Wednesday 3 September 2014

September Cookbook Review - Betty Goes Vegan


This month I have been cooking from Betty Goes Vegan by Annie & Dan Shannon. This is a massive tomb of a book filled with recipes. I made 16 of them, here is what I thought:


The bad

Almond Chai - I hated this. It tasted awful and made me vomit. Not nice

The MVP avocado sandwich - again I hated this, the sandwich itself was fine but I hate avocado. I was hoping this would cure it but alas I still hate avocado:


Faux Cassoulet -  this recipe was OK, it wasn't bad but just mediocre. Compared with some of the other recipes in the book it was a little disappointing:

Texas Macaroni Bowl - this was an OK recipe, it was filling and quite tasty but again it was a little lacklustre:


The good 

Vegan Hard Boiled Egg - 
I was never a major fan of hard boiled eggs before turning vegan, but made this from a novelty point of view. It was quite tasty, although I felt black salt would have been an improvement:

Vegan Fried Egg - 
This was better than the hard boiled version, the sauce was a little more egg like and it was interesting to have it injected into the tofu like a real egg. The recipe itself is quite simple but takes some practice getting the yolk in there:



Veggie Lovers Pizza Soup - a delicious soup recipe, basically a tomato soup with italian/pizza herbs topped with cheese. Very tasty:

Red Beans and Rice - This was a really simple and quick recipe to make but really did deliver on taste. I really enjoyed this:

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup - a nice warming and tasty soup, I substituted the rice for noodles as I was preparing it in advance and didn't want to be reheating rice. It was not as good as the recipe in hearty vegan meals but it was still good:

The Best Recipes - 

Beefless Stew - This recipe is fantastic, very flavourful and filling. It was also delicious cold the next day:

Quiche Lorraine - I really enjoyed this, it uses a rather large list of ingredients but its worth the effort. The quiche is really good when left to cool for a midnight snack:


Buffalo Tofu Steaks - Fantastic recipe, the sauce is perfect - tomatoey, spicy and buttery. Just delicious. I made the sauce again a few weeks later for seitan ribz and it worked perfectly with them as well:



Breakfast Tacos - These were my first ever tacos and they did not disappoint. They tasted great but were not too spicy and made a wonderful meal:


Vegan Bacon Cheese Meat Loafs - I have only tried meatloaf a few times in the past and it has really not impressed me, this time though my opinion has completely changed. These were truly lovely:

Vegan Bacon Cheeseburger Potato Pie - This is an inspired recipe, a burger style base with fake bacon topped with potato, cheese and tomatoes - I will be making this again:


Whole Wheat and Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes - I love these, they were the best recipe that I tried. So full of flavour they were out of this world:



Overall I really did like this book, some of the recipes I was not keen on but the majority are great, full of flavour, original, quick and easy to make. This book is going to get a lot more use in future

2 comments:

  1. How can you hate avocado? Food of the gods and full of vitamin E. The faux eggs look interesting

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  2. I wished I could like avocados but I just can't. Maybe in chocolate mousse. Have to try that soon

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