Cookbook Challenge Week 41 - Vegan Rustic Cooking

This week I have been cooking from Vegan Rustic Cooking by Diana White:

Chocolate & Orange Marmalade Buns - I really looked forward to these, they have no added sugar (except the Marmalade & Apple Juice used in the recipe) which is great for a diabetic, however they were not great. Bland and really a let down, the texture was great but if I make these again a good splodge of sugar/agave/coconut sugar might be called for:

Onion & Mushroom Tart - this was good - full of mushrooms, onions & the hazelnuts really gave it a special touch, I used quite a strong flavoured soya milk when making this so I will use something more flavourless in future, other than that I can't fault it:

Chestnut Crumble - This was quite a sweet dish (there is both chestnuts & apple in it) and was really good, I think its one of those dishes that would taste better on a really cold night curled up next to the fire:

Moussaka Vegan Style - I have never tried moussaka before so have nothing to compare this too, but it was very very tasty. Its a layer of roasted veg, a layer of aubergine, a layer of tomato & lentils with a final layer of soy yoghurt sprinkled with ground almonds. It was full of flavour, the only issue I had was the consistency, after being baked the lentil/tomato sauce layer was quite think with liquid collecting every time I took a spoonful out. I think a bit of cornflour wouldn't go amiss with the sauce, but other than that its a great and very filling recipe:

Cream of Pea Soup - I had to try this recipe  - it looked so simple and interesting being made with tinned processed peas and I have to admit its my second favourite recipe in the book. It was full of flavour and I will definitely be making this again:

Irish Stew with Dumplings  - this was my favourite recipe, it is the first stew recipe that tastes like the non-vegan stew my mum makes, I was a little dubious about the dumplings at first (they are made with marg, then baked before being cooked in the stew) and I was secondly dubious when I used M&S reduced fat margarine which shouldn't be used for cooking as they came out of the over like bullets. However after cooking in the stew for 5-10 minutes they were wonderful. I will be making this recipe again very soon:

Overall I really did like this book, the recipes fall into categories like "Spring-Summer" or "Autumn" or "Autumn-Winter" using ingredients in season which is a great help in keeping food costs down, but more importantly the recipes I tried were tasty, filling and pretty healthy. A good book for any Vegans cookbook collection