follow. So I was looking forward to exploring this new book.

Veganomicon was already checked out so it took a few weeks before I was able to get my hands on the book. Finally, late last week, I brought home this hardcover college textbook-like book that contains a plethora of interesting looking recipes. I've spent the last few days testing a sampling of the recipes and attempting to assess whether or not the book is worth purchasing (as unfortunately, while it isn't quite priced like a college textbook, it leans more in that direction than most of the cookbooks on my shelf.) Here is what I've tried so far (sorry no pics, I wasn't thinking about that - oops)...

Chickpea-Quinoa Pilaf - I find most my meals are one pot meals. It is so easy to incorporate veggies, protein and a grain into a stir-fry, soup, or casserole, that I almost always cook that way. But still I frequently find a good recipe for a simple vegetable side dish but can't figure out what to serve with it to round out the meal. Without the traditional meat and potatoes what does one serve with sauteed greens, roasted root veggies, or carrots and kohlrabi?? Well the veganomicon answer to this is mix and match - pick a veggie, a grain, and a bean, tofu, tempeh or seitan dish and you have a meal. It isn't an idea unique to them as I remember seeing the concept in another vegetarian cookbook once (I think it was a Mollie Katzen book but don't quote me on that.) Still even if veganomicon didn't originate the idea I like knowing there are some basic dishes that just might complement whatever else it is that I am cooking.

So it was I made this chickpea-quinoa pilaf. It was super quick to make which is always nice but especially so when there are other dishes to make too. Plus it was very tasty. I don't make quinoa often enough considering how easy and yummy it is but with a tasty and easy recipe like this I just might find myself fixing it more often.


Snobby Joes - I get a little sick of the fake meats and appreciate meals that don't try to completely replicate the taste and texture of a pile of animal flesh. So while this is a take-off on the ol' meaty sloppy-joe, the use of lentils as the heart of the sauce makes it it's own unique sandwich not just a faux meat replication. However, even though I liked the lentils, the sauce needs a little tweaking. I found that it was just too dry, the powdered spices didn't even seem to get absorbed in all the way. It could be that it just needs more tomato sauce (I'm thinking actually twice as much). So while not perfect, I do feel that the recipe is good enough that it is worth experimenting with. It is nice to get new sandwich ideas as we frequently get into the hummus wraps rut!

Cheezy Sauce - frequently when it hits about 5 or 6 oclock and I haven't any plans yet for dinner we end up making a pasta and chreeze and trees meal. I have a tahini/nutritional yeast sauce that has become a pasta (and sometimes pizza) sauce staple. It doesn't taste like cheese, like the name suggests it might, but it sauces up pasta in a most tasty way. And with the additional of broccoli (trees) it is super fast meal in one pot.

The other night it hit that witching hour and about all we could think of to make was pasta and chreeze and trees. However I decided while the pasta boiled to give the veganomicon cheezy sauce a try. After all, this was our week of testing out the cookbook. Well I must say I think I like my chreeze sauce a lot better. We added some paprika and a little extra salt but it still was missing something. I realized later that the book has a special mac and cheezy sauce recipe that basically adds some tofu mixed up with olive oil, salt and lemon. This dressed up tofu would certainly add some extra protein and maybe some flavor so I do like that idea and might try it sometime but probably with my own chreeze sauce.

Seitan Piccata with Olives and Green Beans - Ok so I said I didn't like recipes that try to replicate meat but I keep selecting recipes that are take-offs of non-vegan fare. Well actually I've been vegan most my adult life so I had no clue what a piccata was and just liked the sound of this recipe. And wow, it was tasty!! My olive hating husband even said it was good. I think he even said he could learn to like olives when their flavor complements the rest of the meal as well as it does in this dish. I will definitely be making this again - anytime I can actually serve olives without getting a lot of grief I am thrilled. And as an added bonus those olives, in this case, come in an incredibly tasty meal!

Seitanic Red and White Bean Jambalaya - The first thing to say about this dish is that I love the name. I always pronounce Seitan as "Satan". Mostly just because I don't really think about it much but I really do love the reactions I get from people who have never heard of Seitan and even some who have. The list of ingredients for this recipe is a mile long. But despite that it went together quite easily and tasted great! Another recipe to keep. On a side note, this recipe says it serves 6 and I think we got 9 or 10 servings. I froze some of them b/c the two of us didn't really want to eat jambalaya everyday all week - it was good but not that good! Hope it will still be good out of the freezer.

Mushroom and Spinach Strata - I wanted to test out a brunch recipe because brunch has become a favorite social meal for us lately what with a 10-month old in the house. Plus we have to make a breakfast once a year for a bunch of carnivores at our skiclub and I am always on the lookout for dishes that aren't too out of the ordinary but are still delicious. While the aforementioned 10-month old (who has shunned plain tofu) loves this - he was gobbling up little pieces as fast as I could break them off my piece and put them on his highchair tray - I don't think it is quite up to par for company or the skihouse. The texture was pretty good and I was amazed at how well it held together. All the herbs and spices made the spinach, mushroom mixture smell (and taste) great as I was mixing that up but that wasn't enough flavor, in my opinion, for all the tofu custard. Ok, to be fair, I should say that I am not sure if I remembered to put the salt in the tofu puree and a little salt passed at the table did help the dish. But still the tofu needs something more. I am thinking nutritional yeast for starters, after all I am surprised this tofu based egg-like dish doesn't have any of that in it anyway. But not sure what else. I might try this again since the Little Guy likes it so much but will definitely play with the tofu flavorings a bit more... This recipe says it serves 6-8. Maybe for breakfast to 6-8 non-breakfast eaters or with a big spread of other foods. But in this household, even with other dishes it was more like 4 servings.

Cookies - I set out to make the chocolate - chocolate chip - walnut cookies but then realized I was out of walnuts. So I made a variation of one of the variations. (by the way, I really like that this cookbook includes variations at the end of many of the recipes. I have another cookbook that makes each variation its own recipe which I find to be so incredibly lame!!) The variation in this case was white chocolate chips and dried cherries, I used chocolate chips and dried cherries. These were chewy, rich, and tasty! Hard to go wrong with all that chocolate! I will make these again and hopefully next time will have the walnuts, b/c, while I love the combo of cherries and chocolate, the cherries get a little lost and I'd rather save those expensive dried cherries for something where they are the star player. Plus I love walnuts and chocolate.

Summary
Despite a few recipes that I tried that weren't quite up to par I was still impressed with this book. There are a lot more recipes that I'd like to try. The authors are very creative so even the recipe introductions are fun to read and the recipes themselves are easy to follow, not over complicated, and full of interesting flavor combinations. I will be taking advantage of another week with this book from the library (3 weeks if no one else has it requested and I can renew it) but I do think that it would be nice to have permanently on my kitchen shelf. So I will add it to my wish list (my birthday is coming up hint-hint).