Review: The Plant Kitchen
Nov. 9th, 2024 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThe Plant Kitchen: 100 easy recipes for vegan beginners
Hardcover – January 14, 2020
by Ryland Peters & Small (Author)
We finished reading this cookbook today. It's not all that big, but some pages do have more than one recipe. The Introduction is just a couple paragraphs about plant-based eating. The chapters are Basic Recipes, Breakfast & Brunch, Light Bites & Snacks, Soups & Sides, Mid-Week Suppers, Feeding a Crowd, and Sweet Things. The Index seems to go primarily by main ingredients.
The recipes vary widely in complexity, from things that barely qualify as a recipe, through reasonable dishes, to feast food and things that are too fussy for most folks to bother making. Most use fresh whole foods, although there are some processed ingredients. Multiple recipes mention "free of" something, so for instance, dairy-free and grain-free. Most but not all entries include a full-color photo. There is little information about cooking time or serving sizes, although the helpful person who last owned this book wrote in servings under most recipes. :D I love used cookbooks. On the bright side, recipes often include both standard and metric measurements.
We only bookmarked a handful of recipes, not even one in each chapter, but some of these are real gems that we haven't seen the like of anywhere else. Favorites include Macadamia Nut Cheese, Sweet Nut Butters, Lime Syrup (under the Dairy-Free Coconut Pancakes), Maple-Tahini Drizzle (under the Socca Pancakes), Rye Crackers with Chia Seeds, Grain-Free 'Cheesy' Pumpkin Crackers (made with seeds), Spicy Sweet Potato Moussaka, and Stuffed & Roasted Butternut Squash. That squash really looks like a leg of something, and the string net definitely adds to the illusion. It would probably work even better if painted with a smoky barbecue sauce to make it look brown. Also, don't try flipping one half upside-down to assemble this; cover with a thin flexible cutting board, put that on top of the lower half, and slide out the divider.
I wouldn't call this the best cookbook for vegan beginners. However, it's quite excellent if you want vegan dishes for entertaining. The condiments can turn an ordinary dish into something special, and that stuffed squash is a showstopper. It's also a good choice for a vegan or vegetarian friend who wants something a little fancy. Recommended.
Hardcover – January 14, 2020
by Ryland Peters & Small (Author)
We finished reading this cookbook today. It's not all that big, but some pages do have more than one recipe. The Introduction is just a couple paragraphs about plant-based eating. The chapters are Basic Recipes, Breakfast & Brunch, Light Bites & Snacks, Soups & Sides, Mid-Week Suppers, Feeding a Crowd, and Sweet Things. The Index seems to go primarily by main ingredients.
The recipes vary widely in complexity, from things that barely qualify as a recipe, through reasonable dishes, to feast food and things that are too fussy for most folks to bother making. Most use fresh whole foods, although there are some processed ingredients. Multiple recipes mention "free of" something, so for instance, dairy-free and grain-free. Most but not all entries include a full-color photo. There is little information about cooking time or serving sizes, although the helpful person who last owned this book wrote in servings under most recipes. :D I love used cookbooks. On the bright side, recipes often include both standard and metric measurements.
We only bookmarked a handful of recipes, not even one in each chapter, but some of these are real gems that we haven't seen the like of anywhere else. Favorites include Macadamia Nut Cheese, Sweet Nut Butters, Lime Syrup (under the Dairy-Free Coconut Pancakes), Maple-Tahini Drizzle (under the Socca Pancakes), Rye Crackers with Chia Seeds, Grain-Free 'Cheesy' Pumpkin Crackers (made with seeds), Spicy Sweet Potato Moussaka, and Stuffed & Roasted Butternut Squash. That squash really looks like a leg of something, and the string net definitely adds to the illusion. It would probably work even better if painted with a smoky barbecue sauce to make it look brown. Also, don't try flipping one half upside-down to assemble this; cover with a thin flexible cutting board, put that on top of the lower half, and slide out the divider.
I wouldn't call this the best cookbook for vegan beginners. However, it's quite excellent if you want vegan dishes for entertaining. The condiments can turn an ordinary dish into something special, and that stuffed squash is a showstopper. It's also a good choice for a vegan or vegetarian friend who wants something a little fancy. Recommended.
