Thursday 24 October 2013

Cookbook Challenge Week 44 - Vegan Stoner

This week I have been cooking from the Vegan Stoner by Sarah Conrique & Graham I Haynes


This book is from the VeganStoner blog and is probably the nicest cookbook that I have, its a joy to read through with all the recipe ingredients shown as hand drawn pictures. A lot of the recipes are very flexible and don't use specific amounts (such as a handful of nooch or a spoon of lemon juice) which is great if there are certain ingredients your are not fond of as you can just use a small amount.
I expected to love this book and every recipe in it. I was disappointed however. Some of the recipes were great and others not so great....

Devilled Lentils - This was a strange recipe made using potato & lentils, I reduced the recipe by half (and the potato by a 3 quaters as half the potato is supposed to be for serving the lentils on) and served it with wholewheat bread. It was filling and didn't taste too bad, but the texture was strange and because it does not state specifically how much potato to use, mine ended up being more potato than lentil. I won't make this again:


Corn Chowder - Boring. In comparison with the version in Vegan with  A Vengeance I found this so very disappointing:


Breakfast Pizza - This was OK, I ended up blending the tofu & nooch instead of crumbling it. It was tasty but basically pizza:

Ohmlette - The taste of this was really good, it looked good but didn't cook properly (even when cooked for the stated time). It was nice but a sloppy mess when removed from the pan:

Pad Thai - And now things start to get better, this is a really quick and simple recipe but full of flavour and quite satisfying. It can be thrown together quickly and with great results. I threw some broccoli in to add colour:

Bahnwich - Seitan, balsamic veg & spicy mayo. A great tasting sandwich:

Falafel Pie - This is a falafel base with houmous and a yoghurt dressing, it tasted great but I served it cold and felt it would be lovely on a hot summer evening. Not a cold autumn one - I will make again in summer:


Mac and Peas - This was nice, I like the fact that there was some chili in the sauce, it added an extra dimension to the recipe that I will try with other in future. By this point in the week I realised that adding a few extra ingredients might boost the flavour a bit - I threw some onion & garlic powder in:

Corned Seitan Hash - This was tasty, filling and easy to make. A great weeknight meal:

Potato Hash - This far outstripped the hash above, it was delicious. Seitan, potato & veg in a creamy sauce. I also threw some onion powder, garlic powder, diced onion & diced mushrooms. I loved it, took it to work for breakfast (hence the worse that normal pictures) and will be making it again:

Holiday Pie - This was my favourite recipe, a layer of stuffing with a creamy mushroom topping. It was delicious and would be a great meal to make in the days before or after Christmas (or even with leftovers). I will be making this again:


Overall I was in two minds about this book, some of the recipes were boring & strange with other being fantastic. I think it has a lot of potential but some of the recipes do require a few things adding or changing (maybe some more spices to the chowder, maybe some thickener to the Ohmlette) I will be using the book again as there are some really great sounding recipes in it but I will be using them more as a base recipe and adding/changing things to suit.





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