Monday, May 31, 2010

1000 vegan recipes

After many glowing reviews from Tahn and the cooking from 1,000 vegan recipes blog. I decided that despite my cookbook bookshelf overflowing with cookbooks I had to add one more.

The first recipe that Toby made was the Vietnamese noodle soup. Batgirl described it as pho and so Toby was disappointed that it was isn't pho like at all. Yes it isn't authentic, but I adored this dish in it's own right, and I normally get bored with soups. This dish was absolutely punching with flavour, with miso paste, hoisin, lime and lots more, perhaps because it takes a lengthy 45 minutes to simmer. We used smoked tofu instead of seitan which I think works well. I do agree with batgirl that this recipe alone makes the price of the cookbook worthwhile. This really is a perfect winter meal.
Next up, we made tofu jerky with the help of Lidia who has a dehydrator, I think we left it too long in the dehydrator like 3 hours too long. The flavours were nice but the texture was just weird and rubbery. But then I've never been a jerky fan. Toby, however, couldn't stop snacking on it.

Toby made country fried tofu with golden gravy, which he served with polenta. We have big issues with frying tofu in any batter because our nonstick frypan has lost its coating and so everything sticks to it and it just isn't the same in a wok. So by the time had tofu finished frying he decided to skip blending the gravy which left the chickpeas intact as you can see in this photo. This didn't really work, so I quickly blended it. This was delicious and filling. Toby liked the dish despite the wok disaster.
Now on to the failed dish- the pomegranate infused lentil and chickpea stew. In fairness, perhaps the pomegranate syrup that we purchased was actually just juice. The bottle said syrup but later when I looked at the ingredients I noticed it just said pomegranates. This dish was so tart that it wasn't edible and we didn't know how to fix and so in the end had to throw it out. I hate waste, so such a shame. I would love to know if others have issues with this dish or with the so called syrup.

I will post one recipe from the cookbook, but you get to choose which one?

8 comments:

  1. If we're voting out of these recipes I'd definitely say the soup, because of your rave review and the combination of miso and hoisin. But maybe I should wait to hear about more dishes first? :D

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  2. SOUP SOUP SOUP!!!
    It looks fantastic and I would dearly love to eat it!

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  3. I'm glad you are having some success with it!
    I haven't tried that soup yet, but after your review I'm gonna give it a go.

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  4. Since Hannah has decided that there will be voting, my vote is for country fried tofu with golden gravy. Too many empty carbs in the soup :)

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  5. the tofu!! I just bought Vegan on the Cheap from the Book Depository - by the same author - it's fantastic!!

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  6. That soup looks great (& gets my vote) even though it does not look at all like pho. I think you have just convinced me to buy this book too.

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  7. Hey, I'm going to have to vote for the soup, too. Looks great, perfect for the cold weather.

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  8. Oh I love that cookbook! It is the one that inspired me to try vegan! I have three of Robin's cookbooks, and the slow cooker one is just as awesome. :D

    [Vegienoob.blogspot.com]

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