Editor: Kate DeVivo
Publisher: Agate Publishing, an Imprint of Surrey Books; 154 pages
Book Review by: Laxmi Chaandi
This book has 101 easy-to-use recipes of vegan dishes ranging from appetizers, beverages, salads, sandwiches, snacks, lunches, dinners and desserts.
Whether you feel like having soup before or with a meal, or just a burger or a pizza, this book has got recipes for those items too.
If you’re feeling really hungry, you can make a stew, too. And if you think your main course is not going to fill you up, you can make a side dish – there are plenty of recipes for those as well. Or a pasta in addition to your other dish.
It is a practical book. It can be laid flat open for you to see the ingredients you need and the directions to follow while you gather up what you need and do what the directions instruct you to do.
This is a high-quality book printed on not-easy-to-stain glossy paper with beautiful full-color photos of the mouth-watering foods you can easily prepare. It has large letters so you can read it while standing and cooking.
Illustrated with fantastic color pictures, this book has a well-organized format. Each page shows you how many servings the item the recipe is good for, a list of ingredients and quantity needed, and numbered step-by-step preparation directions. It’s that simple.
A sampling of recipes:
Appetizers, Snacks and Beverages: Try the sesame wonton cups – they look simply delicious, on page 37. Chinese is one of my favorite kinds of foods. The pinto bean and avocado dip on page 33 looks more like a substantial snack than a dip. And the chilled sangria on page 25 is something to quench anyone’s thirst in one gulp or sip slowly while enjoying the wontons and pinto bean-avocado snack.
Sandwiches, Burgers and Pizza: You probably have tried vegeburgers – those patties made of soy or something vegetarian. Sometimes they taste so bland and you have to add salt and pepper. But on page 49 is a sumptuous burger made of a large sliced Portobello mushroom in between buns with fresh Romaine lettuce and tomato slices topped with fried onions and seasoned with horseradish cream sauce. Yum!
Pasta and Noodles: If you love Oriental food, as I am partial too, you’re gonna love the Stir-Fried Noodles with Vegetables picture on page 75. Take an 8-ounce package of rice noodles and soak them into cold water to soften to your taste. Then add one cup cut green beans, cubed yellow summer squash, half cup celery, red bell peppers, and four green onions, all thinly sliced.
Add to these two cups shredded Napa cabbage, one cup reduced-sodium vegetable broth, two tablespoons dry sherry (optional), one tablespoon each finely chopped ginger root and canola oil. Add two to three teaspoons light soy sauce and half to one teaspoon Szechwan chili sauce. Mix all these thoroughly and you have concocted a delicious dish of rice noodles and vegetables.
There are also sections in this book on selected recipes for soups and stews, salads, side dishes and desserts. As we wrote earlier, there are 101 recipes to your heart’s content in this delightful book. Kate DeVivo has done a wonderful job of selecting a good variety of foods for this valuable book.
Are you hungry already? Then go get this book!
