Vegan Cookbooks

[shyvas]

Yes but the vegemite here is not nice. I have seen other sorts of generic marmite-like spreads around and am considering buying one but the problem is if I dont like it I have a whole jar of it.

Freesia, if you're planning to use a small amount in a recipe, I really don't think it will make much difference.
I find the two products very similar in taste. What is the exact recipe that you make ?

There is the never ending debate about Marmite v Vegemite.

http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/stories/s515779.htm

 

[Freesia]

In Australia vegemite is actually the more palatable product and Marmite is weird. In New Zealand Marmite is the better product and vegemite tastes weird. So that is the problem.

 

[shyvas]

In Australia vegemite is actually the more palatable product and Marmite is weird. In New Zealand Marmite is the better product and vegemite tastes weird. So that is the problem.

Some people think that both products taste weird.

 

[Freesia]

That is true. But in both Australia and New Zealand there is a clear preference in terms of taste. And I used to have vegemite and chip sandwiches as a child and did not like it.\\It is one of those cultural oddities that noone outside NZ or Australia would be aware of so I dont blame you for thinking this is a pretty weird issue .

 

[SummerRain]

This book is on my Awesombooks.com wish list. Could you give me a quick summary of the book please ?

Heya There's general vegetarian/vegan info at the front, and the recipes for meals and a few desserts/sweet things, but it's mostly meals. They also have info on things like cooking dried beans which is useful, and recipes for simple vegan things like tofu mayonnaise, chutneys, etc. Some of my favourite recipes are mushroom pate en croute, mushroom and chestnut tart, gratin dauphinoise with wild mushrooms, soba noodles with green soya beans... but there's also lots of salads, pastas, etc. They also have vegan things like victoria spounge, mayonnaise, etc... so things lots of vegetarian cookbooks wouldn't have, so I'd say it was very vegan friendly. Hope that helped! It's much more modern than lots of the older Rose Elliot cookbooks in style.

 

[shyvas]

Heya There's general vegetarian/vegan info at the front, and the recipes for meals and a few desserts/sweet things, but it's mostly meals. They also have info on things like cooking dried beans which is useful, and recipes for simple vegan things like tofu mayonnaise, chutneys, etc. Some of my favourite recipes are mushroom pate en croute, mushroom and chestnut tart, gratin dauphinoise with wild mushrooms, soba noodles with green soya beans... but there's also lots of salads, pastas, etc. They also have vegan things like victoria spounge, mayonnaise, etc... so things lots of vegetarian cookbooks wouldn't have, so I'd say it was very vegan friendly. Hope that helped! It's much more modern than lots of the older Rose Elliot cookbooks in style.

It certainly did. I may just order it at the end of the month.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

I finally decided on which books I wanted next! I ordered Chloe's Kitchen and Vegan Indian Cooking.

Next time I'm able to to buy new cookbooks, I'll get Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day! and Cookin' Crunk.

I checked out Terry Hope Romero's new book, Vegan Eats World, from the library, and it looks amazing! It will probably be on my wish list for awhile.

 

[Christian Rene Friborg]

I'm planning to serve veggie cupcakes to my little girl's first birthday and I'm sure moms would love to have this healthy kind of cupcakes for kids.

 

[ledboots]

I'm planning to serve veggie cupcakes to my little girl's first birthday and I'm sure moms would love to have this healthy kind of cupcakes for kids.

Kids love vegan cupcakes, in my experience, and so do the moms!

 

[Alice-Bee]

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. It is my single favourite vegan cookbook; it completely changed the way I thought about vegan food and vegan cooking. My cupcakes improved - they are way better using the recipes out of this book than they ever were using milk and eggs. They're so delicious! The instructions are really clear and easy to follow, and it's full of mouth-watering pictures too. I usually just make the basic chocolate or vanilla recipes, with one of the incredible buttercreams, but I've also made a few others (the lemon ones and the chocolate/vanilla swirl ones both went fairly well). The front has some handy baking tips, as well as cupcake troubleshooting suggestions to help you improve on a dodgy batch. I cannot recommend this book enough, I really can't.

What are the recipes like?
Although I can make the Vegan chocolate cake I got from a friend (recipe posted on the forum) it isnt as straight forward as baking with eggs.
When I made cupcakes with dairy I creamed the butter and sugar, sifted in flour and mixed in beaten eggs. Took 10mins then cooking time. Now with this cake recipe I use its very time consuming and you have to think about what youre doing, least you knock all the air out.
Also I had to buy 'special' ingredients to compensate for the lack of eggs, such as flax which I dont use for anything else and Soya Flour. I should add that I would prefer NOT to have to buy 'egg replacer'.
So are the recipes in VCTOTW simple with readily available ingredients or many steps with specialist things.

 

[AeryFairy]

What are the recipes like?
Although I can make the Vegan chocolate cake I got from a friend (recipe posted on the forum) it isnt as straight forward as baking with eggs.
When I made cupcakes with dairy I creamed the butter and sugar, sifted in flour and mixed in beaten eggs. Took 10mins then cooking time. Now with this cake recipe I use its very time consuming and you have to think about what youre doing, least you knock all the air out.
Also I had to buy 'special' ingredients to compensate for the lack of eggs, such as flax which I dont use for anything else and Soya Flour. I should add that I would prefer NOT to have to buy 'egg replacer'.
So are the recipes in VCTOTW simple with readily available ingredients or many steps with specialist things.

The more basic recipes are super-simple - egg replacement items are usually soy milk + cider vinegar, veg oil, or apple sauce. They take me about 10/15 mins to prepare the mix, and you just mix the 'wet' ingredients and the 'dry' ingredients separately, then combine them. No special technique or complicated instructions. Some of the fancypants recipes have more complicated instructions, but I don't recall ever seeing a super-weird ingredient in any recipes. The only thing I had to buy special was the cider vinegar, but it was like £1 for a big bottle that I still haven't run out of.

Oh, and the frosting? TO DIE FOR.

There are actually quite a few recipes floating around the web from the book... This one is one of the basic recipes, maybe try it out to see how you like it before committing to the whole book?

 

[Alice-Bee]

I will thankyou!

 

[SummerRain]

What are the recipes like?
...Now with this cake recipe I use its very time consuming and you have to think about what youre doing, least you knock all the air out.
Also I had to buy 'special' ingredients to compensate for the lack of eggs, such as flax which I dont use for anything else and Soya Flour. I should add that I would prefer NOT to have to buy 'egg replacer'.
So are the recipes in VCTOTW simple with readily available ingredients or many steps with specialist things.

Wow that sounds like a really complicated recipe... I agree that VCTOTW is easy, simple and really tasty. Vegan baking definitely doesn't need to be like that... I bake a lot and never use fancy ingredients, the fanciest thing is probably cider vinegar and sometimes cornflour!

But also - the easiest and quickest (and actually probably the nicest) recipe I have found for vegan chocolate cake is here online, and you just chuck it all in a tin and bung it in the oven. I don't usually trust online recipes but I was at my parents house and didn't have my cookbook... and then was blown away by this one. I thought I'd share anyway.

 

[Alice-Bee]

Thankyou!

I wasnt a good dairy baker so its not like I can use my best judgement and work out why things go wrong...I need recipes to follow hehe.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

There are actually quite a few recipes floating around the web from the book... This one is one of the basic recipes, maybe try it out to see how you like it before committing to the whole book?

Ok, I have a question about this recipe. I made these once (the version with oil), and they were super oily. Like, I used cupcake liners but those were soaked with oil, and I had to wash the pan afterwards because it was oily in all the cups.
Are these meant to be so oily, or did I do something wrong? I'm pretty sure I followed the measurements accurately, did I maybe do something else wrong?

They tasted good, but the extreme oiliness was very off putting.

 

[Freesia]

You could try subbing with different things, ie vegan marge or even coconut cream.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

I know, I'm just trying to figure out if that's how that recipe is supposed to be, or if I messed it up somehow.

 

[Freesia]

I have never made cupcakes. I kind of am a bit wary of cakes with oil, I feel strongly that baking is better with buttery things like margarine etc.

 

[Spidergrrl]

I like anything by Dreena Burton. I've got all her cookbooks. My faves are Eat Drink and be Vegan and her newest one Let Them Eat Vegan. They are the ones i use the most followed by Isa's Appetite for Reduction (I use it way more than her Veganomican)

 

[Freesia]

I use Appetite For Reduction a lot too. So many one pot meals and that is what I am looking for if I dont feel like creating a lot of dishes.