It's Sunday, and another week of reading cookbooks and trying the recipes has ended, and a new one begun. It's my off-pay week so I am planning on using up the various things shopped for last week and not yet eaten- there are two bunches of frilly kale in the fridge and a giant wombok, as well as a couple of fresh pinesappes. Right, the pineapple-quinoa stirfry still hasn't made it to the table.
I don't have the "plan" I started with in feont of me, but I think I mainly didn't stick to it this week. I got "vegan on the cheap" in the Kindle edition, and unexpectedly really like it! Why am I always surprised by liking cookbooks? I guess because I am a pretty good cook, and I'm pretty well used to the idea of what goes with what- so unless a cookbook introduces new techniques, ingredients or combinations- I kind of think "great thanks for the info" . For years I have recommended Mollie Katzen's "enchanted broccoli forest" to aspiring vegetarians, or cooks of all stripes, as it has user-friendly appendices full of simple instructions for things like cooking dried beans, and what seasoning combinations say "indian" or "chinese". I digress...
"vegan on the cheap" is a keeper. The recipes are not overly complicated but they're mostly not the annoyingly simple "recipes" that seem to act as filler in a lot of cookbooks. An indication of how impressed I am is the fact that the "my notes and comments" list on the kindle holds a note for almost every page! So far the only recipe I have made was the bean and rice bake- a simple but delicious dish, basically an oven rissotto. The recipe was a hit with everone who ate it, from my vegetarian stepmom to my omni friend and teenaged son- except for my hubby.
This brings me to the post's title. i can never guess which vegan meals will be a hit with him, and which he will turn his nose up at! For example- there are recipes that I can tell will qualify as "weird vegan food". I know they'll probably be good, but I probably wouldn't serve them to skeptical omnivorous visitors.
Seitan pot pie? That was good, but it pretty much tasted to me like Wierd Vegan Food. I didn't have any margarine so I used coconut oil in the pastry, etc. It was good but very "brown" as we used to refer to the food at 70's hippie potlucks as kids. Hubby loved it and ate it with gusto. Go figure.
Seitan and vegetable curry? No recipe as such, just veggies from the fridge, seitan from the freezer, spices. Everyone liked it- although adult son said later that he didn't want to take leftovers of it to uni. No idea why.
Tofu scramble? Nup. I didn't even try it on anyone else, it fully made the grade as WVF. I ate it, and will never spek of it again!
Bean and rice bake? Delicious. Even before I stopped cooking meat at home, I often served vege mexicanish dishes. This bake is really just like something I would have made all along. Served alongside corn chips and shredded lettuce, tomato and red onion, it was great. My omni friend Amanda had seconds, and said that she didn't realise the cheeze sauce on top wasn't actual cheese. Middle daughter liked it, son liked it, I liked it and vege stepmom liked it when she had some leftovers a day or two later. Hubby hated it. I'm never sure whether it's psychological- knowing the cheeze is cheeze? Making a little statement in front of my friend about how oppressive the new vegan regime is, man? Who knows. All I know is that "vegan on the cheap" looks like a winner, and I'll be trying and writing up lots of recipes from there. Right now the pepperoni from there is steaming at home in the slow cooker (my variation on the 'steaming it in the oven' technique recommended in the book). Pizza tonight I think.
Monday, April 30, 2012 at 1:14PM 
