The best vegan cookbooks ever

   These books have ended a quest that has gone on my entire vegan life; the search for a good cookbook!
This is what I define as a good cookbook:

-one that I'll want to use for everyday cooking
-one that doesn't require thousands of different ingredients for each recipe
-one that doesn't use stupid fake cheeses and meats  in recipes
-one that is fundamentally healthy! (makes a point of using whole grains and avoiding saturated fats etc)

For me, these are the only vegan cookbooks I've ever seen (and I own a number and have spent a lot of time at book stalls at vegan fayres) that fulfil these points. I'd recommend them to everyone, not just vegans. The food we've made so far has been so filling, nutritious and delicious. The layout and wording of the recipes is very clear and easy to follow and although they are American books they still have all the measurements in metric as well as imperial form. 

Simple yet amazing books. (Thanks to Oxfam again)


Healing Foods Cookbook by Jane Sen (ISBN 0007108168)
More Healing Foods by Jane Sen (ISBN 0007118341)

This might not look very interesting but it's actually a really great recipe; "Ginger brown rice with lentils" from the second book (More Healing Foods).

(Slightly burnt) Potato Nut Cutlets

My sister Bethan and I attempted to make our own nut cutlets tonight using mashed potato as a base. They turned out pretty well, even if we did forget about them being under the grill...

This is (roughly) the recipe that we made up while in Sainsbury's...

1 medium sized potato per person

Nuts - 25g per person (we used cashews and walnuts)

Onion x 1 

Carrot x 1

Red bell pepper (chopped, as much as you want..)

Sweetcorn (as much as you want...)

Garlic (to taste..I put at least four or five cloves into everything because I love it. )

Olive oil

Ground flax - tablespoon (for nutritional reasons but also because it helps keep the burgers together)

Chilli flakes (to taste)

Method

1. Cut the potatoes and boil until soft.

2. Fry chopped onion and garlic in olive oil on a low heat until soft. Add chilli flakes and fry for a minute or so longer before removing from heat.

3. Mash potatoes and add a little olive oil to aid stirring. Add to the pan with onion/garlic/chilli. (Don't apply heat. It's just easier to mix everything in the frying pan than to tip the onions etc into another bowl.)

4. Grind the nuts in a blender or (for example) wrap in a cloth and crush with a rolling pin..

5. Add ground up/crushed  nuts to potato/onion mix.

6. Grate carrot and add to mix.

7. Add sweet corn and chopped bell pepper

8. Shape using a burger press (see post about Bean Burgers) or by making the mixture into a ball and pressing down lightly with the back of a spoon.

9. Grill/Lightly fry/Oven cook until they've browned a little. Remember that the potatoes are already cooked so it won't take long.

Iydea Vegetarian Restaurant in Brighton

A few days ago my friend Tara (of Vegan Cupcake Kitchen) and I went to Iydea Vegetarian Restaurant in the North Laines in Brighton. The lunch menu was great, had so many vegan things and was reasonably priced (we could pick from two different curries, a chilli, falafel or a vegetable roti, then add four sides and two toppings for around £5.50!) It was all delicious.

They also had three different vegan cakes (£3.20 a slice) and loads of herbal teas and soya milk coffee options...We were so impressed that we returned the next day for another slice of the chocolate cake...I think it was one of the best vegan cakes I've ever had.

Tara with the precious cake.

Fairtrade Banana Crumbly Squares

...or rectangles. From the Fairtrade Foundation but with vegan margarine... I made these once for a Fairtrade stall and became addicted.  
Buying Fairtrade products guarantees a better deal for third world producers so remember to use Fairtrade ingredients whenever possible! In this case bananas and sugar! 

Lydia, Ros, Tom, Dayné and Hazel enjoying the rectangles..

Chickpea and Tahini Casserole

Really simple, nutritious and tasty but takes over an hour to prepare as the brown rice takes around half an hour to cook and then you still have to cook it all together for another 40 minutes. From the brown rice/chickpeas/tahini there's a lot of protein, calcium and B vitamins...and it's really filling.

It's from here but I don't think the bit about the rice makes sense, about a cup and a half/240g of uncooked brown rice is enough, which you need to cook before hand....Serve with salad.

Lemon Cheesecake

I didn't make this...I just watched my sister and friends make it while I made pancakes (previous post), but it turned out so prettily that I had to take a photo of it. It's from the Vegan Cake Book (shown below) of the Vegan Society, a really cheap little booklet with a lot of easy recipes that don't require stupid amounts of different types of ingredients. Well done Bethan, Jess and Ash!

Bean Burgers

I got this recipe from Vegan Fat Free Kitchen and swapped black beans for borlotti beans because that's what was in the cupboard. I love this because you can make a load and put it in the fridge and make a burger for lunch the next day in about five minutes. They're really filling too and help you with getting your omega 3 (from the ground flax!).

My burger's so round because I have a burger press type thing (shown below) that I got for a couple of quid in one of those shops that has everything.